O'Connor O'Riginals

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2011-12-05T12:27:00.001-05:00

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ThAAAnkful

2011-11-28T22:13:00.001-05:00

The Tuesday before major holidays I take my mom to visit a friend of mine. We typically play seasonal piano duets and trios and go out for lunch. This tradition has been going on for nearly 20 years when my mom would drive here on the Sunday before a holiday.

This year, we were taking an exit from one major highway to another and there was some construction going on. The exit was two lanes and there was a car in the other lane so I had nowhere to go when I saw what looked to be a clump of dirt from the construction.

After I hit it, I soon found that it was more than dirt. The ride got bumpier and bumpier until I could barely steer.

We got off at an industrial park where I'd never been before. I called AAA and tried to explain where I was. They gently reminded me that I had neglected to renew my membership at the beginning of the month. You can bet I whipped out my debit card super-fast!

It was pouring rain but the nice AAA man arrived within 30 minutes. He got the tire changed out and put air in the other front tire. My mom didn't even have to help lift the car!

My friend had also come so we had sandwiches in a little shop in the industrial park. Not a bad end to the day.

I will never let that membership lapse again!

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The Circus Was...

2011-10-08T08:18:00.001-04:00

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...Memorable. It was also great, exciting, wonderful, fun, scary sometimes and brought back some very interesting memories...

I couldn't remember the last time, if ever, I had been to a circus.

Memory number one: Years ago when we lived in Milwaukee, we went to the Ringling Brothers Circus Parade. That was the neatest thing - we could watch them set up, hang around the backlots.

Tom was so engrossed in taking pictures of the Budsweiser Clydesdales that he nearly got run over by them while he was trying to take their picture. Unfortunately, those are on actual film so maybe sometime I'll scan those in.

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Last night we got to the circus in the nick of time. I was sure we would be late but we got to our ringside seats a few minutes before the show started. We were literally in the front row. There was a raised platform running around the ring right in front of us where performers (and some animals) would stand, run, walk. It was amazing being so close to them.

The red in this picture is the actual ring in front our seats. I'm sorry I'd had the flash turned off!

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I started looking around and took the picture of the "stage" to my left. This is where the larger props came from. The band was in the "mouth". Most of the performers came down the aisles through the audience.

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Memory number two: You can't really see it in this picture but about halfway up on the right side is an "imagination chair". It's a sort of throne-looking chair with a helmut and wires sticking out the top. Seeing that took me right back to my childhood, to an unpleasant memory.

At some point when I was a child, someone had the bright idea that you could prevent crimes by making a mockup (although I was sure it was real at the time!) of a wooden electric chair and turning it into a mobile exhibit. This trailer travelled around Connecticut and scared me out of a life of crime!

Not the best way to start a circus for me.

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The circus did start and there were great acrobats, clowns, a woman climbing a rope, Grandma, a juggler, a comedy magician act, beautiful horses, dogs, a porcupine(!) followed by a potbelly pig and a...

...capybara. Memory number three. This one is freaky.

When my son was about 6 I'd take him to Delaware to visit my parents. On a couple occasions, they'd take us to the zoo where there were some capybaras. My father and son both seemed fascinated by these large rodents. They are kinda cute.

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I hadn't thought about capybaras for about 25 years and here they are back, on the anniversary of my father's death. How odd. I keep thinking maybe my Dad is sending me a message. But through a circus?

Whatever, the coincidence was astounding and helped knock the electric chair right out of my head.

We did have a great time at the circus and I'd go again, even though I got a bit more out of it than was expected - or planned.

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Going to See the Big Apple Circus Friday Night!

2011-10-02T12:24:00.001-04:00

Profiled on the PBS series Circus and dedicated participants in community-outreach programs, the international performers of Big Apple Circus stretch one ring to new limits with this year's original show, Dream Big!. The all-new performance garnered glowing reviews in the Washington Post for its kid-friendly entertainment, talented entertainers, and fashion-forward clown shoes.

With every seat within 50 feet of the ring, eyes clearly catch the nuances of intricate acts, such as Melanie Chy, a third-generation circus performer who woos audiences with her body contortions, or theShandong Acrobatic Troupe, a group of 11 young men ranging in age from 13–27 who walked away from the International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo in 2010 with the prestigious Gold Clown Award and a delicious recipe for crêpes.

Leading the charge in his final year with the circus is lovable clown Grandma, a marquee member of Big Apple Circus since 1982 and inductee into the International Clown Hall of Fame. Grandma has also been seen on CBS's Circus of the Stars and in multiple appearances in Macy's famed Thanksgiving Day Parade and lesser-known Boxing Day Stand-Still.

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A Few More Lipizzaner pictures

2011-09-17T07:53:00.001-04:00

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I'll post the rest when I get home. I also have several short videos

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Herrmann Lipizzan Stallions 1

2011-09-16T16:53:00.001-04:00

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We lucked into a horse show!

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Walking around Lane's Cove

2011-09-15T22:48:00.001-04:00

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Then the rains came

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The Firestation is...

2011-09-15T22:45:00.001-04:00

...closed?

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A male whale named mogul

2011-09-14T21:34:00.001-04:00

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He's a humpback and we also saw a minke

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Mogul 2

2011-09-14T14:21:00.001-04:00

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A few more from the Gulf of Maine

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Whale watching

2011-09-14T11:58:00.001-04:00

Where we're headed. Whales guaranteed. More later - hopefully!

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Essex River Cruise

2011-09-14T09:29:00.001-04:00

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Since I was in bed at 9, I woke up at 6 AM - unheard of! Finally, I stopped trying to get back to sleep and started checking email and message boards. Susan woke up and we started planning our day.

There was an Essex River Cruise leaving a 1 and we decided to get on it.

The captain gave a wonderful narration of the islands, wildlife and the estuary itself.

The word “estuary” is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, which in itself is derived from the term aestus, meaning tide. There have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. The most widely accepted definition is: “a semi-enclosed coastal body of water, which has a free connection with the open sea, and within which sea water is measurably diluted with freshwater derived from drainage.

Check out this video of our trip that someone posted oh YouTube;

See all the pictures here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111010152758124757139/EssexRiver

After the cruise we decided to wander around the little seaside town of Rockport. Lots of neat shops. We went into the candy shop and didn't come out empty handed...

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Essex River Cruise

2011-09-14T09:28:00.001-04:00

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Since I was in bed at 9, I woke up at 6 AM - unheard of! Finally, I stopped trying to get back to sleep and started checking email and message boards. Susan woke up and we started planning our day.

There was an Essex River Cruise leaving a 1 and we decided to get on it.

The captain gave a wonderful narration of the islands, wildlife and the estuary itself.

Check out this video of our trip that someone posted oh YouTube;

See all the pictures here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111010152758124757139/EssexRiver

After the cruise we decided to wander around the little seaside town of Rockport. Lots of neat shops. We went into the candy shop and didn't come out empty handed...

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Last Trip For Awhile

2011-09-12T02:06:00.001-04:00

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A few starter pictures...

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Not Going Anywhere!

2011-09-09T12:02:00.001-04:00

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Lazy Days and... Tuesdays?

2011-08-31T10:27:00.001-04:00

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In the morning, a reporesentative from the Sunday non-catamaran came here to convince us we'd like to have a free trip with them plus they would pay for our taxi getting back here. Tom said no, maybe we'd take them up on that offer next year. The representative and Tom called the president of the company who was also stunned that we wouldn't be bought off for a free catamaran trip and a $30 taxi ride.

Turns out that they were supposed to pick up 9 people at the Hilton but only 4 showed up. So they inconvenienced about 40 people for the Hilton and less than 50% of their folks even showed up.

But we moved on...

A lazy, lazy day by The Crane pools. These pictures were taken throughout the day and into the evening. To see the whole album and some nice sunset shots, please click here.

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Jammin' Cat

2011-08-31T09:12:00.001-04:00

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What a nice - but early! - day. The taxi picked us up at 7:30 am for the Jammin' Cats catamaran. Along the way we picked up a couple young women from Holland, then another from Australia.

We arrived at the Careenage, paid our bill, took off our shoes and got onboard. We found a nice little place in the shade for a while before leaving the dock.

Not long after we got onboard, we started motoring out of the careenage into the Caribbean for thesbille first snorkel site, the one where folks can swim with the hawksbill sea turtles. People coudn't use fins here because the turtles are endangered. Due to Tom's puncture wound, we had decided not to go in the water on this trip but it was fun to see the others swimming with the turtles.

We countinued along to a snorkel site over a scuttled French ship, the Berwin. The Berwin is a World War I French boat scuttled in 1919 by her own crew. Her captain thought that they were being followed by a German U-Boat and decided to abandon ship first. The Berwyn sits between 7 and 10 feet below the surface depending on the tide. We could see her outline from onboard ship. Because it's so calm in the bay and because the wreck is nearly 100 years old, it is covered in marine life, such as coral, and lots of fish.

When we left the Berwin it was time to hoist the sails and head north to Payne's Beach. In this calm bay we were close to land and it was pretty shallow so people could have fun swimming, floating on mattresses or going into shore. This catamaran also had the luxury of drink delivery to the mattresses and swimmers! Next time, you'll find me relaxing on a floating mattress!

After a bit, it was lunch time. Those of us onboard got to eat while the swimmers were still climbing on board. It was a pretty standard Bajan Tour lunch - peas'n'rice, flying fish, curry chicken, salad, macaroni pie... I'm not complaining at all, though - I love it all :)

After lunch, a bit more swimming, then heading south again.

We disembarked about 2:30 or so and got home about 3:30. It was a beautiful day, no rain, but I was exhausted. I fell asleep and didn't wake up until about 8.

We got a call from the front desk - someone from the Sunday non-catamaran had called. Tom got the number to call back on Tuesday.

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Medical Tourism

2011-08-30T20:34:00.001-04:00

Our catamaran pickup was for 8:15 so we got up early. The driver was actually here before 8:15 so we hustled to get to the (huge) bus. Another family fro The Crane was already on board. We waited a bit for someone else who never showed up.

At the first stop we picked up a bunch of guys who turned out to be part of a hockey team. They were either still, or already, drunk and acting moronic. Wonderful.

This bus held at least 40 people and we were nearly full when we got to the Hilton to pick up the last few people. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. Some of our folks got off to see what was going on. No answers. Tom got off and talked to the driver about why we were holding up the busload of people for so long. The driver said it was his orders, to talk to "the boat".

Finally, after about 45 minutes, 4 people got on the bus. No apologies from them or the driver. We just continued to the catamaran. Everyone except us got on the catamaran. Tom wanted to see the manager, who was not there on Sunday (of course !). The folks in the office said to let it go, we'd be "happy" once on board, probably referring to the open bar.

We said no, that we weren't going. They called us a taxi (at our expense, naturally). Tom got the name of the manager to speak with him later.

Our taxi arrived and we left. We told the driver exactly what had happened and he drove us to the competition! The first boat, Cool Runnings, had already left for the day but a very kind man from the Jolly Roger called them for us us. The didn't have any openings until Tuesday so the Jolly Roger man (Tom thought his name was Richard) booked us a trip for Monday on Jammin' Cats. I was really amazed at how kind and helpful the taxi driver and Richard(?) were to us.

If you need a taxi in Barbados, Call Big Apple at 246-239-0637. A great guy.

Meanwhile, on the trip back to The Crane, Tom mentioned that we had a bat in our apartment overnight. He had heard it about 2 am, then again at dawn the bat was at the glass doors trying to get out. Tom had pinned him (or her) between the slatted door and the glass door, then tried to open the glass door to let the bat out. S/he flew away and Tom noticed that his arm was bleeding.

I saw the puncture wound and we were trying to decide what to do. When we got back, Tom called the front desk to ask about doctors. Naturally, it was Sunday... He got the name of an emergency clinic that was open until midnight. I looked up bats online and found that there had been no rabies here for at least a decade. All the people said that there was no rabies here, too, but we wanted to be sure.

I wasn't even sure that it was a bat bite since it was just one puncture wound, not 2 (or 4) but we headed off to find the emergency clinic. There were about 10 people ahead of us and only 1 doctor so it took a while to get in. The nurse reiterated that there was no rabies here, took Tom's medical history. Turns out his last tetanus shot had been just over 10 years ago.

Back to the waiting room. Just after 5, we got to go into the small doctor's office. I was amazed at the old-style exam table.

After a bit, the doctor came in and told us what we already knew - it was probably not a bat bite. They dont have rabies here on Barbados but had it been Trinidad... Tom did have an infection that was creeping up his arm so he got the tetanus shot, got the wound cleaned and dressed, prescriptions for antibiotic ointment and meds.

We took the prescriptions to the pharmacy next door, then back to the clinic for paperwork that we can try to submit to our insurance when we get home.

Crisis averted!

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Hurricane Irene Day

2011-08-30T19:44:00.001-04:00

Saturday - I guess that Hurricane Irene has hit North Carolina. This one looks a bit concern since my Mom is in Virginia and our son and my best friend are in New York - both places where this storm is projected to hit.

Reminds me of Hurricane Carol which hit where we lived when I was a kid. My Mom said "let's go down and see the waves". Our car got stuck and we probably would have washed out to sea had we not been blocking the path of a truck who wanted to get out of the area fast. He pushed us to safety.

We lived on a small embankment and when we got home, we could see that the road directly below us was flooded and people were going by in rowboats.

Even here it is pouring rain today. I'm not sure if there's another hurricane brewing or not. I guess I'll just read inside today. I'm still on book #5.

Sunday is supposed to be our catamaran. We'll see if it gets cancelled or postponed. It looks like rain off and on here for the rest of the week, though. I guess this is why it's called "the rainy season".

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Plantation Dinner Theater

2011-08-28T13:25:00.002-04:00

Friday was a nice day with a little rain on and off. We had gone to Reception to sign up for a couple activities - The Plantation Dinner show and a catamaran for snorkeling.

It turned out that The Plantation was available last night so we grabbed that.

They set up a little wedding arbor on the cliff across from us so we took a few pictures. This wedding was a bit different from last year. This year, the bride walked down the hill, last year, she rode in a golf cart. This year was a violinist, last year a steel drummer.

1 of 4

The little video tried to get a bit of the violin music. I told Tom that I didn't think that the salty sea air here would be good for a violin and he said it was maybe a plastic-varius.

Our pick-up time for The Plantation was 5:45 so we got changed and off to the taxi. After going through Oistens and the beginnings of the Friday Fish Fry, we picked up 5 other people, all from the UK.

We got to The Plantation in plenty of time. We picked up our "welcome drinks" and ome of us had pictures with members of the cast. We went to our table - right on the dance floor, in front Nearly perfect seating. Turns out a 5-year-old named Edward had the center front seat. More about him later.

We were entertained by the Casablanca Steel Orchestra - 5 steel drums with 4 drummers, a bass and a drum set. I love watching the one who deals with 2 steel drums - very talented!

Dinner time and lots of great food - salads, flying fish, macaroni pie, BBQ chicken, beef stew, peas'n'rice, desserts and more, coffee... Whatever anyone could possibly want and lots of it. There is also an open bar but I stopped after the first rum punch.

After dinner, the show started.

Here are some highlights:

My favorites, I think, are the stiltwalkers. I am always amazed at how they can dance on those stilts. And I wonder why there are no women doing this.

After the show was the limbo contest, then a singer whow encouraged people to dance with songs like Hot, Hot Hot and In De Congaline.

Took the taxi back home - all in all a great night!

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Falling Into the "Do-It-Later" Syndrome

2011-08-25T18:57:00.001-04:00

I am getting so lazy, just sitting around and reading. I did finish that book from the last post, Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel. I have started book #4, Treason at Lisson Grove by Anne Perry. I have a special bond with the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series because I first discovered it here at The Crane lending library about 9 years ago.

I haven't taken many pictures these last few days since there's not much happening. I did take these of the coming rain...

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I think that this day, Tuesday, was the day or the earthquake in the DC area. Sounded pretty scary.

The rains let up in the afternoon and we went swimming. That's the great thing about rain here - it rains for a few minutes, the sun comes out and everything dries up again. Just like The Itsy Bitsy Spider:

The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout.

Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,

and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

I took this picture of the little lizard trying to hide on the louvres in the bathroom:

Not much else of interest. This morning we had a meeting with some of The Crane staff, then off to Cutters for breakfast, Emerald City for more groceries then back to my chair for reading.

It's so relaxing here. We've been here just under a week but it seems like nearly forever...

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I'm Already Falling Behind

2011-08-23T11:36:00.001-04:00

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... And falling literally but more of that in a bit.

Here it is Tuesday and I'm already falling behind.

Sunday, Tom got back from his meeting about 11 or so. Within 5 minutes some storm out to sea blew in a lot of rain at such an angle that it flooded about half the living room floor.

After getting that cleaned up we headed over to Emerald City to do our first grocery shopping of the trip. On Sundays they close at 2:00 so we wanted to be fast about that.

I had decided to get some nail polish but they were out of most colors. Only blue, yellow and green were left. I considered doing 1/2 blue and 1/2 yellow as a form of Cushie solidarity or something but decided against that. I got the blue. Looking at my hands now I'm hoping I don't get rushed to the hospital. They might think I have cyanosis...

In addition to other stuff we got tutti fruitti milk and salt bread. I think I could live on a diet of just those 2 items for quite some time. I'm uploading a picture of salt bread. It's more what we would call rolls, not salty at all but d that to distinguish it from sweet bread. It also has a sliver of coconut leaf on the top.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We went swimming about dusk and into the huge open air jacuzzi. We decided to have dinner by the pool at the Carriage House.

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Monday morning I woke up early and went outside to take sunrise pictures. I also got a little video and some starling and lizard pictures while I was at it.

We got some more rain but not as bad as Sunday. I guess it's Hurricane Irene out there we can see something out to sea but only the weather channel can identify some of these storms.

I was closing up the bedroom doors and slipped and fell. I hurt my hip pretty bad on the floor and my shoulder on the edge of the TV cabinet.

I spent most of the rest of the day not moving too much and so I finished book #1, Requiem for a Gypsy by Michael Genelin. Ive read all his books so far. I started the series because it takes place mostly in Slovakia and our son had spent a summer there teaching English so I feel a connection, however tenuous.

I started (and finished) book #2, Death by Honeymoon which I got because it was cheap and because the main action takes place here in Barbados.

I started reading book #3, Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny. I've read several in that series and will probably complete it before long.

Dinner at home while watching American Ninja Warriors.

Life is good!

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We Made It!

2011-08-21T10:10:00.002-04:00

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Friday night seems so long ago now but that was when I took our dog to her sister's house - or what we call "summer camp". Mimi is so fortunate that her sister and human family let her visit so often and that she's never had to go to a kennel.

I got back from that about 10 and we had a quick dinner of sandwiches from the grocery. Then to finish up packing.

I got to bed about 12:30... Not too bad but we had to get up at 2:15 to catch our flight.

Our taxi arrived at 3 and we got to the airport by 4. Unfortunately, the flight folks didn't get there until nearly 5 so we couldn't check our baggage.

Finally, that was done, we cleared security, and got to the gate. One interesting thing about this flight was that we had used frequent flier miles on United. They got us the tickets through their partner, Air Canada, so we found ourselves flying from Washington, DC to Toronto before heading south to Barbados. Added a bit to the trip!

We did get some good sunrise pictures from the plane, though. The last few look like the wing is on fire. Maybe later I'll make up a better story about those pictures :)

All went well and we got to Toronto in about an hour and a half.

Cleared customs there but didn't have to get our luggage. Yea!

On to the next gate. The next flight had a bit of turbulence but I was proud of myself and didn't scream although I did clutch the armrests pretty heavily.

We arrived and all was well. Got our luggage, cleared customs and immigration and off to Stoute Rental Car. We have been renting cars (and once, bicycles) from them for about 15 years.

And we're off to The Crane, remembering to drive on the left. Around the roundabouts and up the road.

At last, we are home!

We got unpacked very quickly. We already know where everything goes. Computers set up, stuff put away, furniture moved so that the desk is facing the big doors to the ocean instead of the wall and smaller window to the ocean.

We went to the little grocery store here to tide us over until the real store on Sunday.

Tom did some email checking, I read and napped, then out to dinner at D'Onofrio's (Italian). Yummy food then back home.

When we got to our front door, there were 3 tiny baby frogs. I wished I had my camera. I got lucky when we got in because there was a slightly bigger one in our kitchen sink. I got his picture!

A little TV, a little reading, then fast asleep.

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24 hours...

2011-08-19T04:15:00.001-04:00

...and we'll be at the airport for our trip to Barbados.

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Heading to The Crane in Barbados in Just a Few Days

2011-08-17T14:41:00.001-04:00

I always get excited when it's close to Barbados time - it's like going home for me.

I was reading over some of the past years' blog posts and found that the images in some have a big black triangle. I'm not sure what that's about but if you click on that triangle, the picture will show up.

This will be our 15th year going to Barbados since we went for the first couple years to Coral Point, just up the coast. So many memories, especially the ones from September 11, 2001. Then there were the years that hurricanes almost hit, the year we met an "alien", being on the Concorde, the horse races, the archeology at an old Jewish Synagogue, the beautiful flowers, the roti, last year when we had the big ceiling leak...

The Countdown has begun!

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Costa Rica, Tom's Pictures

2011-08-08T22:38:00.001-04:00

Here are some of the pictures Tom took. He took a lot of pictures of the destruction of the Oh, My God bridge, falling rocks on the road and other things I'm not as interested in.

Anyway, here are his pictures. We still have some coming from the waterproof camera taken in the Rainmaker rainforest. Those have to be developed before uploading.

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Costa Rica, Day 7 and Home

2011-08-08T18:34:00.001-04:00

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Early, early wake up time. We have to be at the airport by 5:00 am so we were up at 4:00 am. We got things we had taken out repacked - mostly electronics we wanted charged.

Checking out, we were able to get free "breakfast to go" bags that included cereal bars, juice, bananas and muffins. Pretty good.

The Holiday Inn had a 24/7 shuttle so we got on that within 5 minutes. It was only about 8 minutes to the airport. It was a good thing we were there early because the line to pay the departure tax was pretty long. Luckily, we had gotten a porter to move our bags because he was very helpful in showing us where to go for the departure tax and how to fill out the forms - then where to check in.

We got through security in plenty of time and I got a few pictures of the mountains outside the departure gate.

I ate the banana and the muffin. I should have had the juice since it was confiscated in a final security just before getting on the plane. The bottle was all sealed up but they took it anyway. Oh, well.

I was very happy on the plane. They showed the movie Water For Elephants. I had read (and shared with everyone) this book several years ago. I was glad to be able to watch the movie but it did cut into my naptime.

We arrived in Atlanta on time and went through the whole Customs/Immigration ordeal.It wasn't as bad as some places we have been through. All our luggage arrived and that's a good thing!

We stopped for a real meal at T.G.I.Fridays, then on to our gate. We were there about 30 minutes, then the gate changed so we dragged our stuff up the hall to the new gate. Boarding was pretty easy, then we taxied out for takeoff.

Then, we stopped. The pilot said that there were storms in the DC area so we couldn't land there. He figured that the storm was colser to Reagan airport and those flights were probably diverted to Dulles (our airport) and Baltimore. Whatever.

We sat, with the engines off, on the field. No engines, no A/C. They passed out ice water and told us to close the window shades to keep it "cooler". Right.

Finally, we were able to take off. Although I could see that we passed through some thunder storms, the flight was fairly smooth.

Into Dulles, got one suitcase. The big one is nowhere. Finally, that showed up and we got a taxi for home. Then off to get our dog ant the trip was over.

There will be more pictures later from Tom's camera plus the ones we took with the waterproof carmera in the Rainmaker rainforest.

Fairwell to

Thanks for reading!

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Costa Rica, Day 6

2011-08-08T18:05:00.001-04:00

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I'm writing this post from home since I ran out of time to to it in Costa Rica.

Saturday was a "rest day". Ha! We were originally going to leave Quepos early and head to San Juan, leave our stuff at the Holiday Inn and head further north to the Poás Volcano.

We decided that would be a bit much so we mostly packed up our stuff and headed to Dominical, a small surfing town.

Dominical has been know for many years to the international surfing community because of its consistently good waves. Discovered in the early seventies by a group of intrepid and dedicated surfers, Dominical has steadily gained in popularity over the last 30 years. The town has become a haven for surfers with local restaurants.

The unusual conditions of the beach is what gives its surf both size and dependability. The wave is a beach break with a twist, that twist being the mouth of the Rio Baru to the north. The river empties out of the mountains to the east and deposits sediments that form into a sandbar that spreads like a pair of lazy rabbit ears north and south of the mouth.

From http://www.dominical-costarica.com/aboutdominical.html

This town was down a dirt/gravel road. We missed it the first time because it looked more like a driveway than a road into a town. There were all little restaurants, towel and tshirt stores. The picture of the VW bus was a restaurant called San Clemente and the bus had sculptures of Elvis, a frog and a surfer hanging out the windows.

Some of the other images are taken out of the window of the car and include rivers, palm tree plantations, the mountains and more.

The picture of the airport made me very glad I was in a car and not in one of those little cars!

We got back to Pueblo Real, finished packing. It was raining then and the last balcony pictures were taken in the rain as a little comparison to the balcony pictures I took the first night.

We checked out and headed north to San Jose but we didn't get on the road until about 3:30 which kept us on the road after dark. One of the pictures is of the sunset through the car window.

We stopped at the Crocodile Bridge over the Río Tárcoles just north of the Pacific beach town of Jacó. I thought I saw some but Tom said that they were logs. We had some ice cream and continued heading north.

Thank goodness for GPS - we got to the Holiday Inn about 6:30. We checked in there, unloaded the car and went to dinner next door at... Denny's! Almost like being back in the US. We found the only nearby ATM in the Fiesta Casino. Then we returned the rental car which was also less than a block away. Everything was so convenient.

I watched part of a House - in English - before falling asleep early. We had to get up at 4am the next day...

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Glad we didn't fly in...

2011-08-06T16:23:00.001-04:00

The local airport, taken from the main highway in a moving car on the way from Dominical to Quepos. Too close!

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Baby lizard

2011-08-06T12:32:00.001-04:00

On the door underneath the hinge.

I have no idea how he got to the second floor!

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Costa Rica, Day 5

2011-08-06T00:14:00.001-04:00

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Another early day. We got up for an 8 am pickup. Today we went out snorkeling on a sailboat and saw some dolphins.

We stopped by the marina and I got a tshirt then, I decided I wanted a hat with SPF 45 built in so I went back in for that. Then Tom decided he wanted a shirt. This time the credit card was declined. I guess they thought it was stolen by then. Luckily, I had a second card.

All this activity made us the last ones inboard. We had been first at the dock.

We sailed out a bit and ran into the dolphins. I got lucky on the pictures. I was just shooting and hoping some would jump up when the shutter went off.

The video below is not mine but similar to what we saw:

The crew came around with wonderful pineapple slices. Yummy!

We sailed by a small rock island covered with brown booby birds. The little islands came up with the shifting of the tectonic plates.

Then snorkeling/swimming. There was a small island with sargent major fish. We had seen those in Barbados.

After this we had a nice lunch of fish, rice, potato, yucca and carrots.

A bit of sailing around then back home. First thing was to call the bank and assure them that the card hadn't been stolen, it was us making multiple small purchases.

Since we were already wet, we decided to go swimming. A nice dog came over and sat by me while I was reading. He even posed for the camera. I also tried to get a picture of a butterfly on a bush but I don't think it came out too well.

After showers, we headed in to Quepos to find the ATM again.

Then off to dinner. Our friends from Thrifty were there so we joined then and heard the whole saga of the flat tire.

Back home and writing this...

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Costa Rica, Day 4B

2011-08-04T23:36:00.003-04:00

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We ended going out to breakfast here at Pueblo Real and I took the pictures of the flowers afterwards.

After exchanging our reservations since Michael can't join us, we ended up going to Rainmaker Rain Forest. That's a privately owned rain forest down a long gravel road.

On that road I took the picture of the cow/bull or whatever it was with the huge buffalo hump.

True to it's name, it was pouring when we got to rainmaker. We decided to go inside anyway.

Because it was raining, we had to take most of our pictures with a waterproof camera, old-style that will need to be developed before uploading.

There was lots of climbing, suspension bridges, slippery places, rain. What fun!

I was pretty ok until we saw the red band around the tree that meant a worker had spotted a snake in it that morning. I don't know if the snake has to move the band when he moves.

Tom went very quickly by the tree and didn't see the snake. I looked into the tree and did see it. With the help of Wikipedia and google I identified it as a green vine snake when we got back. It's venom was "serious cut not lethal" to humans.

After I saw him, what little adrenaline I have got depleted very fast and I had some trouble finishing the walk. This was the day (of course!) that I didn't bring any extra cortisone.

Finally got home and took the cortef and Tom went back out for gas.

After he got back we got phone calls from our Thrifty friends who were off somewhere, in the rain, getting dark out...with a flat tire. Tom gave them phone numbers of the office here, Thrifty and others. He was thinking of trying to find them but they somehow got help from someone closer to the scene.

We went out to dinner and major rains, thunder and lightning. This is an open-ish restaurant so we had rain blowing in...and a crab wandered through.

Finally, we figured it was time to go and the ice restaurant folks lent us an umbrella.

Time to head to bed. Out early tomorrow for a sail/snorkel/lunch trip.

This is not my video but it's a good one of where we were today.

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Costa Rica, Day 4B

2011-08-04T23:36:00.001-04:00