We’re back!! To Costa Rica that is. We were going to come for our winter trip but we ended up postponing it until now. We had a long but uneventful travel day. The layover in Dallas was short but we had a little time since our first flight landed early.

The drive to the Arenal Volcano was a long! The last half was very twisty and curvy! A little too much at times. I’ve rode a d drove “The Dragon” in the Smokey Mountains, 318 curves in eleven miles. This road didn’t have as many switchbacks but it went on forever!

We made it to our hotel and after dropping our luggage we went and ate at the restaurant here at the hotel. Food was good, from the looks of the buffet setup they must put out quite the spread in the mornings.

Since we are so close to the volcano there is a lot of thermal activity in the area and that means hot mineral water for soaking tired, achy muscles.

We are going to start scheduling some activities in the morning, we are looking at doing some caving and white water rafting. There are some parks that we want to visit along with the little town close to here, La Fortuna.

Hopefully everyone is doing well and I really hope that I don’t have problems with doing posts this trip like in January.

Hello readers, I still haven’t figured out why my posts say they have failed to upload when they have. Hopefully I will be able to keep the resending of emails to a minimum, thanks Bob for the count of 38 emails the other day.

Today we went to the History Museum and the Railroad Museum. Just an FYI, parking is free on Sunday. Also they will give you a discount if you go to multiple museums in the system.

These are actually from the History Museum not the railroad museum!

Emily and I took a tour of the Bonaventure Cemetery this afternoon. It was very interesting. There was a lot of history there. There is a book and movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil that the guide talked about a lot. He went to school with the guy that was killed. That guy was not in this cemetery but some photos from this cemetery were used and caused some issues.

After a long day out and about we got back to our apartment and ordered out. We got BBQ from the Savannah Smokehouse. It was quick and it tasted good. Delivery prices were a little high but we didn’t have to do anything and I got a parking spot in front of our building.

I am having trouble with the app for WordPress. For those who subscribe you got an email each time the post on my phone tried to upload. Every time I hit retry, every time I opened the app and probably each time I just thought about trying again. I’m very sorry about that. I’m hoping that I have resolved the issue.

The view from our apartment balcony above and the inside below.

Today we drove from Chattanooga to Savannah, Georgia. I actually didn’t mind Chattanooga, Atlanta on the other hand was terrible. They has one area on the bypass that they were doing some guardrail replacement on the right shoulder and that added about a half hour to our trip. It was ridiculous.

We were recommended Sugar’s BBQ, we did see it on the way out of town this morning. We went to Mike’s Smokehouse for dinner last night, it was on the way from Lookout Mountain. I would have enjoyed the goats at Sugar’s. Mike’s was okay they had a good smokiness and probably too much bark for my taste. The sauces were good, mac & cheese not so much. They dried the meat out a bit. I had burnt ends and ribs, the ribs were the better option. Emily had the pulled pork and said it was a little dry. I usually don’t order pulled pork because it’s hard to mess up and I like to try how others do the harder items. It’s hard to maintain quality foe BBQ and I give credit to those that try. Overall Mike’s was okay but not one I would search for again.

Tonight we were wanting to go to an Italian place for something to eat tonight, we went to find it. Parking here is nuts. Good luck finding anything close. They charge to park on the street in the historic district. The place we went to was full, people standing outside so we took a drive to Olive Garden. We will have to make reservations for evening meals here. There are tons of people all over downtown.

Since we have an apartment we will do some eating here, especially breakfast. We stopped at a grocery store and got some items. We should be ready to start walking around and seeing some sights. We’re looking forward to doing a few tours. We’ll have more to share with you soon!

Hello faithful readers!!! it’s been awhile! Our vacation this winter was postponed into January after I changed ambulance services. I now work for AMR in Independence, Iowa. They are contracted to do the 911 and they do transfers out of Buchanan County Health Center. Originally we were looking at being back by Christmas and we were going to go to Grenada but flights were a mess so we decided on Costa Rica again and bumped to January. In the end the timing worked out well for us to be available for visiting Emily’s grandparents during her grandfather’s hospitalization in St. Louis and getting them home again. We will have to turn some things into the travel insurance, that is why we get it though. Life can be unpredictable.

While we were in St. Louis we had some free time to visit the City Museum. It is a fun place to visit. There is a lot of climbing and crawling available for those who are adventurous. Plenty of stairs to get to the slides, Emily and I both went to the top to do the spiral ten story slides, you get a little dizzy by the time you get to the bottom.

All the caves and tree houses are great for working your legs, Emily was still feeling it today some. They have a small aquarium area that wasn’t completed yet from the looks of things. This place has a lot of room to grow and there is a lot of things in storage yet. It is an amazing place! It was right at $40 for the two of us and parking is just $10. You can park there and stay all day if you wish. There are some food options and they also have adult beverages for those who enjoy them. You will occasionally hear someone crying, there is a lot of things you can hit your head on and areas you can get lost or hemmed up in.

On Wednesday morning we were able to make it to the Science Museum and over to the planetarium. We didn’t spend much time there but it’s free to go into. You do have to pay for parking, $12. You also have to pay for IMAX shows and planetarium shows as well if you want them. It was $6 for the planetarium show we went to. We are looking forward to going back and looking at more of the exhibits and maybe more shows. They have different one to choose from so if you are going be sure to look up the times for the ones that you want to see.

After the planetarium show Emily’s grandfather was released and we were able to go pick him up. Her grandparents rode with me back to Dexter and we had some good conversation along the way. I was glad that we were able to be in St. Louis during their stay there. We were able to make a few trips over to just visit and also take some food.

The hotel we stayed at was nice, had character. The pool was heated and it was an indoor outdoor pool.

After St. Louis we overnighted in the swinging city of Dexter. I don’t remember if I mentioned that I ended up with an ear infection after our white water trip last year in Costa Rica, seems it’s common for some people that travel and do those activities to get one. Well I ended up with one this year as well swimming in the pool in St. Louis, so we started out the day with me visiting Urgent Care for some Antibiotics. I was using some over the counter stuff we picked up on Wednesday and it seemed to be helping but I decided it wasn’t enough and I didn’t want to have issues during the rest of our trip.

After I was done at Urgent Care I found out that Emily’s grandfather had to go to the Emergency Room again as some issues returned, that was a bummer to hear. But it sounds like he will be able to stay closer to home and there will be more family around so we were encouraged to continue on with some more vacation plans we had made as a back up that will keep us within a days drive if we need to get back.

One thing that we did find that we have added to our list of things that we want to do when we have less time for traveling but plenty of notice is the Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia. It seems they will for a price (not a small one but seems totally worth it!) allow scuba diving and snorkeling. Emily found the snorkeling when were we’re trying to decide if we should go. When I first found it I only saw the scuba option. So someday hopefully we will be able to give you the rundown on that experience.

In the end we stayed with our original plan of going to Savannah, Georgia. We found a 3 bedroom townhouse in a historic building in the area we wanted to visit. It will be nice as we enjoy having some space and the ability to cook for ourselves some. We should be there tomorrow. We split the drive into two days stopping halfway in Chattanooga, Tennessee. With everything going on I don’t remember if there was something specific that we wanted to do here or not. We should have some time in the morning to do something if we want.

We went up Look Out Mountain after we settled in to our hotel. It was a fun touristy thing to do, like touristy stuff it was over priced at $15 round trip per person. You could drive up and get pretty much the same view I believe. It was fun to do though. Emily was smiling on the trolley.

So no foreign country this time, hopefully though we can entertain our readers with a different type of vacation. We have had some fun already and we look forward to having more.

Hello All: Many of you know that Bill and I were supposed to go to Costa Rica for our winter vacation. A couple days before we were supposed to leave, my grandpa got sick and had to be hospitalized. There were no beds in the area, so he had to be moved to St. Louis for several days. Bill and I decided it would be best to cancel our Costa Rica trip and do something closer to home.

A few days ago, Bill met me in St. Louis so we could be there to help grandma and grandpa with anything they needed. We were really happy to get to spend time with grandma and grandpa. I’ve been very lucky to have fantastic grandparents for so long. So many people grow up rarely seeing their grandparents or without grandparents. It’s a real advantage in life to have grandparents to help you become an adult and to help you deal with problems once you become an adult. People who’ve been around for a while have good advice!

Bill drove grandma and grandpa home from St. Louis yesterday while I followed behind in my vehicle. Grandpa seemed to be doing much better. Unfortunately, he had to be rehospitalized this morning. I’m hoping the problems are related to medication he was given in the hospital, but we don’t really know right now. At least he’s in Cape Girardeau now where family can help more easily. It’s hard to be stuck alone in St. Louis were people can’t easily bring you stuff or stop by to see how you’re doing.

For anyone who needs to stay in St. Louis, Bill and I stayed and the Carlton Plaza Hotel. It’s really close to St. Mary’s Hospital. It’s an older hotel, but they have on site self-service laundry, which is great for people staying in the hospital. It also had a super neat heated pool. Part of the pool was inside but you could swim under a low wall and part of the pool was heated outside in open air. It was pretty chilly at night but they kept the water warm so we could swim in the evening.

We visited the City Museum, which was awesome! It’s basically a huge unique playground with 10 story spiral slides and artificial caves you can climb through. It would be especially fun for little kids because there are lots of small spaces for kids to crawl through and slides they can take. It was fun for Bill and me too. For my friend Samantha: Julianna would love this place!

We also visited the Planetarium and saw a show that was really interesting. Next time we are in St. Louis, I’d like to spend more time there and at the Science Museum. Sam: these would be great places for Julianna too.

Last night, once we got grandma and grandpa home, Bill and I worked out a plan to go to Savannah, Georgia for a few days. It’s not too far away, so if we need to come back to MO, we can be back in about 10 hours. We are spending tonight in Chattanooga and we’ll drive the rest of the way tomorrow. After we checked into the hotel, we took a trolly up the side of a mountain to Look Out Point. It was a good activity, but if anyone wants to come, we recommend that you skip the trolly and just drive up to Look Out Point. The trolly was a little expensive. We may find an activity for tomorrow morning too since we can’t check into our town house in Savannah until 4pm. We have a heated pool here too, so I’m getting ready to go swim again.

I hope everyone had good holidays and is doing well!

On Friday 6/29/22 Emily and I traveled the short distance from my house to the New $100 million Lost Island Theme Park! If you say amusement park around some you will be corrected, as this park has a theme not just amusements. I have only been to one other theme park, Adventureland also here in Iowa, though it has been a while.

We picked an awesome day to be outside! Temperatures were in the low 80s and the humidity was down. The park currently is not crowded, they haven’t begun aggressively advertising yet due to some delays related to covid and supply chain issues. They also had a fire burn down one of their buildings that was part of one of the rides. I know there a few rides that are not operational yet as well. As for the rides that are up and running the lines mostly consisted of just waiting for the ride to finish and then we were able to get on.

The “Lost Island” theme is whimsical and light, a little beach like with a “Raider’s of the Lost Ark” vibe to it maybe a little cartoonish. I think they could have gone a bit darker and more lost but this is a place for families. The park did also just open this year so it will be a while for all of the landscaping to mature, hopefully bigger trees and fuller patches of greenery will increase the lost factor. More shade along the paths would also be nice. Speaking of the paths, they were stamped with fish and plant fossils. There is no cutting through from one part of the park to the other, there is no path for that so if you just want to ride certain rides you may have to walk a ways.

The park itself isn’t overwhelmingly big when it comes to walking, overall the rides are fairly close together. There are plenty of bathrooms and places to get something to drink. There are a few places to get food. We ate at the Whalebone Grill. I didn’t see anything that was grilled, they had BBQ pork sandwiches, fried fish and chicken, rice bowls and salads. The Totara Market had burgers, we looked through the windows when we went past and I read a sign inside.

The food was a bit expensive but not really more than I expected for a theme park. They don’t allow outside food or drink but they do stamp your hand on the way out if you want to return, so you could picnic in the parking lot like they do at the water park. The food wasn’t bad, the only real complaint I heard was the rice bowl was mushy. The food was cafeteria style where you took what you wanted and then paid the cashier before going to a table.

We were given a map that had some details on it about the park. I would have liked it to be a little more descriptive especially about the food and drink. There is an app for the park we could have used but I didn’t want another app just to remove it later that may have had more information. Knowing where we could get certain types of food may have encouraged us to make the trip to another option. The app is also supposed to give more information about the characters / creatures in the park you may notice. I may have to go again sometime and try it out for the advertised “immersive experience”.

We spent right about 4 hours in the theme park, counting eating. The staff were friendly. We did have a few issues with either getting off rides when they were done and on. Everything seems to have safety locks and they are temperamental if not locked in at certain points and will not allow the ride to start. Extended time on a ride waiting to get off did not cost extra.

The least favorite ride was the Awaati Water Battle, boats with water guns you could shoot at other boats or people. They should add targets along the route for those that don’t have a boat to aim for, depending where you were on the course and side of the boat you didn’t have anything to aim for. Also they need better water guns with more range!

We didn’t ride the “children’s” rides or the bumper cars which I think they called Kukui Station on the map. Again small description would be nice. The area for the bumper cars looked small and so we all opted out. Some of the people we went with would have been dangerous to do bumper cars with if they had room to get ramming speed. We rode everything else we could, we would have enjoyed a few more rides if they had been available but overall we didn’t feel that we missed out. The value was there for what we did get to do. I’m not big on having to pay to park at a place that is going to charge me to enter as well. I know it’s a thing at other theme parks but it’s something I don’t agree with.

We also did some carnival type games, Emily won herself a prize, she beat me at the whack a mole and water gun clown shoot. $3 to play is a bit expensive but someone always won a prize.

We got the park hopper add on to our entry to the theme park. After we finished at the theme park Emily and I ran to my house to change into swim wear and leave everything we didn’t need with us before heading to the water park.

The water park has the same name and theme but actually came before the theme park. Personally I felt the theme was less noticeable at the water park, and from the outside it looks more Gilligan’s Island. We had a good time at the water park but it was an excellent day for the theme park and a bit cool for the water park.

We did get to do most of the slides, there were a couple including the roller coaster slide that we skipped due to the line. There were a few that did not seem to be popular and they were easy to do.

I think that I would prefer a big pool over a bunch of waiting in line for a quick ride in the water slide. Emily and I did the lazy river but for me the tubes are too small so they aren’t very comfortable to relax in, on the rides they feel very unstable. I think the water park was worth adding to the theme park pass but not sure I would go just to the water park.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying their summer. I’m hoping Emily and I can squeeze a few more things in before she has to get back to teaching!

One of the things we enjoy locally in the Cedar Valley is traveling down the Black Hawk Creek. Last Saturday Emily, my friend Kevin and I took our maiden voyage for the summer. The Black Hawk Creek runs through both Waterloo and Cedar Falls among other places, so it is easy to access. This is Emily’s favorite place to take her paddle board. While it meanders through parts of the city it is very secluded because of the amount of vegetation around it. It actually is part of the Greenbelt recreation areas.

We’ve had several days of rain prior to our trip so the water was up. On one hand it’s good for traveling down without having to portage the low areas but it does speed up the trip and does make it a little more dangerous. The creek is somewhat advanced for paddling due to the portages and areas of downed trees that create strainers (strain you off your kayak, paddle boards or canoe) and objects under the water that you may or may not see that you could impact. Because of the nature of the creek you do need to keep an eye on what is ahead and plan your route. You don’t want your vessel to get pushed up against the downed trees as the water will flip you and then you can get tangled up in the tree limbs. When the water is down the flow rate is slower and you have more time to adjust and if you can’t more often than not you can just get in the water and it’s not above your knees. There can be deep pockets in the corners and around sunken objects though. Later in the summer the water is very clear once all the sediment has settled after the spring melt and rains. It will usually stay pretty clear even after summer storms but it depends on how much rain.

Emily and I have been keeping busy visiting with friends this week. It’s been nice catching up. I’ve got a couple BBQs coming up next month that I’m doing with people I work with and from my Men’s group. I’ve also been working on my trailer project. I have a cargo trailer that I also use as a camper. I have most things so that I can move or remove them and then use the trailer for my ATV or something else. I wired in shoreline power so I can plug in at campsites. I’ve also been adding insulation to the ceiling for better temperature control in the heat and cold since I will go in any season.

Emily and I are looking at where we will be going in December, remember if you want to go just get in touch with us. We will be back before Christmas this year as I have to work. Currently we are looking at Grenada, the ABC islands including a return to Bonaire and possibly the U.S. Virgin Islands. We will also not have as much time this year we are going to want something easy so I haven’t ruled out Costa Rica either, Emily has been there a lot and it’s easy to get around. I’m not leaning any particular way as of yet.

Hopefully everyone is starting their summer out well! I do see the comments but for some reason I’m not able to respond. I will be looking into getting access for that. We do enjoy the feedback.

Since I’ve been home I have been talking with people about the trip and one thing came up yesterday about flights that everyone who’s traveling needs to keep an eye on. The airlines all have different rules for carryons. My friend back here is actually going to Belize in August and she is flying United, our return was with them. Their basic economy tickets only allow a personal bag no full sized carryon. You have to get economy plus or pay for the privilege. If you are booking flights be sure to look and see if what options you want are included. Emily and I only do the carryon and a personal bag so I did upgrade us on our return flight. My friend was unaware of their bag policy. They will check your bag at the gate and charge you for a checked bag $45 and then a $25 gate check fee.

American Airlines was a better value and their app is easier to navigate in my opinion.

Today I picked up a couple more of the Realtree fishing guide shirts. They were very nice in the hot weather and they look better than T-Shirts, they also take up less space in packing and dry faster. Original price is $14.95 but they’re being clearanced for $10. They are found in sporting goods.

All: You probably all got some posts from me today about out trip to Peru 4 years ago. Bill and I have told several people that all of the information about our Peru trip is on the blog. I discovered today that I didn’t have the blog when we were in Peru. We did updates, but I emailed them out to people. I went through my emails today, found our posts, and created blog posts with pictures for the Peru trip. Those of you who were in my email chain four years ago have read those posts and seen the pictures. If you weren’t in the email chain, those posts will be new. Feel free to take a look at them. It was a spectacular, although exhausting, trip.

I also did some other reorganizing of the blog. At the top of the main page, right under Traveling with Emily, you should see three tabs – Belize Trip, Peru, and Uncategorized trips. I’ve started putting all of our blog posts into folders so people can read about the trips they are most interested in.

If you are still reading the Belize posts, click on the link that says Belize Trip and that will take you to those posts. Going forward, I’ll make folders for each trip, which should keep the blog better organized.

I hope you all only got four emails. I moved about 30 posts to new folders and I hope you didn’t get notifications about all of those changes. If so, I’m really sorry about that. The site is not super user friendly and it took me a long time to figure out how to make folders at all. If you did get 30 emails, I’ll work on finding a way to make changes that don’t come with automatic notifications.