Christmas in Arizona

Christmas in Arizona

The sun came out briefly on Christmas day!

I had planned to get some sun over Christmas well in advance and booked a trip to Phoenix Arizona for a week leaving on Saturday 21 December 2019. They call winter The Big Dark in Seattle but according to Mayor Jenny Durkan, Friday 20 December 2019 was the darkest day in history. The following day, when I was leaving was barely an improvement because it felt like the dark clouds reached all the way down to the ground. I called my Uber to take me to the airport that evening and could not get out of Dodge fast enough. Even the airport had a festive atmosphere as I talked to other travelers on their way to catch some sun in warm climates like Miami or who were on their way to just spend Christmas with family back East. I landed in Phoenix, Arizona after 1am then took an Uber to my hotel near the airport which was chose for its proximity, if nothing else. The next day I down to Heritage Square in downtown Phoenix for a delicious brunch and then proceeded to explore the city. Phoenix was strangely deserted as there were very few people walking around tge center. This was also due to the fact that the population of Phoenix is under 2 million people, most of whom moved to Arizona recently due to the hot job market so predictably they go back home for the holidays. I walked down to the Farmers Market which had only the restaurant was open but I found service to be very slow but they were quick to serve other people who came after me. It's a small city so I walked past the university campus and the light rail station then stopped at the Hyatt which was not busy except for a church group taking a break during their conference. The day had started off sunny but got chilly by afternoon so I took another car to a very famous steakhouse that claims that John Wayne used to be a regular. I had a decent dinner in the restaurant but when the lady in the bar wouldn't serve me it finally dawned on me that the slow service I had received earlier was due to the fact that I am Black. I took my leave and headed to my hotel to sleep.

Tify was a wonderful hostess & guide

The next day I was moving to Scottsdale near my friend where I planned to stay the rest of the week. One of my best friends in Zimbabwe had a cousin in Phoenix who wanted to show me around so he picked me up then took me for a bizarrely long drive about 100 miles out of Phoenix to a dusty Mexican town before bringing me to my new hotel in Scottsdale. By the time we got into town, his wife was blowing up his phone and I did not wish to be caught up in some domestic drama so I avoided him the rest of my stay. The wife even tried to reach me via Facebook asking me to do lunch but the whole thing was crazy and I did not want to ruin my trip plus I had learnt my lesson to avoid avoid looking for Zimbabweans when I travel in future. My hotel in Scottsdale was fabulous and it was right across the road from the Fairmont Princess, which has some great restaurants. The next day I went shopping in downtown Scottsdale and checked out some places in the Old Town then my girlfriend took me out for drinks. Scottsdale is similar to the way Bellevue is to Seattle and there is so much more to do so I had fun from the minute I got there. I had Christmas lunch at the Fairmont Princess where staff were preparing for their Christmas festival which is a popular draw for kids. I even spotted Busy Phillips there with her kids while I was trying to catch a few rays of sun in the afternoon. My friend and I went to the Marriot for a drink then to the Talking Stick casino where we danced as a musician played old favorites and finally we had dinner at the Four Seasons resort so we painted the town red on Christmas day.

A chair at the Rusty Spur Salon in Old Town,

the touristy part of Scottsdale

The one thing that stood out for me in Arizona was the level of poverty there. I took the bus to the malls from my hotel and there were people getting on the bus who were so poor they couldn't afford the $2 bus fare for a ride. One couple only had $1 between them so I gave them the other dollar and my bus pass. I also heard stories of racial profiling from young Black people growing up there and in one instance when we were meeting a friend for brunch, she arrived had early then some man started bothering them and her daughter who attends college quickly turned her phone on to record the conversation. There is a generation of young Black people out there who have to learnt to quickly record situations because of how quickly they can escalate. I must admit, one of the reasons I chose to check out Phoenix for my Christmas getaway was to see if it is a place where I would want to live in the future because I had heard so much about the vibrant job market. However, it rained most of time and it got colder as the week went by so there was no difference to being in Seattle. I even considered leaving early because I had seen almost everything but I went to the Walmart to buy some warm clothes then decided to enjoy the rest of my stay, which was lovely. I came back with a new appreciation for Seattle because even though it is rainy here, I do not feel any blatant discrimination and you don't have think about having your phone ready to record in case of another racial incident.