My philosophy: when traveling for work, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, no matter how many emails, voicemails and deadlines you have, take some time to explore your surroundings. So that’s how I ended up exploring Chandler and photographing some of it colorful vegetation.
I was invited to be the keynote speaker at an event at Arizona State University and arrived the day before to participate in a workshop and learn more about an audience that I had little experience with. Although I’ve been to the Phoenix area many times, not only was this was my first visit to Chandler but my first time in Arizona in the middle of summer.
I had only one early morning to explore given my tight schedule and the short duration of my trip. Fortunately, the time zone difference and my desire to be out before the heat of the day, got me out of bed, into my tennis shoes and out walking by 5:20 am. It was still hot, though not unbearably so; even without direct sun for 12 hours the pavement and sidewalks radiated warmth. As the sky lightened, I walked toward the Chandler golf course, preferring to walk along grass than concrete.
The morning of my arrival the prior day, there had been a heavy rain. It was amusing when the receptionist checking me in at the hotel commented about how humid it was – the humidity was 35%. Sounded funny to someone coming from a region where humidity in the summer hovers in the 80 to 95 percent range. Nonetheless, the rain and humidity had a transformative effect; not only did everything appear freshly washed, but the vegetation was reinvigorated – clean, standing firm and tall and bursting with blooms.
I walked past a small drainage canal from the golf course surrounded by shaggy brown palms. The light from the rising sun cast shadows on the still water.
In sharp contrast, bright green foliage, renewed by the rain, framed the dried brown thatch on the palm trunks.
As the sun rose, golfers immediately began teeing off, trying to beat the heat. I walked off the course and through the adjacent San Marco condos. A riot of pink bougainvillea blossoms adorned the condo lawns.
Bushes with vibrant orange and yellow flowers, fortified with the rain and standing tall, blew gently in the wind. Later I learned that this sub-tropical shrub with its showy flowers is the Red Bird of Paradise, a type of vegetation that is used extensively in low-elevation desert areas because it is water efficient and tolerant of high heat.
By 6:45 am it was hot. Time to return to my room to get ready for work. A brisk walk and colorful vegetation made a great start to my one and only day in Chandler.