small hands

The children started school this morning.

They are very excited about it.* My daughter is going over to the bigger kids' campus. Our one year of one stop is over. The big kids look really big, but not menacing.

The staff was all smiles and forgiveness for late forms/checks. Lots of hugs from parents; free Peets coffee in the library.

My son...I always hesitate to hand my baby over to the school and he always sails in on a cloud of friendliness, hugging his friends and talking to girls and boys alike. [I despise the gender segregation some kids adopt.]

Yesterday we went to Mass and then to Caffe Strada. I had a foamy cappucino and the kids experimented with Italian soda flavors. They like blackberry + vanilla.

It was cool to sit with them at the little cafe table and make a grocery list and have a treat/pick me up. I really enjoy their company.

We went grocery shopping and then to work in the yards. My son likes to help me sweep the cuttings, leaves and seeds from the trees. I appreciate his help. It was a race to get all the laundry done, the yards mown and pruned, a chicken barbecued and Sunday dinner prepared, hair braided, and a quilt finished while watching a movie with my son. This quilt...has been giving me trouble. But it's done now. I have to get it photographed and sent, but first I have to get a new digital camera.

At dinner we talked about our favorite part of the day. I said that mine was going back to church and going to Caffe Strada. The kids were looking forward to seeing their friends, discussing Pluto, reconnecting.

On Saturday, we went to the mall. We only go once a year, which explains why it's a big deal for my daughter. It didn't occur to me that we go so infrequently, but I understand that I would rather spend our time and money doing something other than going to the mall.

*They are excited, I am worried. Work is so all-consuming and stressful and school is so all-consuming. I think if I get enough sleep, I can handle it. I think.

The Remainder of the Vacation

On the way to the Pacific Ocean we rode across some very rough roads, descending through beautiful green country. Two hours later we reached the Pan American Highway, which is well paved and straight.

We stopped once at a tourist stop, where there were wild parrots in the trees, and a toucan, and small deer in a fenced in area.



There were other tourists there, on Grey Line tour buses, and I was thankful that we had not gone with a tour group. I don't think we would have enjoyed the country as much and I think I would have tired of being part of a group of other people. Plus, I wanted to get away from what I called Resort Americans, the loud ones who refuse to speak Spanish, demand bacon and eggs for breakfast, who tell anecdotes about hunting and golfing loud enough for everyone to hear, and who give me a look, in Costa Rica, which says What are you doing here?

We stayed in Guanacaste at the Casa Conde Del Mar in Playa Panama. It is gorgeous and right on the beach.





All you have to do is walk through the gate and there is the ocean. The water is warm and tropical fish swim up to your feet.

When you're done with the beach, you shower off the sand and get in the pool.



The kids were thrilled. We immediately got into our suits and went to the beach. There were people camping and playing soccer near us, but otherwise it was not crowded at all. In the distance there were fishing boats and jet skiers, but they didn't get anywhere near us. It was incredibly peaceful.

The kids used their goggles to keep their heads in the water and look at the fish.



Closer to sunset, they noticed schools of eels in the water, which reacted by splashing if they threw clumps of sand in their direction.



After the beach, we went swimming in the pool. Just as the sun set, we went to dinner at the open air restaurant. I immediately got bit four times, despite my liberal application of insect repellent. There were geckos on the walls and ceilings eating the insects, though not all of them, and there were crabs scuttling up from the ocean and around across the tile in the restaurant and the paths between the rooms.

We ate quickly--I had arroz con camarones (rice with shrimp), which was delicious, my daughter had chicken marsala, my boy had one bite of penne carbonara, then declared he didn't like it--then hurried back to our insect free room.

From then on, we had room service in our room for dinner and that worked out better. We still had breakfast and lunch in the restaurant, but sunset is insect time.

I decided to go on one last tour before we left. I really didn't want to go on a bad tour, because we had had a perfect vacation up until then. Everything had fit together just right and everyone had been lovely to us.

We went on another boat trip, hoping to see crocodiles. Our tour guide was Bernal Mata, who owns Tico Tours.


He picked us up at 7:30 AM and we stopped at the grocery store to get one banana and some new batteries for my camera. [My camera started acting up and now is completely unresponsive, except for taking pictures. I'm not hopeful.]

We passed a lot of rice and sugar cane fields and an elementary school where little kids in blue uniforms were having a dance lesson in the school yard.

We took a motorized, covered boat onto the Sarapiqui River. [The native people called it the river that went backward, because it flows into the Pacific Ocean and, depending on whether the tide is coming in or going out, it flows one way and then another.]





We saw lots of enormous iguanas, howler monkeys, blue herons, and one crocodile.





These are bats:



The highlight was a tree full of capucine monkeys who came onto the boat and took sliced bananas from my son's hands.













My son was thrilled



and of course, wanted a white faced monkey to take home. He plans to move to Costa Rica and have a monkey live with him.



After the river, we had an awe-inspiring lunch at a local restaurant: rice and beans, chicken and beef, corn tortillas, Costa Rican potatoes, green salad, and fruit punch. It was called Grandma's Cooking and it was in the village of Ortega.

It was a perfect outing and I recommend you look Bernal up and take a tour with him if you're in Guanacaste.

The rest of the time, we spent at the resort. The kids ordered virgin Pina Coladas at the swim up bar as often as I would let them (twice).




I spent a lot of time on the beach writing and thinking while the children played.







I loved being surrounded by Spanish. I loved every bit of this vacation. You all have to go and take your loved ones.

Days Five and Six

I wrote a long post last night, then my mouse froze and I lost everything.

The next day we went to Selvatura Park, which is brilliant.

On the way up, my son said that he did not want to go on the ziplines, that he was afraid. My daughter tried to cajole him out of his fear, but I stopped her and let him express himself fully. I knew that once he got up there he would want to do it.

It was drizzly and cold and we were only wearing teeshirts and pants, so we picked up some fleece jackets from the gift shop which say "Adventure Starts Here."

Then we went to the gear hut and got out raincoats and pants, helmets, harnesses and lines and went with the group into the rainforest. We had a great group of folks from all over the world.



The staff was amazing--very serious and focused, incredibly strong and agile. Because my son is six, one of the guides held him in his lap through each run on the ziplines and he had a blast.


Sorry this photo is from the brochure, but there is no way you can take pictures when you're doing this.

Of course, I thought to myself, flying high over the rainforest canopy--What am I doing? How can I be placing my kids in peril? But it was incredible. One ride in particular, the longest, highest one, you couldn't see where you were going because of the mist, but it was awe-inspiring.

It makes an incredible sound and the wind is whipping you as you fly across. You have to stop yourself depending on the guides' instructions--one hand, two hands, don't brake--and that raises the excitement level.

Two thirds of the way through the runs you have the opportunity to go on the "Tarzan Swing." You climb a 40 foot platform and get hooked up to a single line, then you jump off the platform and go swinging out over the forest.



My son refused to do it, even though a guide would have held him.

I did it.

Me.

I don't even ride roller coasters.

I like how you get to be different on vacation. I got to be braver and more adventurous. I felt ten years younger.

My girl went behind me. She said seeing me do it inspired her to go ahead. I was terrified, but the guides don't really give you the opportunity to stand on the precipice and whine. They give you a little push. Plus, I knew my equipment was sound, I had already tested it on the ziplines.

Once I was done, still shaking, I yelled encouragement up to my girl. She swung and yelled Pura Vida.

We finished up the ziplines and went back to the hut to turn in our gear. We took a moment to get a drink and visit the bathrooms, then we went on the walkway tour.





It was a great walk, though the bridges swung a little and made me nervous. I realized, in the midst of my anxiety, that I believed myself to be extraordinarily heavy, that I could make a bridge fall which ordinarily can hold 80 people.



I wish I could say that I left that bit of internalized fat phobia in the rain forest, but you know what--being in Costa Rica I recognized how hard the media in the United States works to make people feel wrong about their body size/shape, no matter what it is.



Walking along the path, I thought of my mother and how she said she wouldn't want to visit the rainforest. I think she would love it.

We completed the walk and then waited for the van to take us back to the hotel. We spent about 6 hours in the park and didn't see everything. While we were waiting, I got a fabric rush because a woman walked past with a small shoulder back made out of this material:



It got me thinking about sewing/crafting for a moment, but I was on vacation from all that too.

In the van on the way back to the hotel, the song One by Mary J. Blige and Bono came on the radio. I had been listening to the song on solid repeat before we left and it was perfect for that moment in Costa Rica.

The next morning, we got picked up to go down to the beaches. The driver had the kids' jackets, which we had left in the van on the ride from the airport to Arenal. I was thrilled, as I had not realized, in my profound car sickness, that we had even lost them.

Days Three and Four

After breakfast (black beans and rice, tortillas, plantains, coffee, and fresh fruit for me) we went swimming in one of the three pools at the resort. The other two had minerals in them and were very warm and lovely to sit and reflect in.





I brought Susie's mirror, which I love, and hope she sees that her art was in Costa Rica.

I had my first arroz con pollo for lunch and it was so good that I had to take a moment after the first bite. So.Good. And the tomatoes were alive with flavor. Amazing.



My son had what he said was the best hamburger in his life and we tasted it and it was excellent.



In the afternoon, we went on a river raft trip, driving through La Fortuna to get to the river.



The water was very calm, as opposed to the excellent white water rafting you can do in Costa Rica, and we saw lots of sloths, howler monkeys, noseless bats, birds and lizards.



We saw a baselisk, or a Jesus Christ Lizard, because it walks on water.



At this point on the rafting trip, the guide asked me where my husband is. I explained to him that I don't have one. My children chimed in that they have a dad and that I'm a good mom, which was nice, but it irked me a little that they thought they had to defend me. He also asked me if I only had two children. Yes, only two.

After the rafting trip, the driver of the van cut papaya, watermelon and pineapple for us on shore and it was delicious.

At dinner that night, we could see the lava flowing down Arenal and hear it rumbling. Even the staff took a moment to stop and appreciate the display.

The next day we went to Monteverde. The staff at the hotel said that it was going to be a miserable 5 hour drive over extremely bad roads and that we should have taken the Jeep-Boat-Jeep across Lake Arenal, which only takes 2-1/2 hours.

I don't regret our choice. The driver was a sweet old man, quite lovely (who asked me if I only had two children), the drive was only about 3-1/2 hours, the roads were not completely terrible, and we got to see the people of the country, rather than just following a tourist trail.



The area reminded me a lot of Sonoma County, only much, much greener.



The hotel was very nice, but it had no swimming pool, so my daughter complained. However, the longer we stayed in Monteverde, we realized that it is cold, like San Francisco. There was no air conditioning in the room and it didn't need it at all.

We got some lunch and then went and walked around to art galleries, went into Santa Elena to visit the Supermerchado and get snacks, and then returned to the hotel to hang out.

A few months ago a priest gave a homily where he summed up God's command as: You.Go. It was very entertaining and I liked the idea. I got to Costa Rica, but I gave myself permission to not do very much for periods of time. It was my vacation after all and work had been terribly stressful before I left.

Also, sometimes with vacations, you can form expectations about how they should be based on television commercials and travel pamphlets. And that's nonsense.

Plus, the next day was chock full of activity.

Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica

Days One and Two

We flew out of SFO on August 10 for a 8:20AM flight to Houston. I hadn't heard about the London terrorist plot when we arrived at the airport at 6:30AM. I won't waste time whining about the ridiculous security measures and subsequent gargantuan lines and delays. We didn't miss our connection in Houston and had time for a quick snack of some terrible barbecue.




The day before, we went to REI and got Keen shoes for everyone. Then I felt ready to go.

We flew from Houston to Liberia, Costa Rica, which took another 3-1/2 hours. The children were troopers, because they hadn't flown in awhile and at long last we were heading to our vacation.

On the plane, while I was trying to explain to the flight attendant that I needed to get my son past her cart and to the bathroom, that he couldn't wait because he's six, someone on my right said "Yeah and he goes to [my kids' school]." We looked and the speaker was the father of my son's kindergarten classmate, the classmate and her mother. I wanted to stop and chat about their plans but I had to change directions and take my son to the first class bathroom.

We arrived in Costa Rica at around 7:30PM and it was a lot like the Kona airport, open air, incredibly humid. I watched a lot of people collect surf boards from the baggage carousel. It was dark and I wondered how I was going to get us to our hotel. After we got through customs, standing next to the taxi drivers was a man holding a big placard with my surname on it.

I could have wept with relief.

We climbed into his van and he informed us that we had a 3-1/2 hour drive ahead of us. I could have wept then too.

The kids took it well. We left Liberia and pretty soon hit some very bad roads. We saw the lava flowing red in the dark sky down Arenal, which was an excellent welcome. We tried to doze, but that was a mistake for me because I got terribly carsick.

Finally, I had to ask the driver to stop. I am terrified of insects and they were making an incredible amount of noise in the rainforests on both sides of the road, but I didn't want to vomit in the van. I was between a rock and a hard place: nausea and insectophobia. I got some fresh (warm, wet) air, settled my stomach, got a plastic bag out of my luggage, and resumed the bumpy journey.

Afraid of insects, then why Costa Rica?



Well, I had heard great things about the country and my children like volcanos and beaches. D. and I planned to go together, with her partner and our kids, but they took a long trip to New Zealand in the spring, so they were not prepared to go this summer. My daughter's classmate's mother does mountain bike trips all over the world and they were planning to go this summer, but I knew there was no way in hell I was going across Costa Rica on a mountain bike.

The hotel we stayed at is called the Arenal Paraiso and it's incredible. The volcano is right across the street.



The grounds are gorgeous.





The lodging is individual cabins made out of shellacked woods. Beautiful and immaculate.



We went on a volcano hike in the afternoon, which was more like a rainforest/volcano hike on the El Silencio Trail. The children asked to move to Costa Rica. My son spotted a howler monkey . While the insects were shrieking and buzzing around me and we were hiking up, up, I thought I'm just a lawyer-insectophobe-chicken who sits behind a desk all year; what am I doing in a rainforest in Central America?







But it was great and I may still be an insectophobe, but I'm not a chicken. We got to the end of the hike and drank water and Fanta Naranja for my boy. Then the rain came pouring down and we went back to the hotel.

Hola!!

The children and I just got back from nine days in Costa Rica. Pura Vida

I have more than a little laundry to wash and I want to ease back into my life, to make our completely excellent vacation last longer.

I missed y'all. I took 400 pictures and notes every day.

The kids and I are going on vacation.

I promise to come back with lots of pictures.

Before my daughter was born, I took two woodworking classes at Piedmont Adult School. I really enjoyed them, though I had never dealt with power tools or built anything before and despite the fact that my spatial sense is...impaired.

I built this laundry hamper following the classes, using pine, which is lightweight and inexpensive. I left gaps between the planks in front and back so that the laundry could breathe and not form mildew.





Because it's waist high, it serves as a countertop/workspace in the bathroom, as is evidenced by all the paint on the top.

It was time for a paint job, so I painted it:





It looks much better, though I miss seeing the whorls in the wood.

Speaking of wood, I love this interior from a vintage trailer:



Finally, this quilt makes me so happy. I want to make one. Great work, Alexia!