Phoenix Essentials: Dining, hikes, art and sunshine

PHOENIX - With hundreds of golf courses and 300 days of sunshine a year, it's easy to cast metropolitan Phoenix as a retiree's paradise that leaves everyone else out in the cold. But within the desert beats the heart of an actual urban core that has come into its own. There's an emerging restaurant-and-retail scene along with classic attractions like the view from Camelback Mountain, plus newfound treasures like peeking inside a little-known house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.