TwoAkitas
Are We There Yet? Joined: July 9th 2008
Logged in: July 1st 2011
Logged in: July 1st 2011
My family will tell you I am mostly sweet-natured with a large streak of dry humor. I will forgive, or forget, but never both. My husband swears I am the most pathologically disorganized organized person he has ever met. However, I am perennially optimistic about the state of my disorganization. Whenever possible, I spend too much time reading novels or watching old TV shows on Netflix. I am a computer nerd and a Sci Fi geek, own everything Joss Whedon ever created and am always interested in going to a Comic-Con. Wrangler to four Akitas, two cats (one of whom is passive-aggressive with irritable bowel...) and a pair of albino Grow-a-Frogs that live in a tank on the kitchen counter, I spend a lot of time picking up, cleaning up or mopping up after the “zoo.” I carry my camera everywhere, so be forewarned: If you are eating out with me, put that fork down! Let me get a picture of your food first...
Travel Blog Posts
First Day
We added two new Akita puppies to the household at the beginning of October. Keiko (the female) is an evil genius bent on taking over the world. Rafu (the male) is more of a knothead. He gets sucked into all Keiko's plots, is always the scapegoat, and if he was a human would be the gentle giant. The football player who gets into an elevator, presses the buttons, and looks for gum. Biscuit and Rowan have taken to them well - Biscuit grandly ignores them, and Rowan has assumed sort of a Mary Poppins - like attitude. She is the disapproving nanny forever trying to keep them out of trouble. We did immediately enroll them in Dogtrain, these guys get so big you have got to get them to listen to you when they are young. ... read more
Road to Arenal
We rented a car and drove to the Arenal Volcano. Mark did the zipline tour while Piper and I did the nature walk. ... read more
Atenas
Atenas is beautiful, but the twisty roads had us dropping like flies. Even Pietro succumbed to a bout of car sickness. Piper and I spent the day vaguely nauseated. We saw some beautiful land and homes, and a very nice internet cafe. We did have a great meal at an Italian Restaurant that was worth the drive to Atenas all by itself. Once out of the van, our appetites returned and we all enjoyed lunch. ... read more
Welcome to the Coffee Tour
Went on a tour of an Organic Coffee Co-Op. Hugo gave us the grand tour. We saw coffee from seedlings to mature plants, had crop rotation and harvesting explained to us, got to sample various coffees and saw the entire process for turning beans into my reason for getting out of bed in the morning.... read more
Pacific View
Preston and Andrew took us to the properties that they have in San Ramon. They are so beautiful they don't look real. One property had a lot with this incredible tree that looked like something out of a movie. Piper wanted that lot... it would make for an amazing back yard...... read more
DSCN0869
Andrew took us to an amazing place in Sarchi. Woodworkers handcraft the iconic oxcarts that are seen all over as decoration. They also make gorgeous doors, chests, about anything you can think of. What was really neat was seeing the water wheel that powered the tools in the workshop. ... read more
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First day of the Boomers! tour. We begin in Grecia and see a few homes that were for sale in the area then we eat a great lunch at one of Andrew's favorite spots. He tells us all to get the lemonade to drink and it was fantastic! It came to the table and it was actually frozen lemonade...it was soooo good. I got one to go as we were leaving. I'm loving the weather. Clear, sunny, no need for a jacket, not sweating either. Just perfect. Andrew lets us stroll around the central square for a bit and we go to another farmer's market - I could definitely get into going and picking up groceries here. We also go into the huge red Catholic Church on the square. It is absolutely beautiful. Local lore says ... read more
Our view
Sunday in Costa Rica and that means... football! What? Yep. Mark is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan and Preston (our other tour host) is a rabid Buffalo Bills fan. Preston usually comes to the B&B to watch games so he was quite happy to discover that the current guests were all in favor of watching the games. We called Mark's parents after the game (mostly just to tell them we were able to watch it just like we were at home. His mom had been freaking out just a bit that her "kids" were in a "foreign country.") I had purchased a Mobal phone before we left and had no idea how that was going to work. It was fantastic. Great reception, no issues. The peace of mind alone was worth it. We had also taken ... read more
Our Alarm Clocks
Wake up with the sun...and the chickens. You could hear these big hens in their coop as they rustled around chortling to themselves and then letting loose with a "bock, bock, bock, bock, BGAWK!!!" The shower is huge, cool features include colorful tiles and a slightly sloped floor leading to a drain in the corner of the shower instead of the center... we like this system much better than our American shower with the drain in the middle of the floor and no slope to help move the water out and away. Pietro and Kenneth arrive and we load up Kenneth's taxi and drive into San Ramon to go to the Farmer's Market that is open every weekend. I had told Piper about the juice that is made from running stalks of sugar cane through a ... read more
Angel Valley Farm B&B
Staying at Angel Valley Farm Bed & Breakfast. We'll be taking the Boomer's Tour, but it doesn't start until Monday. Piper is the first young person they've had on the tour. One other couple is with us - Lou and Lorraine. We all hit it off immediately and as we are going to be in close quarters for a week I am sure we were all secretly thankful. We're met at the B&B by Mae - she's the resident Chef and is, herself, an expat. The owner of the B&B and Tour leader is Andrew Mastrandonas. He comes up from San Ramon to take us to dinner. I adore Costa Rican food - it reminds me very much of the Cuban food I used to eat in Miami. Something I haven't been able to get in ... read more
