Geo: 9.81165, -85.3099This will be pretty short and sweet! Really another lazy day, got up, breakfast, massage (for Wendy), dip in the ocean, pinochle, drove to the estuary right down the road. Saw lots of families out playing in the water and soccer on the beach, having a great time. It's now 5:49 pm and we'll be having dinner and probably a 6 handed pinochle game. Not too much to report didn't see Hungry the Cayman or Croc we're not sure now which he is.... Reading a John Grisham book about 1/2 way through my 2nd one here, it's been great just reading for pleasure as I don't do that very often now. So I'll be off, hopefully, Barb and or Kathy will want to blog and give you their impressions of the day or whatever ... read more

Geo: 9.81165, -85.3099Today started off with our caretaker's friend Pico bringing his artwork over for us to take a look at. He gave each of us gals a bamboo "cup" that he painted. Dan and Kathy bought a painting and we had a great visit with him, he told us a bit about his life, he's one of 13 children and is a Christian going to a Baptist Church. After he left we had our breakfast, then Jim got his fishing pole and I put on my swimsuit and we headed for the beach. We walked to the end, passing all sorts of tide pools with families sitting in them using them as hot tubs. The kids were having all sorts of fun in there, some were practicing their snorkeling skills! Even a little teacup poodle ... read more

Geo: 9.81165, -85.3099Long travel day yesterday and the day before? Hard to know, as the days are really mixed together. Arrived at the airport at 4:35 pm (Christmas), checked Jim's fishing poles so he can surf fish here in Costa Rica on our beach (Playa San Miguel), proceeded to go to the security line to check in, this year we all applied and received our Nexus cards to get into the global entry lines, avoid taking shoes off, etc... Generally expedited entry into the US and through security at US airports... Well, my printed at home boarding pass didn't pass muster so I had to go through the whole rigmarole plus get a nice personal pat down from the TSA agent, lesson learned is to print off the boarding pass at the airport kiosk so it ... read more

Geo: 40.7492, 14.5007Today we went to the excavation of Herculaneum, another town that was destroyed when Vesuvius erupted in A.D.79. It's much smaller than Pompeii but more intact. It was buried under many, many feet of hot ash, so that it disappeared completely from the map. There was so much material ejected from the volcano that it actually moved the coastline away from the town. You can see the depth of the ash in the photo of the canyon. Where the people are walking at the bottom used to be where the sea was. The arches by the people were shelters where they would pull up their boats. The dirt wall across from the people is the depth of the ash that buried the town!One of my favorite things in the city was the ancient version ... read more

Geo: 40.7492, 14.5007Well, I tried to write yesterday and after a half hour of writing it all disappeared... so will retry now. Am having a few photo problems again after thinking I had them solved, not sure if it's the slow internet connection or what, but will keep trying to upload photos to past entries, etc... We arrived early to our hotel in Pompei and the staff was fantastic, offered us tea and a beautiful lounge to wait in while our rooms were being prepared. After we put our luggage in our rooms we walked to the ruins of Pompei, the ruins are right in the middle of the modern city of Pompei, it was surprising to me the first time I was here. Kind of was expecting it to be out in the middle of ... read more