Costa Rica

   Two Christmases ago my sisters and I were graciously given frequent flier miles from our mom for a sister’s trip.  With the combination of not being able to agree on a location and Shelly getting married that summer, our trip ended up happening this year instead of last.  Better late than never!  After much research, we finally settled on Costa Rica.  About a week after that decision Lindsay informed us that she would be studying abroad in Costa Rica during the next semester (meaning, right now).  Somewhat defeating the point of traveling to a new place together, but clearly a God-ordained, open door to a place we already had travel plans, so we ran with it.

   I love international travel for numerous reasons, one of which is experiencing different cultures.  The U.S. is an amazing country and yet such a bubble.  As uncomfortable as feeling out of place can be, having that bubble popped every once in a while gives valuable perspective.  To that end, we opted to stay on a coffee plantation instead of tourist town hotel.  A local family owns the plantation and rents out the guest house to travelers.  It was perfect - complete with a full kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms for a super reasonable price.  The son of the family picked Shelly & I up at the airport (waiting patiently during the hour it took us to get through customs!), which turned out to be a huge blessing because as we quickly learned, there are no street names in CR.  So if you don’t know where you’re going, you may not get there.  The family was wonderfully generous, providing the three of us a traditional breakfast the next morning, and were significantly better than a travel book when trying to figure out the bus system.  They even showed us how to harvest coffee!

   Worth mentioning, but not elaboration are these other observations unique to CR culture:
• Bus - drives with the door open, uses foam pockets for sorting coins from riders (meaning all manual collection)
• Roads – mostly neighborhoods, not many main or big roads
• No law to wear seat belt in backseat
• Huge road gutters, kind of like mini moats
• Weather -  blue skies & hot in morning,  cloudy/ muggy/ rainy in afternoon
• Because of the weather, people wake up early
• Tons of shoe stores
• Lots of fried food
• Road biking is super popular
• All taxis are red – and only taxis are red

   We had three full days together with significant portions of that time spent on buses getting to and from various Costa Rican highlights.  If you’re looking for a quick summary of the trip it can be summed up in three words: we were together.  If you’re looking for a little more, here’s the run down:
Once Shelly and I dropped off our stuff and waited for the monsoon like rain, vibrate-your-insides thunder, and lightening that made the sky look like a continuous flow of power surges to pass, we set off to find Lindsay.  Our hour and a half journey took us to the Whitworth Costa Rica campus nestled atop an over-sized hill outside Heredia (the city).  We were able to meet some of her friends, see where they “study”, and enjoy the fact campus feels like home away from home before heading back down to her host-dad’s Soda (a.k.a. local café) for dinner.

   Our first full day we went to La Playa de Puntarenas (the beach).  Not the most glamorous or beautiful of the many beaches, but it was far less crowded and the closest to Heredia with water just as warm as all the rest.  On our way home we went through San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.  As expected, the city was packed with people and traffic.  We walked the main tourist strip, went into quite a few shoe stores on a mission to find TOMS (but failed), and treated ourselves to caramel relleno churros as a consolation.

   Day two Lindsay’s host parents offered to be our tour guides to the Irazu Volcano.  Not only did this mean no bus was involved in the journey, but it was also an opportunity to get to know the family who adopted Lindsay for the semester.  #Win.  Since they don’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish, direct communication between us was sparse.  However that “us” doesn’t include Shelly or Lindsay as they are both more than capable Spanish conversationalists and lucky for me, able translators.  After a couple hours we finally made it to the top of the volcano where we were greeted with low clouds, cold wind gusts, and horizontal rain.  Definitely not ideal conditions, which gave us no choice but to bundle and brave the elements.  We walked the rim, saw the beautiful teal lagoon that is the volcano mouth, took some pictures and bought post cards before heading back down.  A few “detours” and some traffic later, we made it back to San Rafel (where they live).  William and Zayra generously invited us to stay for dinner where we were treated to a traditional Costa Rican meal called Patacones.  It’s plantains cut into fifths, peeled, fried, smooshed, fried again, then topped with black bean purée and a homemade pico de gallo type salsa. Buen provecho (a.k.a. SO good)!  Despite feeling somewhat out of the loop through out the day, simply observing William and Zayra was enough to reveal their genuinely kind hearts.  What a blessing to know my sister is in good hands, well fed and more importantly well loved while she’s away.

   Day 3 we set out for the adrenaline rush of zip lining from tree to tree through a cloud forest.  Upon arrival we learned that the tourist attraction actually originates from efficiency minded scientists who were studying plant life in the top of Costa Rican trees back in the 70’s and decided it was easier to zip from one tree to the next instead of going up and down.  Then someone brilliant thought to monetize it so people like us could pay money to put on uncomfortable harnesses, wear goofy hats, and fly through the forest.  I was totally in my element and loved every second.  Since our morning started with the early canopy tour, we decided to “be locals” with the second half of the day.  We lunched at an El Salvadorian restaurant and topped it off with dessert at the ice cream shop around the corner before walking the streets.  After a few hours we hopped on a bus back to Santa Barbara and our coffee plantation abode, stopping on our way for dinner at the local fancy restaurant.
   Despite being a little short for my taste, the trip was a success.  I am fully aware how blessed I am to have sisters that aren’t just family, but my closest friends as well.  And even more so that we travel well together :)  One of my favorite quotes is “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page” (St. Augustine).  My heart is overjoyed that the pages of this trip are filled with pictures and memories with my sisters.

February

February has definitely not been my most consistent post card month.  Actually, it’s been my least.  Sorry to anyone who stopped by looking for a post and left the page wondering if I’m alive.  I am.  And I have no great excuse to offer for my absence except that after almost six months of living in WA I have established a routine and it’s not all that exciting.  This translates into moments that don’t seem all that noteworthy and results in a month of silence from me.  However, that is about to change.  I’m here now to fill you in on some of the events that have occupied my everyday routine over the last month.

Not my picture, but it is the field we play on

Since most people would probably consider Monday the first day of the week, I’ll start there.  Monday night is soccer night.  The city of Seattle has a few different recreational soccer leagues varying in skill level and the one I’m in happens to be co-ed.  It also happens to be outside, in the winter months of the Pacific Northwest, on a regulation size field for the full 90 minutes, with legs and lungs that haven’t been in soccer shape since high school, whether rain or shine.  And let’s be honest, shine is rare these days so it’s mostly rain.  I hope I’m painting a picture that creates images of icicles and pain because it really does feel like that some nights.  Easing off the dramatics a bit, the team is made up of a bunch of my co-workers and kindly sponsored by LivingSocial (which is nice because the leagues up here are expensive!).  For the most part everyone on the team has played at some level with a few of them having played much more competitively in college.  As a whole we’re a pretty good, but our record doesn't exactly reflect that.  It's a building year :).  My favorite part is getting to “play” with people I would otherwise only know in a work setting.  The common ground and shared experience of a well fought game in freezing rain is great for bonding. 

Also great for bonding is eating.  Every once in a while a group of us from the office will venture up to Pike’s Place Market for lunch.  There are tons of food options for whatever you might be craving (except for Mexican food which I can’t seem to find anywhere!).  On one of our recent trips a few co-workers and I found an amazing bakery that sells some of the largest pastries I have ever seen.  We had to purchase one each because we thought no one would believe us if we didn’t.  The $3.75 was well worth it and we have proof! 

Not taken from Gas Works Park
But I did tell you Rainer is one of my favorites

Not that you wouldn't believe me, but if you didn't I also have proof that there are days of blue skies here.  Right in the middle of February there was a gloriously clear weekend.  I felt compelled to be outside.  My morning errands resulted in an early afternoon adventure where I stumbled upon Gas Works Park on the north end of Lake Union.  Fittingly named, it’s the former home of Seattle Gas Light Company and according to Wikipedia “contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US”.  Despite all the complex machines now out of commission still occupying a portion of the park, I only took a picture of the view looking towards downtown.  The machines are interesting, but this was more captivating so you’ll have to keep checking back for a post card of the Plant.

Since I’m someone who tends to save the best for last, I also spent more time than usual with my sisters in February.  It was fabulous.  Shelly & Matt moved into a beautiful home in a military community near Ft. Lewis at the beginning of the month and Lindsay was in town to share in the festivities (a.k.a work).  The way I look at it, if you have to be doing the non glamorous labor of cleaning, boxing, loading, just to unload, un-box, and clean some more, you might as well get to do it with your sisters.  A few weekends later Shelly and I explored a new hiking trail that dumps you right onto WA version of a beach.  Pretty, but definitely leaves something to be desired.  Like sand. And sun.  I love that living here allows for weekends together.  

That about sums it up.  I'm going to commit to at least four postcards in March so anyone still reading this, feel free to hold me accountable.

Washington Weekends

One of the great perks in moving to Washington is living closer to my sisters.  But “closer” is the key word in that sentence because even though we now live in the same state, we don’t exactly live close enough for random, spur of the moment weekday get togethers.  Which leaves weekends and we put the ones in October to good use!

October 8th: According to Wikipedia, Mt. Si "is a remnant of an oceanic plate volcano and the rocks are highly metamorphosed" (whatever that means).  More importantly, "the 4-mile long Mount Si trail climbs a total of 3,500 feet to the summit ridge.  The summit of Mount Si can then be reached by an exposed scramble (class 3) up the summit block which is know as the "Haystack"."  Conquering this hike was on Shelly and Matt's to-do list, so I added it to mine and we set out for the day.  Starting out we all thought, how hard can it be?  If we can stand on the top of Half Dome, Mt. Si is totally doable.  We didn't account for the fact that 3,500 feet in 4 miles means straight up hill the entire time.  Needless to say, we got our butt workout for that day :)  Besides spending time together, my favorite part was rock climbing up the Haystack.  It's super steep and somewhat terrifying if you put too much though into the pain that could be caused if you slip and fall, but totally worth the extra work once at the top.  And we were blessed with a gorgeous day which made for great views from the summit!

At what we thought was the summit
looking up at the top of the Haystack

Bottom of the Haystack

View from the top looking East

October 15th-16th: Bainbridge Island is across Puget Sound from the city of Seattle and home to Shelly's in-laws.  They hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner and graciously invited me to join them in kicking off the holiday season on "the island".  Their home is gorgeous, dinner was delicious, Bainbridge is adorable, and time together was wonderful.  Matt, Shelly and I capped off the weekend by going to the Sounders v.s SJ Earthquakes soccer game.  60,000 fans packed the stadium, most of whom knew every word to every cheer and literally stood the entire 90 plus minutes.  It was quite the experience.

Bainbridge Gardens - local favorite

It looks empty, but don't be fooled...
we were two hours early

Ferry ride back to Seattle from the island

October 22nd-23rd: Sometimes I wish the folks who decided where state lines would fall had broken up the west coast into a few more states.  On the east coast you can drive for five hours and see at least three states, if not more.  In Washington, if you drive for five hours (east) you're still in the same state and likely rolling into the city of Spokane; which in my case was great because that is where Lindsay goes to schol and my intended destination.  During the quick two day trip we ran a few errands, had a water front picnic in the main park downtown, waited in a 30 minute line to get locally acclaimed pumpkin donuts at Greenbluff, went for a hike at Bowl and Pitcher, successfully made an experimental new cookie creation, watched a movie, and spent two days of thoroughly enjoying quality time and conversation.  I'm thankful to live within driving distance of weekends like this.

One of the many pictures taken during my drive

Downtown Spokane park where we had lunch

Taking a break during our hike :)

Greenbluff pumpkin donuts!