Friday, November 9th, 2007 - 4:02 p.m. We started the day yesterday by heading out in search of breakfast. After going down the road and grabbing starbucks at the entrance to a mall, we headed in to see what was available. The first option we came to was an over priced joint that didn't look that great, but we were hungry. After seeing that a mushroom and cheese omlette is $16.50 and a side of hashbrowns is an additional $4.00, I was ready to go back to the hotel and do the $17.50 breakfast buffet. Shannon, a girl that gave me a lot of advice before we left after being here for 10 months, warned us that we could spend all of our savings in Sydney because it's so expensive. The over priced breakfast didn't matter ... read more

We made it safely to Los Angeles....not painlessly, but we're here. The flight was awful. There was a couple that took our seats because they wanted to sit together (not that we did or anything) and so after making a few seat changes to accommodate them, we wound up sitting with the loudest, most obnoxious, obscene, drunk girls behind and next to us. They were whiny, immature (I know from their conversations they're late 20's early 30's, married with children)...I could go on...and it didn't end when the plane took off...it didn't end when we were three hours into the flight...in fact, even when we landed and everyone was waiting to get off...it only got worse. The girl behind us actually started to make very rude, loud comments about me and Alex. Nice, eh? Needless to ... read more

Alex and I are pretty well convinced that Costa Rica is the place to retire to. I think anyone that needs ideas of what would make Jackson a better place to live, work, and play should definitely visit Costa Rica. Rudy might as well be an official Ambassador for their country. I've never heard anyone so positive and energetic about their homeland. They're a a third world country and we have nothing to be proud of? Nothing to brag about? Nothing to convince people to move and open business in Jackson? Checking in on the local Citizen Patriot, I read an article about another movement to get people to be more positive about where we live. In Costa Rica there are run down houses everywhere you go, streets that get closed down due to landslides, no ... read more

10/14/2007 8:23 p.m. Dive number one was good...we were excited to see schooling hammerheads, but dive number two was even better!! The surge was over powering and so again we had to plummet fast and hang onto the rocks to stay in one place. Even that proved to be difficult. Not only did we see schooling hammerheads, but they kept swimming up to check us out and literally came within 5 to 10 feet of us! It was incredible. Heart pumping - intense. Alex squeezed my hand, sharing the experience. Maricio, the panga driver, pulled up to pick us up as we bobbed in the waves after a dive. "You have your ticket? I need ticket or no ride" The crew has a fun sense of humor. Someone put blue die in Pacho's (crew member in ... read more

10/11/2007 4:54 P.M. Nothing like the feeling of stomach acid in your nostrils, eh? numerous people asked me before the trip if I get motion sickness and I said I wasn't sure. Almost all of the responses were, "How well do you ride in the car? Can you read in the car?". For the record - THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE READING IN A MOVING CAR. Enormous waves crashing on our boat for the 30+ hour ride to the island. A few times the "to much water in the boat" alarm came on...we fell into walls...it was awful. AWFUL! Let me back up... We went white water rafting and THAT was a ton o' fun. I can't even describe how ridiculously fun that was. Before we hit the river we stopped in a small town to ... read more