Another Long Weekend in Phoenix

While the rest of the country is winding down the summer months Phoenix, Arizona is still watching the temperatures climb. The one thing on everyone's mind is, "beat the heat". Labor Day weekend 2006 has plenty of events to help the kids forget about school starting and reasons for the adults to leave the kids at home.

Street Drags
Firebird International Raceway gives anybody with four wheels the chance to race around Phoenix's famed track. The "Run what ya Brung" legal drag races include music, food, and sometimes the pros come around to show everyone how it is done. At 10 bucks to get in and only $7 more to race; it's already cheaper than the movies.
www.firebirdraceway.com

Museums
Museums are a great place to take the kids and Phoenix museums won't make much of a dent in your pocket.
The Arizona Science Center is currently running an Animal Grossology exhibit. Only hear can you and your little one learn that "some frogs belch their babies into the world".
www.azscience.org
Other highlights include:

Desert Botanical Gardens - www.dbg.org
Heard Museum - www.heard.org/
Phoenix Art Museum - www.phxart.org

As well as countless smaller museums around the Phoenix valley that are dedicated to noteworthy subjects like firefighters, cowboys, and alternative art.

Arizona Snowbowl
Merely two hours north of Phoenix, at the top of the San Francisco Peaks is the top snow skiing destination in Arizona. When Snowbowl isn't populated by college kids skipping class, it offers chair lift rides up through the mountain forest. After 3 months of cactus and boiling swimming pools, get out of Phoenix and see some trees.

www.arizonasnowbow.com

First Friday
This event is quietly becoming the savior of downtown Phoenix. Organized by Artlink, First Friday is a monthly celebration of all the art and music urban Phoenix has to offer. Every gallery opens its doors and every street corner has a different performer on it. Hardcore punk shares the street with some down and dirty blues.
The event draws a younger crowd. If you are uncomfortable with downtown Phoenix after dark, or want to bring the kids along the Saturday After gives the same opportunity in the afternoon.

http://artlinkphoenix.com/

A Sunday Dose of Metal Mania
For those about to rock, you have two choices to make. Do you really need that second can of Aquanet; and are you down with Metal Skool or Metal Head. Both bands crank out the loud and sleazy sounds of 1980's hair metal.
Save yourself $10 and get in to Metal Head for free. You can buy that eye shadow to match your new spandex.

www.martiniranchaz.com
www.arizonabeachclub.com

Twelve-Bar Blues
There is only one place to go for Rhythm and Blues in Phoenix. That one place is celebrating 15 years of being the best little blues dive this Labor Day weekend. Check out the food but stay for the music. Anybody in the Valley R&B scene that matters is a resident at the Rhythm Room.

www.rhythmroom.com

Think you're the Next Carrot Top?
80 dollars will get you four classes on your way to becoming the next stand-up comic with a failed television show. Phoenix has several destinations that all the top comics come to, (Most notably the Tempe Improv) but only one will teach you the fine art of a one-liner or how to deal with a heckler.

www.thecomedyspot.net/classes.htm

This is just a few of the events in Phoenix. The new Cardinals football stadium is a major attraction as well as concerts and shows at venues across the entire Valley.
Phoenix is overloaded with clubs and bars. If that's what you are looking for just throw a rock and you'll probably hit two. If you are looking for a little more though, the magic of Arizona is in the nature. One hour any direction out of town and you could be in the Sonoran Desert, the White Mountains, a Ghost Town, or a lake. It's a great place to just get out and do something.