The Place is Hot

I just learned on Wikipedia that the origin of the name of Phoenix is Native American for "the place is hot." I don't know how you would translate "Hotter Than The Fires of Hell" in Navajo, but they should have named it that. As I mentioned in the previous post, we weren't exactly looking forward to our trip to Phoenix but we were determined to try and enjoy it. So I'm going to skip over the fact that it was over 90 degrees by 9:00 a.m. and the high every day was 108 and get on to the good stuff. First of all, I was surprised at the size of the airport and the size of the town (both huge!). Well, to call it a town wouldn't really be correct- it's more like one big blob of sprawl running into the next. I did find it to be very pretty with the mountains all around and the desert landscape is beautiful in its own way. (I know I'm not being all that positive but I'm trying!) We were on the 19th floor of our hotel which afforded us a pretty good view of the area.




You can see the baseball stadium in the picture above- it's the only building that has its roof open. We went there and took in a Diamondbacks-Cardinals game on Sunday afternoon. It was a cheap and fun way to spend the afternoon and we had a good time. They had the roof closed for the game though and I have to say it felt a little weird to watch baseball being played indoors. Weird, but nice and cool.





There was a nice shopping/theater/restaurant area nearby that we ate at a few times. It seems they're really doing a lot in Phoenix to spruce up their downtown and it looked great. There was a parking garage across the street from our hotel that Rob had no idea was a parking garage because it was done so well. I wouldn't have thought it was one either except I saw the small sign and the place where the cars enter and exit. It's good to see cities investing so much in their downtowns because a vital city needs that. Anyhow, that was about it. We were going to see The Bourne Ultimatum but we never made it. The hotel had a really nice gym that we both went to a few times. I spent 3 hours at the pool on Monday and my shoulders were a fiery red color that is now beginning to fade. My flight back was uneventful and NOT fun. There was a rather large man in the seat next to me. Well, he was actually partly in my seat too and that was the problem. I was very happy to get back to Iowa and get home. I'll be even happier when Rob gets home. My final verdict on Phoenix is this: Nice place to go if you are trying to get away from your snowed-in house. If that's not the case, stay where you are because it's probably better there.