The tree frog that stopped by for a visit

our view

Here's the view from the vaction house at which we are staying for a few days.

Only in Latin America?

On the way to the beach we got caught in a shut down of the Panamerican Highway for the 'Lap of Costa Rica' bicycle race. Would this happen in the US?

The struggle over Life and Death

While in the Arenal area, Lindsay and I visited the Hanging Bridges park, where we saw a number of great views and other interesting sights. The following video was one of the most exciting sights.

Arenal upon arrival

Here's the view of the Arenal volcano from the patio of our hotel room. We are told that the volcano is quite shy, often hiding in the clouds. Must be God's little gift to us today!

Beach Vacation - Pacific Side

We just got back from a few days on the Pacific coast near the town of Tamarindo. The area is a lot different in look and feel from the Caribbean coast as it's a lot dryer (read "brown") and there are a lot more tourists. Given that, the beaches were beautiful and we enjoyed a wonderful time with the whole family plus one: Meghan's boyfriend, Marius. Marius joined us for spring break and was thilled that he was finally warm!!

See the slideshow on the right for more pictures.

What's the rain good for, anyway?

Some of you have heard us complain about the long, dreary rainy season here in Costa Rica. Well, we finally found out what it's good for! Last week, we were able to spend 4 gloriously sunny days on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, at a beach called "Punta Uva" ("Grape Point"). It was beautiful! This was the first vacation we'd taken in 1 1/2 years, and it was just about as perfect as it could be. What made it so perfect? For one thing, we were all together. For another, we had the entire beach almost completely to ourselves! Why? Because of the rain! The area had been hit hard by an entire month of daily rains from early November to early December, so many people had cancelled their holiday reservations. Thus the beautiful, peaceful, wonderfully quiet beach that we enjoyed! Someone remind me of that the next time I complain about the rain.