Painted Desert

A hastily planned family trip took me to Phoenix, Arizona for four days over last weekend.

As they say, "It's a nice place to visit."

My first impression as the jet came in for its landing was how much brown there was block after block, with only a few scattered patches of green.

Just after landing and taking off in our rental car, I discovered most of the brown patches were actually covered with small stones in place of a yard.

It seemed flat to me in the city, but there were mountains (bottom of page) around the far perimeter of the metro area.  Its a beautiful place in a stark kind of way.

Lighting seemed different, especially at sunset (upper right) and dawn (below left), with a golden glow in the sky that illuminated the clouds and provided spectacular backdrops for cacti and palm trees.

Yes, one benefit of this trip was the temperature difference.  Madison was -3 when we left Saturday morning.  Phoenix was cool (by their standards) when we landed, 63.  You've got to like a 60 degree positive temperature change.

There were brief sprinkles on two days of our visit, but hardly enough to get the pavement wet.  It is a desert, after all, which perhaps explains why the local weather people seemed excited talking about rain in the forecast.

One of the great things about each of us having our own home towns is just that, it is our home.

If we all preferred the same climate, view, and lifestyle - we would all be crowded on top of each other and what fun would that be?

Arizona is a wonderful place for a northern boy to visit, but I think the months from May to October would be too hot for me to handle.

The average high in the months of June to September is 100 or higher.  Throw in May and October and it tops 90.  Yikes.

Instead, that 'northernerness' became an advantage as I didn't require a heavy coat to deal with the chilly 60-something degree days.

A fellow traveler was a bit chilly, so we stopped the next morning to get a sweater at a local store.  Much to my surprise, winter stocking hats and mittens were also for sale!

However, just because I like the north and change of seasons, it doesn't mean my opinion is the majority.

That was proven by the large number of Cheeseheads and Minnesotans we met during our stay... including quite a few fans of the Pack!

Which leads me to another place I checked out during the visit... more on that Sunday.