Nine years ago – in August – my youngest son moved to Phoenix. Hating the idea of him all by his lonesome in a U-Haul truck, I accompanied him. Driving through the desert, we needed oven mitts to open the door handles. It was 117 degrees! But that was summer. The time to go to Phoenix is in the winter, when Seattle’s weather is damp and dreary.

For the first two weeks of February, my husband and I enjoyed the southwest, beginning with five days in Scottsdale. With daytime highs in the mid-70s and glorious sunshine, it was a balm for the soul. Even if you don’t have friends, family, or a kid attending college in Arizona, there’s plenty to do.

How about taking a ride in one of those funny looking driverless cars? A company called Waymo operates a fleet of all-electric, fully autonomous Jaguar I-PACE cars. Walking around Phoenix and Scottsdale, you can’t help but notice these compact vehicles topped with a beany-like whirring cap, navigating the city streets. They look like toys and they’re everywhere. I downloaded the app, and hailed a ride: For $7.60 – and no tip – we’d get from our friends’ house in Paradise Valley to Old Town Scottsdale. Within five minutes, a white Jaguar came up the street and pulled over. Upon clicking “unlock” on the app, door handles magically extended. Stepping into the vehicle, a robotic voice said, “good morning, Mindy.” Eerie. Facing the two rear seats, a digital display invited us to press the START RIDE button, and the disembodied voice explained basics like the PULL OVER button, arrival time, and the PLAY MUSIC option. The ride was mostly smooth. But when we approached a truck jutting out from an alley, the car made a jerky movement to avoid being side-swiped if that truck began to move (it didn’t). Better safe than sorry, I guess.

Approaching the 140-acre Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden early the next morning, a road runner bird dashed right in front of me, as if on cue. But the real stars of this awesome place are the cactuses, so many kinds of cacti! I love walking in the Bellevue Botanical Garden, and this place is nearly three times bigger, with multiple ecosystems: upland chaparral, semi-dessert grassland, mesquite bosque. They have a gift shop and restaurant, and hundreds of volunteers to answer questions and make your visit memorable.From February 20th to March 25th, it’s Cactus League Spring Training for fifteen Major League Baseball teams. You can watch them play in Peoria Sports Complex (Mariners), Scottsdale Stadium (San Francisco Giants) Salt River Fields at Talking Stick (Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks), and more. Hotels offer Spring Training packages, or plan your own: work off calories by pedaling with your beer-drinking buddies as your Arizona Party Bike wraps around Scottsdale Stadium before the first pitch. Or head in a Hummer, ATV, or UTV for barbecue and local craft beer at Frasher’s Smokehouse through Stellar Adventures.

Catch a baseball-themed show, “Batter Up: Cactus League,” at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (March 13 – 16), or start your day with a champagne toast in a hot air balloon flight over the desert through Rainbow Ryders – their spring training discount is pricey at $175 (through March 25) but it’s a chance to spot wildlife and see the desert from above.

Baseball not your thing? Consider visiting Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert studio and home in Scottsdale. Wright was arguably America’s most famous architect. Two new tours of his impressive property take you into rarely seen spaces. Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, is in a delightfully walkable part of Old Town. Even if you don’t see their beautifully curated show, People, Places, Predicaments: John Clymer’s West, stop to admire the building’s architecture, which mimics the striated spines of Arizona’s giant saguaro cactus. Getting hungry, but don’t want southwestern food? Old Town has lots of options. Sunday Brunch at The Herb Box was so good, we came back another day for lunch. If you yearn for a taste of home, Japanese restaurant Shimogamo, in Chandler, makes delicate sushi our northwest chefs would approve of. They also serve award-winning Arizona Sake, from Holbrook, Arizona. It’s exquisite, and available from Whole Foods and Total Wine.

In February 2016, in the middle of Seattle’s biggest snowstorm in decades, my son moved BACK to Seattle. But I still love visiting Phoenix. In the winter. You will too.

Meanderings is a travel column by Mindy Stern, a Mercer Island resident whose essays can be found at www.mindysternauthor.com.