Day 7…Henderson, Nevada.. Posting photos from Tromso, Norway continues today…Enjoying times in Nevada…

Trolls are famous in Norway. What Are Trolls from Norse Mythology? Norwegian trolls are believed to be mythical creatures that live in isolated rocks or caves. They are believed to live alone or in small families and are hostile towards humans. As per the troll legends, they are believed to be evil and dangerous beings that prefer the wilderness.

We’ve run out of photos of Las Vegas and may not have time to take more local pictures while we’re here. As a result, we will only post one main photo on the regular daily post from one of the two recent cruises. Once we get to Minnesota, we will try to take photos, but it’s not always possible when busy with family events. Not all family members want their photos posted online. We always respect that.

Yesterday, when Tom’s old railroad friend Mark responded that his wife could not join us for drinks or dinner, I suggested Tom go on his own for some “guy time.” It’s a rarity that he has time to commiserate with friends without me there. Instead, I stayed in the hotel room and chatted on the phone with my friend Kathy (Kathy and Don), who lives in Hawaii. It was great that the time difference worked out when, so often when we chat, we’re dealing with substantial time differences.

Tom returned shortly after 8:00 pm when we headed to the restaurant for a nice dinner. Later, back in our room, we streamed a show and got to sleep by 11:00 pm. Twelve hours later, we were back in the restaurant, having breakfast, and now, close to 11:00 am, I’m making an effort to put a dent in today’s post so soon we can drive to our mailing service to pick up our mail.

Once we get the mail, we’ll be busy for an hour going through everything. We don’t have any big plans for today but have begun to book times to get together with our kids and grandkids in Minnesota. We’re starting with a busy Sunday, hoping to see all three of our kids in one day.

From there, we will have over a month to spend plenty of time with everyone, including time with Tom’s siblings and other family members and several friends we hope to see. It will be a fun and busy time until we finally leave for South America in October. It will be tricky managing the use of the rental car when we each have separate families to visit, and sometimes we each have to go our own way. But, as always, we’ll figure it out.

At least this time, we won’t be sick and can see everyone. When we had COVID-19, we spent weeks in Minnesota and never were able to spend time with the family for fear of infecting them, even after we tested negative. We were still coughing and wondered if we could infect anyone regardless of testing negative. There were mixed reviews on this topic.

It’s hard to believe we leave Nevada in three days, but we’ve got a lot done while we are here and spent quality time with family and friends who’ve come to visit. The surprise of Rita and Gerhard flying in from the state of Washington for six hours was quite a treat.

Tomorrow, friends Marilyn and Gary arrive at our hotel at 11:00 am, and we’ll have lunch together. We’re looking forward to seeing the two of them and are grateful they are driving the long way to see us. We are lucky to have such fine friends in many places.

Otherwise, we have a quiet day today with not much going on. We just returned from the mailing service and picked up all our packages and a small stack of mail, nothing too important. I’m anxious to set up my new Fitbit, but I will do that after everything else is gone through and when I finish today’s two posts.

This afternoon, we’re heading to another movie at the Regal Theatre here in the resort. It’s such fun for us to go to a movie after not doing so for a long time while living outside the US.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, September 6, 2013:

The goats in the rear yard of this property in Diana Beach, Kenya, posed for us when Hans‘ two small dogs, Gucci and Jessie, chased them into their goat house. For more photos, please click here.

In reviewing the photos we hadn’t been able to post, it appears it will be very time-consuming and complicated to return to each post and add the photos we couldn’t post. As a result, we are posting some of the photos under the heading of each town over days, which can be found after each new day, listed as Part 1, Part 2 Norway, for example.

The new post with the photos is located below:

Part 5…Unpublished photos from the Azamara cruise to Tromso, Norway…

Our Las Vegas vacation home! Photos included…

After searching the various vacation home websites for several hours, we found this house in the Green Valley Ranch area in Henderson Nevada, a highly desirable location, about 20 minutes (10.5 miles) to the Las Vegas strip and about 10 minutes (5.6 miles) to the airport.  

Based on requesting a rental for this prime season dates, December 21 to December 28, 2012 (our “vacation within a vacation” since we’ll still have the Scottsdale condo, soon to be posted), we didn’t make any effort to negotiate the price.

Why did we choose a vacation home as opposed to a hotel room on the strip? Cost was the major motivator.  Also, its more conveniently located to our family and friends, great shopping at The District (.4 miles), restaurants and theaters, all of which we will particularly enjoy during the holiday week.   

There were few affordable homes available in this prime area during the holiday week due to the fact that many owners preferring to spend their holidays in their own vacation property. 

Although not as exciting as many of our future rentals, this house will serve our needs, provide room for our visiting family members and keep us from the necessity of dining in restaurants each day.

Here are the estimated costs for one week, house verses hotel, assuming the nightly rates are the same:
     Vacation Home____                    __________Hotel___________
Rent:            $1,330.00                   Rate:                      $1,330.00
Groceries:          600.00                   Hotel Taxes & Tips:       332.50
Dining Out:        275.00                   Valet Parking:               280.00

Total:          $2,205.00                   Dining, Tax, Tips:       1,820.00
                                                      Total:                    $3,762.50   

Total Potential Savings:      $1,557.50  

Having calculated dining out for two dinners for the two of us, we factored in the cost of groceries for five of us (or more) including the additional expense of Christmas Eve (traditionally, steak and lobster) and a special (yet to be determined) Christmas Day dinner.

Yes, there is the ease of staying in a hotel with the prospect of feeling pampered. As we plan for the future, our desire to be pampered has “wafted” away as we look forward to our world travels over the next number of years.  

Both Tom and I have thoroughly enjoyed pampering one another over these many years together and this, I assure you, we’ll continue to do so wherever we’ll live.

Did I mention the $1000’s we’ll save without easy access to the gambling tables and slot machines???

Charming House with Pool, Spa, Bbq, Wireless InternetGreen Valley, Henderson, Nevada Vacation Rental by Owner Listing 301335http://www.vrbo.com/301335