1. Visit the aquarium! There are 2 in the Valley. One shares its position with wild animals, J Wildlife World and Aquarium. See them both, close up and personal.

2. Visit another aquarium! The Valley may be hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean, but desert dwellers can be face to face with tiger sharks, eels, rays, sea horses, an octopus and thousands of neon tropical fish at the Sea Life Aquarium. Where: Arizona Mills Mall, 5000 Arizona Mills Circle, Tempe. 480-478-7600.

This is the first Merlin aquarium to have a 360-degree tunneled walkway that cuts through a massive tank where schools of tropical fish, rays and sharks swim above, below and around visitors.

3.  Visit the Splash Playground at Tempe Town Lake! There’s a one-acre playground for children.

4. It’s nice and cool in the Arizona Science Center! Adults and children will love the exhibits and things to do.

5. And here’s your chance to discover the Challenger Space Center!

6.  Can’t get out of town to fish? There are 15 urban park lakes throughout the area that are regularly stocked with trout, catfish and other fish varieties. Or If you’re a fishing enthusiast, hire a fishing guide for a day, a weekend or a week. Go urban fishing at 16 select parks throughout the Phoenix area.

7. Visit one of more than 50 museums in Central Arizona.

8.  Beat the heat by riding indoor go-karts at several Phoenix locations. D1 Race Factory and SpeedStreet Indoor Race Track.

9.  Stargazing in the Valley. The nights are cooler and the skies are bright! And outer space is waiting for you to discover its secrets.

10. And last, but not least… the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum showcases the state’s geological wealth with sparkling gemstones, prehistoric fossils, and enormous excavation equipment. Consider a picnic lunch at Civic Space Park, where kids play in the grass or splash around in the water features, or Encanto Park, home of Enchanted Island Amusement Park.

Fifteen tons of copper were used in the construction of the Arizona State Capitol’s dome. This is equivalent to the amount of copper used to create 4.8 million pennies.

On February 14, 1912, when President William H. Taft signed the proclamation making Arizona the 18^th state, cameras rolled. That signing was the first presidential ceremony ever to be recorded by movie cameras.

The largest and oldest botanical garden in Arizona is the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Opened in 1925, the park encompasses 323-acres and includes a large range of habitats that can be viewed on a 1.5-mile walking trail. The park is located near Superior.

A roadrunner, which can fly, can “run” up to 15 miles-per-hour.

The barrel cactus can help you find your way home if you get lost in the desert. Because it almost always grows or leans towards the south, it is sometimes called the “compass cactus”. .

Arizona has more national monuments than any other state?

The Phoenix Suns played in the first triple overtime playoff game in NBA history?

Apollo astronauts trained in Meteor Crater in preparation for missions to the moon?

Arizona is blanketed with the largest stand of Ponderosa Pines in North America?

While we wait, though, there’s a gallery on my hiking page, that profiles many of the great trails we have and the views you’ll experience when hiking, biking or strolling.

Check them out at the Arizona Hiking Gallery.

Colorful displays are already blooming along the preserve’s two dozen maintained trails with yellow carpets of brittle bush contrasting with the fiery red blossoms of Ocotillo.

Still to come are Lupine, Crimson Hedgehog, Staghorn Cholla, Mexican Gold Poppy and other varieties of wildflowers that call Scottsdale’s Sonoran Preserve home. Check out some of their photos and wildlife here.

And for a preview of what’s to come, check out last spring’s displays on my blog, Springtime in the Desert.

It is easier than ever to explore the preserve and take in wildflower beauty. Nine trailheads are open, connecting to a trail system totaling 60 miles. Three trails opened last May – Tom’s Thumb, East End and Lookout.

The Preserve Gateway, designed to be the main access into the preserve, also opened in May. It’s a great launching point to explore wildflowers and includes an all-access paved loop trail with displays describing the plants, animals and natural history of the Sonoran Desert. The Gateway is located at 18333 N. Thompson Peak Road, between Legacy Boulevard and Bell Road.

The McDowell Sonoran Conservancy, a non-profit group that works in partnership with the city on the completion and sustainability of the preserve, is operating a “Wildflower Watch” this spring. It will feature reports from dozens of volunteer Conservancy stewards who are out and about in the preserve reporting on the best wildflower locations. To get their daily insights, visit the Conservancy’s website.

A recent report from the Pew Research Center found that older adults feel younger out west. Fully 78% of adults ages 65 and older who live in the West say they don’t feel old, compared with 67% of older adults who live in the rest of the country.

Not that we’re tooting our own horn out here (we are based in Scottsdale, AZ, after all), but we’re not surprised by the numbers.

If you have clients debating where their next move will be, share the following statistics:

• Two-thirds of Westerners ages 65 and older say they feel younger than their chronological years, compared with 57% of older Americans in other regions.
• Among older Westerners, half say they feel 10 or more years younger than their actual age and one-in-five say they feel 20 or more years younger.
• Older folks living in the West also feel healthier than older folks elsewhere. Among adults ages 65 and older, some 72% of those living in the West say they are in excellent or good health. This compares with 63% of those living in other regions of the country.

So, celebrate 2010 and all the possibilities it brings. Don’t worry about that extra candle on the birthday cake. Embrace the future and remember you can always join us out west. We welcome you here!

Go West, Old Man…

Experts now believe you should start by looking at a home as the place where you live, as opposed to the investment that is going to bring you financial freedom. One important lesson is to look for a home you can afford if times were to get tough, and at that point search for the best long-term loan you can find.

After you purchase your home, concentrate less on paying off the mortgage and more on using any non-essential income for the following goals: saving for retirement, paying off high interest/non tax-deductible debt, creating a 12-month fixed-expense rainy day fund or investing into diversified investments that carry some form of liquidity.

There are two perspectives every family and business owner should focus on.

The first plan is called the offense… the use of your income directed at financial goals such as buying a home, sending a child to college, and ensuring a comfortable retirement.

The second plan is the defense… in the event of injury, layoff, or premature death, what measures can you put in place to protect against the interruption of your financial goals? According to financial experts, not having adequate insurance coverage and retirement resources are examples.

During this recent downturn, “It’s been all about going upside-down on their mortgage.” This type of worry only occurs when people view their home as an investment, rather than a residence. Experts want us to think of our homes like we do our cars, choosing them for lifestyle and need, not as our investment accounts.

“The myth,” these experts say, “is many people think they will need less income at retirement. The reality is they would want to maintain their same lifestyle and often experience little change in expenditures.”

Experts are urging people to not give away their liquidity by prepaying their mortgage. Instead of focusing on debt elimination, turn your efforts toward wealth accumulation, but without trying to predict the future of the market.

Manage your mortgage. Make sure you have a competitive rate and that you are paying it on time. Don’t think of your mortgage as the lump sum bank debt. Rather, think of it as a monthly bill. In terms of refinancing, pay attention to the net monthly after-tax savings in relation to what the refi will cost and how long it will take to break even. If the refi can pay for itself in less than one year then it’s a good deal.

Financial security has nothing to do with not having a mortgage payment. If you can’t sell your home or get money out of it when you need to then what good is it?  One expert said, “I’d much rather have a big mortgage and a big bank account than no mortgage and nothing in my bank account.”

Our parents didn’t have investing tools like IRAs, 401Ks and 529s like we do. All they knew was to use their house as an investment, so paying it off made sense. The rules have changed, but somehow the mantra didn’t.

Experts Terrence Meyer, Jr. and Ed Conarchy.  Meyer is a financial representative for the Strategic Financial Group, Northwestern Mutual, in Los Angeles. Ed Conarchy is a nineteen-year veteran of the mortgage industry outside the Chicago area. He is also the founder of National Advisors Network, a registered investment advisory firm.

Deadline for qualifying: Purchase agreements must be signed by April 30, 2010, and closings must be final by June 30.

Military deadline: The deadline is extended by a year for members of the military who have served outside the U.S. for at least 90 days from Jan. 1, 2009, to May 1, 2010.

Income limits: Individuals with annual incomes up to $125,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full credit. Individuals with incomes up to $145,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $245,000 qualify for reduced credits.

How to apply: Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds their tax bill, the government will issue a payment. Taxpayers who want immediate refunds can amend their tax returns for 2008 to claim the credit.

Cost: $10.8 billion.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress took further steps to right the staggering economy by expanding a popular tax credit for homebuyers and extending unemployment checks for the growing legions of people running out of benefits with few job prospects.

The $24 billion package also contains tax credits aimed at struggling businesses.

The IRS says about 1.4 million people applied for the homebuyers credit through August, helping enliven the moribund housing market. The legislation would extend the program through June of next year, as long as the buyer signs a contract by the end of April. It also offers a $6,500 tax credit to those who have lived in their current residence at least five years.

The measure doubles the income ceiling for eligible individuals to $125,000. Homes must cost less than $800,000 to qualify.

The nearly 2 million who have exhausted their unemployment benefits or face termination of benefits, usually about $300 a week, before the end of the year would receive 14 weeks of additional benefits under the bill. The unemployed in those states where the jobless rate tops 8.5% would get six weeks on top of that.

The extension would be the fourth since June of last year and the first since the $787 billion stimulus package was enacted last February. The unemployed in the hardest-hit states could, once the bill becomes law, receive a maximum of 99 weeks of benefits, well above the previous record of 65 weeks in the 1970s.

The bill would also allow businesses that have incurred losses in 2008 and 2009 to seek refunds for taxes paid on profits over the past five years.

The two tax credits, each costing more than $10 billion over 10 years, are paid for by delaying enactment of a law giving international companies more leeway in how they allocate interest expenses between U.S. and foreign sources in determining tax liabilities.

An economic survey out Monday provides fresh evidence that a fitful recovery is underway as customer demand grows in the third quarter for the first time in more than a year and the jobs outlook brightens a bit.

For the first time since the recession began, the portion of companies planning to add employees in the next six months outnumbered those expecting to cut jobs, according to this month’s quarterly survey of economists at 78 firms by the National Association for Business Economics.

Twenty-four percent plan to grow their workforce, 20% say they’ll trim staff and 57% expect no change. In July, 18% expected to add workers, while 28% said they would scale back. “It’s a little ahead of what I was expecting,” says Ken Simonson, chief economist

Most bullish were services companies: 31% say they’ll add workers in the next six months, up from 16% in an April survey. Just 3% say they’ll cut staff. By contrast, 12% of manufacturers plan to beef up their workforces.

Lester Keizer, owner of computer services firm Connecting Point and wireless broadband provider LasVegas.Net, plans in the next two months to hire up to five employees at the two Las Vegas firms that now employ 41. He cites customers that put off plans for cyber security features during the downturn and an upswing in outsourcing by companies that laid off technology specialists.

“I feel like there’s an, ‘Ahh,’ where people are saying, ‘Maybe we’ve just hit bottom,’ ” Keizer says, noting he cut a few workers in the slump as sales plunged.

Other survey findings:

•Forty-four percent of firms reported rising customer demand, vs. 21% with falling demand, the first time gainers outpaced losers since July 2008. Only the transportation, utilities and communication sectors posted a net decline.

•More respondents reported an increase in capital spending from the prior quarter, for the first time in a year.

•Companies that had rising profits compared with the previous quarter outpaced those that had drops for the first time in nearly two years.

•The portion of firms chopping jobs fell to 31% from 36% in July. Those adding rose to 12% from 6%.

Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended… 
Plus, New Tax Credit for Existing Home Owners!

Tax Credit for Homebuyers

First-time homebuyers (that is, people who have not owned a home within the last three years) may be eligible for the tax credit. The credit for first-time homebuyers is 10% of the purchase price of the home, with a maximum available credit of $8,000.

Single taxpayers and married couples filing a joint return may qualify for the full tax credit amount.

Current Owners: The tax credit program now gives those who already own a residence some additional reasons to move to a new home. This incentive comes in the form of a tax credit of up to $6,500 for qualified purchasers who have owned and occupied a primary residence for a period of five consecutive years during the last eight years.

Single taxpayers and married couples filing a joint return may qualify for the full tax credit amount.

What are the New Deadlines?

In order to qualify for the credit, all contracts need to be in effect no later than April 30, 2010 and close no later than June 30, 2010.

Tax Credit Versus Tax Deduction

It’s important to remember that the tax credit is just that… a tax credit. The benefit of a tax credit is that it’s a dollar-for-dollar tax reduction, rather than a reduction in a tax liability that would only save you $1,000 to $1,500 when all was said and done. So, if a first-time homebuyer were to owe $8,000 in income taxes and would qualify for a tax credit of $8,000, she would owe nothing.

Better still, the tax credit is refundable, which means the homebuyer can receive a check for the credit if he or she has little income tax liability. For example, if a first-time homebuyer is eligible for a tax credit of $8,000 but is liable for $4,000 in income tax, she can still receive a check for the remaining $4,000!

Higher Income Caps

The amount of income someone can earn and qualify for the full amount of the credit has been increased.

Single tax filers who earn up to $125,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, single filers who earn $145,000 and above are ineligible

Joint filers who earn up to $225,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, joint filers who earn $245,000 and above are ineligible.

Maximum Purchase Price

Qualifying buyers may purchase a property with a maximum sale price of $800,000.

As always, please call me (602) 763-3874, or email (alice@amazingarizona.com) if you have any questions or would like more information.

The study by the Tripp Umbach company in Pittsburgh estimates that the 2008 economic benefit reached $77.4 million, compared with $21.7 million in 2006.

TGen’s economic benefits have grown because it has almost 300 employees, its research has helped create or incubate seven companies to commercialize technology, it contracts with outside businesses such as software developers and the bulk of its $65 million annual budget comes from federal and corporate grants.

The Translational Genomics Research Institute, as it is officially known, commissioned the 2006 and 2008 studies to show that the state and public investments that created TGen in 2002 have more than paid for themselves and continue to produce results, said Jeffrey Trent, TGen president and research director.

Arizona pays about $5.5 million a year into TGen, using tobacco funds earmarked for health research.

Phoenix contributed the building, and the group receives substantial donations, such as $685,000 awarded by Safeway earlier this year for breast-cancer research.

“We are focusing on leveraging state dollars vs. replacing state dollars,” Trent said.

“Bioscience was never intended to be the sole component that would change the economy in Arizona. But I think it is an important knowledge-based pillar that the state has invested in, and I think if it continues to invest, it is likely to have an economic impact.”

The Tripp Umbach report released Tuesday said that TGen operations in 2008 produced $8.09 for every $1 invested by the state, 461 direct and indirect full-time jobs, $2.7 million in state taxes and a direct annual economic benefit of $44.5 million.

Paul Umbach, president of Tripp Umbach, said that because TGen performed better than expected over the past two years, the research firm projects larger impact numbers for 2015 and 2025 than it estimated two years ago.

“It is clear from our updated analysis that commercial spin-off activities from TGen are rapidly having a positive economic impact on the Arizona economy at just a time when adding jobs is so important,” Umbach said.

Arizonans stand to benefit in other ways, as about half TGen’s research is focused on cancer, about a quarter is devoted to neurological sciences such as Alzheimer’s disease, and the rest goes to metabolic diseases like diabetes, Trent said.

It also is involved with Scottsdale Healthcare in researching a new field of personalized medicine, the use of drugs to target specific cancers based on a patient’s molecular structure and vulnerabilities.

TGen has attracted international attention.

It was tapped last year by the International Biobank of Luxembourg.

International Biobank wants TGen to develop computer software to track tissue samples for research into lung and heart diseases.

When I moved to Arizona 33 years ago, it was because I fell in love with it at first sight. It was the mountains, the saguaros, the palm trees, the friendliness of the people, and the state itself, full of surprises.

That hasn’t changed, and a funny thing happens when others come to visit… that same feeling comes over them. Perhaps I should say the sun is a mood-elevator! It is.

We could always boast that we had jobs, new homes, great corporations, etc. Our economy (and that of all the states, unfortunately) has suffered in the last 2 years, due to financial institutions imploding, and the subsequent job losses., which has impacted our economy and devalued our homes.

If there’s one thing I observed and learned over those 33 years, having been through 3 recessions here before this one, is that there is a resilience to Americans, and especially to Arizonans. The West wasn’t “won” by those moving west because they were wimps. They were rugged individualists seeking a better life. I have faith that that same spirit will lift us up from this current recession.

I have never taken Arizona or the Valley for granted. It’s been exciting to witness the growth over the years, and additions of new homes, new subdivisions, new malls, new sport arenas, expansions of our renowned educational institutions, the new medical institutions, the addition of new diversity in our economics, ie, biotech, biomedicine, medical research centers, going green solar, wind, etc. And the Phoenix metropolitan area is considered the United States’ 14th-safest city, according to a recently released forbes.com list.

I need to mention that the state itself is a land of contrasts and topography. I have a webpage devoted to that very thing, Places to Explore. Just 40% is desert (and that desert has mountains for hiking, biking, national parks for exploring, unique and interesting wildlife; the rest is a mixture of ponderosa pines, red rocks, snow and even skiing! I need to mention, too, our Grand Canyon, and thanks to Teddy Roosevelt, our many lakes for recreation and water storage. I need to mention… our proximity to our neighboring states, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and California, each with their own specialness to share in a day trip. And did I say… our 8 months of the year with beautiful and perfect weather! Oops… there are some that do like the heat of the other 4! As they say… you don’t have to shovel it.

I think there’s a case for optimism just by being an Arizonan. We do have a lot to be thankful for, and we will concentrate on those benefits as we work our way through the short-sales, the job losses and come back again as strong as before. We invite you to visit to see for yourself, and even invest. The time was never better.