Nuggs and her weekly pistachio Pops cone
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Very strange street fair ride…
Sosi running around and finding her shadow at a street fair downtown
The cat whisperer
My little corn pecker
Grecia Costa Rica
Today we went to Grecia which is about 1/2 hour away and the town in this area that I love the most. I was looking for a house rental for the month of Jan. but couldn’t find one that worked for us :(. It is similar to San Ramon but there is just something about Grecia that feels right for me.
We hung out in the central park and then walked around and went in to a bunch of shops. Sosi of course loved the water fountain. She fell asleep on the car ride there and we took her out of the car while she was still napping so it was nice to just sit on a bench with her and enjoy the weather. It was perfectly sunny today with an amazing breeze. Once she woke up and saw the fountain she was on her merry way and climbed right up to check it out.
When we were done walking around we went and ate at a steakhouse called Galeria. We sat out back and the view was beautiful. Soph chowed on some guacamole and roamed around the yard with daddy. Will and I shared the guac and a sea bass dish. We will def. be going back! Who knows, maybe we will move here for a while after Santa Teresa. I really do just love this area…just something about it.
After we ate we walked on over to Soph’s fave ice cream shop, POPS, (it is a chain here so they have it in most towns) and got her a pistachio cone (only my daughter likes pistachio- weirdo). This kept her nice and busy for 1/2 the ride home which was a good thing since the ipad had only 2 percent battery left!! It was such a beautiful day. Slideshow below
Ja-Ja-Ja Jaco Beach (pronounced ha-ha-ha Haco)
Ja-Ja-Ja Jaco was what we were chanting on the drive to the beach (possibly why we missed the exit and went about 1/2 hour out of the way). Regardless, it was a beautiful drive and so nice to finally get to the beach here in CR. I am def. super excited to be heading to Santa Teresa in Feb. and live the beach life for a bit. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there, and 2 hours to get back so it was a bit of a trek. It was supposed to take about 1 1/2 hours but we got lost on the way there and then stuck behind some trucks on the way home. I think we realized that whenever they tell you how long it takes to get somewhere by car, we just need to tack an extra hour on for some reason. We spent more time in the car than we did at the beach but we’ll def. be going back now that we know the route and will leave earlier so we can stay longer. We ended up walking down to the beach and then browsing a few shops and eating some chinese food (which was a nice break from rice and beans). Will wasn’t too impressed with Jaco. He thought it was a bit dirty and had a grimey vibe. I loved the shops and maybe was just super excited to get to the beach. Santa Teresa def. kicks Jaco’s butt in our opinion but I think i still liked Ja-Ja-Ja Jaco better than Will for sure. It is more developed than Santa T and has chain hotels and tall condo buildings. It seems to be a big party town and was def. mega touristy. All in all we had a great day and will be going back again. We didnt take that many pics since we weren’t there very long but below is a slideshow of a few snaps from the day 🙂
Baula’s Cafe
We found a great little cafe that has 1/2 price entrees Mon-Fri and a strawberry milkshake that just may have converted me into a milkshake lover. It def. has Sophie convinced. It was so thick that you really had to work to get it up the straw and little miss thing had no problem getting busy. Naturally we have already gone back and got her another one for her 18 mos bday. I have a feeling this will become a weekly treat.
Ah let me have a taste!
Hmm, sweet, thick, creamy...
I got this...where's yours?
Escazu & Alajuela
We finally visited Escazu (aka the Beverly Hills of Costa Rica). It was full of Americans, huge buildings, chain restaurants, malls, etc. I felt like I was back in the US for a few hours. As nice as it was to see all the familiar places, it was just as nice to leave them and go back to the quiet little town of San Ramon. Still it is good to know that a bit of US exists here and is accessible for whenever i have the urge for Outback, or Pizza hut, Victoria’s Secret, Mac…hmm I dont think i saw a starbucks…guess I’ll have to go back to investigate (and maybe do some shopping)-lol.
On the way home we sat in the worlds worst traffic jam for about 20 minutes. Luckily Will weaseled us out pretty quick and we just drove past looking at the pile of cars going absolutely no where. Amazing how we could exit the largest and most modern mall we’ve prob. ever been in, and then sit in traffic due to one broken down truck on a too narrow bridge…just seems a little backwards.
Anyway, on the way home we found a Walmart Supercenter which was AH-mazing! I was never such a Walmart fan in the states b/c the one in Chicago was in a meh area…but entering the brand new walmart here was a little bit of heaven. They had all the brands I couldn’t find, a huge selection of cheeses that I’ve been missing, and toys galore. It was brand spankin’ new, super clean, not crowded, and enormous!! I guess Santa will be making another trip to Alajuela.
All in all it was a very productive day. I found pretzels, chicken broth, and normal cheese (my how priorities have changed)! Oh and even artichokes! On our way home we decided to order a pizza and Will was going to pick it up after he dropped off Sosi and I at the house. Poor, poor daddy. After a full day of driving in and out of San Jose, he went to get the pizza which is about a 5 minute drive from the house, and ended up sitting on the road stuck behind another broke down truck for 2 hours!!! It took him longer to get a pizza 5 minutes away than it did to drive all the way to San Jose. I dont know what the deal is with trucks breaking down here, but to make matters worse, after waiting 2 hours, a police officer offered a piece of very valuable advice that prob. would have helped ohhh i dont know…2 hours prior. He showed Will (and all the other drivers stranded) a dirt road that was right behind him and lead him right up to the road to the house all within 3 minutes. Bahaha. Will left to take the dirt road and then the car in front of him got stuck in the mud and had to have 5 guys get out to push it. Gotta love it. Huge modern 3 story mall with Cartier, Ralph Lauren, etc. and dirt roads to take you home. It is all part of this adventure we are on, and though our pizza was ice cold and Sophie waited up past bedtime, it is all worth it. Slideshow below
Oh and the day continues…
So after the car gets stuck in a ditch, we get home to a lovely present from Chester…the cats bring us dead mice and Chester brings us dead armadillos…wonderful. When we pulled up to the house we saw huge black birds circling the yard and Will said, yup something is dead. Thanks Chester (hurl).
