Great Arizona Picnic, reason #many to spend time in the Valley of the Sun

Scottsdale – A beautiful afternoon at the Great Arizona Picnic. This annual event is one of many at the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall: 21 acres of trees, flowers, water, and a manicured lawn surrounded by restaurants, cultural and civic centers; in short, an unlikely spot in the middle of the desert, but then the same can be said of Scottsdale overall.

Sunday afternoon, 88 degrees, and the fiesta is a 15 minute bike ride. I straddle up the Bianchi and float, north west, lock up and pay the ten buck admission donation. Four hours later, I feel great, unworried about retirement or unemployment thanks to a couple snacks, great people watching, and rock-and-roll memory bands that cover everyone from Johnny Cash to southern rock to Adele and those other Irish and English bands old folks recognize.

April is the heart of the spring festival season here. Everyone is outside and many of us are enjoying free or inexpensive weekend events. The Great Arizona Picnic is part of the Scottsdale Culinary Festival, and this casual, un-ironic event is packed but never crowded.

The food I sampled was tasty: a deep fried quesadilla with beef picadillo from Distrito was three bucks and delicious. (I ate at Distrito once, a Catalan waiter and excellent meal, and left just when the tables were disappearing and the dancing was starting. I am the age for early retiring.) The jalapeño pecan pancake from Orange Table was another three bucks and another delicious. Good food always cheers me up, and the $4 cherry shaved ice cooled me down so I exited content. Ten bucks to enter, ten bucks for food. A little high for the fixed income world so I’ll scrimp tomorrow, rice and beans and maybe a banana! (Isaac told me to peel them bottom up like monkeys and apes, so that’s what I do now, when I remember.)