Best Swimming Places to retire

I'll second the greater Phoenix area as an awesome place to live, retired or not. Plus, with the real estate market in the toilet, it's really a buyer's market. As a Masters swimmer, there are great teams at both Phoenix Swim Club (central/slightly east PHX) and Mesa Aquatics Club (definitely east valley). The city of Scottsdale (where I live) has two awesome pools with dirt cheap lap swimming year-round (McDowell Mountain Ranch and Cactus Aquatic Center), along with a couple of other semi-seasonal pools. I'm very biased towards Scottsdale -- pools, restaurants, cultural events, running/biking trails, dog parks, etc. I can never, ever leave Arizona because of the swimming. Scottsdale actually has 3 dirt-cheep aquatic centers--don't forget Eldorado Pool in the south part of town. My neighborhood even has 2 pools with one lap lane each (outdoors, heated in the winter). And there's plenty of open water swimming. From my house in N. Scottsdale, I'm 45-50 minutes from Saguaro Lake, an hour from Bartlett Lake, and a little over an hour from Lake Pleasant or Canyon Lake. Check here www.watergirl.co/.../open-water-swimming-arizona or here www.facebook.com/.../ for more info on open water swimming in Arizona. The summers are unbelievably hot, but I don't even feel it because I'm in the water every spare minute.

I'll second the greater Phoenix area as an awesome place to live, retired or not. Plus, with the real estate market in the toilet, it's really a buyer's market. As a Masters swimmer, there are great teams at both Phoenix Swim Club (central/slightly east PHX) and Mesa Aquatics Club (definitely east valley). The city of Scottsdale (where I live) has two awesome pools with dirt cheap lap swimming year-round (McDowell Mountain Ranch and Cactus Aquatic Center), along with a couple of other semi-seasonal pools. I'm very biased towards Scottsdale -- pools, restaurants, cultural events, running/biking trails, dog parks, etc. I can never, ever leave Arizona because of the swimming. Scottsdale actually has 3 dirt-cheep aquatic centers--don't forget Eldorado Pool in the south part of town. My neighborhood even has 2 pools with one lap lane each (outdoors, heated in the winter). And there's plenty of open water swimming. From my house in N. Scottsdale, I'm 45-50 minutes from Saguaro Lake, an hour from Bartlett Lake, and a little over an hour from Lake Pleasant or Canyon Lake. Check here www.watergirl.co/.../open-water-swimming-arizona or here www.facebook.com/.../ for more info on open water swimming in Arizona. The summers are unbelievably hot, but I don't even feel it because I'm in the water every spare minute.