Gorgeous weekend weather

We've had such beautiful weather here the past week or so, it's a nice change from the rain.  I've been seeing lots of pictures on Facebook of the northern lights, which we don't see as often here as other parts of Alaska, since it's so often cloudy. 

Yesterday morning we took Seca for a walk in the fog.  You could tell it was going to be nice once the fog burned off, but until it did, it was chilly, quiet, and very...still.  You could hear bird chirping, but there wasn't even a ripple on the lake.  

Then, last night we had a big bonfire in the backyard fire pit, using up a bunch of small scrap wood. 

A CSA again!

Yippee!  One of the very first things I did once we decided to move to Olympia and I accepted the job was find and sign up for a CSA again.  Just like the one in Charleston, we will get a 'small' share of produce every week for 18 weeks, starting in June.  This one even has a pickup site at my new job, which is great. 

There were a bunch to choose from in the greater Olympia area, so we chose based on the types of produce they plant, and the locations for picking up shares. 

This may be the thing I am most excited about in leaving Alaska, locally grown produce!

Steve's new suit

Steve's old riding suit, purchased in 2003, now with thousands of miles on it, and plenty of dirt, grease, and dead bugs:

Also, Steve makes the best faces in pictures.

And for Christmas this year, Steve shiny new riding suit, now in a brighter color for better visibility in the rainy Pacific Northwest:

Each suit is custom made, so it took about 8 weeks from the time he ordered it until it arrived in the mail (after one failed FedEx mailing attempt to our PO Box).  He's so excited!  But sadly, right now his motorcycle needs new steering head bearings so he can't ride it until it's fixed...which should happen next week.

Here's to sunny skies for riding once we move back south!

Costa Rica

I've posted about the Costa Rica trip!  Click here if you want to start at the beginning.  I kept a journal while we were there and have tried to attach pictures to the correct days where they were taken, but I may have a couple off.

-K

Last day in Costa Rica, so we made it a good one!

Ahh, today is our last day, we've had such a great time.  We miss Seca a bit...we did get an update (with a picture) earlier in the trip, and she's doing fine.  Tomorrow we start the trip home, which will take about 36 hours and get us into Juneau just after noon on Saturday. 

Today though, we had big plans.

First, an early morning hike at the national park.  We were the first people there so we had the first half of the hike to ourselves.  There's a loop trail that took about 2.5 hours to do.

It started in the dark jungle, where we heard monkeys and saw lots of birds and a big rodent (an agouti, though I couldn't get a picture since it was pretty dark under all the trees), and a gorgeous little ravine with a waterfall.

 

 Pretty little waterfall, but I was getting eaten alive by bugs!!

Then the forest canopy thinned out and we started smelling sulfur from the volcano.  There were fumaroles, boiling springs, and mud pots. 

After the hike, we had our horseback ride to yet another waterfall, this one much bigger!  It was a fun ride, but the horses liked to trot a bit too much for my comfort. :)

 My trot-happy horse.

Finally, after the ride, we went BACK to the hotsprings to soak our sore muscles!
Tomorrow - heading home.  So sad!

Waterfalls and volcanoes

Our last two days are at a working cattle ranch on the border of Rincon de la Vieja national park.  It's back up in the moutains, just north of Liberia (where we fly out of on Friday morning).  We picked it because it sounded great (volcanoes, not touristy) and also because it's only about 45 minutes to the airport.

Since we got here pretty early, before the room was ready, we hiked to a close waterfall for a swim.  Yup, we had this place to ourselves!!

It was a 30-minute, hot hike out to it, so it felt good to get in the water, even though the water was pretty brisk! 

We saw some cool lizards on the hike!

After the hike, our room was ready, so we dropped off all our stuff, then headed back out to soak in the hot springs!  You can paint yourself with volcanic mud, let it dry, then rinse off before going back into the hot springs.  It was so relaxing, and the process of mudding and rinsing left your skin feeling really soft!

Our room was really close to the stables, but fortunately the wind was in the right direction to not make it smelly!   We booked a 2 hour horseback ride for tomorrow afternoon.

Hmmmm...this place also comes with pets!  There were a bunch of VERY friendly dogs all over, this one came right in when invited (though he wouldn't come in until we did!)

 Another great place for relaxing, outside our room.

Last day at the beach

After our morning walk on the beach, we took a drive south today.  First beach we came to was pretty beautiful - Playa Carrillo.  There's not much there other than beach, so no real hotels or restaurants.  And the waves were crashing hard on the beach, so it's probably not a great swimming beach.  But it was gorgeous and practically deserted!

Next we stopped at Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Camaronal, a beach and park preserve where turtles nest.  It, too, was gorgeous, isolated, and pretty much deserted.  But it was also smoking hot.  We spent about 5 minutes here before we headed for shade!

A routine we could get used to

We've fallen into a nice routine...get up and go for a walk while it's cool.

Come back and make breakfast (where the cat will beg for food).

 

Relax in the heat of the day (~10-4 is worst), but maybe venture out for a swim in the pool (or the ocean) or to chat with other hotel guests, play cards.

 
Then head out around 4:30 or 5 pm for a walk and to watch the sunset.

Find a restaurant for dinner, usually on the beach, where you can sit and relax in the breeze and enjoy a great dinner.  By 8 pm, head back to the room, maybe stopping for ice cream on the way.  Yep, I could get used to this.

Learning to surf

On the beach in Samara:

Today instead of an alarm, we woke up to howler monkey growling and hooting outside our bedroom window.  They are shockingly loud for such little critters. We watched them scramble along the trees, about 8-10 of them, one a little baby still hanging on mom.

 Must be so handy to have a prehensile tail.

We were signed up for a 8 am lesson surfing, but didn't get to start until 9. I think it was because the instructor wasn't there yet. One hour lesson for two was $70, and then includes 5 days free surfboard rental or boogie board rental to keep practicing.

 
The instructor started by showing us what to do on a surfboard without a fin, on land.  We practiced the motion of paddling, getting ready to stand, and standing several times each. Then, into the water! Steve went first, with the instructor counting and telling him when to stand.  Steve got up on his first try!  It was pretty awesome.  I went next and didn't quite get standing.  But after a few tries I was riding too! It's really fun, but surprisingly exhausting.  You use muscles for padding that don't often get used.

Today is cloudier than the past couple of days, but still hotter than hades. After surfing we stopped at an organic grocery for a tomato, lime, and more pineapple.  We'll have salsa, guac, chips and pineapple for dinner.  The store sells freezey pops - cucumber mint lime, or pineapple basil mint.  Sounds delicious!