Arizona Living

Living in Tucson is somewhat different than living in Maryland. As a visitor - these are the ones I noticed. 

• The houses and apartments tend to be stucco with flat or tile roofs. Many houses have courtyards or walled gardens. There are small, carefully tended areas of greenery clustered close to housing: oleanders, palms, eucalyptus, cactus, and orange trees. A fountain with round river stones in its base graces an apartment complex courtyard. In a dry place, water noise is the sound of luxury…maybe decadence as well. The most practical yards are sand and pebbles. The surface is sometimes raked to arrange the pebbles uniformly - or create a pattern; there is nothing to mow. The temperature changes between day and night mean that windows are opened or closed at various times almost every day; opened in the early morning to let the cool are into the house before the day warms or in the warm afternoon to let warm air in if the nights have been cold. There is not as much temperature variation during a single day in Maryland.

• The Tucson water has a lot more minerals than the water in Maryland. Most people filter their drinking water in some way and take steps to keep their kitchenware (and anything exposed to water) from developing deposits. The water pipes must be encrusted on the inside too.
• Tucson is a city but the traffic is very light compared to the Washington DC and Baltimore traffic. What a luxury!
• In Tucson, the lighting around houses and along residential streets seems more localized. The sky is darker at night. Even in the city, stars can be seen. Being able to see the stars on clear nights should be a long term goal even for major metropolitan areas.
• Last but not least - the traffic lights have different timing for left turns. In Tucson it is after the straight ahead traffic and in Maryland it is before.