Not in Kansas anymore

One year we did Mexico in winter - a couple of weeks. I did a photo album and called it "Going to the Sun". I rather liked the title. When you're from the Prairies of North America, spending part of winter in a warm climate really feels like you're entering a new land.
Yesterday, I was looking at photos from friends who are visiting Punta Cana in the Dominion Republic. Now, that would be warm, very warm. We're talking tropical flowers in the hair, bare feet in the sand, big big drinks with lots of fruit.
We're relocating to Phoenix, Arizona in a couple of weeks. Talking on the phone with friends from Alberta who will be joining us for a few days. "We'll travel light" they said "shorts and shirts". I'll have to chat with them.
There's "going to the sun/01" and "going to the sun/02". They can be quite different. The Dominion Republic sun is not the Phoenix Arizona sun. North America is still North. In Palm Springs we have lots of sun, but this doesn't mean it's hot. We start golf at noon. It can be warm then. 75 degrees Fahrenheit is 23 degrees Celsius. It can stay that way for 2 hours, at most. Then you start adding the little sweater, and then the bigger sweater. On the 18th hole, I'm looking pretty bundled up!
You'll still see shorts and shirts - not looking very warm mind you, but coping.
The black people here seem the least inclined to cope with winter. They do their work in hoodies a lot and the girls who drive the beer wagons on the golf course say they find winter here very cold.
Winter in this town is great but it's still North America. It's not Saskatchewan, but it's still North.
Changing topic to close: We drive a convertible now. Still pretty keen so on our "road trips" we usually have the top down, and get lots of waves and smiles. We also have GPS. The road trips go like this. We have a list of places we've heard about, read about, or listed on the 'point of interest' in the GPS itself. Yesterday, we put the "Arnold Palmer" restaurant into the GPS. It took some looking. (the neat thing about the GPS is that she's doing the looking. We just turn the corners when she tells us to!) Tucked into a small nook out of the way. Small sign on canopy. Small but important looking door. Another sign half hidden behind a sort of newstand. Two vehicles parked in front. You would have to be feeling particularly adventuresome to walk in there! Looked as if it were designed for some sort of personal friends - "Yeah, I know we have a sign out front but that doesn't mean we want you to come in!"