Should I visit Phoenix? (Miami: retiree, ranking, cities)
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So what in my comments are you disagreeing with? Or is this just a general attack against my credibility simply because you're angry that someone is criticizing your beloved Phoenix?
I wasn't a grad student but my roommate was. I had a car while I was there because honestly you can't do anything in Phoenix without a car (part of the reason I disliked it so much).
And yes, I have had/have no idea where Lake Pleasant is located. I spent most of my time in and around Tempe and Scottsdale. There were some decent places but it wasn't me. The few times I went to other places in the area (went to the Biltmore twice) honestly it wasn't anything special in my mind. Nothing different from other national chain stores you can find in any other big city (Saks, etc).
If you like Phoenix, wonderful. I am very happy for you. But please let's have a little honestly for a foreign guest who is about to travel thousands of miles across the world. Think what you would think if you traveled all the way to Australia just to spend time in the suburbs and the mall...
It never ceases to amaze me how someone can post a friendly request for information on what there is to do in Phoenix, to which people post friendly suggestions, and other people use a friendly thread as an opportunity to create drama because they're bitter about the horrible time they had in Phoenix.
The OP actually wants to visit Phoenix and wants to know what there is to do here. Why not just put your grudge aside and be helpful with a positive attitude instead of creating yet another fight about "why Phoenix sucks or doesn't"
Firstly, thanks for giving me such varied opinions, its good to see it from different points of view.
Okie dokie, so here's the deal. We fly into LA in three weeks (Arrgh! I haven't even bought a suitcase) we spend New Years in San Fran, my sisters and I fly to Las Vegas for three nights, then up to Canada for skiing (I think I'm going to struggle considering I have only seen snow on TV...)
We fly back to LA on the 19th where my family will go back to Oz. I am staying on to do a course in LA from the 29th, so it pretty much means I have 9 days to do what the heck I like. I will be doing all the tourist stuff with my family, so I really want to just get to know some people and experience the American lifestyle we hear so much about over here.
Thanks (again) for all your help
Also, how old do you have to be to rent a car in the states??
Wow, busy! I'm jealous. You will have so much fun.
25 to rent a car and you have to have a credit card. Believe me, I couldn't wait to be 25 so I could take someone else's car on road trips instead of my own unreliable car
Nothing would have stopped our gallant efforts -- we had to get to those ants!!!
Yea there are a lot of funny stories and occasionally one of them gets triggered in my memory bank. I hadn't thought about that story for years until AusieLuLu came along.
Darwin was a very small town on the north coast of Australia, and I only remember there being about one square block of town, with maybe one restaurant. I think there may have been two bars in the town. One was an aborigine bar, and it seems every time you walked by, there was a fight going on. You didn't want to go into that bar unless you were a Crocodile Dundee type.
We spent most of our layovers driving around in the outback and at the swimming hole, and most everyone at the hotel would congregate around the hotel swimming pool. There was nothing else to do so there was a lot of conversation with the other hotel guests, some of whom were very interesting "characters".
My wife has many times told me that I should write a book about my airline career, but it wouldn't sell unless I peppered it with sex. So I've always declined.
During the earlier years on the Boing 707, before the movie stars begun to buy their own planes, we would have some star on board on almost every flight. After they started buying their own planes and flying on private jets, they eventually stopped flying the airlines.
Two quick stories:
We used to take Marlon Brando to Tahiti quite often because he owned an island there. If we had him on board when leaving Tahiti on his way back to the US, we would fly near his island so he could see it. He sat in first class and we would announce the name of the island but not his name. We didn't want to call unwanted attention to him. The flight attendants would always joke (or maybe not a joke) that they were going to make him an offer he couldn't refuse. I never heard if he accepted any offers, or how many.
At that time they charged a few dollars for head sets in first class (later they discontinued that) But Brando would always get on board and hand the attendant a $100 bill. They wouldn't have change so he would get it for free.
We brought Steve McQueen back from Hong Kong when he finished filming the Sand Pebbles. He was with his wife and make up person. As a courtesy Steve said hello to everyone in first class and told the flight attendants that he was going to sleep right after dinner for the whole flight because he was exhausted. It was really nice of him to say hello to everyone instead of just going to sleep and ignoring them, because he was such an admired star. He seemed like just a regular unassuming guy without the star attitude.
However, his wife made sure that everyone noticed her during the entire flight, and so did his make up person, who was a male.
The highlight of my carreer was meeting Charles Lindberg. Lindberg was a member of Pan Am's board of directors for many years and pioneered many of our routes. He was on board enroute from New York to Indonesia to do some work and we picked the airplane up at Fairbanks as the crew changed.
After about an hour from Fairbanks, this young flight attendant came up and said "there is a man in first class who would like to come up to the cockpit. He said his name is Lindberg and is a Pan Am director. Is it ok if he comes up?" This young lady had no idea who Lindberg was.
We said of course and he came up to visit with us for about an hour. Later we explained to her who Lindberg was, and then she recalled reading something about him in school. He was a great man who made many contributions to the airline industry in general and to Pan Am in particular.
He later had cancer and he retired to Hawaii. It's my understanding that he either stopped or declined the treatments when he went to Hawaii and I'm told that he designed and built his own casket and planned his own funeral.
My grandkids hear a few of my stories when something happens to trigger one that they may be interested in; but mainly I spend time listening to them and learning more about what they want and how they view things around them. My grandson who wants to fly has heard the Lindberg story and saw the picture that we were able to take of Lindberg and I in the cockpit, but the others wouldn't be interested in that story.
Bill
Yep, interesting life! You should link these stories to the new Celebrities forum. They have a thread about meeting celebrities. I couldn't contribute any. My only brush with a celebrity was seeing Geraldo Rivera on the street in NYC. There was a lot of commotion and paparazzi in one store, too, so there must've been some star in it, but it was too cold and my self-preservation took over my curiosity.
Im an Aussie gal coming to the states in Jan, I have friends in Phoenix and was going to head over there and stay for a week or so. But after reading some of these threads, Im not sure if I should?
I just want to have a chilled out time, and meet knew people. Is Phoenix fun for the young??
Any help would be great!
Thanks
Moderator cut: rude This is a great place for young and single people. Nearly everyone here moved here from some place else. You won't have to compete with cliques typically found in older cities. It's so easy to meet people here because everyone was in your situation at some point here.
The outskirts of Phoenix has several elderly and retired people. However the city itself has many young people that moved here from some place else. Unlike most cities, Phoenix is really old or young, there is little in between. Yeah, if you choose to live in Sun City, you will be surrounded by old fogies. If you live in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe or Chandler, most of the people are under 40 and very hip. As a young and single person, you will have a lot of fun. I spent my 20's here and I had more fun than my friends living in urban areas Due to the weather, Phoenix is a non-stop party. The weather in the winter is beatiful and people are always out. In the summer, nearly everyone has a swimming pool so there are ton of barbeques and pool parties in the evenings. Just go out at night and you will see people are decked out and very pretty.
Unlike New York and Los Angelas, people are laid back and willing to get to know you on personal level.
Last edited by sablebaby; 12-02-2007 at 10:20 PM..
Reason: rude comment... if it was meant as a joke, please use a smiley or LOL so we know
Yep, interesting life! You should link these stories to the new Celebrities forum. They have a thread about meeting celebrities. I couldn't contribute any. My only brush with a celebrity was seeing Geraldo Rivera on the street in NYC. There was a lot of commotion and paparazzi in one store, too, so there must've been some star in it, but it was too cold and my self-preservation took over my curiosity.
To be honest, if I had seen/met Geraldo R., I'd keep it to myself! lol...I do not even understand this whole 'fame' thing and peoples infatuation with movie stars who are nothing more than some ordinary people who got lucky enough to be cast for a movie or two that brought them the stardom! Frankly, I neither get the chills or the desire to meet one, they are often shorter/skinnier/fatter and almost always uglier than the way they appear in movies so there is a certain degree of disappointment. I worked as an etc a few times and met several actors/actresses and sadly, some of them are real jerk, full of themselves. Oddly, quite often those who are not that famous are usually even more full of themselves than those who are big stars.
I know I could get somewhere if I stayed in the entertainment business but it requires a certain persona more so than talent. You have to be connected and/or be ready to go the distance and lick some major Hollywood-.ss!
Anyhow, back to topic, AussieGal, I am sure you will have a lot of fun in Phoenix if you are a fun person, meaning it is up to the place but it is up to the person to create the fun environment. If you are a cynical, grumpy freak (like myself) or choose to stay at home instead of hanging out while visiting PHoenix, then you can't gripe about PHoenix being an uncool place, catch my drift?
Crazy Turk has spoken.
To be honest, if I had seen/met Geraldo R., I'd keep it to myself! lol...Crazy Turk has spoken.
Yada, yada, "cynical, grumpy, Crazy Turk"! (hey, that's a quote... I didn't come up with it ) Why didn't ya peck at Capt. Bill?! He's met a lot more of them.
Location: Sunny Phoenix Arizona...wishing for a beach.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cxray
Moderator cut: rude This is a great place for young and single people. Nearly everyone here moved here from some place else. You won't have to compete with cliques typically found in older cities. It's so easy to meet people here because everyone was in your situation at some point here.
The outskirts of Phoenix has several elderly and retired people. However the city itself has many young people that moved here from some place else. Unlike most cities, Phoenix is really old or young, there is little in between. Yeah, if you choose to live in Sun City, you will be surrounded by old fogies. If you live in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe or Chandler, most of the people are under 40 and very hip. As a young and single person, you will have a lot of fun. I spent my 20's here and I had more fun than my friends living in urban areas Due to the weather, Phoenix is a non-stop party. The weather in the winter is beatiful and people are always out. In the summer, nearly everyone has a swimming pool so there are ton of barbeques and pool parties in the evenings. Just go out at night and you will see people are decked out and very pretty.
Unlike New York and Los Angelas, people are laid back and willing to get to know you on personal level.
Hipness is subjective; there's no established metric for it, so it's hard to discuss intelligently.
The statement about age, however, is on target. Phoenix is stereoptyped as a retirement community, but it actually has one of the lowest median ages of major cities in the U.S.:
Hipness is subjective; there's no established metric for it, so it's hard to discuss intelligently.
The statement about age, however, is on target. Phoenix is stereoptyped as a retirement community, but it actually has one of the lowest median ages of major cities in the U.S.:
No offense. But to even have phoenix on that list is shocking! Phoenix is the 5th largest city, there is no way we should be on that list with all those other old and puny cities! Perhaps, there are more retirees than we think?
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You will have so much fun.
(hey, that's a quote... I didn't come up with it 
