Costa Frica~La Pura Vida

rich and i were the luckiest of the lucky because we got to go to costa rica with the bff of my life, sarah oesterle and her lover, jared.  it was about an eight day trip, and it was unforgettably amazing.  i cannot stop missing it. 

the first day, we all met up at the fort lauderdale airport.  sarah and jared had just moved to miami because he got a job with citibank (go jared), so they did not have to get up at 3:30am like us.  lucky ducks.  the flight to san juan was a little bumpy, but we got to the airport safely and rented a sweet car (after jared and rich did some wheelin' and dealin').  we drove through the jungle to la fortuna the first night, and stayed at the casa luna hotel and spa.  it was an awesome resort with a cool view of the arenal volcano.  (thanks jared for knowing about air bnb and finding sweet sleeping spots). 

the next day, we did some more jungle cruising and got to puerto carillo and rented some surfboards.  the waves were ginormous and the guy we rented the boards from was stoned, so i was nervous about taking his verbal instructions, so we did not really do much surfing, but we kinda tried lol!  another man that made me nervous was the owner of our hotel, hector.  the night we stayed at his hotel, hector drank a bottle of patron and played his guitar all night in the lobby.  we all thought he was kinda loco but nice.  after we checked out though, we realized he was just crazy.  as were driving away on the highway, we saw hector on his motorcycle chasing after us like he was on the fast and the furious.  for some random reason, he thought we had stolen his nasty pink towel.  obviously we didn't, but he didn't believe us, so he pulled out in front of us and harassed us.  sarah and jared, both spanish speakers, told him repeatedly we did not have his pink towel.  he wanted to search through our luggage, but we refused and drove off.  he didn't chase us again, so we think he may have finally believed us, or he just didn't have enough gas.  everyone else was pretty calm about it.  i, however, was genuinely concerned we were going to be killed or kidnapped by hector.  after working on the west side of chicago, i have a bad habit of assuming people are mentally unstable.  i was eventually able to laugh with everyone about it after we were miles away...but i still look behind me occasionally and fear seeing hector...

after puerto carillo, we made our way to manual antonio.  we stayed at the jungle creek resort.  the resort owners, thankfully, were not crazy like hector, and they actually told us about an awesome waterfall that was about a 3 mile hike.  their dog, suzie, showed us the way there.  it was an awesome waterfall with a rope swing.  we joined in with some local boys who were playing tag. i got bruised and cut way bad trying to keep up with the little speedsters, but it was still fun!  sad story:  on our way back, a wild pitbull attacked suzie.  she was bleeding a little bit, but she was ok after going to the vet and getting a few shots.  she was an awesome dog, and we felt horrible about it.  the owners said that that living in the jungle comes with risks...  rich and i realized puma would never survive a day.  

the next few days, we all tried boogie boarding, and rich and i tried surfing again.  i got an instructor to take me out and i was able to stand up and ride a wave. :) lyn, my instructor, kept saying, "it is just like a bathtub.  no worries!" ahah! i love surfing even though i suck.  rich and i also loved watching the surfers.  they were hardcore crazy good at flipping all around.  i am envious.

after so many beach days, we decided to have a tree day and went ziplining on the longest zipline in costa rica.  it was unbelievably magnificent.  it felt like flying.  definitely worth it.  another adventure that was worth the money was going to the savagre river and doing some intense white water rafting.  the devil's mouth was a cool rapid.  the worst part of our trip was the last day.  we all got super sick.  i will spare the yucky details, but we blame el avion.  we made our way back to san jose eating soda crackers, stayed at a hostel, and then flew home.  i guess it was necessary to have some bad with the great.  either way, costa rica was costa-freakin-awesome! la pura vida!

selling their soul's for a car

our ride!

the arenal volcano is behind us, but you can't see it with the fog

casa luna hotel and spa...yes please! they had delicious smoothies..

coconut water.  looks cooler than it tastes.

he is hotter than a volcano

sarah and jared got us hooked on smoothies...like crack!

let's share

i wanna beach with him forever!

i would marry her if i could

winning

hardcore winning

 

the guy we rented our boards from

we are wild monkeys...not sloths

"you know i want you to come boogie with me..."

in front of el avion.  we should not be smiling...

how cool are they? cooler than cool. i love them so much.

poomican and gugy forever

mucho mucho hot

restaurant with a cool viwe during a rainstorm

i'll fly away with that...

these two are crazy, fun, smart and nice. xoxo.

rich found foosball in the jungle!

GQ...jungle style!

safety dorks at the savagre river! yikes!!!

 

we are having a blast pose! ;)

why is hermana sarah so pretty inside and out?

me with tarzan ;)

we fed these babies chicken pieces.  respect established.  they could kill me in one bite.

jared made one of his lifelong dreams come true and purchased a hammock.

Sweet Carolina!

what do you do with five days off in a row from work and rich on summer break? get cheap plane tickets and stay in myrtle beach. duh! :)  you should also visit the rest of south and north carolina because myrtle beach can be a bit of a tourist trap and slightly reminded me of vegas with a dash of the dells.
***side-note: it was the annual bike week and over a million legit harley dudes and dudettes were in town.  i believe this may have brought in collection of individuals who are not usually natural to the area...bikers are entertaining, to say the least! ahah!

despite bike week though, rich and i had a sweet time!  we stayed right on the beach at the seacrest resort.  every morning, we got to run on the beach and watch the sun rise over it.  cameras could not capture the breathtaking beauty.  we drove to charleston and discovered what a gem that city is!  we loved the houses, the huge porches, the city market, the people and their accents, the "gullah" food, the history, the plantations and everything else in between!  definitely worth the drive.  we also drove to calabash, nc because they supposedly have the original and best "calabash" seafood.  we were and still are not completely sure what calabash seafood is, but i think we had some! :)  it tasted like regular seafood to me, always delicious! besides those two trips, we stayed in myrtle beach and pretty much just walked up and down the beach and boardwalk all day and night.  it was perfect and i loved spending so much time with my boy.

myrtle beach, sc

they had delicious drinks!

seriously delish

charleston city market.  their jade, lavender and chamomile lotions smelled like heaven.  these people had talent.  memo to self:  learn a craft!

handsome rich enjoying some food at jestines' kitchen.  this place was awesome.  jestine lived till she was 118, and now one of her friends owns her restaurant.  they serve gullah food (grits, collard greens, catfish, sweet tea, okra, fried chicken, etc).  this restaurant was featured on rachel ray and oprah.  we loved it! maybe we will live long now too?

the southern folks know how to build a porch.

getting my "southern belle" on!

boat dock in calabash, nc.  rich wanted to catch some fish, but the trips were too dang pricey!

obviously we are standing in front of the hardrock cafe pyramid restaurant! ;) we have mad photog skills.

Cubs Game with Teeth People

rich's school got super discounted tickets to a cubs game, so we got some tickets and got loaded up on a big yellow school bus with all of rich's bff's from school and went to wrigley field and listened to some music and ate some delicious food and chatted it up and root root rooted for the cubbies because they won and had a grand time a the ballgame!

Michelle the Superstar

my sister michelle is a freakin' movie star! she has gotten the lead for three plays at her school this year.  she sings like mariah carey and acts like reese witherspoon. we were able to go out and see her perform in little women.  she was fantastic and beautiful! great job baby!

we were also able to help make some maple syrup with dad! rich told me that he wants to have our own maple trees someday, and even though my thirteen year old self would hate me for saying this, i agree!

whenever we make maple syrup, i always feel like a witch stirring a cauldron! :)

Four Lakes Flood

here is a not funny story:  in chicagoland, it rained for three days straight and then it downpoured on the fourth night.  in the morning, our little village of four lakes became a giant lake.  our neighborhood was on the national news.  we had the national guard in our town because the streets had turned into rivers.  there were people being evacuated by boats and tanks from their houses.  the road access into four lakes was cut off, so shari (who was in town for business) and i ended up running over a mile to get to our condo to rescue puma.  puma was safe, but everything else was sheer craziness.  the lake in our backyard was literally about three feet away from flooding our condo.  a lot of our neighbors had their houses completely under water.  no one was hurt/killed, but so much property has been ruined.  my heart goes out to all the people who were affected by the flood.  we will definitely be getting flood insurance! here are some pics from the flood. there are a lot more, but they are on my phone.  i will try and add them later. 

Boards Passed!!!

rich passed his first set of boards today!  great job on all your hardwork, love! i never stop being amazed at how brilliant you are.  i love you forever. xoxo. 

the proof