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| We’re in awe of the ornate detail in the Hindu statues. |
“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”
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| The dogs on the beach show little to no interest in humans. But, they certainly enjoy hanging our together. These five were actually in a group of eight although it was impossible to get all eight in one photo. |
From time to time it becomes necessary to change plans for a particular visit to a country. In a perfect world, the decisions we make we can follow through to completion.
As we all well know, decisions may not be perfect, including ours, when we consider travel plans. Most often when we find it necessary to change plans, it doesn’t have a bearing on others.
In this case, it does, for which we apologize to our family members if they are disappointed for the necessity of our making these changes.
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| Another beautiful statue in the neighborhood of villas on the beach. |
The biggest consideration in this change is the cost which escalated greatly over this past year. Over these past many days, we calculated the expenses on a spreadsheet to include the six weeks RV rental period, fuel, campground fees, US $3, IDR $40,004, per hour for generator use fees to run the refrigerator and the AC (at night only), and many ancillary fees that go along with renting an RV.
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| Recreational building/gathering place for villa owners/residents in the area. This location is also where the security guards use it as a base overnight during their watch. |
The total cost came in at no less than US $20,000, IDR 266,705,981. That included only the time spent in Minnesota. With meals our daily costs would have been in excess of US $500, IDR $6,660,000 per day, definitely outside the realm of our budget especially for this extended period.
Then, we had to consider the added cost of making our way across the northern tier of the US to drive to Minnesota. In the summer, these expenses are outrageous.
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| Hindu offering display. |
Instead, once our Alaskan cruise ends on May 26th, we’re flying directly to Minnesota. Although the grandkids will still be in school for a few more weeks, we’ll have time to see them after school, in the evenings, and on weekends.
During the school day hours, we hope to spend some quality time with our adult kids (if possible based on their work schedules) and visiting Tom’s retired siblings and old friends.
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| Kitchen on-site for resident’s use for entertaining guests in the recreational center. |
The pluses to this big change? We’ve booked a hotel within 25 minutes of all of our kid’s three homes. We can visit them. They can visit us. The hotel has two indoor pools the kids will love. We’ve booked the hotel reservation as having three children with us, enabling all of us to use the pools at once.
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| There’s never a shortage of exquisites views as shown from the recreational center. |
We’ve negotiated a great rate which we’ll soon share. The car rental for this period will be in excess of US $2600, IDR 34,632,000 for a midsized vehicle for the six weeks, although not quite as costly as some other parts of the world.
As for meals, a complimentary breakfast is included for us and “three kids.” The hotel room will have a small refrigerator and microwave. Costco roasted chickens, here we come!
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| Colorful statue in a front yard temple in the neighborhood. |
With our intermittent fasting, we may only have a full meal in the evenings when we’re dining with family or friends. We’ll see how that works out. Since we never eat three meals a day (rarely two) our food costs won’t be outrageous.
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| A more contemporary statue at a new home construction site in the neighborhood. |
With the change to a hotel allowing for greater mobility and a certain degree of practicality, we’re able to cut the cost almost in half ultimately making the time in Minnesota all the more enjoyable.
More details will follow. Happy day to all!
Photos from one year ago today, June 16, 2015:
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An indoor organic farmer’s market in the mall in Trinity Beach, Australia, where we often shopped for vegetables. For more details please click here.
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