Thursday

Today we got up at 5:00 am and set out for our two hour drive to the other side of the island. We went to Holo-Holo Charters to take a 5 hour snorkeling and sailing tour of the Napali coast. We stopped at a Mcdonalds on the way for a quick to-go breakfast since we had so far to drive. We arrived safely and got checked in. There were about 30 people on our catamaran. We set out from Port Allen and went about 15 minutes before the captain anchored and we went snorkeling. He told us the water wasn't cold, just invigorating! We didn't see tons of fish but we did enoy the experience. We snorkeled about an hour then they told us that breakfast was ready. It was a continental breakfast with bagels bread and fruit. We were warned that if you think you might get motion sickness not to eat the fruit because the acid in it could make the problem worse. Several people found that to be true when we turned the bend around the northwest side of the island and hit the turbulent waters and high waves. It was quite a ride! The cliffs were magnificent and could only be seen by either a boat or helicopter. We saw where the helicopter flew into a the beginning of Jurassic Park and an archway that I am told a helicopter flew through in Six Days and Seven Nights. After we had gone about 2 1/2 hours the captains crew hoisted the sail and turned off the motor and turned back. Sailing was very nice. We would actually "catch" waves with our boat and kind of surf them. Shortly after we started sailing the crew served us lunch. We had sandwiches with pasta salad and vegetables with spinach dip. Of course all kinds of drinks were available and unlimited. The way home seemed a little long. Although we enjoyed it immensely we were glad to be back on land.

On our way home we stopped at a Safeway store and got more food for the week that we were not able to get at the other small grocer. We also stopped at a starbucks for a drink. On the two hour trip home we found two geocaches. Our first to find on Hawaii. I also found my first trackable coin. I was very happy about that. I logged online that I found it and will either take it back with me or let britt put it in a geocache in Thailand.

We got back to our "home" and showered and then I cooked a pot of taco soup. I knew it was a recipe that Brittany liked and it was delicious. The waves are really loud tonight and the full moon has not come up yet. I think we will sleep well tonight!

Wednesday afternoon

This afternoon we sat on our balcony and watched the ocean waves roll in. Tommy and I walked around the resort and took some photos and looked around in the artsy gift shop. We bought Brittany and me a mango papaya smoothy and then we hopped in the jeep and went to discover what was near us. We drove to the end if the road passing by tunnels beach and Ke'a beach. We stopped and looked in two different caves that we saw on the side if the road. We also spotted the snow cone stand that Brittany wants to visit sometimes this week. And a guy selling coconuts cut in half looked good to me.

From there we drove to Hanalei Bay to watch the the sunset from the pier. It was absolutely gorgeous. We took lots of photos of the mountains towering over the bay and the sailboats anchored to watch the sunset. We also saw the standup paddle suffers and decided we might want to try it. I heard it is more difficult than it looks though.

After sunset we went back to the grocer for a few more things for dinner. Tommy grilled barbecue chicken outside on the grill while Brittany and I made stuffed mushrooms, a green salad, and corn on the cob. It was a lovely dinner at the end of our first full day.

We have to leave at 5:45 am tomorrow to make the 2 hour drive to our catamaran snorkeling tour. We are excited and know that it should be an awesome experience!

Kauai, Hawaii October 2011

Today is our first full day in Kauai. We arrived yesterday afternoon about 2:45 pm. Our flight was about 1 1/2 hours late because our first plane had mechanical difficulties and they had to get us a new plane before leaving LA. When we arrived in Kauai, Brittany had been waiting in the baggage claim area for about three hours for us because she arrived earlier and had to claim her bags and then couldn't get back into the gate areas. It was so good to see her after six months. We claimed our baggage and then made our way to the budget rental shuttle bus to go get our rental car. We got a red jeep with a black top. It's very pretty we are going to have lots of fun exploring the island in it. We barely got all our luggage in it to get to the hotel. Our first mission was to find a place to eat as we were all starving. We stopped at the Paradise Cafe and had some seafood and Britt had a grilled fish sandwich. Then we were off to find the Hanalei Colony Resort. The scenery turned more tropical the farther we drove and we had to wait for oncoming traffic to pass on many one lane bridges. It reminded me of the road to Hana on Maui. We found our condominium and our location did not disappoint us at all. We are on the second story with a premium ocean view. Nothing but a couple thousand miles of ocean in front of us. No air conditioning in our room which was a concern to me but there is a powerful breeze blowing through constantly. We slept very well last night with the sounds of the crashing waves. Actually they were very loud!

Today we got up about 9:00 and I cooked sausage eggs and toast for breakfast. We had gone to the grocer last night to get some food for the week. It was very nice having breakfast with the beautiful ocean view and fresh Ginger flowers on our table. Our spot is not luxurious but as my nephew Patrick described it it's location, location, location! We decided to go for a walk down our beach we walked for a little over an hour down the beach and made our way to tunnels and kea beach and the beautiful cliffs of the Napali coast. The sand was course and rough and the water was a gorgeous blue. The beaches had signs warning against swimming due to the high waves. There were some snorkelers in the calmer spots. We discovered that we should have turned back when we were halfway tired instead of pretty tired because the walk back was much more difficult. When we made it back we fixed a sandwich and fruit lunch and sat on our balcony to soak up the beautiful view. This is where I still sit typing this blog. The strong breeze is turning rather cool.

Finally home

Yesterday morning we woke up for our last time in Costa Rica. We caught a taxi and went to the airport to catch our 1100 flight to DFW. It was a beautiful day and a great flight. We made it to the airport around 400 and after catching a "Parking Spot" van we made it to our car in the South lot. We all agreed that we would drive through somewhere for dinner so we could get home quicker. We got home around 645 and it was so good to see everyone. We had a wonderful vacation, but it is always good to be home!

Flight back to San Jose

Today we left our beach hotel and got on a little 12 passenger airplane to fly us back to San Jose. It was an exciting flight since we weren't exactly at an airport like we have seen before. We basically flew out of a field with a little runway in the middle of it. Once we got up it was a pretty view and enjoyable. Only one hour to San Jose. We are back at the Marriott that we stayed at our first night here. We don't plan on leaving the hotel today, but just hanging around and resting. We are watching the memorial service from Fort Hood on the television now. We missed all this terrible news this week while we were away. Very sad.

Can't wait to see family tomorrow.

Relaxing Day in Guanacaste

Our day at the beach has been very relaxing. Tommy, Brittany and I found us a chaise lounge cabana on the beach and we stayed there most of the day reading books and listening to music. It was so relaxing watching the waves roll in and the pelicans dive into the water for fish. We only got up when we wanted to stroll the beach of walk over to the grill for lunch. As I mentioned before, it is very rocky on this beach. When high tide comes the water comes over the rocks. We found today that since the tide is back down that there are water puddles, or mini ponds in between these rocks. We found many beautiful fish that were trapped there until the next tide rolls in. We saw some bright blue ones with black dots and another bright yellow fish. And we also saw a greenish looking fish that had big brown spots. It was fun just exploring.

It started raining pretty hard around 400 so we had to go into our hotel room for a while. We watched the sunset from our balcony and then we took our showers and actually were able to watch the news on ABC. We haven't seen any news this week with no televisions in the other hotels.

We have dinner reservations at 800 tonight at the Japanese restaurant in this hotel. Hope the sushi is good. We fly out of here tomorrow on a puddle jumper at 1100 going to San Jose. We are going there so we will be by the airport to fly home Wednesday morning. We are looking forward to being home, as we miss everyone.

Love to all.

Guanacaste

We made the four hour car trip to the JW Mariott in Guanacaste last night. It started and ended with very rough, bumpy unpaved roads but there was some highway in between. Our hotel is very beautiful and gigantic. It has a pool that meanders through the grounds and a beautiful view of the ocean. The beach is not what I expected and the waves are too rough for snorkeling and there are lots of rocks. We thought about going to a nearby beach that is beautiful, but we do not want to go through all the trouble and expense of taking a taxi down those bumpy roads to get there. Today will be sit out and relax day by the Pacific Ocean or pool, read a book or listen to music. I needed a day like that anyway.

Hope all is well. We stay here until tomorrow and then we fly on a small little airplane at 1100 tomorrow back to San Jose where we spend one night at the Mariott by the airport. Then the next day we come home. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

Monteverde

Last night we went on the night hike with our guide Carlos, Brittany,Tommy and I and four flashlights. We walked for two hours through the rainforest hearing all the sounds of nature, but we didnt see much except insects and our big find was a giant taranchula spider. It was still very exciting of the possibility of what was there that we werent seeing. Many times we turned off the flashlights just to see the dark and hear the sounds. I was surprised that there are larva on the ground the glow in the dark and they look like lights all over the ground.

After the hike we had dinner in our hotel. The dining room is under construction, so they have tables sitting outside on their grounds with candles lit all around and laterns hanging from the trees. It was sooooo beautiful. I know the finished dining room could never have the ambiance of the outdoors.

This morning we woke to see white faced monkeys (black with white faces) swinging all around the trees outside our hotel room. They were beautiful. We also saw a beautiful toucan fly by. He was too fast to get a photo of unfortunately.

We then had breakfast outdoors and then met our tour guide for the morning. We were very pleased that it was Carlos again from last nights tour. He took us up to the Montverde Cloud Forest where it is always raining. Fortunately, today we had an unusual sunny day and it was absolutely gorgeous. In this forest we saw the spider monkey which our guide says is the rarest in the area. We also saw a very rare bird , the Resplendent Quetzal, that all bird watchers come to see and usually leave only with a postcard photo of. Well I have an actual photo taken with my own hands. We saw many other birds and animals and I enjoyed photographing them.

Carlos then took us to a hummingbird garden and I took lots of good photos of the hummingbirds flying around.

When we came back to the hotel it was time for lunch and Brittany had her mind set on pizza. She had seen a pizza place on the route and assured us that it was within walking distance. Oh my goodness!! It was maybe half a mile but it was up a very steep hill the whole way. A little difficult for me, but I made it and it was a lovely restaurant and great pizza. I am happy to say that it was downhill all the way back to our hotel.

Unfortunately, it is time to pack because our driver picks us up at 300 to take us to the beach in Tamarindo. We will be there two nights. I am a little concerned about getting car sick on this leg of our journey because it is four and a half hours long and the roads around here are unpaved, very rough, very steep and large drop offs by the road. It will be an adventure.!

Last day at Arenal Observatory

After my last post, we shopped the little tourist town of LaFortuna. We enjoyed the view of the volcano steaming at the end of the street as we went in and out of different souvenier shops. We bought a few things to take back for ourselves and others. We found a nice open air restaurant to eat at. We did not know that it was Mexican food until after they brought us the menu. We selected chicken and shrimp fajitas and the chef brought them out to us flaming! The food was delicious and the atmosphere was excellent. No walls on this nice restaurant. I guess that the rain just falls straight down and doesnt ususally blow in.

When we were finished shopping and eating, we called for our taxi and he was there within five minutes. Our transportation everyone in Costa Rica has been excellent with hardly ever any waits. Most transportation I had booked before we left home and I had travel vouchers to bring with me to Costa Rica. No problem at all. Excellent service everywhere! Everytime we get into a taxi they are playing American music. I guess they put the CD in when they see who gets in their car. It is always this old 70s or 80s music that I remember from long ago, such as The Carpenters and Chicago!!

When we got back to the Lodge, we showered and actually dressed up for dinner for the first time. It was nice at the hotel and we had a good view of the volcano, lake and storm coming from far in the distance.

This morning we were picked up by our taxi at 815 and he drove us down to Arenal Lake where we took a boat taxi on about a 45 minute ride across Arenal Lake. It was absolutely beautiful here with the lush green rolling mountains on each side of us and of course Arenal Volcano disappearing behind us as we made our way across the lake. When we got across the lake a van was waiting for us to take us on to the Montverde Lodge in the Montverde Cloud Forest. We had 8 folks in our van including the driver and this trip was crazy. It was about an hour and fifteen minute drive to our next location and it was all on unpaved roads. These roads had large rocks and big pot holes. The roads were very steep too, but it was so beautiful. Big drop offs on the edge of the road were a little scary. I thought we might get car sick bouncing around but we had to use mind over matter and we made it fine. It has been raining since we arrived here in the Cloud Forest, but it is not slowing us down. We just got back from a tour of the Bat Jungle. We now know much more about bats than we did before. At 530 today we are going on a two hour walking night tour of the forest. We will just put on our rain suits and hiking shoes and go. Tomorrow morning we have a 700 tour of the Montverde Cloud Forest with a guide lined up. Hope it stops raining so we can be a little more comfortable, but we will enjoy it anyway.

Take care everyone!