Traveling with Emily!

Waves

Resident baby sloth

I have another relatively short post tonight and no pictures, which I realize is disappointing. I need to take my camera more. This morning, Bill and I went snorkeling at Puerto Viejo. The water in Costa Rica is never super clear but it wasn’t bad. I saw some baseball-sized jelly fish – one pink and the other blue. They weren’t big enough to cause any damage but you’d probably feel a mild sting if you ran into one. There were some fish and some sort of sea worm. I think the location we went to yesterday was better, but the water here is kind of dangerous so you really have to be careful. The beach yesterday was super rocky so it was hard to find a way into the water. The reef was close to shore but also rocky, and it was hard to find a way to swim around it without getting smashed into some sharp rocks. The water here is not forgiving. It’s the most dangerous water I’ve been in. The first beach we visited this morning looked pretty calm but there was a sign warning people to watch out for crocodiles so we decided not to swim there. A Costa Rican soccer player jumped into a river a few months ago and got eaten, so they can be dangerous. I’m hoping to get a picture with the sign! We forgot today.

This afternoon, we went to the beach close to our hotel with our body boards. Almost as soon as we got in the water, a woman waved us back in and told us the water was too dangerous to be in above your knees. I think she was right and I’m glad she warned us. The riptides are bad here and the water is powerful. We found a neighboring beech that was safer, but I still got pounded by the waves. They came hard and fast so it was hard to catch them with the board. It’s good exercise though. We may try again in the morning if the tide is out and the water is calmer.

Even with the issues with the water, it’s still awesome to be here. Everything is beautiful, warm and green, there are little lizards everywhere and we have resident sloths and an agouti at the hotel. There is a French bakery across the street and the hotel lets me make all the tea I want. I talked to one of the owners this morning. She’s an interesting person. They are raising their 4 kids here, and she thinks Costa Rica is great for them. They are from California. I met a young Dutch couple who get 2 months of vacation and are here for 7 weeks. The Dutch have a really good life. There is also a Swiss couple here who seem nice.

I’m currently in a rocking chair on the balcony. It’s raining, so it’s very pleasant. The gardens around the hotel are really pretty. There are flowers everywhere with lots of birds and butterflies. I’ll try to take some pictures tomorrow.

Costa Rica belongs to us!!

Our trip is now moving along literally and figuratively. We went down this morning and got ourselves some wheels, little Honda scooter. Top speed is 75 kph or 46.6 mph. Most the speed limits are either 40 kph in town and 60 kph in between towns. They also slow just before the bridges to 40 kph. our scooter was $200 for 10 days. Pretty cheap. We shouldn’t need any taxis for the most part and we should be able to do about everything we need to with it.

We got our freedom and took ourselves to the last beach town on the main road, Manzanilla. We met sketchy Walter there, he was trying to get us to take a tour with him. We may.

We then took our wheels north of where we are staying, Puerto Viejo and picked up Emily a decent boogie board. I still have my inflatable one from May. Since we have all the days it’s cheaper to buy one. We also got sunglasses. I had brought a cheap pair but they must’ve gotten left behind either in a cab or at the Hotel in San Jose. I think I like these better.

We usually walk most places, Caye Caulker we biked, and we talked about getting bikes but I think the scooter is going to be a better option here. There are a lot of bikes but it seems like everything is pretty spread out. The bigger towns have more continuous stores/ shops/ restaurants. They don’t have sidewalks or bike paths so they are all on the edge of the road, to me the scooter feels safer. It keeps up with traffic so we can mix in and don’t have to worry about getting sideswiped by a mirror or worse. It’s also a lot faster.

Puerto Viejo is probably the place you want to stay if you want more walking options, there is a price that will come with that though, more tourists. I prefer less tourists. The scooter connects the whole area here so it makes the choice easy if we come back this way.

Still haven’t gotten a complete feel for the place but it’s definitely different than the west coast.

We finally made it into the water today. It was a bit of an ordeal. We have a few options for snorkeling from shore and one is supposed to be just down the road a piece. I thought I seen the sign for it this morning and I looked it up on the map. We ended up not finding the road to the beach and we then looked at the last one which may not have shore snorkeling. We will find out since it supposed to. When we were there I seen two snorkels and they were pretty close to shore.

We found about entrance to another location and tried to walk to the beach we were looking for and there was a sign with a map showing it and the road but we hit a dead end walking. So we went back down the beach and found a few snorkelers. We didn’t think is was a bad spot but the waves and under currents were strong. Water wasn’t completely clear but we were able to see some things. We tried out Emily’s new underwater camera, I will maybe give it a review later. So pictures will be from her this blog day. I didn’t take any on mine.

We seen a big puffer fish and I seen some crabs. Maybe tomorrow we will get some more pictures. I think we are going to try snorkeling and Boogie boarding.

I’m debating seeing about a dive day maybe next Monday. I may look for a dive shop tomorrow, there’s supposed to be one the next town south of us. I’ll go see what the have open and get a feeling for the quality of place it is.

That is one thing I have not seen much of here is places offering diving and snorkeling trips. Seems odd. There are a few on the internet but I was expecting more places you could walk up and schedule a trip.

Hopefully I will get some pictures tomorrow. I need to do some of the hotel. There are some resident sloths here and we got to see them. It was getting dark so pictures were out of the question. Somewhere on property there is a frog pond with seven different kinds of frogs. I did see a little black and green one by the pool yesterday.

Stay safe!

Playa Cocles

I don’t have a lot to say for today so this will be a short post. We made it to Playa Cocles around noon today. It took about 3.5 hours. However, we figured out why it potentially takes a lot longer. On the road to get here, there are a bunch of one way bridges. At times when the traffic is bad, that series of bridges all back up and that would lengthen the time of the trip significantly! At least we made it without too much trouble.

I had a headache by the time we got here. There was a big weather change between San Jose, which is fairly cool, and Playa Cocles, which is much further south and a lot hotter. I took a migraine pill and slept for part of the afternoon while Bill camped out in the very cold pool. I should be more energetic tomorrow and we will go to the beach. I think we are going to rent a scooter so it will be easier to visit the various beaches in the area.

Our hotel is nice. The pool is small and not very deep, but otherwise, it seems like a place we will like. It’s super green here, much greener than the Pacific side where we have been previously. There are little lizards and geckos everywhere. There is currently a tiny one living on the shower drain. Our room doesn’t currently have hot water, but it’s supposed to have hot water, so hopefully we can get that fixed tomorrow. It will be a cold shower tonight though.

The hotel is owned by some Americans from California. I don’t know whether they are in Costa Rica or not. It’s managed by some Americans from Colorado who quit their jobs, moved their family to Costa Rica and are trying it out for 6 months to see if they want to move here permanently. They have 2 little kids. Bill had a long conversation with the guy who manages the bar this afternoon and he will probably write about that in his post.

I spent part of the evening sitting at the bar with a cup of tea and a brownie while I did some work. A French couple was sitting next to me, so I talked to them for a while. Super interesting people. The woman was a podiatrist who quit her job a year ago and opened a business buying and refurbishing antique furniture. They are both divers. They said the most spectacular place to dive is Tahiti, which is French. The guy said he saw in 1 dive more than he had seen anywhere else. He says it’s spectacular but it takes about 24 hours to get to Tahiti from France so that’s a significant commitment. It’s a long trip for them to Costa Rica too. I’m happy to be getting to practice my Spanish and my French. There is also a young Dutch couple here, but they have to speak to me in English.

I guess that’s all I have to write about tonight. We should have more interesting stories and hopefully some pictures tomorrow. I think Bill may already have a few pictures.

Caribe Town

Happy New Year!!!

Our second day of vacation started off with breakfast at the Sleep Inn, same as you would expect back in the states minus the plantain and papaya.

Ivan came through for us and our driver was waiting for us when we came out to check just before 9. The drive was just a tad over 3 1/2 hours. The extended drive time come when you try to come during rush hours. The main road south from Limon has multiple one lane bridges that get backed up. As we had dinner tonight we watched a couple of fellas directing traffic. It looks like most goes north but there was still a fair amount coming south.

We may have been okay coming to Limon last night and then coming the rest of the way this morning.

Our Hotel is Caribe Town, it sort of reminds me of the hotel in Brasalito but with smaller just as cold pool and no restaurant. The town They do serve breakfast and we may be able to use the outdoor kitchenette. Website says yes the little sign on the curtain is less inviting. I will get some pictures tomorrow.

By the time we got here it was time to eat, so after the bartender that lives on premises got us in early we settled in and then walked down the way and ate. We sat on the beach side with a decent view. We did get to see the ocean once we came south out of Limon. The road follows the coast.

After lunch we looked the closest access to the beach. The beach is narrow close to where we are. We haven’t gone anywhere else yet to see how they are south of here. I think tomorrow we will rent a scooter and then really get a bit of exploring in.

The hotel has a yoga, boxing and silks area that looks nice. Emily may do a class. I brought exercise bands that I will use to get a little resistance training in with.

I have not been overly impressed with the two restaurants that we ate at so not much worth noting. The first was recommended by a couple from the Netherlands that is staying here. The pizza did look good and I should have tried it. We may try it again.

I don’t think it’s as dingy on this side of Costa Rica so far. It does have a more Island vibe to it. A lot of Caribbean influences. Brighter colors that are kept up better. Or just hold up better? Most things seem to be right on the main road.

I had a conversation with the Bartender/reception guy after lunch, I hung out in the pool. It’s not very deep so I can’t actually swim in it unless I want to bang up my toes. It is mostly for sitting a drinking. It is bar side with seats at the bar. I forgot his name, I am bad at that. He said it this morning I think, maybe Micheal? Anyway he’s 42 and was a partner in ten insurance offices. He sold out his half and him, his wife and two kids moved here for a six month position. They are looking for a turnkey operation that would have about four cabins and would run it air b & b style.

It’s not a lot of pictures but it’s a start. Travel days are kind of low key. We will start finding some activities tomorrow.

Day 1 in San Jose

Hello All: Bill and I are back in Costa Rica. We had a relatively smooth trip today with a minor snag at the end. We booked a hotel at Playa Cocles. We looked up the distance between San Jose and Playa Cocles before we left and Google assured us that it takes about 3.5 hours. When we arrived at the airport this afternoon and got a taxi, our driver told us that it actually takes 6 hours to get there. Based on this information, we decided to spend the night in San Jose and go to Cocles tomorrow morning. I contacted our hotel, and the hotel owner told me that the drive is only about 3.5 hours. We don’t know if we arrived at a time when the traffic is really bad to go south or if our driver was wrong. But, Bill hurt his back at work a few days ago so it’s actually working out okay since it was already a really long travel day in uncomfortable airport and airplane seats.

We are currently in a nice hotel in downtown San Jose. I went for a walk earlier in one of the main shopping districts. San Jose is not a city I’d choose to spend time in, but it’s always interesting to walk around and see the street venders and shops. There were a lot of people out and it’s fairly cool in the Central Valley so it was a nice afternoon to walk around. There’s a pretty park right across the street from our hotel. This evening, Bill and I ate at a restaurant down the street. It was partly open air, and we go a little cool. Our hotel keeps hot water and tea available all the time. I can go get a cup whenever I want one, and there is a nice sitting area on the first floor overlooking one of the parks. It’s not a bad way to end a long travel day.

I’m attaching a few pictures below. The first pictures are part of the park and the final one is a plaza in the shopping district. Hopefully we will have some better ones tomorrow.

Third time’s a charm!

Howdy everyone!!

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the holidays and are going to enjoy a fabulous New year!!

This is my third time traveling with Emily to Costa Rica. We have been to the western coast twice, this time we are trying out the east coast. The Caribbean side! I’m excited, it’s supposed to be less touristy but hopefully better water for snorkeling and diving. We had put it off because there is a bit of a drive to get there. People in San Jose say it’s 6 hours, the map says 3 and a half plus a few. We opted to stay in San Jose tonight and make the trip to our beach town hotel in the morning. We had planned on going today but with the idea of six hours more we decided not to go.

We’re getting our ride set up through our driver we had last time, Ivan. Sounds like he is keeping busy and things are going well for him. I do recommend to get names and numbers of drivers that you like. Don’t be afraid to ask them questions. WhatsApp is a great way to contact people when traveling.

Our travel went alright today. Our first flight was on time and made good time getting to Dallas. Dallas flight was delayed in leaving about half an hour. We missed the announcement of them boarding our group, I was not pleased with American/Dallas Fort Worth airport for their poorly working sound system where we sat and not updating their signs. I was worried we wouldn’t have places for our bags since we don’t check bags. We had priority boarding so we would have good access to the overhead bins. I did the gate agent, I doubt it went anywhere but in one ear and out the other.

Flights were mostly smooth, a little turbulence on the second flight but not enough that they made any announcements or turned the seatbelt light on.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the beach tomorrow. We are hoping the area has a Brasalito feel to it and clear water with plenty to see. When we arrived at the hotel and were getting on the elevator there was a woman getting on that greeted us in French and Emily got to chat with her. The lady is going to Brasalito after spending a few days in San Jose. We both thought that was neat. While we really enjoyed Brasalito it’s not a popular foreign tourist destination. There are not a lot of options for staying there. They do have a new two lane bridge that was completed.

Kind of light on pictures.

San Diego

Hello All: I’m finishing up a conference in San Diego. I have about an hour before I leave for the airport, so I thought I’d do a short blog post. The conference was for deans and associate deans. I met a lot of interesting people. I’m still new in my role as associate dean so I still mostly think of myself as a history professor. People here interact with me as associate dean, and some of them seem to be under the false assumption that I have experience and know what I’m talking about. I was in a case study session Thursday where a group of us talked about difficult personnel cases. The cases were real and had been submitted by conference participants for everyone to discuss. Some of them were crazy! It was weird participating in those discussions when I have very little experience actually handling such cases. Nobody knows that though so I spoke with confidence and at least some people agreed with me. I’m not sure that confidence + ignorance is the best combination, but that’s all I had.

Yesterday, I did a training session on how to do media interviews. It was run by a panel of people who were in journalism or communications. One of the women works for iHeart Radio. That was the most interesting session I attended. They had some really good tips about how to do interviews and interact with the press. I volunteered to do a mock interview. It was a little stressful. The group was small, so that made things easier, but I only had about a minute to come up with something to talk about, develop 3 main points and a call to action. Then, they called me up on the podium to present my information, take questions from journalists, and get a critique from the team. I was not amazing and I’m not expecting any calls from public relations firms, but it was a good experience. The iHeart Radio lady told me not to wear orange and tan (which I was wearing) because it washes me out. It was an outfit I really like, so that’s unfortunate.

I didn’t get to see a lot of San Diego because the conference takes up most of the time, but we are staying in a nice hotel right on the water in a pretty area. There is a beautiful walkway by the water that takes you from the hotel to some restaurants and little shops. Tuesday night, my colleagues and I ate at a very expensive seafood restaurant on a terrace overlooking the ocean. There was a seal in the water. There’s also a naval base right here so military ships and aircraft come in all the time. We ate right beside the USS Midway, which I think is an aircraft carrier. It’s massive! I’ll post pictures below.

Last night, we ate at an expensive taco place. The tacos were okay, but the we ordered a mango cake that was delicious! It was shaped like a mango. I have a picture of that below too. Everything here is super expensive. I ordered a bag of pretzels and a lemonade Thursday night and it cost $22. Somebody has money though because the dock if full of huge yachts. It’s incredible! I don’t know who all these people are who can afford to live in California and have multimillion dollars yachts. Every time I walk outside in the beautiful weather in this lovely location, Nickelback’s song Rockstar runs through my head. Lyrics: My life hasn’t turned out quite the way I want it to be!

The hotel has a pool, which has been awesome! I didn’t have a lot of time during the day to swim, but I was able to swim every evening. The weather is cool here but the pool is heated. The water wasn’t quite as warm as I would like it to be, but it was warm enough to still be fun and some good exercise after a long day of conference presentations. The pool overlooks the harbor so I could swim and watch the sun set over the water. It was super fun!

I leave for the airport in about half an hour. I should be in Cedar Rapids around 9pm tonight with an hour drive home. It will be a long day. Bill was nice enough to watch the dogs while I was gone. They are not easy ones to take care of. He’s at work today so I have a pet sitter coming in to take care of them. Millie does not like people, so I’m not sure how that will go. At least I have a good carpet cleaner. Pictures are below!

Mango cake on a piece of salted chocolate

Somewhat local

The last day of September, Emily and I did a little traveling around Iowa and into Wisconsin. We are experiencing warm temps for late September. Around home it was 93 up by the Mississippi it was 88.

Our first stop was a quick visit to Independence and the area where I work. Nothing too special just to give her reference when I talk about work.

Next up was Elkader. We had lunch at an Algerian restaurant, Schera’s. They also serve Mediterranean and American food. Emily went with falafel a popular middle eastern street food. I had a combo platter of Algerian food. It wasn’t bad.

It was all edible, I was concerned at first about the green stuff but it turned out okay. There was a spinach wrapped in flaky dough, one with chicken and one with beef. There was a different flavor to them but not bad. I probably wouldn’t starve to death if I find myself in Algeria.

After Elkader we made our way to McGregor Iowa. We had to stop a visit the Blue Moon bookstore, they have an interesting selection of books and old fashion flair. There are also cats that you have to be careful not to let out or step on while they nap. We only seen one that was napping.

McGregor, they are redoing the road so it was blocked off a ways.

A good spot to get some fried cheese curds and watch boats go by on the Mississippi River.

To make it seem like we did some real traveling, we crossed the big river and visited Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. No trip to Prairie is complete without a stop at Valley Fish and Cheese. There you can get faux fur hats, real turtle shells, novelty canned goods and of course fish and cheese. The have smoked carp, salmon and trout, you can get packages of turtle for soup and a variety of cheese curds. The line was long so we will have to go back for cheese curds another time.

I did not take these pictures, it was disappointing to see the state of the fish sculptures, the saddled one was falling apart and the other was just painted white. Hopefully that means they are in the process of returning them to the state you see here. I was hoping that Emily would get a photo opportunity on the fish.

Saint Feriole Island is a favorite stop there for me, the island was important in the fur trade of the 1800’s and there was a battle there in 1814, War of 1812 and in the late 1800’s the railroad came. There are still a number of buildings relevant to the fur trade, a couple of cabins and the Villa Louis. The old depot that is there is currently a restaurant, good for fried blue gill when the bar keep’s husband has caught them and since it is Wisconsin, fried cheese curds. Dousman Hotel is a four story building with a lot of character. It was the old railroad hotel and in the 1930’s was used by Oscar Meyers as a packing plant. It’s currently being restored and the lower level was set up for a wedding dinner.

For those interested in 1800’s they do have the Prairie Villa Rendezvous the third weekend in June. You will see a lot of canvas tents, people dressed in leather and rustic wares for sale. They also have a flea market, knife and hatchet throwing, primitive archery and other activities.

Hopefully everyone had a great summer! With luck we’ll do more day trips next summer there are number of activities and things to see along the Mississippi. We’re looking forward to our next vacation, the Caribbean side of Costa Rica!

Little update on my boat project, it is currently getting white paint turned into blue paint! It would have been a good weekend here to have it, the whole weekend is warm, I think the 93 degrees was a record for September 30th.

Be safe!

In between Vacation Content

Hopefully everyone is doing okay with all this heat and here in Iowa, the humidity!!

I thought I would share my current priority project as it is getting to a point where I’m going to put the finishing touches to it lower on the priority list.

1967 Starcraft 17 foot Jupiter V with 1983 Mercury 70 HP 2-Stroke Outboard

I got this boat a couple years before I met Emily and had it in the water a couple of times. It was in need of a new floor and the original motor was having problems so I switched motors and used it a couple more times. It was in need of tires when I parked it and was thinking I would replace the floor the next year. Well it took about 6.

This was the year, my schedule and money allowed the two things you need to be a boat owner, time and money.

I was assisted in removing the floor and replacing it from My friend Hannah who was my partner when we both worked in Cedar Falls. She is now on Waterloo Fire and I’m working for AMR in Independence.

The removal of the floor revealed that the styrofoam underneath the floor had been saturated with water and was the reason for the worse damage. I was able to use what was left of the floor as a template to get the new floor cut. One corner we had to guesstimate as there wasn’t much left.

New closed cell foam and marine grade plywood coated in two coats of waterproof paint, it was time to work out the seating. I started out thinking I would reuse one of the back to back seats that pull out into a bench and a captain’s seat for the driver. Captain’s seat didn’t work with this boat without some extra work. Maybe one day I will find someone who can make a mount for it or I will build one. I added a little bench to the back that I built for added seating and a little extra storage space.

Next up was the addition of a sun shade. The boat had come with a vinyl top that was short and hot, it had to go. I’mon the fence about the look but it definitely is nice to have out on the water.

I probably should have started with making sure the motor still ran, it did not. But I replaced the starter and solenoid and we were in business, until no water came out of the drain. So a new water pump became a learning experience for myself and the neighbor Jeff who was interested in what I was up to when I dropped the lower end off the motor. He just recently bought himself a boat. He ended up helping me for about 3 hours and his help was very welcome.

I did rebuild the fuel pump and replaced the spark plugs. I think it needs some tuning but I’m currently looking for a mechanic for that, I’m not good with carburetors and this has 2. It does run and has been reliable but, I want to see about a little more power and smoothness from the motor. I think it is running a little rich as well and I wouldn’t mind a little more fuel efficiency. It will use about 10 gallons running it almost wide open for about 2 1/2 hours. My friend Mike from High School and I took it out for a test.

Trolling motor is on for backup, I wouldn’t want to try and paddle.

With everything working and reliable we took it out July 26th for a bit of fun on the water. We did some tubing and swimming out at George Wyth State Park on Brinker Lake. During the day, during the week is a wonderful time to be at the lake, not much traffic since most people have Monday through Friday jobs. It did start getting busy when we were getting off the lake.

I changed up the trailer some and rattle canned some paint on it, I am not a painter! But it will help with keeping the rust to a minimum.

Tubing was fun, we did learn that we need a booster ball due to the set up for towing I have. I have one coming and I ordered a Knee board, Emily and I tried that when we went to Jamaica. I’m looking forward to getting some more days in on the lake.

All that is really left is repainting the boat itself and recovering the seats with a matching color. That may be next year…

Stay cool, be safe, drink plenty of water!

Back!

We made it back. It was a very long day and both flights were full and both had loud children. Noise canceling headphones were good to have!

Flying is the only bad part about going on vacation. I got flagged for extra screening today. So I had to get wiped down to make sure that I hadn’t been playing with explosives and my bags as well.

We’re glad to be back and after a while the trip home will be forgotten and just the trip itself will be remembered. We had a good time and enjoyed visiting Costa Rica. Hopefully everyone enjoyed our posts!!