In case you're not a frequent reader or you're not privy to the details of my life, I should explain that my wife and children are heading to Costa Rica. It's been 3 years since Cristina last saw her dad. I decided to teach summer school to help finance this overdue trip to Costa Rica, but there's no reason why the rest of the family has to hang out here in the sweltering desert while I teach. So they headed out tonight (via Denver...don't ask...it was cheaper). It's a red-eye, which Cristina was less than thrilled about, but after living for 16 years on student loans or a teacher's salary, she's used to taking one for the team in order to save money.
My last day of teaching is Thursday, June 25. The bell rings at 2:15 and my plane leaves at 7:40. So I'll be joining them as soon as humanly possible.
We come back together on July 28. That's 6 weeks for them, 4 weeks for me.
So we had all weekend to pack, but Cristina procrastinated as usual (I can totally blame this on her, since I'm not leaving yet!) With everything packed but Cristina's stuff, I finally went to bed around 2 am (in Bella's bed, since Cristina had clothes all over our bed). Cristina finished her clothes and carried me to our bed around 4:45. OK, she didn't actually carry me, but I thought that would be a funny image. And then my alarm went off at 6:15 for work. Here's the funny part: I just re-read my 2006 blog and we stayed up till 4:30 packing back then and the alarm was set for 6:15!
We don't have many plans for while we're there, other than a few little things (get eye exams and new glasses--where it's cheaper--and renew Cristina and the kids' Costa Rican passports, etc.) I know we're going camping at a fish camp in the mountains, where you catch the trout yourself out of a stocked pool, they clean them and cook them for you, and you're eating fish that were literally alive less than an hour ago. Now that's fresh. That's a fun spot. And beautiful. We visited there once in 2006 for dinner, but this time we're going to stay a couple of nights.
And I'm sure we'll hit out favorite relaxation spot: Tabacon.
Yes, that's an active volcano in the background. Yes, that's a water slide that comes from the restaurant. And all the pools (there are about 10 of them) are filled with mineral waters warmed by the volcano. It's totally decadent and tourtisty, but it's one of the few splurges we usually take.
I'm also seriously considering taking a zipline canopy tour. Also a very touristy thing which we've never done because--except for my first trip in 1994--we've always had a baby or very young one. Now our youngest is 5 (the minimum age allowed). Bella probably won't want to do it, but the two older kids will. I think this might be the summer. We'll just have to figure out what to do with Bella.
In case you don't know, I'm talking about a thing where you ride along cables strung up throughout the canopy of the rain forest. Something like this:
It's kind of expensive, but so is Disney World, and Lord knows we've done that plenty of times. We have to do this at least once. I've been to Costa Rica 6 times and I've never done the ziplines. It's time.
In 2006, I blogged our trip. That was a first. I've always kept a journal and it has evolved over the years. The first one in 1994 was written longhand (egads!) on a tablet of lined paper. As the trips continued, and laptops entered the picture, I typed up my journals (much preferred) and emailed them to select family members that wanted to keep up with our exploits. So the blog was a natural progression (with photos to boot). But now I've been a bona fide blogger for over a year. The question is do I do this summer's Costa Rican journal on my regular blog, or do I create a special blog just for the trip? I decided that I would journal right here on this very blog. Better than making my regular readers have to check a new one.
And now my 4 hours of sleep are catching up with me, and though it's weird to go to bed in a silent house with no one here but a dog and 2 cats, I must do it.
4 comments:
When I saw that you were going to be in Arizona all by yourself, I thought about coming out to see you, but since you will be leaving in 10 days or less I guess I won't.
Although, I might check into it anyway........
sounds like fun! what are you going to do with your animals while your gone? Peace and quiet is good but will probably get old.
love you much!
The dog will stay most of the time with Valerie, the woman we got her from. The cats will hang out by themselves with plenty of litter boxes and a feeder that holds about 2 weeks worth of food. But we have a friend who will come by now and then to check on them and top off their food.
Peace and quiet is fine, but I'm mostly going to be getting the house cleaned up. I like to come home from a long trip to a clean house. Plus it'll be easier to shampoo the carpets with no one else at home.
The zip line things looks cool, you should totally do it. Like the look of that restaurant with the flume - fresh fish, awesome.
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