The long awaited Costa Rica post... and several other important events

Let me explain my lack of posting about my amazing trip to Costa Rica. I came home to a box (literally) of research papers, about 90 of them, weighing over ten pounds. I have been grading them like a mad woman and have only recently made my way to the surface of the ocean of papers I've been drowning in. Which is not to say that I am done grading--this is not nearly the case. But I AM done with the research papers, and good riddance to them. My only consolation is that almost everyone did horribly and no one got higher than a 90%. Idiots.

My trip was... wonderful. Truly, truly wonderful. I was apprehensive at first because I didn't know what kind of people would be in my group (I thought it would be all golden oldies) but it turned out we had a great mix. I wouldn't have traded any of them (okay, maybe three of them but no one else!) for anyone. I now have a ton of friends in New York and New Jersey, and they all want me to be their daugher in law. Score!

The country itself is beautiful--a perfect mix of volcanic mountains, lush rainforest greenery, and blue ocean water. The wildlife there is amazing as well--toucans, poison dart frogs, four species of monkey, huge grasshoppers--all of which I saw when I was there. There are nine active volcanoes in the country and we saw two of them.

This is the first, Poas volcano. This is the lake in the crater at the top. That cloud is steam. The whole way up it was hard to breathe, because of the sulfer fumes in the air. My lungs were burning and I felt like I'd been smoking for 20 years. Still, the view was worth it, and eventually my lungs got used to being poisoned. I'm sure the permanent damage is rather minimal...

This is one of the lagoons near the summit. Beautiful.

My favorite place was this little place called Tortuguero. We had to get to it by boat, and it's this tiny little strip of a place where the town, San Francisco, was basically around for tourists. There's a turtle station there, but we didn't get to see any because it's not their nesting season. Anyway, we stayed at these little cabins in the woods and howler monkeys woke us up at about 5 am both mornings. I didn't mind. ;) After they woke us up, they used the trees around our cabins, and the roofs of the cabins themselves, for a jungle gym! They were so close! I tried to coax one into my cabin so I could bring it home, but they wouldn't come. I guess I should've used bananas...

This is me on the porch of my little cabin. That rocking chair was amazing! This is how I spent the very early hours of Easter Sunday, sitting on my porch thinking and journaling about the trip.

After Tortuguero, we went to a pineapple plantation. It's the place that supplies pineapples to the Collin Street Bakery, which is apparently in Texas. The guy taught us how to pick the perfect pineapple (all I ever thought was wrong!!) and he gave us samples of a pineapple that he cut. Right in front of us. With a machete. Talk about fresh! It was SOOO GOOD. Of course. Now, I've seen the Dole Plantation in Hawaii (far superior) but still, free pineapple makes me happy. Yay pineapple!

This is Arenal volcano, the second we saw. The day was amazingly and miraculously clear and we could almost see the peak. All that white vapor isn't clouds, it's steam coming from the peak of the volano. Our tour guide, J.P., said this was a rare sight! We acutally had amazing weather the whole trip and for spending several days in the rainforest, it only rained once, and it was on our way back to our cabins so it didn't really put us out. Amazing, right?

The whole trip was just an amazing experience and a huge blessing in my life. I really needed to get away from everything and everyone, and Costa Rica was the perfect way to do that. I met wonderful people and saw fascinating and beautiful things. It was awesome in the true sense of the word.

I do have one crazy story from the trip, though. The second night at our hotel, which was Good Friday, I'm sitting in the "restaurant" enjoying dinner with a fellow traveler. All of a sudden, these two young ladies walk in and one looks extremely familiar to me. I can't place her though. The second lady turns around and BOOM! They're two girls I went to high school with! They weren't in my class, they're a bit younger than me, but still. Three HHS grads randomly meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica at a Holiday Inn restaurant. What are the odds? I couldn't even believe it!

Of course, I took many, many pictures on the journey. Four albums of pictures are posted on Facebook. The first one is here. The second, here. Numero tres? Here. And last but certainly not least, number four is here. Check them out because these few don't even begin to cover what I saw and experienced there.

Last week Thursday I went to see Ray LaMontagne with my friend Drew, who I converted to the ways of Ray. It was at the Fillmore on South Beach and we sat IN THE FIFTH ROW!! I could NOT belive my luck! Granted, I did get presale tickets, but still. These seats were only bested by my second row Jason Mraz seats on Halloween. Anyway, he sang "Hold You in my Arms," which I will one day dance to at my wedding, and I know that he sang it to me. Clearly. He also sang Drew's favorite, "Jolene." He sang almost every song I wanted to hear (but let's be real, I wanted to hear them all) and the show was just... perfect.

Here's what fifth row looks like:

*sigh* I love him SO much, and have wanted to see him live for about three years. He barely speaks to the audience and doesn't even stand in the middle of the stage. I really think he has anxiety or something, but who cares? He's amazing. The opening act was also awesome, Jessica Lea Mayfield. Drew bought me the CD, so she and I are becoming friends. She sounds like a Zooey Deshanel/Mazzy Star combo, Drew and I decided. She was good.

The next day, I slept in because I was chaperoning Grad Bash. Remember last year when I went to Disney, got in for free, got a fast pass for nearly every ride, AND got a stipend for going? Yeah, this year I did it again but it was at Universal. It was outstanding. Here's the group I hung out with most of the evening. How cool is it that I work with cool gals such as these?

Before the park opened, there was a "pre-party" at this paino bar (sans alcholol for the night, however) where there was food and pianos for the chaperones. We sat down to chill and eat (there wasn't much else to do at this point) and were dubbed "the party table" by the paino player. I'm sure people thought we broke the "no boozing" rule, but no, we just know how to party it up in the MIA! It was super fun!

We basically walked onto every ride. I rode The Hulk and Dueling Dragons, my first up-side-down roller coasters. The Hulk was intense but super fun! The Mummy ride was totally the best and we went on it twice, which you can totally do when you don't have to wait in line. How will I ever go to a park and deal with having to stand in line forever? I've been spoiled, clearly!

Pics of both events are posted, again, on Facebook. Click here for more Ray/Grad Bash photos.

Whew! Finally getting this posted is a Costa Rican howler monkey off my back!

Much love, y'all!