Arizona is the anti-Alaska in climate, but rich in diversity. Most people think of Phoenix (our home) as the land of temperatures so high that it causes aircrafts to be grounded, or the land of dust storms that make you think The Scorpion King was being understated.
It was here that we dry out from Southeast Alaska (in Southeast Alaska- growing up, it rained 200 inches a year: you didn’t tan, you rusted). They say people from Ketchikan get webbed feet, so it is no wonder that so many of them come to Arizona for the dry, hot climate. Some say the heat is dry like hell, the animals have horns and venom, and it is here that we prepare in God’s antechamber for our sinful life.
Sedona with its red iron-filled rocks towering above, showing layers of earth from thousands if not millions of years ago – a home to few, but respite for many. A place where the Natives (Indians) found sacred – where the New-Age find a vortex to cleanse their soul- but most of us find peace and quiet that can convince the most ardent atheist that there is more.
But even the diversity of Arizona allows April to snowboard in the winter – traveling 90 minutes to bundle up and ride down the mountain way too fast – and where JJ will learn to ski and board.
And golf, ah yes, only 250 courses in Phoenix, from the desert golf of Desert Mountain, the the mature tree-lined Papago Park (a public course where the LPGA had its open). Where thousands of snowbirds flock from the middle west to not shovel snow, and try and chase that little white ball into a hole.