Day 24 - Playitas, fish tacos with neighbors

Another great mellow day doing local things....Playitas beach, the pool and fish tacos with the neighbor boys.

Only in Costa Rica...on a very small street on our way to the local beach, they were doing construction. For a while, we just had to sit and wait. After quite a few people were honking, the construction workers made due....pulling the wires they were working on the let the buses and cars get by. You may have needed to be there to get the full effect.

Our kid with the neighbors, sitting in a "jacuzzi" at the beach.

Close up of the same "jacuzzi".

One of the many crabs that the kids tried to keep as friends/ pets.

Katie and James, her spanish teacher.

Brody and Alex boogey boarding in the luke-warm waters.

We invited the boys next door over for fish tacos on one of our last nights.

It was finally time for Alex's braids to come out.

Day 23 - Vanilla Tour

We had nothing but great things about this "food tour". Stace and I both thought it sounded different and were hopeful. Overall, it was pretty informative. But it definitely was NOT anything like water rafting! The kids were fairly entertained and interested, especially when they go to taste the food. It's crazy how much work goes into making vanilla!
We checked out the area where they dry the black and white peppercorn, tumeric and cocoa beans. They have to dry in the sun for 7 weeks.

Katie wanted to show us her cinnamon mustache. Did you know cinamon is just a second layer bark?? I was pretty interesting.

This is a close up of the vanilla bean. The farmers have to fertilize the flower to create the bean and then wait 8 months before they are ready to be picked. From there they wait months before they can be sold.

This is what pepper looks like before it is made BLACK. Black pepper is made by picking pepper before it is ripe. They dry if for many weeks...thus the wrinkly outside.

White pepppercorn is made by waiting for the pepper to ripen. The farmers pick it, put it in a mesh bag and hang it in river water. After a few weeks they take it out to dry and the outer shell had fallen off.

At the end of the tour we got to taste some food made with REAL vanilla. The kids really like the vanilla cheesecake and ice cream, but who wouldn't. Actually they were excellent.

Brody and Stace during the tasting. I think this was after the "real" hot chocolate, which was quite bitter, not tasty!

Day 22 - Main beach, Jetskis and El Avion restuarant again

We went down to the main beach to rent a jetski. Do you think a guy with only 1 achilles should be on a jetski? Me neither, but he doesn't listen. The kids were pretty excited to go jetskiing. To be honest I think it was scarier than they anticipated. Maybe thier dad was driving tooooo crazy for them. I rod with Stace too and he drives too crazy for me. I asked him to drop me off and he could go do that alone. Brody went first. The ride was soo short. Stace said he came back because he was scared. Of coarse after he said it was fun.
Stace and Brody on their way in.

Stace and Katie.

Can you imagine a HUGE american flag at Moonlight?

Stace and Alex. Stace says she seemed to like it the most. Thought is was funny went he floored it.

After we ate we went into the bar. It was after 7 pm, but I guess that wasn't late enough because we were the only people there, not even a bartender. Sooo...we let the kids climb up in the cockpit. There was a small chain at the top of the stairs, but we just ignored those. They had a great time...pretending.

On our way to dinner we pulled over to take this pic. We had some great views at our table but the kids were so tired they kept covering thier faces when I tried to take pics. Oh, well.

Day 21 - Farmer's market, lunch, beach

We went to the Farmer's Market that they have in the middle of town every Sat. am. It is quite different...but what you might expect in another country. All the farmers pull their trucks right up. The produce was very fresh, some still dirty from being picked, and great prices, too.

Group shot. I think there was only one other tourist/visitor there. No english spoken.

This guy seemed a bit crazy or looked what we would call homeless. He was carrying these HUGE red snappers around trying to sell them...just like that.

These people had this big machine right in the farmer's market. They brought fresh sugar cane and juiced it right there. We bought some "sugar water/juice", but surprisingly the kids didn't like it. Maybe it would have been better if it was cold.

Check out Stace's green onions. I have never seen an onion that big!

Before we hit the beach we stopped at the restaurant that Stace had been eyeing for weeks. It had a great view, as you can see.

Playitas. It is the beach where the locals go. We drive down a crazy road, and park our car right on the sand, wherever you think is a good spot to swim or lay. It even has lots of trees for shade.

Cute shot of dad and son. Brody could dig for hours, and he does.

This is Stace's favorite guy. This gay guy has been at the beach every time we are there. He does crazy yoga and exercises right next to us. Lou goes nuts! I had to take a pic.

Day 20 - home sweet home

After our crazy day rafting, we had a mellow day at home. Stace had to get some work done. The kids and I did a lot of "regular" stuff like laundry, grocery store, etc. The kids spent plenty of time playing with thier friends next door and thier dogs.

Day 19 - Water Rafting, Part 2

The area was so scenic. I tried to enjoy the scenery but I was also thinking about the kids and my job as a main paddler.

Oh, no! Where am I?

ALEX goes overboard!! Part 1 of 4. Look closely at the back right side of the picture.

Part 2 of 4. Hitting the rapids. I think she is still in. Notice the guide still sitting up high in the back.

Part 3 of 4. Alex is OUT. Notice you can't see Oscar, the guide, sitting up high. He was down and grabbing her before she could even let go, but she was still a little scared afterward.

Part 4 of 4. By the time we realized she was out and all turned around she was back in and fine. Katie thought the whole thing was pretty funny. By the end she wanted to fall in again.

Look closely at the kids' faces. In most of the pics they are smiling, laughing or just have their mothes open in shock.

Here we go again!

Overall the kids had an extremely memorable day. Today we asked them what they wanted to do on their last few days here and they said, "go water rafting again"!

Day 19 - Water Rafting, Part 1

Wow! What an amazing day! We didn't originally plan to go rafting. We thought the kids were too young. We were shopping at the main beach, talked to a sales lady and the next thing we knew we were signed up. Stace even went with his boot on. We thought that it would be mellow since they knew we had young kids with us. We planned on being able to hold on to them, or assumed they would just be sitting in the center of the boat on the floor...not so much. The twins didn't have a paddle, but Katie was fully responsible to do her part and Stace and I had to sit in the front and couldn't help with the kids AT ALL. I was pretty scared as we started. Both girls fell out once. Katie thought falling out was fun. The guide had Alex back in before anyone realized she was out. I think this may have been their VERY favorite thing we have done!

I thought we would be in a big mellow boat, but as you can see they were pretty small.

The kids weren't very excited at this point. I don't think they realized what they were about to do.

This was taken with out camera towards the beginning.
The scenery was so beautiful. Jungle and vines on both sides.

Here we are at the start. The boat was supposed to be just our 5, but one woman in the other group wanted to go in what she hoped would be a more "mellow" boat. She is sitting behind Stace.

Part 1 of 3. Before the rapids. Notice Katie smiling (behind me).

Part 2 of 3. We're going in.

Part 3 of 3.