are we on vacation again?

We went to orlando again for an overnighter.  It was such a horrible week it was nice to leave it behind even if it was just for 30 hours.  We lost Sugar (our 11 year old greyhound) on Monday.   We flew into orlando and drove over to universal.  We got into the park at about 1pm. We started in the older park so we could take to new Harry Potter train over to the Islands of Adventure.  It was pretty cool.  The train really is moving, and they show a video on the window to make it look like we're leaving Hogwarts and pulling into London.  On that side, we explored the new Diagonal Alley, which is behind a very nondescript wall, but once on the other side, the whole Harry Potter experience comes alive.  There are dark magic back alleys and lots of stores and details to explore.  We're kind of Harry Potter geeks, so we had to look at everything.  The wands that you can buy have interactive spots to cast spells, a lot of them have water invol...

What did we do?  Good question.  I guess it can be summed up in one word, we DROVE, and we drove and we drove.  I guess we were seeking nesting turtles so we went toward Ocinal (sp?) and got horribly lost.  Hours and hours later, after a short stop on a beach, we finally found it.  Tracey had fun four wheeling and driving through numerous rivers, but I felt like a rag doll being bounced around the back seat.  One of the places we stopped prior to the final destination, was a refuge with a turtle hatchery.  One of the kids there told Bubba they were releasing some of the hatched turtles into the ocean at 5.... That's where I wanted to be, but I got overruled so we kept up the long and arduous drive that should have been a total from our door to the beach about two hours, but instead it was about five, oh, and we still had to come back in the dark and to top it off, we didn't see any nesting turtles.  I guess I should consider myself lucky to have s...

We really had nothing planned for today, and we thought we were going home tomorrow, until I looked at the flights.  Atlanta to Orlando was really full for Bubba and I, so instead of possibly spending yet another night in Atlanta, we decided to stay until Saturday.  It looks like we are going to skip the Halloween thing at Universal this year, I think it is supposed to rain there on Saturday anyway.  So with nothing set in stone, we went looking for monkeys in the wild.  We found two different troops, and the second one even had a bunch of babies.  I always find them fascinating to watch, even if most of their time is spent in one spot just munching on leaves.   After that we saw signs for a free coffee tour, so we went.... Not exactly a tour, but more of a coffee store.... And no decaf, sorry Jimmy!  There was an excellent pizza place in the same plaza though, so needless to say, that's where we had dinner.  One large and two small pizzas later a...

Today we went on a two tank afternoon dive with Rocket Frog Divers.  Another great day, although I suppose just about any day in Costa Rica is a great day. Scott was our dive master, and I think the other dive master's name was David, but I'm so bad with names it could have been anything.  On the first dive, I had a hard time with my buoyancy, I was way too buoyant and was having a rough time getting under the water. Scott came to my rescue with extra weight for my belt and a helping hand to get me to the bottom.  It was about a 60' dive where we saw lots of fish, a couple of schools even, which is pretty spectacular and five white tip fin sharks.  They were just chilling about 10 feet away from us.  While we were watching them, a huge turtle swam between us and them, which was a spectacular sight.  On the way up we say ray swim by.  Dive two followed a harrowing boat ride through very rough water, I think Bubba's seasickness was coming in to haunt him...

Another day, another baby monkey.  We met Isabella today at a different monkey place.  I would have called this one a zoo, but supposedly they don't have zoos in Costa Rica anymore.  The place had canopy tours, ATV tours and some monkeys and snakes.  We got to hang out with two baby boas and a baby howler monkey.  We probably outstayed our welcome, but we were being amused by the baby monkey and didn't want to leave.  She even thought the boas were toys and tried to stuff one in her mouth... interesting.  From there we drove about an hour and a half to a beach where we were told the might be turtles, well they seem to only come out at night, so back to Coco.  We had dinner and back to the condo.  Tracey and Bubba are swimming, and I'm lounging on the couch.... Tomorrow will be another long day

Monkeys, piglets, goats, oh my!  What a great day! We went to themonkeyfarm.org today.  Other than a very challenging road up to the farm, it was a great day.  It's a newly opened monkey rescue that is working towards being a self sustainable farm.  The tour was great and we got to play with a couple of raccoons, and the best part was we got to hold the baby howler monkey.  She was so cute, even if she peed on Bubba's arm, although that was kind of funny.  We spent a few hours there, and I think I did really well with the mud and the stinky compost piles, I don't even think I made any faces!  From there we had lunch downtown Coco, can't go wrong with pizza.  Then we found the Rocket Frog Divers.... The plan is to go diving on Wednesday, Trace is going to snorkel from the same boat... Should be fun

This morning was the continuation of our journey to Costa Rica, and we finally made it.  It started as another early morning.... 5am Yikes! And off to the busiest airport in the world.  It all went surprisingly well! I think somehow we ended up in the domestic TSA line, but they were doing some kind of an expedited process and the line moved very quickly.  Just remember in that airport to check for your gate before boarding the train, once on it's too late to find out other than getting off at another stop and staring at another board.  We got to our terminal with out a hitch, had some breakfast and boarded our plan... All three of us got first class! The flight was uneventful, just the way I like them and 4 hours later we were in Liberia.  We got a car from budget, and I'll have to remember for next time that it is the loss damage insurance that is mandatory, the collision is covered by our American Express.  So about $400 later we were on our way.  T...

Oh the pleasures of flying standby!  Because some crazy guy in the Midwest tried to kill himself at an ATC location, our flights were full and over sold.  Off we went anyway at 6:00am only to be stuck in Boston for hours before we decided to connect through Richmond.... It worked and about 11 hours later we were in Atlanta! Originally we thought of flying to SJO, until Bubba talked to the resort... He was told it was at least a 5 hour drive, so we decided to stay in ATL and we'll go to LIR tomorrow.  We're staying at a Crown Plaza, and we are surrounded by Delta employees... There's some kind of training going on, and we've already met a new flight attendant and a seasoned pilot.  I'd stay here again, but there isn't a free breakfast 😢 .   We ate across the street at Malone's Bar and Grill -- excellent food!  Even Bubba liked it, and that NEVER happens!  Tomorrow will be another early day, so off to bed and hopefully tomorrow will be easier!

Our last day in Utah, and what a long one it was.  We started the day at the Red Iguana again, yummy and then drove south to the Timpanogos Cave National Monument.  It's not far from Salt Lake City, less than an hour, and it's actually an easy drive.  My legs were still sore from the ladder the day before, so I really didn't think I was going to attempt the walk, but looks are deceiving.  From the visitor center you can't see the cave entrance so I guess you can fool yourself into believing it won't be too bad.  Let's see, an incline of almost 1100 feet over 1.5 miles... OMG, I can't believe we tried it never mind made it all the way up and back.  It took us over four hours including the time in the cave.  The cave system is beautiful.  Lots and lots of stalagmites and stalagtites.  The walk through does require some bending and stooping, and even some stairs, which just complicated the pain in my legs, but it was still beautiful. The walk is...

We always seem to find interesting places to discover.  Today we went salt water diving in Utah with tropical fish.  Yes it is a land locked state, but should that stop us?  We went to a place called seabase, and driving up to it we kept asking each other is this? It was fun.  Ok, to preface our dive, we have been diving for almost 20 years, but in that time frame most have been in the Caribbean.  We' ve never kept track, but we do dive about once a year, so maybe about 15 to 20 dives only in all those years, but that being said, we are very used to seeing very far or very deep.  This dive had very limited visibility, maybe about 6 feet.... Yikes! It was freaking me out a bit, but it was fun anyway.  Although we never did see the sharks, we did see some decent size fish, and we fed them lettuce, yum?!?  The visibility reminded me of our very first dive and last time we ever dove in New England.  Driving back we saw the Great Salt Lake State P...

A weekend in Iceland.  I've wanted to go there for years, but the non rev gods weren't with us again, and we had to change our plans.  We are in Salt Lake City.  I guess it's not quite as exotic, but we've only been here for about 12 hours, and we've already had loads of fun. First stop from the airport was the Red Iguana.  It lived up to it's memories.  We found it a few years ago when we were here for a U2 concert, and Bubba has talked about it ever since.  They pretty much have yummy everything.  I had a chicken enchilada in a poblano mole sauce and Bubba had some kind of pork in a mango mole sauce.   While we were there, Bubba found a flyer for the Utah Arts Festival.  We went there after lunch.  It lasts all weekend, and today was the first day.  There are tons of arts and crafts booths with beautiful stuff to buy (which of course we did) and later in the day there were bands and other entertainment.  We went to find our h...

Maybe this is a trend.  It's rainy and dark when we get up on an off day, and we hop a plane to sunny Florida.  I guess it's not a bad trend.  The Roots are playing at Universal tonight, so that's our plan.... If we stay awake that long. Home at midnight and up at 5 for a flight makes a very long day. I heard there is a Northface outlet at the mall on I drive, so we might check that out tonight too, again we'll see if we are still awake. The plan is to come back tomorrow morning and relieve Tracey of the crazy dogs... I wonder if she got any sleep last night. Let's see, one can whine and sing for hours when she is in the mood, and the other one likes to take over the whole bed and build her nest in the middle. It can make sleep fleeting to say the least. After a very long day, we did make it home.  It's great working for an airline, but sometimes it can be a little trying when flights fill up and a 2 1/2 hour flight turns into about 8 hours and involves a taxi. ...

First off, this was the first time we managed to make it for the actual "peak" bloom.  That being said, the trees were absolutely beautiful, but OMG there were so many people! There was barely a spot anywhere to call your own.  We had to wait to move into prime locations to take any photos.  We took the metro to "metro center" station and walked from there.  It was mid eighty's, so it was very warm and the sun was out, so it was a beautiful day.  We walked around half the basin, but the throngs of people was just too overwhelming.  We decided to give up and went to lunch instead.  There were lines everywhere! We saw this place called Ollie's Trolleys.... The lines there were crazy too, but we stayed.  It's a self serve, order at the counter, pick it up, and bring it to your table.  It was good, Bubba had a burger and I had a bar b que chicken sandwich.  The sign said they were family owned and in the same spot for the past 30 years. ...

10 days seems to go by so fast when you're on vacation and way too slow when you're at work.  On our way down from the North, we stopped at a Neolithic mound in the country side.  It seems these are dotted through out the area.  It's not very often that you get to spend time inside a building that was constructed over 5000 years ago.  What were these people like? Why did they build these spaces? Did they worship the sun? The engineering is just spectacular considering the tools they would have had when these things were built (or maybe they were aliens?!?). Anyway, from there we found our hotel (Ibis) and ate and went to bed.  The hotel is ok... I've stayed with this chain around the world, and they have always been nice, this one -- not so much.  It's a little grungy, I can't say dirty, just not really clean.  And the food we had at the restaurant was incredibly slow and kind of tasted like something you would get at a stadium.  The manager tried...

Wednesday we started our drive towards the North.  Again it was really long.  The scenery is beautiful everywhere.  We saw lots of sheep and cows and even a few horses and donkeys.  Even though it is still nippy, the grass is incredibly green every where.  We finally made it to Balina.  Len has a friend who lives a town away, so there was a reason for this stop.  We met his friend who he has known for over 50 years, then they went to eat and the three of us roamed around the very tiny town.  We had drinks at a pub called Dillon's in hope of finding some live music, but to no avail. It's off season still and the music is only on the weekends.  Thursday we drove to where Len's friend, Fr. Steve, works.  It's a nice retreat house and very busy.  They have programs almost everyday.  We didn't stay long, and continued our long drive north.   We made it to Portrush finally around supper time.  We ate at a place called the B...