Guestlist: The Skinny on Scottsdale

By Guest Blogger The Saucier.
The Saucier of Bar-B-Log has spent this week checking out the scene and has a list to share.

20 observations about Scottsdale, Arizona, in no particular order:

1. Lots of folks here ride motorcycles. There are no helmet laws. It's weird. And, stupid.

2. They have a lot of interesting church architecture, at least from the outside.

3. Frank Lloyd Wright loved this place. So much so, he built Taleisin West in the mountains. To me, this is further proof that he was a complete nut job.

4. Light brown gets really old, really fast.

5. Everyone here seems to drive as if they were simultaneously in a drag race and had nowhere to be. I can understand why they have problems with road rage. Also, changing lanes in order to make progress is less effective here than anywhere else I have ever driven.

6. I like golf as much as the next guy, but jeezy creezy! How many damn golf resorts does one city need?

7. It is impossible to get lost here. The entire city is a big grid. There are no trees, and the streets don't curve. So, you can usually see where you are going no matter how far away it is. Almost all the streets connect and everything points due north, south, east or west. I've gotten lost three times.

8. Point to anything in Scottsdale. 99 times out of 100 it will either be a strip mall, a car, a rock, a cactus or a golf course.

9. They seem to love Fat Tire in these parts. I do too.

10. Many cacti appear to be flipping me off.

11. There are a lot of bicycle shops here.

12. The Old Town Tortilla Factory does not have particularly good tortillas. Their other food sucks too.

13. On a related note, I was very excited about the whole New Mexico/Arizona green chile phenomenon. At most every restaurant I've visited, I've ordered some sort of green chile something. I still have no idea what green chiles taste like – unless it's watery air.

14. If you are interested in purchasing an extremely ugly painting, go to Main St. There you will find the ugly painting of your dreams. However, due to the overwhelming number of galleries (I counted close to 4 million) I did see a few interesting pieces.

15. Cool desert nights kick ass!

16. There are bold jack rabbits living outside my hotel.

17. I've seen quite a bit of white hair in Scottsdale this week. Also, I've seen an abundance of white pants and white shoes.

18. If you don't mind dining with the ladies who lunch, the tuna melt at El Chorro Lodge is fantastic. The basket of cinnamon rolls they put on every table is a nice touch, too.

19. Canadian accents are funny. This is not an observation aboot Scottsdale, but there have been several Canadian presenters at the conference I'm attending.

20. I've actually been having a pretty good time.