Summer in Arizona

We moved to Phoenix at the hottest time of the year. Yes, it is a dry heat, but it's still unbelievable. Just our luck, our very first full month here was tied for the hottest month on record in Phoenix with an average temperature of 98.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The hottest August day on record for Phoenix was on August 26 with a high of 117 degrees! I don't think I had ever felt that kind of heat before.

As I walked across the parking lot to my car each afternoon, I could just feel the sun beating down on me and searing my flesh. It's not uncommon for people to use umbrellas for shade. Pretty much everyone out here has their car windows tinted. I'm hoping to get mine done before this summer. It makes a huge difference in how hot it is in your car by the time you get in to go home after work! Typically, when I walked out to my car and the temperature was above 105, I'd have to turn on my air conditioning and wait a couple minutes before getting into my car. And that's with the shiny sun shades in my front windshield!

Like I mentioned before, it's a "dry" heat. This does make a difference in how tolerable it is. When it's 90 here, it's much more comfortable than 90 in NC. The reason is, without so much humidity, your sweat actually evaporates, so you stay a little cooler and less damp. You sweat more than you even realize, and I've found that I need to drink a LOT more water out here.

Because the heat is so brutal, it's not ideal to do anything outdoors in Phoenix during the summer. Luckily, there are some cooler cities that are perfect for a day trip to escape the heat.

One weekend in September, we drove to Prescott, which is about an hour and a half away.
Prescott is maybe 10 degrees cooler than Phoenix and has trees! So we hiked a trail around Thumb Butte.

What a butte!

Justin decided he was curious about the contents of these cactus "fruits" so he found one on the ground and opened it up.

 And he found out that cactus fruits have tiny spines that get embedded painfully in your skin. Ouch.

But the scenery was very nice.

View from the top

Prescott was a pretty neat little town and I'm sure we'll be going back before long to do some more hiking.

Haboob

In case you're unaware, Phoenix occasionally has dust storms called "haboobs." Apparently they were unusually common last summer. Before we moved, we heard about a very large haboob that happened in Phoenix. "Very unusual," they said. Within a couple weeks after we arrived in Phoenix, we got to experience our first haboob. It's unlike any weather phenomena I ever experienced in North Carolina. 

We saw the dust cloud as it approached, and I grabbed my camera and ran outside.

Here you can see the front of the dust cloud:

As it got closer to us, Justin suggested maybe we should go back inside...so we went in the breezeway of our building to watch from there. 

The dust was not as thick as it seemed from far away. I learned to keep my mouth shut after I got sand in my teeth.

The dust turned the landscape into an eerie, post-apocalyptic-looking scene. 

Mountain view and highway view were both obscured.

As the sun set, it started to look like another planet. But those mountains look familiar...

Later, we learned that you should definitely not be outside during one of these. Apparently you can catch something called Valley Fever, which comes from some fungus in the soil. Otherwise, they seem pretty harmless. Definitely preferable to hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes!

The Journey - Part 2

I'm a poor excuse for a blogger...just going to pretend it hasn't been months since my last post and pick up where I left off.

My last entry ended in Texas. I forgot to mention the incident we had at our hotel in OK...
At one point, Beeboo escaped from our hotel room and ran out into the hall. I ran after her, while Justin shut the door so no other cats would escape. I chased her up the hall and down the hall, and realized she was looking for the open door to return to the safety of our room. I shouted at Justin "Open the door!" and he opened it. Beeb made a beeline(or should that be "Beebline"?) for the door, and has not tried such a daring escape since.

On to New Mexico! This is where the drive started to get really scenic. The terrain gradually became more and more brown. And rocky.
In New Mexico, we hit a pretty bad storm...

We stayed a night in Albuquerque, where we enjoyed eating at a New Mexican restaurant.

Not sure exactly on the order for the rest of the photos since my camera and phone were not synced to the same time...but here are a few highlights from the rest of the trip through New Mexico and Arizona.

Red Rocks

Flagstaff

This was our first time in Flagstaff, and we immediately fell in love with it just from passing through. The weather was a perfect 70 degrees or so, and the mountains were very impressive.

The 2 hour drive from Flagstaff down to Phoenix flew by (for us, maybe not the cats). We watched as the landscape became more dry, and then we started to see Saguaros.

We finally arrived in Phoenix, and settled in for a week at an extended stay hotel until our belongings were delivered to our new apartment. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we have a great view from our balcony, looking north at some mountains. I'm going to strategically not mention that the mountain view comes with a highway view as well...wouldn't want you to be less jealous of us.

Our Mountain View