Flagstaff, Arizona

[wallycat]

Curious if anyone has lived there or is living there....

Good?? bad???
DH is driving me crazy; now this has become a "possible" retirement location

How is it living at such high altitude??
any decent food co-ops? health food stores? WINE SHOPS??

TIA

[RD chef]

Wallycat, I don't live there, but have been there a few times. It reminds me of a small midwestern town. (I grew up in MN) You get plenty of snow in the winter (which I know strikes your fancy ) and the summer is much more mild than the hot Phoenix summers. Houses, neighborhoods remind me very much of the midwest as well. As far as health food stores and wine - I'm not sure. My guess would be that there would be at least some healthfood stores/coops, as it is a college town. If not, there is Sedona not far away, which is flooded with that kind of stuff. Hope that helps. Maybe someone that actually lives there or has lived there can add more information. If it were me, I'd choose Sedona over Flagstaff. It is absolutely breathtaking there.

[Canice]

I don't live there but I've visited, and the thing that really struck me food-wise was that we couldn't find a single restaurant that wasn't part of a chain. I know that can't possibly be the case, but we came up with nothing, so I popped into the chamber of commerce to ask, but they couldn't help....

[nori]

RD Chef is right, Flagstaff reminds me of Boulder, CO. It's nothing like AZ, and downtown area is pretty. I"m not sure about health food shop, but there is a wine shop in downtown. It's not a big shop, but cozy secound floor of this old building. They also had a bar, and can taste some of their glasses. There are a lot of B&Bs (We stayed for our anniversary one time and LOVED it), and weather is mild, very close to Grand Canyon. We're still too far away from retirement, but DH and I seriously think it will be nice to live up there. Actually DH would jump into if ASU would hire him to teach engineering position. (He is an Electrical Engineer)

Oh, there is a cafe in downtown where they offer some healthy foods, so I'm sure there should be health food shop in town.

I have to disagree, Canice, since there are a lot of nice local cafe/restaurant there. Well I'm talking about downtown area, so if you're looking for something alonside of highway exits, I agree there are a lot of chain restaurants. But that's same everywhere.

[wallycat]

Thank you all!
I received a PM that growing season is only 90 days...DH loves gardening. This may alter his thoughts...again

again, a big thanks for the responses!!

[KBlackett]

This thread fits me perfectly because I grew up in Flagstaff and now live in Boulder, CO. You're right Nori, they are both similar..I absolutely love Flagstaff. It has amazing energy and it is filled with eccentric, health food restaurants, shops, and cafes. Macy's is my favorite coffee/bakery shop in the world. Everything is organic, healthy, and tasty..Cafe Express is wonderful for any meal of the day. The only chains are near Route 66 and the hotels which is convenient for the tourists who aren't as daring. There are so many places I could recommend but I don't want to bore you all.
As for the growing season, my family had a large garden for much of the year so I believe that is a myth.
The people are nice, educated, and very open. It is somewhat of a laid back hippy University town.
Enjoy if you visit or retire there!!

[wallycat]

KBlackett,
thanks for more input....
the garden your family had...was it in a hot-house type of setting or just out in the backyard type of garden?

Also, did you find cooking a problem at that high an altitude??

Thanks!!

I love that laid-back type of city. That is one of the reasons I loved Arcata, Ca...but there is little for sale there and what is available is very overpriced

[KBlackett]

Hi Wallycat,
The garden my family had was a large backyard garden.
Everything from peas to watermelon and it did very well!
I have never had any major problems cooking at altitude.
On cakes and muffins I will adjust the flour a bit for the
higher altitude but usually I bake normally and haven't had
any problems. Flagstaff has some great kitchen stores that offer
cooking classes as well. I'm sure you could start there if you had
any concerns and they could help you more.
If you visit and want a B&B, the Inn at 410 is great and it's very
close to downtown. They have amazing food and cute rooms. Last time
I was there, I bought the cookbook and use it often.
Enjoy!

[nori]

KBlackett....you're so lucky to grow up and live those two wonderful places!! And since you mentioned it, now I remembered the name of the cafe I was talking about...Cafe Express. Since we went there for our anniversary, that's my favorite cafe. I LOVE their breadbowl soup. It was very nice on that snowy day.

We stayed at Inn at 410. I'm really hoping to stay there again. Staff there are so nice, and knowlegible about local restaurants and we had a great time there.