We slept in until 9am our first morning in Arizona. I think we all needed to recover a bit from the late night before. Uncle Jim's place is really nice. He and Uncle Mike have decorated with a western theme and it fits with the area perfectly.

It was a little warm in the house because the air conditioning hadn't been working for a few days, and Uncle Jim thought we could cool down in the pool. He showed us how to get there and promised to join us after he finished some work. Riley thought the pool was great. We brought an intertube for him and he floated all over the pool. I hadn't been swimming in at least two years and the cool water felt superb. It was really quiet around the complex. Uncle Jim said it was like a ghost town. Half the population disappears in the summer to avoid the heat.

We were supposed to meet the realtor later in the day, so we headed back to Uncle Jim's around noon, and had our rental car delivered. I don't recommend buying this particular car- a Pontiac Sunfire. It was fire engine red, looked really sporty, had only 10,000 miles, and could barely make it up a hill. Anytime we went over 70 on the freeway the windshield screeched. It got us where we needed to go, but it was painful!.

We ran some errands with Uncle Jim to get a brief tour of Scottsdale. On Friday we were going to do more extensive touring around the area. A hearty lunch left us feeling energized and we headed off around 4pm to meet with the realtor in Mesa. The cities around the Phoenix area are not as spread out as around Seattle. Within minutes you may have gone through two cities (and not even have know it). Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale, and a few other cities all boarder each other. Scottsdale is definitely the most upscale of all the cities. You have to have some money to live there.

The realtor gave us a little tour of the area on the way to the houses he was going to show us. One community we really liked was called "The Islands". The community is interspersed with a large lake and many of the custom made homes have lake front property with a dock and boat. We didn't think there was much water in Arizona, but many communities had man made lakes which were fairly good sized- you could even water ski on them. Unfortunately, we weren't really impressed with any of the houses we toured. Todd thought they were overpriced for the quality and size. I think we were spoiled by Uncle Jim's place in Scottsdale.

By 7:15pm, we were ready to head back to the office. Our realtor's car had other ideas. After pulling on the freeway, the car started bouncing and Todd said, "I think you have a flat tire". Nothing's ever easy for us, we have the worst luck sometimes. It was starting to rain and this huge dust storm was rocking the car. Both Todd and the realtor got out (you should have seen this guy's hair blowing!!) and checked the tire. It was flat. The realtor opened his truck and fumbled with part of the jack. He didn't even know how to put it together. Todd ended up having to change the tire. Riley and I decided to wait in the car.

Finally, close to 8pm we were on the road again. We reached the office, got back in our car, and both agreed that Arizona was not the place for us. It was too hot, the real estate was more expensive that the properties were worth, and it was too hot! We decided to turn the rest of the trip into a vacation.

We didn't get back to Uncle Jim's house until after 9pm and we were starving. Todd ordered a pizza, I put Riley to sleep, and we sat down with Uncle Jim for a few beers and friendly conversation. The next morning we were going to leave for Flagstaff and check out the Grand Canyon. We told Uncle Jim we'd be back Friday afternoon and then we'd go out for dinner and take a tour of Scottsdale with him.

Flagstaff
The First Leg
Arizona Selections
Home