Summer Lifestyle

[WiringGuru2]

Originally Posted by locolobo13

Yep. Bicycles just stop rolling..


Dangerous wildlife appears after the brutal winters..




People do find fun games to play tho..




Arizona is a terrible place!

When I did concrete I always had dibs on the power trowel, here's another one I've had to deal with about a dozen times (exactly like this!):

[NW4me]

Originally Posted by WiringGuru2

In Phoenix/Tucson? From about May to October you will run from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned car to your air conditioned job/shopping. The summer dust/rain storms are fun too it can be humid and 115 degrees.

Sort of like a Minnesota winter, except heat rather than cold?
Too bad all that summer daylight goes to waste.

[TimAZ]

Originally Posted by NW4me

Sort of like a Minnesota winter, except heat rather than cold?
Too bad all that summer daylight goes to waste.

Here in Tucson Summer days for us begin at 5 AM. Yes it gets hot from June-September, but lower humidity and a little shade makes it tolerable. I’d rather spend a 110F day in Tucson compared to a 90F day in Houston or Chicago.

[WiringGuru2]

Originally Posted by NW4me

Sort of like a Minnesota winter, except heat rather than cold?
Too bad all that summer daylight goes to waste.

Yes, and if you live near a golf course lots of mosquitos. Not like minnesota where you look out a window and see a flock of mosquitos flying away with a cow but still bad enough to be annoying.

[kbuhagiar]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

Close to 1/2 the snowbirds don't arrive until January. Strange, but true. Feb is peak. And about 1/3 snowbirds have already left as I type. The other 2/3rds by May 1st. The massive traffic surge and long restaurant lines happen in peak tourism season in combo with snowbirds.

...and Spring Training! Don't forget Spring Training!

The crowds descend on Scottsdale and the greater metro Phoenix area for almost the entire month of February. Room rates skyrocket and the restaurants are jammed, but it is a lot of fun, especially if you like baseball (or even if you don't)!

[kbuhagiar]

Truth be told we love the Phoenix area, and especially Scottsdale.

We started visiting when we were newly married and didn't have much money, back in the 80s. The month of August is the hottest, and wettest, but the room rates were killer (and still are) because most of the residents leave town for cooler venues. Our routine was to book a week at the Chaparral Suites Scottsdale on Chaparral ($59 a night back then). Breakfast and happy hour were (and still are) complimentary at ES, and if you were a real cheapskate you could pretty much eat breakfast, and an early lunch (lol) on the hotel. Then happy hour, followed by an inexpensive dinner upstairs at the Fourth Floor Grill (which was really good) and ***voila*** all the amenities of a resort stay at an affordable price. Most of our days were spent at the swimming pool (which was mostly empty) reading and swimming, and the occasional shopping trip across Scottsdale Road to the Fashion Square.

We summered in Scottsdale for 32 consecutive years and became friends with the owners, during which time the hotel which started out as an Embassy Suites, then became the Chaparral Suites (an ES clone) and then back to ES after they sold. After they sold the property it was never the same and we stopped visiting shortly after. We now reside in Escondido and still spend a weekend in Scottsdale every couple of years.

EPILOGUE: Admittedly, we never lived there so we are not qualified to evaluate day-to-day real life based on our vacation experiences. Nonetheless, we became very familiar with the area, and considered it our second home for years. As such, two things come to mind: (1) If you are an early riser it is to your advantage as you MUST take care of any endeavor that requires physical exertion (chores, home maintenance, yard work, etc) early in the day (like before 11AM), and not at night, as temperatures at 9PM still frequently hover around the high 80s to low 90s. (2) The drivers REALLY are that bad. That's not an exaggeration, I speculate their even worse than the legendary Bostonians. Best I can figure is this is a holdover from when there was no easy access to freeways (the Loop 101, 202 & 303 were completed in the 90s), when you had to drive twenty miles over surface streets to get to the interstate. Red light runners and speeders (75mph in a 50 zone is common) are in abundance to this day, although I suspect that the proliferation of speed & red light cameras has tempered that somewhat.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by WiringGuru2

Yes, and if you live near a golf course lots of mosquitos. Not like minnesota where you look out a window and see a flock of mosquitos flying away with a cow but still bad enough to be annoying.

MN mosquitos are mild in comparison towet areas (while it is also warm outside). I underlined the word areas because we are not talking about the whole state. Nor the entire year. For that matter, MN mosquitos are mild in most years because we don't get back-to-back heavy rain storms that create a lot of standing water in low areas. But parts of state regions like Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, and Mississippi, it can be much worse. Again, not all of FL, TX, LA, etc.

For that matter, there are parts of Alaska that get some of the most rainfall in the country. Ketchikan, AK comes to mind. It's one of the rainiest cities in America. In late July which is their rainy season, I would say there were about 4x more mosquitos than the worst MN season I've ever experienced in my life. A swarm of 200 could be around your head even in the direct sunlight. That never happens in MN.

A lot of words to say that MN's reputation is exaggerated. These guys agree. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...quito-problem/

[swaysway]

The lifestyle - it is very boring unless you enjoy exploring the desert landscape. Things to do: mall, restaurants, movies, random events if you don’t mind crowds. People tend to drink and watch sports for entertainment.

People say the weather is very hot and then gets comfortable but in my opinion, we have very short shoulder seasons of true spring and fall where the weather is pleasurable.

July through September is very hot. Forget Fourth of July festivities or any romantic ideas of summer outside.

October and November are pleasant but December through February it actually gets really cold. Then March and April are decent, though the end of April gets hot and you start to dread what’s coming so the pleasantness is hard to enjoy.

Basically it goes from freezing to sweltering. In my opinion this place is uninhabitable and I don’t understand why so many people are moving here. Personally I can’t wait to get out.

People say Florida is hot but we went last year in late summer. It was still 110 here and FL felt cool and not that humid. Everyone there was complaining of the heat but it felt almost cold to us.

That’s how hot AZ is. Not to mention there’s no nice water areas to cool off in. There are lakes sure, but they’re all man made and nobody swims in them.

[mborner]

Originally Posted by swaysway

The lifestyle - it is very boring unless you enjoy exploring the desert landscape. Things to do: mall, restaurants, movies, random events if you don’t mind crowds. People tend to drink and watch sports for entertainment.

People say the weather is very hot and then gets comfortable but in my opinion, we have very short shoulder seasons of true spring and fall where the weather is pleasurable.

July through September is very hot. Forget Fourth of July festivities or any romantic ideas of summer outside.

October and November are pleasant but December through February it actually gets really cold. Then March and April are decent, though the end of April gets hot and you start to dread what’s coming so the pleasantness is hard to enjoy.

Basically it goes from freezing to sweltering. In my opinion this place is uninhabitable and I don’t understand why so many people are moving here. Personally I can’t wait to get out.

People say Florida is hot but we went last year in late summer. It was still 110 here and FL felt cool and not that humid. Everyone there was complaining of the heat but it felt almost cold to us.

That’s how hot AZ is. Not to mention there’s no nice water areas to cool off in. There are lakes sure, but they’re all man made and nobody swims in them.

My thoughts run counterintuitive. When we were in Gilbert in August it reached 115° 2 days straight. Yes, brutal, but tolerable. When we arrived back in Fort Lauderdale it was miserable. We much prefer 115° and 14% humidity to 96° and 90% humidity.

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by swaysway

People say the weather is very hot and then gets comfortable but in my opinion, we have very short shoulder seasons of true spring and fall where the weather is pleasurable.

To be honest, a lot of the country is like this. Fall is the best season IMO.

Winters here are very nice in comparison to most of the country. Sure, it can drop below the freezing point a few nights each winter, but it's rare to have a day where the high is less than 50 degrees. Just put on a jacket and life is good.

The things I dislike the most about Phoenix weather are (1) the relentless nature of summer, and (2) during the nice times of year the days are shorter. With that said, it's perfect for snowbirding. Live here Nov-April, and then the rest of the year anywhere in the northern part of the country (or at elevation).