Observations of Phoenix life

I have now been in the Phoenix Metro for just over a week now. Things are very similar to what I was used to in Hampton Roads, but there are a lot of differences.

The trees are short here, just like they are near the oceanfront. A lot of the chain stores that I went to in HR can be found here.

Here are some of the differences:

• Obviously it is warmer (it is currently 62 in PHX versus 36 in HR).
• They have major league sports teams here: NBA, MLB, NFL, AFL, and NHL. In addition, most of the MLB spring training Cactus League is here.
• They have Whole Foods, Fresh & Easy, Safeway grocery stores here, but the main one is Fry’s. There are no Food Lion, Farm Fresh, or Harris Teeter’s here.
• They have cameras to monitor and issue tickets for not just people running stoplights, but for speeding as well.
• You can easily see a mountain of some sort in at least one direction.
• The main highways are always busy. Rush hour in the evening is defined as 3pm to 7pm, this is based on the HOV lane hours, in HR they are 4pm to 6pm.
• The main surface streets are laid out in a grid and they are wide. In addition, they almost all have bike lanes.
• Primetime TV starts at 7pm.
• There is an IKEA here.

I do miss my friends and family in HR, but I do hope you guys will visit. Hopefully by then I will really understand this area and can show it off.