pretty good month

Good morning.
I've just returned from my morning walk. A beautiful 69 out this morning.
Here's another pic of my fingerling cactus blooming.....

Such pretty bright orange flowers!
And here's a few pics from my walk......

The roses really bloom well here! And after they rest during the hot summer, they re bloom in the fall.
Yesterday, we ate out twice. Very unusual for us. But we were over near Big Dog's Tavern and a smoked sausage sandwich really sounded good. So we stopped there for lunch. Then, we had $20 in food vouchers for the Salted Lime Restaurant at our Casino that were going to expire at the end of the month, so we went there for happy hour.
The Aliante Casino next to our community was bought last year by Boyd Gaming. One of 2 big local casino operators. And recently, they've been running a lot of offers and specials trying to get the locals back in there more. The month of April, every Fri and Sat. they have a free kiosk game. You swipe your card and get either a mystery present, free slot play, vouchers toward their restaurants, or points. We go again today and tomorrow for the last time this month. But so far this month, we've gotten free slot play that we turned into about $10 profit, 2 mystery gifts that ended up being scrunchy watering hoses, $25 dollars in food vouchers, and points added to our cards that are worth about $10. And the only money we've spent was a little extra at the restaurant. So a pretty good deal I'd say.   :-)
And we must have a Road Runner nesting somewhere nearby, as it's gone through our yard 3 times that we know of and twice while we were sitting out there. And we don't have a big back yard! And we've seen him over at 2 different neighbors front yards as we came back from our walk.
So pretty cool!
And that's all for now...

Craig busts a move

Good morning.
Went to a patio party yesterday and Craig got into the music.....

Just click on the arrow to see the short video........He dances pretty good!   :-)

It was a good time with several neighbors and beautiful weather.

Caesars Palace

Good afternoon.
Here's the rest of the pics I took will down on the strip.

Went over to Caesar's Palace to see the Forum Shops. Here.s a fountain outside...

Statues as columns.....

The entire shopping area has a ceiling that looks like sky. Makes it feel like your in a real ancient Roman plaza. Pretty neat!
And no, we didn't buy anything here. The shops at the Forum are very fancy and expensive. But it doesn't cost anything to walk by and look!
And that's all we managed to see while there. The strip is so long and the casino/hotels are so large and expansive, it'd take days to see most of the stuff. That's why we like going down there once in a while. We can see something different each time.   :-)
Well, now time for our afternoon walk....

The Bellagio Conservatory. Spring!

Good afternoon.
Yesterday, we went down to the strip for an afternoon, evening and overnight. We actually stayed 'off' the strip at the Ellis Island Casino/Hotel. Which is a good l-o-n-g block from Las Vegas Blvd. (aka, the strip).  We stayed there because one, it's cheap, and two, it's a Wyndham hotel. It's actually a Super 8. The largest one in the country. I needed 2 more nights before June to get a bonus 15000 points. That will help offset the cost of rooms on my summer trip back to Michigan. And, it's always fun going down to the strip to people watch.
One thing we did was to go to the Bellagio to check out their Conservatory. They change it constantly for the seasons and special holidays.

The giant hand is holding a 'snowball' that's melting giving way to spring.

I'm always amazed at the extensive details that go into each display. There had to be thousands of live flowers throughout this display. It's a popular spot for tourists and locals alike.
Today, we're taking it easy as we stayed up a little late and drank a little too much. It's taking longer to recover than it used to.   :-)
But it was a real nice time and my next post will be some pics I took over at Caesars Palace.

flowers

Good afternoon. It's a blustery day today as winds are around 35mph with gusts to 55!Needless to say, our afternoon walk was really a workout!   :-)
Anyway, here's a couple of pics of my fingerling cactus starting to bloom....

Our creeping Lantana is starting to fill out nice.

 

 Craig by a pot of newly planted Zinnia's. Hope they do good as they are liked by hummingbirds.

And my Bougainvillea vine is leafing out and starting to flower again.

We had a patio party Saturday afternoon after the community wide yard sale. Lot's of people looking for bargains. I didn't have anything to sell, but helped a neighbor with hers. Went to the beauty supply store today to pic up some product for a customer back in Lansing. I can get him stuff cheaper even with shipping than he can buy it there. I'll mail it out tomorrow.
And that's it for now....

Red Rock Canyon

Good afternoon.
Yesterday, we drove over to the west side of the valley and went to Red Rock National Conservation Area . It is literally just a couple of miles from the Las Vegas sprawl.

Here's a pic from the visitors center. That is Craig in the shadows....   :-)
The 13 mile driving tour goes right along side all that red rock...

One of the many trails you can walk at the park.

We had a nice time. Very scenic and way busier than we expected for mid week. But it is so close to Vegas and a very popular destination.
Another weather front is blowing through the valley taking our 90 degree weather back down to 70. That's one thing we've noticed out here is there is a lot of windy days. I'll take those over cold and snow anytime.     :-)
I spent most of today cleaning the house. It's looking good!   :-)

flowers blooming

Good morning.
I've just returned from my morning walk.
The weather has been beautiful! Sunny and highs in the 80's. My morning walks in the low 60's.
Things are blooming!

Roses are starting to bloom all over the neighborhood. especially the climbing roses.

And the cactus are just starting to bloom also.

I love the brilliant colors some of the cactus's  have.
And yesterday, I spotted a Robin on the neighbors wall...Took the pic through the bedroom shades. Didn't want to scare it off.

I still can't believe they are nesting here. Maybe they heard it's still snowing up north and are hanging around till it warms up.  Who knows...    :-)
Had lunch yesterday at Big Dog's Tavern. They have really good smoked sausage sandwiches. And a patio to enjoy the beautiful weather.
That's about it for now.

backyard pics.

Good morning.
I've just returned from my 40 minute morning walk. It's a mild 67 out this morning. Warmest morning we've had so far.   :-)
Here's a few pics of our ever evolving back yard.....

Our Bougainvillea made it through the winter and is blooming already! It should look a lot better in a few weeks as it has numerous new leaves starting to emerge. The purple creeping Lantana has pretty much bloomed all winter, but now is really starting to put out the flowers.

I've added a few pots of annuals this year.

We'll see how l;long they can take the heat.   :-)
Also, I went to the dentist and had my 6 mo. cleaning. All is good there. Craig and I gave each other haircuts, and a neighbor had a little patio party yesterday evening.
I've also started the process of looking into different medicare plans. Trying to figure out what I want to do. I have to sign up in July. At least it looks like I'll have my Obama care until then.   :-)
Well, that's all for now....

community pics.

Good morning.
Some random pics from my walk this morning....

Our communities 'Doggie Park'. The only grass in our community out side the golf course and main entrances.

As you leave our community from Widewing Rd. across the street is the giant parking structure for the casino, Hotel and the 16 screen theater.

This is on both sides of the main entrance into our community.

Here's a couple of pics I took of the casino/hotel from across the street as I walked down Elkorn toward Aliante Blvd.

 Above is a fountain/pond near the corner of Elkorn and Aliante.
Here's one of many drainage ditches that run along the edges of the golf course fairways

And this is the entrance to our community center. The board just approved expanding the center and joining the 2 sections together. It won't cost the homeowners anything. It's being paid with surplus cash. We have a very good/frugal board that manages our finances.

We also managed to wash and wax the Hyundai and I trimmed up the weeping rosemary bushes.
Life is good in the desert!   :-)

Monday update.

Good morning.
 Craig and I did a different afternoon walk a couple of days ago. We were going to walk Nature Discovery park which is in the top middle of this pic, right across the highway from our community.

 But we forgot it was Easter weekend and the park was packed with picnickers and parties. So we parked at the library at the south end of the park and walked to a linear park that starts near the middle of the top pic and runs to the bottom right. That long narrow green space on the map.

It's technically a drainage channel for the neighborhood, but they grassed it and added trees and shrubs and a walkway along the one side.

It was really a nice walk! it snakes through a neighborhood. Homes back up on both sides of this 'park'. There are 4-5 throughout  our master community so we'll be doing more of them in the future.
And on my early morning walk, I had to take a pic of what I call the baldies....

They are a large group of ornamental grasses that they cut back every spring to a round mound. They do grow grass, but it's very sparse.  Looks kinda funny!   :-)
We also went over a neighbors for a patio dinner party on Sat. About a dozen neighbors and a lot of good snacking food. Easter Sunday we had pork steaks on the grill. Yummy!
And that's it for now....