Mark, about Las Vegas -- you want to visit before you buy! We lived there when we were young (Air Force) and it's an experience like no other. I became a hill and sky watcher while we were there. Everything else is pretty ugly -- the desert doesn't even flower in the spring. I missed having seasons, and I missed rain, good cool refreshing rain! When it did fall in Las Vegas, it was muddy from all the dust in the air -- and usually resulted in a flash flood in the city.

Then there's your health . . . . as people told us, the climate/dust will either cure you or kill you -- I personally had lots of allergy problems and sinus head aches. My husband actually had pneumonia in July our first summer there -- moving from the air conditioning to the flight line at 115 degrees and back inside again took its toll. Of course, the advantage of retirement is that no one can make you do that if you don't want to!!!

The entertainment gets old fast, except as an attraction to bring friends and relatives for a visit. We were young and loved that part of it! Also, we made great side trips -- the Grand Canyon and Death Valley and Salt Lake City and Disney World all come to mind.

I guess you could say we had a love/hate relationship with the city! Both our kids were born there, so we have great memories as well as lots of "you wouldn't believe" type stories. I know it's grown immensely since then, but I bet it still has a style all its own -- and that you'd want to experience it for a while before you decided to buy!

Barb