Glendale

Glendale is a city in the Salt River Valley of Arizona, on the northwest side of Phoenix. State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals, has a retractable roof and a grass field that rolls outside the building to grow in the sun.

The Arizona Canal, finished in the 1880s, brought water from the Salt River to the desert north of Phoenix, and William John Murphy, who had built it, laid out the town site of Glendale in 1892. Murphy planned it as a temperance colony where the sale of alcohol was banned in every deed, with a grid of streets around a central park that still holds the town's festivals. Citrus, grapes and sugar beets grew on the irrigated land, and a beet sugar factory opened in the town in the early 20th century. Glendale was incorporated in the 1910s and grew quickly as a suburb of Phoenix in the second half of the 20th century.

Cerreta Candy Company, a family business in Glendale, makes chocolates and candy bars in a factory that runs public tours. Westgate Entertainment District, built around the stadium in the 2000s, has restaurants, shops and an arena on the west side of the city, with a large fountain at its center that plays to music in the evenings.

Catlin Court, a district of bungalows from the early 20th century, has been turned into a row of small shops and cafes in old houses. Sahuaro Ranch Park keeps the barns and houses of one of the first homesteads of the valley, with peacocks roaming the grounds. Each winter the Glendale Glitters festival lights the downtown area with more than a million holiday lights.