Finally, we wake up to a sunrise of sort in Scottsdale, not one of those stunning sunrises that Vineet publish on Facebook, but at least clear skies and no rain. Cold though, at 9am it was still only 3 degrees Celsius.
Today, we will be picking up our new car rental. The car was not going to be available until 12pm, but at 9.30am or so, we decided to walk the 6.6 km (according to Google) from Vineet's place to Scottsdale Municipal Airport (SCF) where we were getting the car from. Why not?
First we have to pass underneath ring road 101. Even the concrete work and the landscaping there is very tastefully done.
Tomorrow Wednesday, the Phoenix Open PGA tournament in golf is starting, actually very close to Vineet's place in Scottsdale rather than Phoenix, and the preparations were in full swing. Roads were closed off, people and vehicles everywhere and with quite a bit of security arrangements.
To get to Scottsdale Municipal Airport, we also pass over the Arizona Canal.
Alamo's car rental services are inside the airport terminal, and here are a few pictures from there. Apart from all the smaller aircrafts, the airport reminded us a lot of Ballina / Byron airport in northern NSW.
We had a fantastic car hire experience with Alamo.
Not only did we pay about $22 less than expected they upgraded us to a standard car - being a full mod cons Chevy Impala. Leather seats adjust with a multitude of electronic buttons, it's a 3.6 litre V6, and it even has wood burl panels on the dash. For the same price as a Nissan Versa 1.6 litre V4 from Hertz.
Well done Alamo, if no sudden hiccups while on the road, we will be using your services in future. Driving is a pleasure and we now feel like we blend with the locals. The Nissan Versa stood out like a sore thumb. Far too small for here.
After a trip to Walmart to get a few things for our trip north out of Scottsdale tomorrow, and lunch back at Vineet's place, we took the car for a local drive.
We drove south on 101 to Tempe, south east of downtown Phoenix and bang in the middle of ASU Arizona State University grounds. We parked the car and went for a walk. All very pleasant with a true university feeling. The Tempe area reminded Hans of Berkeley University area in San Francisco.
We ended up behind this car... I think that we may leave comments unsaid on this one...
The Hayden Butte is right in the middle of the university district and you can walk up to its top through a couple of reasonably steep paths.
Hans with the "A" on Hayden Butte. Story below.
We walked up the top and took a few photos... Yep, it's a bit windy.
This next photo show Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and Phoenix downtown to the right.
Down from the hill, we passed the metro lines and one of the stations. Looked very classy.
We didn't expect to see a mosque with a minaret in Tempe, but there it was...
Now, whose Alfred Hitchcock lookalike shadow is in the centre?
We drove west and right through the centre of Phoenix, which looked like a smaller version of Los Angeles downtown, a bit soulless, and across to I17, which we drove north to 101 and then east back to Vineet's place. We finish off with a sunset picture to complete the day and complement the sunrise picture from earlier.
Dinner at home, followed by some television. The first we've seen in a while and luckily land on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in an episode where Matt Damon has taken Jimmy hostage for the night and is hosting the show with help from Robyn Williams, Andy Garcia, Sheryl Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Gary Oldman etc etc.
Very funny. We laughed a lot. Good night.
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