Things I Like About Arizona
This was going to be the shortest entry in the history of LJ, but I had to be honest. Yes, believe it or not, there are some things I like about Arizona. I'm going to miss these.
1. The Weather. Yes, 4-5 months of the year, it's truly unbearable. The temperature gets above about 95, and I'm toast. The rest of the year, baring the odd day or three of downpours, is fantastic. Perfect shirtsleeve or jacket-optional weather. Just amazing. Right now, it's 51 and sunny.
2. The Zoo. The Phoenix Zoo is the finest zoo I've been dragged to repeatedly by my wife. It specializes in animals that are past their prime breading years and "troublesome" animals, so there tends to be some turnover. They recently opened a walk-through squirrel monkey habitat. There all named after classic Star Trek characters. One guess where they're going to get names for the next generation.
3. Rosati's pizza. The best pizza I've had since I left Chicago. It's even better than Zachary's back in Oakland/Berkeley. Better than Extreme. They have all the usual toppings suspects. We get one about every six weeks or so.
4. Teeny lizards. Actually geckos. They crawl up on our kitchen window screen. They are just the most adorable things ever. They're small, almost translucent, and eat bugs.
5. Local radio. 103.9 is a very good radio station. The DJs don't talk over the end or beginning of songs, and they're all local. They play a lot of new and local stuff. 103.1 is the most interesting station I've ever come across. It's commercial free. A guy just bought a radio station, loaded his entire record collection into it, and hit "shuffle". You just never know what you're going to hear.
6. Sunsets. The sunsets here are spectacular, even in the city. Mountains of fire boiling into space. Sunsets back in the bay area were great, too, but it's like the difference between pastels and oils.
7. Everywhere outside of the Phoenix area. The rest of Arizona is gorgeous. The Phoenix area? Looks and feels like all the boring parts of Sacramento with nowhere more interesting to go. The Grand Canyon really is as amazing as they say. Who knew something so huge could be so empty? It's just stunning.
Well, that's about all I can think of... Well, the Tempe Public Library is good.... There's a Whole Foods and a Trader Joes' within a mile of our place... the airport has a cool name (Sky Harbor).... There's probably more, but that's all I can think of right now.
Up soon, a much longer post on things I'm not so fond of here.
1. The Weather. Yes, 4-5 months of the year, it's truly unbearable. The temperature gets above about 95, and I'm toast. The rest of the year, baring the odd day or three of downpours, is fantastic. Perfect shirtsleeve or jacket-optional weather. Just amazing. Right now, it's 51 and sunny.
2. The Zoo. The Phoenix Zoo is the finest zoo I've been dragged to repeatedly by my wife. It specializes in animals that are past their prime breading years and "troublesome" animals, so there tends to be some turnover. They recently opened a walk-through squirrel monkey habitat. There all named after classic Star Trek characters. One guess where they're going to get names for the next generation.
3. Rosati's pizza. The best pizza I've had since I left Chicago. It's even better than Zachary's back in Oakland/Berkeley. Better than Extreme. They have all the usual toppings suspects. We get one about every six weeks or so.
4. Teeny lizards. Actually geckos. They crawl up on our kitchen window screen. They are just the most adorable things ever. They're small, almost translucent, and eat bugs.
5. Local radio. 103.9 is a very good radio station. The DJs don't talk over the end or beginning of songs, and they're all local. They play a lot of new and local stuff. 103.1 is the most interesting station I've ever come across. It's commercial free. A guy just bought a radio station, loaded his entire record collection into it, and hit "shuffle". You just never know what you're going to hear.
6. Sunsets. The sunsets here are spectacular, even in the city. Mountains of fire boiling into space. Sunsets back in the bay area were great, too, but it's like the difference between pastels and oils.
7. Everywhere outside of the Phoenix area. The rest of Arizona is gorgeous. The Phoenix area? Looks and feels like all the boring parts of Sacramento with nowhere more interesting to go. The Grand Canyon really is as amazing as they say. Who knew something so huge could be so empty? It's just stunning.
Well, that's about all I can think of... Well, the Tempe Public Library is good.... There's a Whole Foods and a Trader Joes' within a mile of our place... the airport has a cool name (Sky Harbor).... There's probably more, but that's all I can think of right now.
Up soon, a much longer post on things I'm not so fond of here.