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A small hiccup

While doing last minute packing checks late last night,  I noticed the seams coming apart on my old well loved suitcase..  After momentary panic,  we made due with one big case and one small one,  and managed to fit everything,  but a towel.  I. Guess we won't be doing any space travel..   We are on the way to the airport on schedule, but I wanted to say goodbye to suitcase!  I'm pretty sure it took me on my first big trip to the Amazon at 13, and it lasted me all the way through to Ireland so I could be proposed to!  It has served me well! See you all in Costa Rica!  Or sooner if I can't sleep on the flight!

Honeymoon In Costa Rica!

Well, I guess technically it's a babymoon, since Charlie is already on his way! Speaking of that:








Tomorrow we leave, so today is my last day to frantically do laundry and pack!

We will heading from San Francisco to San Jose, with a quick layover in San Salvador. Do I still have time to brush up on my Spanish? Looking forward to exploring, but this will be the first time during travel, that I will be waddling around instead of frolicking. Though, probably not the last! I hope this baby is a good little traveler!

Holidays! Down South

  Today we are headed back up the coast.

 We are coming from a holiday trip to visit family in SOuthern California. We spent Christmas Eve and Day In Costa Mesa. It was nice to be back there. I knew

where everything was, and even if I didn't, chances are it was within a 15 mile radius. Everything in that town revolves around three main streets. Harbor,

Newport Blvd, and 17th street. Everyone lived worked, shopped and dined, right around there.

 We visited out favorite revolving sushi bar twice, and had home cooked breakfast from Carl and my sister. We skyped my mom who was snowed in in New Mexico,

and had a great time trying out the taco trucks at the Orange County fairgrounds. The music was loud, the company was good, and the food was typical for food

trucks. Pretty good.
 
Morgan liked the fried chicken slider with mashed potatos and gravy on it. I enjoyed the PB & J with sliced bananas slider, though I'm pretty sure I can just

buy some hawaiian bread and make thenm at home. Maybe I will..
 
We also went over to Joshua tree to sneak in a side visit to Morgan's fmaily who was in the area visiting his brother. It was a tiny dusty town, but it

seemed cute enough, There was a pretty darn good NY pizza place. Their large pizza really was LARGE.

   After a day, we went back to Orange county to squeeze in more friends, babies and relatives, and then headed up to hollywood to see Danielle and Anne. We

went to the farmers market there and enjoyed some salty caramel lattes, and though the crepe place smelled amazing, the line was pretty long so we got some

greek food that was YUMMY. and Maybe healthier. We have decided to make January 6 pack ab month.so Wish us luck.

 Leaving Hollywood around 1pm, the traffic was smooth and since we made excellent time, we stopped off in Solvang. It had very cute architecture, but  it was

very touristy. Lots of older people with grandkids, people with cameras, and overpriced junk. We did pop into a cuckoo clock shop with an overly helpful

woman opening every jewlery case we passed. She made us a little cuckoo. Also, there was a Danish pastry shop that smelled like a cross between a gym and a

chocolate shop. We left without tasting..

  Next stop is San Luis Obispo to see Stephanie and have some dinner on the way home. We left a little earlier than planned, but I think it will be nice to

be home on New Year's night. :)

Happy New Year everyone! Any good resolutions out there?

Thanksgiving in Arizona with the Pre-Inlaws

Arizona is about a 12 hour drive from our place in Oakland.. We left after I finished work, (and finished packing) at around 7or 830pm.. We drove all night. I kept trying to think of the drive like I did in Ireland, all scenery. ..and that worked sometimes. But really, it's pretty flat and brown. Or  maybe that's jsutbecause of the extra hour an a half in LA..

 At least the company was  nice, if a little sleepy. One day we will stop arguing about driving in the left lane the whole time.. haha

 We made it in one piece, and it was as I remembered it,

new looking and pretty with stones and cactus decorations everywhere instead of grass. Everything kind of adobe colored.

It is nice to see how different the styles are from California to Arizona.

 The was a pool at hi parents house, but it was much to cold to go into, sadly..  but there was a hot-tub TOO. and that was great.

 The next day when thanksgiving rolled around lazily, my parents came over to visit and cook, and they brought their big galloping puppy dog, Rosco, to play with all the other animals.

 Everybody seemed to get along well,  Cats, Dogs, and Parents. Once I was stuffed as full as I could be on marshmallow toppped yams. I also had turkey and pie and stuff..

 Had  a great time seeing everyone together, including a brother of Morgan's I hadn't met yet, and his wife, home from the military.




  I had to catch a flight back home the next day to get to work on time, so I missed getting to see his other brother and his husband, but a few days later, all the siblings got together up north. (and I got to play "magic" for the first time.)












 I do have to say, the plane  was much nicer than the car ride, and I didn't envy my fancy-boyfriend-fiance the drive home.
 Here we are though, safe and sound. He is headed home from work as I type, and bringing me a meatball sub. It doesn't get much better than that!

 I am looking forward to making the Christmas trip down to orange county to see my half of the family! Only 7 hours. After Arizona, it will be a snap. :)

Souveniring!

We cut out of work a little early on Friday to see the downtown of San José and get some lunch and souvenirs for the trip home. We headed to a little cafe called Kalá that had amazing salads, sandwiches, and desserts. I had all three and was suitably stuffed by the time we left. My personal highlight was definitely the basil crème brûleé. Ever since my amazing awakening to strawberry and basil during entrepreneurial month last year when I had french toast with Yaz, I haven't been able to dispense with basil as a great pair with sweet foods. Note to self–must make more basily things. 

It rained a little bit on the metal corrugated roof that covered the patio at which we ate and the sound was almost exactly like one of those touristy rain sticks you can buy. I see, now, why they're so popular and available everywhere. Oh yeah, every one here uses corrugated metal for everything. Apparently you can just pop a slab of this stuff on your house and call it a roof. It's deafening, but de-facto standard here. It's kind of amazing, and I keep thinking how easy it would be to build a house out of the stuff, provided it never needed to keep warm in the winter. I think tropical weather makes people lazy. 

We decided to go to the mall to look for souvenirs, and hit the supermarket first. The prices are about the same as the US, and we got a lot of decent stuff for the prices. The mall, itself, when we got out there, was enormous. I've been to big malls in SF, and this one put them to shame. It was 3 levels in places, and had shops stretching pretty much as far as the eye could see. I think the number of shops actually rivals the great mall in Milpitas. Not so great anymore, are you? 

The evening was topped off with talk of politics and rum, and the real adventure began the next day, when we got up at 3:30 am to head out.

Work work work all the time

So many things around me are in English that it's easy to forget I'm in a foreign country, and not just in Hawaii or San Diego. The differences can be subtle, though, like trying to turn on the water in the morning. My whole life, I've known that the handle marked C is the one for cold water. And, apparently, I always check to make sure the other one says H just in case they both say C or whatever. When I look over and see an F, I'm drawn out of my Americanocentric views and reminded that we speak a different language here, and I'm a visitor. I like that feeling.

We took a bus to the office, which was an experience in itself. The speed with which things change from high class to poverty is astounding. After the interesting drive, we were brought up to the 4th floor of a fairly new building. The weather was decent, warm, though a little humid. The presentations went well, the team seemed to really get what we were saying to them.

During the presentations, the rain really started to kick in, and due to the metal roof on the building, the whole place echoed with the noise that only a tropical torrential rain can produce. Couple that with the thunder and lightning, and I definitely felt like I was in a different country. And, as if the weather wasn't enough to remind me that we're in a tropical paradise with volcanoes and hot springs nearby, the whole building shook with a minor earthquake, too. What more could you ask from a first day in a new country?

The talking went a little longer than I'd hoped, but by the end of the day, people were about ready to build ads, so I guess that's a success and tomorrow should be fun and interesting. By the time the day was over, the storm had cleared and the sun came out to show us a gorgeous sunset.

We headed home, where I had a nice gin and tonic, got an amazing seafood platter for dinner, and then finished up a project I was supposed to complete today. Once that was done, I relaxed in the hot tub for a while, and here I am, winding down, enjoying the spacious, clean hotel room. The cleaning staff even extra-organized all of my toiletries for me. I had them somewhat structured, but they took the time to lay them out on a towel and space them evenly. Now that's service.