Honeymoon (The Beach)

Monday morning we got into San Jose.  We got through the ridiculous customs line and went to pick up our rental car and the people in line tell us "they ran out of 4x4s".  The hotel we were staying at said you need 4wd to get up their road, so that's not going to fly for us.  We haggled with them and they set us up with the same car for the same price with another rental car company.  Crisis diverted!

We got going on the road.  It was a straight shot on the main highway through the country from the rental car place to Liberia, where I had detailed directions the rest of the way to the hotel at Playa Ocotal that included "when you come to the top of the hill with a lot of signs, keep to the left".

The roads are a little treacherous at times and people are definitely not defensive drivers in the least!  At one point, we came around a curve and saw two semis coming straight at us, one in each lane, directly next to each other.  It's a good thing there happened to be a shoulder at that moment....it was one of the only times there was a shoulder in the whole country!  I caught a pic just as he was pulling in between the other semi and a car (right before I took it, the red semi and white semi were almost next to each other and the white one slammed on his brakes and got over--we were going approximately 50 mph at each other):

4 hours later, we made it to our hotel.  It made me sad because even though it was only 5:30, the sun had just gone down, so I didn't get to see the view.  We went to dinner at the hotel's restaurant and had a great steak with mashed potatoes and sauteed root vegetables.  It was absolutely delicious!  Unfortunately, we don't speak Spanish so when the waiter asked our order, DH said "I'll have the same, but with a Pepsi instead of a margarita".  The waiter nodded and said "yes".  So we figured he got it.

He came back with 2 of the strongest margaritas I've ever had (other than shots of tequila) and no Pepsi.  DH figured he would just drink it.  Neither of us really drinks and we were exhausted from traveling, so we only drank 1/2 of it because it was so strong.  When we finished eating, our waiter came over and asked us if something was wrong with our drinks.  We said no, they were good, just strong.  He then insisted on remaking them for us.  We argued back and forth with him but he insisted so we agreed that he'd bring us 1 new one to share.  A couple minutes later, he came back with 2 new margaritas, still strong, but drinkable.  We had to force ourselves to drink them because at this point, the manager, the waiter, the bartender, and the bus-boy were all staring at us from the other side of the patio.  When we were done eating and drinking, we had to walk our happy butts up the steepest ramp ever back to our room.  We actually thought when we turned the corner that there would be stairs.  I'm just glad neither of us rolled down it in the dark!

Here it is in the daylight the next day:

We got back to the room and went to bed.  When we woke up, I started some coffee and walked out to the patio to find this view staring me in the face:

Not so shabby!  Too bad I missed the sun setting over the water, but it was a pretty awesome surprise to wake up to!

We went down to breakfast and as we were walking there, we noticed this odd sign:

 

It was especially strange seeing as it was stuck in a flower bed that didn't even have bushes you could hide in...

Breakfast was equally strange.  There were tons of iguanas begging for food on the patio and the staff were chasing them away with a broom.  Some crazy lady was feeding this one (despite the sign that said "Please do not feed the animals"...):

When the staff told her she needed to stop feeding it, she asked "why? will it hurt his tummy?".  They did not know what to say to that, so they just let her keep feeding it.  It reminded us of my mother!  :)

After a quick stop at the beach, we headed out to the Arenal Region (another 3-4 hour drive).  Bye-bye Pacific!

 

It was a little sunny if you couldn't tell!  :)

Honeymoon (Getting There)

It's been quite while since I posted an update.  Oops.  Here goes the story of the honeymoon.  It was AWESOME!

Day 1 and morning of Day 2 (Getting there!)

L asked me approximately 15 times on Saturday what time we needed to leave our house to make it to the airport in time.  We had to drive from our house to Chicago (about 5 hours).  I told him we should leave at 9:30 or 10 a.m. to be sure we had time to park, get to the terminal, check our bag, and all the other crap we have to do before the plane actually leaves at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday morning, I get up and get showered.  I assumed that I would tell L when it was time to get ready and go.  I got about getting ready in the upstairs bathroom and when I come out, he has just gotten out of the shower and is getting dressed.  I'm amazed since I usually have to force him to get up.  We get the few things we still need to pack together and get everything in the car.  It is only 8:30 at this point.  I figure no big deal, we'll be early.  We get coffee and they ask when we have to be there.  I tell the barrista that we will get there pretty early since we left so early and L says "what?  we left early?"  Ummmm, yep.  I only told you 15 times last night what time we needed to leave....

So we get to the airport and get to the terminal.  We have time to kill, which I find a little annoying, but not the end of the world.  You never know what security will be like.  To be totally honest, I used to fly a lot and a couple yeas ago I stopped because I don't have time.  All of my airport experiences in the last month have been leaps and bounds better than it used to be.  We got through security so fast!  Not even a big deal at all!

The plane took us to Atlanta where we stayed over night.  I thought L was going to throat punch the shuttle driver.  Or pee his pants.  Or both.  The guy was doing like 85 in a 45 zone around curves.  It was intense and L is the worst about riding in cars.  He has to drive.  The hotel was one of those that is 15 stories and completely open in the center.  There are walkways around each floor that are open to the center of the hotel.  And a big glass elevator.  We were on the 9th floor and I felt bad for L because he is terrified of heights and there was no way to not look at what was going on.  When we checked in, the girl said to us "you have a balcony with a view of the airstrip!"  Like it was a good thing...

We stayed the night.  Amazingly, we didn't have any problems with airplane noise.  Another crazy (though less than the night before!) ride on the shuttle, wait in the airport (though much shorter this time), and then we were off to Costa Rica!  By the time we finally got there, got through customs, got our bag, and went to the car rental place it was 12:30 p.m.

San Francisco, Pt. 2

So, I leave for my NEXT adventure (Costa Rica YAY!) tomorrow, so I figured I ought to finish this one!

Thursday:

I was seriously planning to go to a mildly interesting sounding session, but when I got to Starbucks for my morning coffee, it was a zoo.  I got my coffee and went to the lobby of the hotel that was attached and found an actually quiet corner with a window onto the street and a water fountain.  It was so peaceful and quiet and as much as I was enjoying my girlfriends, it was really nice to be in such a quiet spot by myself.  So I stayed...for 2 hours!  :)  Oops!

In the afternoon, we worked for the publications booth for the convention.  In exchange for our service, we got a $75 credit off of our registration.  All 3 of us signed up for the same time slot, but they really didn't need all 3 of us.  They decided to send 2 of us to go sell books at a session that the author was giving.  She didn't want us to interrupt the session, so we got to sit and watch 1/2 of the session while we waited.  Plus it ate up 1/2 of our volunteering time! 

When we were done volunteering, we headed out to see a show by a band that is managed by a good friend of mine.  We got a kick ass slice of pizza and then headed to the show.  I made sure to get a pint of Guinness and grabbed a stool while waiting for their set to start.  K and M got annoyed that they apparently didn't open (not that I knew, I just knew that they were playing...) and they wanted to go home.  After their third song, the girls headed out.  I stayed because my friend had told them to give me a copy of their album after their set.  It was a great show and I'm so glad I went!  If anyone wants to check them out, they are called Sister Crayon.  Very awesome!

Friday:

K and I went to the gym and did cardio, weights, and abs.  We didn't want to be gone a whole week without doing any exercise (other than the fact that we were walking everywhere).  Then we headed to Philz Coffee to get a cup of coffee suggested by a friend who lives in San Francisco.  It was wonderful.  We went back to the hotel and grabbed cheesecake for lunch with M (there goes that workout...) and then K took a nap while I walked back to Philz to get another cup and some beans to take home.

We took a shower and then met up with M and one of our professors for coffee that evening.  The professor is ok, but she's a little up and down and we never really know how to feel about her.  It was fun, but a little awkward.  At one point, a friend of hers came up to her and told this story about how they had gone to Fisherman's Wharf and gotten socks.

After we left the professor, we hopped a cable car and went to Fisherman's Wharf ourselves.  I didn't account for the wind and the fact that it was pretty cold even for February and I was FREEZING.  I didn't intend to buy any souvenir type things, but I bought a long sleeve shirt just to warm up!  We grabbed a mediocre dinner and then walked around.  We saw the sock store and had a big laugh.  :)  Then we headed home on the cable car.  M sat inside and K and I sat outside directly on the other side of the window from M.  She and K kept trying to talk through the glass and the guy next to me seemed to be amused. 

When we got back to the hotel, we were walking down the hall toward the second tower of the hotel and about to go through a door that was open.  It started to shut (VERY slowly) and K said "watch out for the door" in a totally calm voice.  M froze, squealed, and danced from foot to foot  in terror.  It was so ridiculous looking that I immediately fell to the floor laughing and M did the same.  K just stood there amazed.  WTF M?  Awesome!

We went to bed and at 1:30 a.m. we woke up to a horrible sound.  We had discussed setting our alarms right before bed and I was about to yell at K that her alarm was REALLY annoying when I realized it wasn't the alarm.  It was a fire alarm.  In a daze, I pulled on pants and a jacket and looked around for my coat.  It took about a minute for M to realize she wasn't wearing her own coat and she handed mine over to me.  We stumbled down the stairs, outside, and across the street.  It took about 15 minutes to clear the building and let us get back in to go back to bed.  It was so cold out!

Saturday:

We woke up toady to new stories of the first snow in years.  Although everyone seemed to think that it was the end of the world, it was completely funny to us Iowa girls!  They even showed live footage of snowflakes falling....not sticking, just falling!

We got up, grabbed coffee, and then headed to the airport.  M and I misjudged our time a little and we were going to be pressed for time.  We got to the BART and the train to the airport was delayed 20 minutes.  Oh, crap.  It was going to be close.  When we got to the airport, we busted our butts and got to the bag check with a 1/2 hour till departure.  The lady said "sorry, too late".  We said "excuse me?"  She said agian "it's too late to check your bags, sorry".  I then asked her what we were supposed to do and she said "it's just too late".  As we walked away, I snarked to M "Way to be helpful lady!  If it's too late, fine, but tell me what I'm supposed to do!"  I don't know if she heard me or not, but she came back and said "ok, give me your bags".

After a painfully slow wait for security, we threw our shoes on, loaded our carry-ons and our coats into our arms, and ran at a full sprint through the airport.  It was awful.  My lungs burned, legs burned, the ankle I broke last fall was killing me (pretty sure it set my recovery back a couple months...) and as we approached our gate, the attendant was saying "anyone hoping to go to Chicago better be on the plane, we're shutting the doors".  Just made it!

It was a long flight because we were tired, hungry, and sweaty.  But it was a pretty good story.  And we made it home.  Good times!

San Francisco, Pt. 1

So, I spent last week at a conference in San Francisco (the National Association of School Psychologists, to be precise).  Here is my trip in detail (feel free not to read it all, it's mostly a record for myself so I remember the trip well!)

TUESDAY:

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and got showered and ready.  I packed the last few things (like toiletries I needed to use getting ready) and threw my stuff in the car.  A quick stop at my coffee shop (I lovingly refer to it that way because I've been going there since I was 12 and worked there for a while in grad school) and I was on my way.  First stop, I had to pick up M where she lives, about 2 1/2 hours from me, but on the way to Chicago.  As I was driving I realized that my tire was making a funny sound and it occurred to me that they had to take my wheel off the week before to fix something.  When I stopped at my M's house, I got out the tire iron and gave the lug nuts a few turns.  Most of them were tight, but one turned really easily.  The tire never made the sound again, so I think it's safe to say that the repair guy failed to tighten the lug nuts well enough...awesome!

We got to Chicago way before we needed to.  I wanted to leave enough time to park, get to the terminal, get checked in, etc.  I seriously hate waiting in airports.  I told myself to shave a little off how long I thought it would take when going home because I didn't want to sit at the gate for 2 1/2 hours on the way home.  The people watching was fun, though.  And my friend and I sort of laughed at a few of those sad people who almost missed their planes and were forced to sprint to the gate.

We get into San Francisco and get our bags.  I'm supposed to be at the conference to monitor a workshop at 6:30 a.m. the next morning.  It is 6:40 p.m. and I am not checked into the conference.  Check in ends at 7 p.m. and doesn't start again until 7 a.m. and I'm about 25 minutes out from the hotel.  Hopefully they won't care that I'm not checked into the conference so I can still take my workshop!

When we get to the hotel, we are famished so we get take out cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and enjoy our first super healthy vacation dinner! 

WEDNESDAY:

I wake up at 3:15 a.m. on the nose.  I convince myself to go back to sleep and wake up at...3:45 a.m.  This pattern repeats until 5:15, which is when my alarm is for.  I get up shower, dry my hair, walk out the door, and suddenly realize that I woke up at 5:15 HOME time, that was why my body was so insistent that I had overslept. 

Thankfully they let me monitor my workshop even though I'm not checked in yet.  The workshop is great.  The speaker is well-respected and the information is really interesting.  Unfortunately one of my duties is preventing people from walking into the workshop for free.  It is a paid session and it's not fair for people to sneak in.  I was hoping that, being a professional conference, we wouldn't have much of a problem.  I was very wrong.  One lady was even rude enough to say "well, I'll leave when I finish my food" and then tried to take one bite in almost 5 minutes.  I had to ask her 3 times to leave because it was a paid session.  She huffed off like we were being unreasonable.  Wow, great impression.  Super professional.

We had lunch at a cafe that had turkey sandwiches and falafal pitas.  What a great combo since M only eats a handful of foods and I LOVE falafal!  The delicious ethnic foods are a little lacking at home, so I love the opportunity to eat things that I can't find at home.

After lunch I went to a couple paper presentations on juvenile delinquents and gang involvement.  One was really interesting and the results were pretty cool.  It would be really neat to apply what they found to the kids that I work with.  The other sounded like it was going to be really fascinating.  They get through the PowerPoint and ask if there are any questions.  Someone asks, "so what were the results?".  That is when they decide to tell us that they haven't actually done the research yet.  Could be useful, if they find anything out from their research.

When we got back to the room, we had an interesting time picking a place to eat.  Our friend K met us in San Francisco and shared the room with us.  K is doing her internship in Portland, OR.  She shares my love for a wide variety of foods.  Every place we mentioned was met with "what do they have?" from M.  She refused to eat almost anything.  We figured out that a Greek place nearby had "Burger Pizza" on its menu, as well as a lot of food K and I love.  Turned out the restaurant was literally 2 steps outside our hotel.  We ordered a bottle of wine, baba ganoush, falafal, spanikopita, feta, and olives. 

Apparently M doesn't drink wine either, so K and I get a little tipsy sharing our bottle.  We got a little noisy and goofy.  I'm hoping that wasn't why they chose not to seat anyone near us after we got there...but I don't care that much.  We had a great evening!

To be continued...

Seriously, body!?

I am very annoyed with my body right now.  It seemed like I was gearing up to O and I started spotting a little.  But then I kept spotting, for 10 days!  And then yesterday, it turned into my period.  At least I think it's what is going on.  It is definitely red flow (sorry, TMI!)  :)  WTH body?  I have two totally typical cycles and then one weird, short (only 20 days) annovulatory cycle...  I'm really hoping it was just a fluke.

Ok, so whine over.  On to a new cycle!  Here's hoping #5 is our cycle! :)

Getting Excited

I love traveling and I'm lucky enough to have 2 trips two look forward to in the next month!  In 2 weeks, I am going to San Francisco for a conference.  The conference itself will be wonderful, but I'm really excited to see San Francisco and hang out with my friend from high school who lives there.  Then I get back and I'm only home 2 weeks before we leave for our honeymoon in Costa Rica.

A couple months ago, I planned the whole trip.  I bought the plane tickets, booked the rental SUV (in case we want to go places that require 4wd), and booked the hotel for the overnight layover in Atlanta.  I asked L to pay for the hotel.  It was all planned out and I was really excited for the hotel.  He didn't get it booked and I wasn't on top of things.  So last week I emailed them again and...there are no more rooms.

So I spent the last 2 days re-planning our trip.  Which was way more fun than it sounds!  And because we didn't get the hotel we wanted, we got to re-imagine our trip.  The new plan has us driving to the coast for a day and staying in a nice suite on the Pacific Ocean.  The next day, we'll hit the beach early then check out and head inland to the Arenal Volcano area to a lodge there.  We'll get to do a whole bunch of stuff that we really wanted to do (zipline, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, canyoneering/rappelling, ATV tour, and the spa--of course!).

I am so psyched for this trip!  This is going to be a long month of waiting!

Snow Days

Well, it is happening once again.  The world is actually ending.  It's amazing there is anything left based on the number of times the world ends every winter here in Iowa!

You would think that people would get used to the snow.  It happens every single year.  Last year we got 14 inches in 8 hours.  Yes, that was a lot of snow at once.  It took a little while to clean up.  But the world was still there.  Life did not fall to pieces because of some frozen water.

On the radio yesterday morning, the DJ was recounting the current weather forecast.  Meteorologists had forecasted up to an inch here, inch or two there, at the time they were saying up to 12 inches for tonight (now they're saying up to 8).  After reading the list, the DJ paused for a moment, contemplated what he had just read, and then confidently announced that we should expect to see a foot of snow, give or take a foot.  Yep, we are supposed to get somewhere between 4 and 24 inches of snow. 

I had to go to the store after work because we were totally out of food at home.  Sure enough, it was packed with people buying as much bread, milk, and bottled water as they could fit into a cart.  As though they expected Armageddon.  So it took me twice as long to get the groceries that I needed.  And don't even get me started on the people driving 15 miles per hour even though the roads were FINE!

I suppose that I will just have to be the one to get used to the fact that people will always overreact when it comes to winter weather.