Days Before Christmas

We are enjoying beautiful fall like days in Texas - sunny and in the 70's - chamber of commerce weather! Definitely great golf weather! Too bad Roger is working!

We had Thanksgiving dinner here at the park - the kids were with in-laws. But, then we spent the following week-end in Llano, TX with Megan and Carlos. Camped along the river, strolled around the town square, ate BBQ and went to the "Starry, Starry Nights" Christmas lights display at the local park. Good time spent with the two of them

Several of us ladies in the park went to the Guenther House for lunch on Thursday. It is the previous home of the owner of the Pioneer Flour Company here on the south side of San Antonio. Lovely old home all decorated for the holidays. This gingerbread house is a replica of the homestead and is decorated inside and outside with frosting and candy. Took 4 ladies 200 hours to make! Gorgeous!

Then Roger and I went to the Christmas outdoor market at the Pearl Market for dinner with our good friends Gary and Lynn. Why didn't we get a picture with them?!!

Back in Texas

We enjoyed a pretty autumn in Michigan and are now back in Texas with the kids. It's always fun to be here for Halloween. Emily and her friend Eva were elephants. Samantha and her friend Karys changed their minds at the last minute and dressed as "pigs in a blanket" because it was cold!

Emily's 11th birthday was November 5th. We went to dinner at Lupe's on Saturday night because she wanted to wear the sombrero! Her party was on Sunday afternoon. Fifteen 5th graders! Heather went to so much work to organize a game similar to Clue. Four teams figuring out puzzles and through the process of elimination, following the clues to the treasure. They had so much fun and all the teams did really well. They followed the game by taking a "polar bear plunge" into the pool. Not exactly like Alaska but the water was 65 degrees!

Samantha's 8th grade play for UIL competition was a "Voice in the Dark" - a story of the Salem witch trials. Definitely a dark drama about a dark time in our history! She did a great job! The picture is onstage with her best friend Karys.

Emily made me this sunflower picture in art class! She is so talented!

Costa Rica - Day 6

 Kyle, Heather and the girls went back to the beach to go kayaking and boogie boarding again today.

Carlos, Megan, Roger and I walked around the National Park. It is the pride of Costa Rica and a beautiful rain forest/jungle with boardwalks and nice sidewalks throughout the area. We saw plenty of wildlife: sloths, toucans, monkeys, lizards, blue crabs, deer and varied plants and trees. There are three lovely beaches within the park so many bring their bathing suits and cool off in the ocean after touring. This is the first place that resembled Mexico - we had to run the gauntlet through all the souvenir shops to get to the park entrance! After a stop for guacamole, chips and cold beer we recuperated enough to do some shopping and go to lunch!

We called these "plunger mushrooms"

The roots of these trees look like fins!

Bright blue crabs were plentiful

This sloth is just "hanging in there"

I went to take a picture of one monkey and the second came up and gave him a hug!

Lots of lizards!

This is a termite nest - believe it or not we saw several that were huge!


Emily loved the elephant pattern in this sarong I bought her - she's going to use it as a tapestry in her room!
Her stuffed sloth is a snap bracelet!

Costa Rica - Day 5

No special tours today - just a relaxing day at the beach. We walked to breakfast at a local coffee cafe. There isn't much shopping opportunity close by but we browsed a few stores on our way home.

Then - back to the private beach here at Tulemar. It's embarrassing to admit how content Roger and I are just relaxing in a lounge chair! The girls, and especially Kyle, love this beach because of the great waves for boogie boarding but, once the tide rolls in they are too big and strong! Emily caught a great wave and it took her all the way up the beach to a lady's lounge chair - " oh, hello!"

We are so spoiled - we ordered lunch, had it delivered to the beach, ate at a table in the shade and played cards while the girls just played in the surf!

The news of the day - a boa constrictor in a tree near the resort pool! We haven't seen it yet. Megan doesn't want to be anywhere near it!! Our shuttle driver after dinner told us that guests called the front desk saying there was a snake in their villa! Hope it wasn't the boa!

There are a group of volunteers here at Tulemar that study the sloths and document their behavior. Since the sloths are nocturnal they work all night. They walk around with coal miner type lights, red so as not to scare the sloths. Seems like a very boring task to all of us but they are interesting to talk with. Sloths don't drink - they get their liquids from the leaves they eat. And they come to the ground about once a week to excrete their waste - about 1/3 to 1/2 of their body weight!
Wouldn't it be great to be able to eat all you wanted and then once a week get rid of half the weight you gained!!!

One more day and then this idyllic vacation ends!

Costa Rica - Day 4

We spent yesterday on this catamaran - fishing, whale watching and snorkeling. Glorious weather! They built the marina about 10 years ago and it has been great for the local economy. As evidenced by all the yachts!

This is the huge boat lift they were using to dry dock the big yacht!

We went out about 8 miles and started trolling for fish. Kyle caught two tuna and Emily caught a mahi-mahi. As usual, it is more about fishing than catching! The crew cooked them for our lunch, along with a wonderful salad, chicken and rice we had another feast!

Poor Samantha got sea sick, despite taking Dramamine, so she laid low most of the trip. Heather asked her if she wanted anything at lunch time and she said "shore!" She was a real "trooper" and felt fine within an hour of landing.

It was exhilarating riding in the net but would not want to be there in rough waters!

We followed a mother hump back whale and her calf as they leisurely swam along. The water was so clear you could see their dark shadows before they breached the water. How lucky were we!

The crew gave Emily some fish food to sprinkle in the water while we were snorkeling and as soon as she did the fish swarmed us! Just small yellow and blue ones but it was creepy! We also saw larger dark gray/black fish with bright yellow fins.

Another great day!!

Costa Rica - Day 3

As usual in the tropics it rains almost every late afternoon or evening - although it did not yesterday. We actually welcome it because it cools the temperature!

Today was an adventure like no other! Our customized jeeps - we needed two - picked us up at the villa at 8:00 am for a rain forest and waterfall tour. OMG - what an experience! Our guides were great - they stopped along the jeep trail and pointed out a lot of interesting local flora and fauna. We saw, tasted and smelled: cinnamon bark; allspice leaves; a plant that smelled like licorice and one that smelled like root beer; vanilla beans; African palm oil trees; Brahma cattle that can tolerate the heat here and gorgeous views of lush green mountains.

Typical terrain in Costa Rica

A "rainbow" eculyptus

Louis, our guide, took special fern leaves and pressed them into the girls forearms and made white tattoos. He picked me a flower with a gardenia type fragrance. We saw "Jesus" lizards that walk on water and industrious leaf cutter ants that are "farmers." They cut hunks of leaves that are three times their body size and carrying them back home where other ants chew the leaves into a mucous that grows mushrooms that they eat!

Louis and Dopper, our other guide, also told us about living in Costa Rica - taxes, buying property, the school system, medical care and all the American investors!

There are waterfalls and rushing rivers scattered all through the forest and we went swimming in pools at the bottom of two of the largest falls! This is how we got to one of them:

At the end of the tour, we feasted on slow smoked pork, chicken, roasted plantains, yucca, rice and beans. The sauces were spicy and delicious. The yucca is similar to a baked potato. A wonderful typical Costa Rican meal!

Costa Rica - Day 2

Our chef cooked us a delicious meal last night - grouper, shrimp, risotto, green beans and chocolate lava cake! Our special drink was pineapple juice with basil - really refreshing!

See how he presented the fish and shrimp!

While sitting on our balcony with our morning coffee we glanced up and saw a whale swimming by! The hump back whales come here to have their calves in the warm, calm water. Couldn't get a picture but it was awesome to see it breach the water!

There are ropes strung all around Tulemar's property for the sloths and monkeys to travel through the trees. We saw three monkeys this morning.

We packed our lunch and took a short taxi ride to a gorgeous beach and spent the day playing on the paddle boards. The water temperature was perfect!

Dinner was at Ronnys - known for good food and a beautiful sunset views.