Why Tucson in August?

When I mentioned to Darren that we were going to spend 5 days vacationing in Tucson this month, his comment was something like, “What fresh hell is this?”

And I understand the sentiment. Earlier this spring, when an employee of mine submitted a leave slip for August, and mentioned they were going to Tucson, I also wondered why someone would go to Tucson in the summer. He explained that they rent a house with a pool and spend the week relaxing by the pool. And I realized that actually sounded really nice.

I’ve always wanted a pool, ever since one of my favorite weeks in my childhood:

It’s not even an in-ground pool, but the distinction was lost on me.

I was raised in a cold and rainy place and the highlight of my year was when I would get to go down to California to visit my grandparents all by myself, or sometimes with my brother.

On this particular occasion, my grandparents and I went to visit friends of theirs who had a little girl my age. I don’t remember for sure what her name was – I imagine it might have been Jenna.

I am also not sure where they lived. I have a memory that it was Redding, but it’s possible it was somewhere else and this family only later moved to Redding, or it’s possible it was a different set of my grandparent’s friends who at some point moved to Redding.

Regardless of the details, it was a magical week with a built-in best friend and a pool in the sunshine.

Skip forward to last fall. In October, John and I made the decision to sell our house in Placitas in the spring. The decision to sell that house opened up the bigger question of where we wanted to live.

One option would be to get new jobs elsewhere. We would like to be somewhere between John’s mom in Houston and my kids in Boise and California. And we like warm climates.

Tucson was high on our list because John could easily get a job at Raytheon. Also on our list, where we felt we could both find jobs, was Austin (very cool city), Houston (where we have relatives), Sacramento (centrally located between the kids), San Diego (except it’s expensive), or Santa Fe (under that scenario, John would commute to Los Alamos).

You all probably remember that nutty time last winter when we were seriously looking at moving to a variety of places. We considered a house in Nambe, between Santa Fe and Los Alamos. I tried hard to talk John into considering a beautiful house in the south valley (it has a rough reputation down there and he said no). We made a low-ball offer on one in Corrales, near the river just north of Albuquerque. We bid over list price but still lost the bid on a house in Santa Fe. Then I resigned from my job thinking we were moving to Texas. Finally we abruptly just bought a random house in our old neighborhood in Albuquerque, for lack of a better idea.

We tossed away our dream-house wish-list, and just bought something small and practical that should sell well once we do decide where we eventually want to live. We’re still going to move again. Just not right away.

Anyway, that whole digression was just to explain our other reason for going to Tucson in August. We wanted to see how bad the Tucson summer heat really was, because we’re still considering moving there someday. We have heard horror stories about the summer heat in Tucson! And certainly the population of Tucson drops in the summer time.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my biggest criteria for a location is being able to be outside comfortably, for as much as the year as possible. Is that possible in Tucson summer?

What we discovered on our visit, is that Tucson it feels exactly like Albuquerque in the summer; hot with afternoon thundershowers.

When we left Albuquerque earlier this week, the previous day had gotten to 100 degrees. When we arrived in Tucson, it was 105. I don’t know about you, but I can’t really tell the difference between 100 and 105!

Also while we were there, Albuquerque temps actually exceeded Tuscon temps. Then it cooled off a bit and was in the 90’s in both places for the remainder of the week.

Of course, those of you who don’t live in Albuquerque and/or don’t like the heat, are not going to be impressed with the argument that Tucson is no worse than Albuquerque in the summer. But for me – well, I love Albuquerque in the summer!

Another big criteria of mine is not just being outside, but also being able to exercise outside. In middle of the summer in both locations, as dawn arrives, it rapidly gets too hot to hike or jog. That is when a swimming pool comes in really handy!