Along the western edge of Arizona State University, Mill Ave is Tempe's main drag and lined with restaurants, bars and a mix of national chains and indie boutiques. For cool metro and mountain views, huff it up for half a mile to the top of 'A' Mountain , so-called because of the giant letter 'A' painted there by ASU students. It's officially known as Tempe Butte or Hayden Butte; the trailhead is on E 3rd St, near Mill Ave.
Mill Ave spills into Tempe Town Lake , a 2-mile-long recreational pond created by reclaiming the long-dry Salt River in the 1990s. Have a picnic at Tempe Beach Park and watch kids letting off steam at the waterfalls, rock slides and shallow pools of the ingenious Splash Playground . There's no swimming in the lake, but Tempe Town Lake Boat Rentals rents human-powered and motorized watercraft. Free outdoor concerts and festivals bring crowds to the park on weekends. For indoor entertainment, the lakeshore has the shiny lakefront Tempe Center for the Arts .
To get around downtown Tempe on weekdays, use the free Orbit bus that runs along Mill Ave and around the university every 15 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 30 minutes on Sunday.
