while I'm on it...
Feb. 6th, 2006 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerI should mention that I had a lovely visit with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
azbound, her chap, and their kitties towards the end of January. I went out to Phoenix (my first trip to the SW!) to take this course and had a very nice time.
I stayed at the Orange Tree Golf Resort, where the class was being held, enjoying the pool after the day's learnign was done and lounging around watching other people playing golf. The hotel restuarant was, sadly, mediocre and expensive, but I ate dinner one night down the street at Z Teja's, which I thought was excellent!) After the class, I took a few days and went to Taliesin West by myself (including a tour of the buildings and a guided walk through the desert, where I got a bit sunburnt) and to the Phoenix Art Museum afterwards. The next day Brooke and I went to the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, which was great fun. I also got to see Dave's massive car collection (20+ of the full-size ones, mostly GTOs and Trans Ams in various stages from show-room quality to "needs lots of TLC" and about 200+ small ones, from Matchbox size up to about 1/72 scale). Brooke and Dave kindly sent me home with bags of fruit from their orange and lemon trees, and I also brought boxes from here for my friends and co-workers, sicneredactrice assured me it was a Phoenix tradition.
Phoenix is HUGE! I found it, I admit, slightly disturbing. The architecture, the climate, I could enjoy for a little while, but only a little while, and this was the winter. I can't even imagine what it's like in the summer when it goes over 120 F; dry heat, yeah, whatever. That's too effing hot for me. And the sheer volume of humanity and humanity's living space that one is exposed to! With the exception of a few clusters downtown, nothing goes up, everything goes out sideways. I can understand that that's a feature of the climate, but doesn't that tell anyone something about whether people should be trying to make a major habitation in the middle of a desert???! Apparently not. People are flocking there in hundresds of thousands; I guess all I can think is "more room for the rest of us in the places one would want to dwell..." There was also something a bit disquieting that was harder to put my finger on. The closest I can come to it is that it seemed like an intensified version of America. Larger, shinier cars (I've never seen som any Cadillac Escalades); more and bigger stores; lots and lots and lots of consumer advertising. Buy, buy, buy. And the hotel... :-) the guy drove me and my bags from the front desk to my room in a golf cart and assured me all I had to do in the morning was call the front desk for a ride. "You wouldn't want to have to walk to the conference facility from here; it's at least a five-minute walk!" :-) (In fact, it took me about 6-8 minutes, and a lovely brisk walk in the cool fresh air it was both mornings and evenings.)
The flight was the first time I've used electronic check in. I couldn't really tell whether it made things faster. The airlines seem to have put it in and then cut the economy class check-in staff by 90%, so if the terminals aren't working, or you have a problem that needs a person to deal with, woe betide you! The machine also didn't ask me the Three Questions, so I don't know how safe I felt. ;-) Security was a fezzle, but at elast people and screeners seem to have gotten more used to it than they were the 2-3 times I flew somewhere last year. After four years of heightened secuirty, I guess everyone has finally gotten used to it and started to adapt. First time in years I've flow with a laptop, which I thought might cause some minor delay, but, no, I didn't even have to turn it on to prove it was really a computer. Going out I also got the option to buy extra leg room for $40, and you can bet I took it. Didn't have the option coming back, though :-( Different kidn of aircraft.
azbound, her chap, and their kitties towards the end of January. I went out to Phoenix (my first trip to the SW!) to take this course and had a very nice time. I stayed at the Orange Tree Golf Resort, where the class was being held, enjoying the pool after the day's learnign was done and lounging around watching other people playing golf. The hotel restuarant was, sadly, mediocre and expensive, but I ate dinner one night down the street at Z Teja's, which I thought was excellent!) After the class, I took a few days and went to Taliesin West by myself (including a tour of the buildings and a guided walk through the desert, where I got a bit sunburnt) and to the Phoenix Art Museum afterwards. The next day Brooke and I went to the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, which was great fun. I also got to see Dave's massive car collection (20+ of the full-size ones, mostly GTOs and Trans Ams in various stages from show-room quality to "needs lots of TLC" and about 200+ small ones, from Matchbox size up to about 1/72 scale). Brooke and Dave kindly sent me home with bags of fruit from their orange and lemon trees, and I also brought boxes from here for my friends and co-workers, sicne
redactrice assured me it was a Phoenix tradition.Phoenix is HUGE! I found it, I admit, slightly disturbing. The architecture, the climate, I could enjoy for a little while, but only a little while, and this was the winter. I can't even imagine what it's like in the summer when it goes over 120 F; dry heat, yeah, whatever. That's too effing hot for me. And the sheer volume of humanity and humanity's living space that one is exposed to! With the exception of a few clusters downtown, nothing goes up, everything goes out sideways. I can understand that that's a feature of the climate, but doesn't that tell anyone something about whether people should be trying to make a major habitation in the middle of a desert???! Apparently not. People are flocking there in hundresds of thousands; I guess all I can think is "more room for the rest of us in the places one would want to dwell..." There was also something a bit disquieting that was harder to put my finger on. The closest I can come to it is that it seemed like an intensified version of America. Larger, shinier cars (I've never seen som any Cadillac Escalades); more and bigger stores; lots and lots and lots of consumer advertising. Buy, buy, buy. And the hotel... :-) the guy drove me and my bags from the front desk to my room in a golf cart and assured me all I had to do in the morning was call the front desk for a ride. "You wouldn't want to have to walk to the conference facility from here; it's at least a five-minute walk!" :-) (In fact, it took me about 6-8 minutes, and a lovely brisk walk in the cool fresh air it was both mornings and evenings.)
The flight was the first time I've used electronic check in. I couldn't really tell whether it made things faster. The airlines seem to have put it in and then cut the economy class check-in staff by 90%, so if the terminals aren't working, or you have a problem that needs a person to deal with, woe betide you! The machine also didn't ask me the Three Questions, so I don't know how safe I felt. ;-) Security was a fezzle, but at elast people and screeners seem to have gotten more used to it than they were the 2-3 times I flew somewhere last year. After four years of heightened secuirty, I guess everyone has finally gotten used to it and started to adapt. First time in years I've flow with a laptop, which I thought might cause some minor delay, but, no, I didn't even have to turn it on to prove it was really a computer. Going out I also got the option to buy extra leg room for $40, and you can bet I took it. Didn't have the option coming back, though :-( Different kidn of aircraft.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 05:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 11:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 07:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 12:03 pm (UTC)I was talking to some Brits in my reenacting group the other day about the move. He said "Well, you'll have to get used to walking and using public transport more; you'll probably be able to afford a car, but you just can't drive it as much there. There isn't the parking and so on." GOOD! No problem for me! I never had a car when I lived in London, and I got around by Tube and bus just fine.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 01:33 pm (UTC)I have read that people used to walk more in Pheonix/Mesa/Tempe/Scottsdale, but that the humidity has steadily risen because of all the lawn watering and the valley of the sun no longer enjoys the dry heat Arizona was once famous for.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 02:18 pm (UTC)I was actually pleasantly surprised; I wasn't able to be nearly as outraged about the whole "making the desert bloom" thing as I had counted upon. Of course, there are the preposterous number of golf courses, but I was plweased to see how many people had "yards" that were scrub, stones, cacti, and other native plants.
I didn't see the Heard Museum, but I certainly heard of it :-) Seriously, it sounded interesting, but I didn't have time to include it.