Costa Rica - A Trip to Tamarindo

So far the roads in Costa Rica are much better than I was expecting. As long as you don't get stuck behind a bus, don't want to turn around and can keep your vehicle on the road at all times. The travel times on Waze and Google are much slower than the distance would seem to indicate so I was expecting rough roads and even dirt roads. Turns out the roads we've been on so far have been well paved but they are narrow with no shoulder and most of the bridges are one way so you really have to pay attention.

The main roads run along the coast and we started by heading north from our condo. We found more cows and lots of smaller local markets before we attempted to turn around. This is where the narrow roads with no shoulder come into play. It was not easy finding a spot to turn around so we did a bit more exploring then planned. When we did get turned around our destination was Tamarindo to the south of us. We knew in advance that it was more of a tourist town and I will admit is probably the most tourist centric town I have ever been to. Gift shops everywhere and street vendors selling necklaces and bird whistles. This was exactly what Carter was looking for. I think we hit every gift shop in a KM and he worked with Kerry to bargain with a street vendor for a few bird whistles. We think he got a good deal.

We spent a bit of time walking on the beach and found a nice open air food court for lunch and dessert at a chain called Pops that had been recommended to us. Both were great!

On our way back we stopped at another beach called Playa Grande. Each beach we've been to has been quite unique. This one was big, flat and windy which made for a good place for what I am fairly certain were mostly beginner surfers. The waves broke really close to shore and I don't think I saw anyone get up on their board in front of us, though there was a group farther down to the left us that looked like they were having better luck. It was mostly open to the sun with the exception of a small area of palm trees. A perfect area to read a book.

We have several views from our condo. The pool is on one side and we can see the ocean from the other once you look past a local gathering spot. Every night we've been here people show up just after dark, turn on a single bright LED light and play soccer. The picture here shows them wetting down the dirt to keep the dust down. It's a very controlled game of mostly passing since I don't think they like having to chase the ball into the adjacent lots. It's clear why soccer is a universal sport. A ball and a flat space is all you need.

Costa Rica - A Day at the Beach

We started our day by driving to Playa Conchal beach. It's about a 20 minute drive from our condo and we had been told it is made out of sea shells rather than volcanic sand. As we arrived we had multiple locals waiving signs at us pointing at where we needed to park. This seemed like trouble. The guy closest to us was very insistent but the guy farther away had a spot under a tree. We went with the tree and 2000 colons later we had our parking spot. Not really sure how official this parking zone was but our car was still there when we got back.

The beach was about a km away from where we parked but as far as we could tell we were as close as we could get. We knew we were in the right place because we could see the white beach from afar. We walked over a dark sand beach and over a small ridge and came upon a little piece of paradise. You could see coral reefs in the water, shells and white sand and there was even a couple large lizards. I had to go back to the car to get Kerry's phone so was a bit slower than the rest of the family. Carter is not happy that I saw the lizards and he didn't.

The beach signs warned of rip tides and if it was wavier I can definitely see that as a problem. Kerry and Carter spent their time in the water and every few waves one would drag them down off the beach deeper into the ocean. The tide was also coming in and it was a good thing I moved our stuff higher up into the trees. There were several big waves that sent groups near us scrambling to get their bags before they were swept out to sea. It was rather comical watching one sun bather as they slowly inched farther up the beach only to be swamped by a large wave.

After getting showered back at the condo we booked a table at "The Beach House" restaurant nearby. It was actually available on Open Table for booking. It was walking distance but we still hadn't figured out how to walk down to the beach near our condo so we walked alongside the road. This area is great however the roads are skinny and there really isn't a lot of space to walk. We didn't come across any cows during our walk but they were were everywhere when we were driving around earlier in the day.

We had booked our table at 4:30p so we could take advantage of happy hour. We did not need to book. We were the first group to arrive and only two other families showed up while we were there. The restaurant is right on the beach and we got our pick of tables. The prices were in American so it wasn't super cheap but the food was good and you couldn't beat the view. There were boats in the bay and pelicans fishing. My favourite pastime right now is watching some little black birds eating on the beach. They walk as close as they can and then scurry away when a wave comes.

We noticed some families were arriving from the direction of the beach so we chose to walk back that way rather than along the road. Our hope was that we could find the entrance from the beach side. The other bonus was that we got to see the sunset. It's always nice being on the west side of any tropical location as you can see the sun set over the water. We found our entrance and discovered some more local shopping. All set for the rest of our trip.

Costa Rica - Getting There

It's an unusual start to Spring Break for the Schwab family this year. Not because we're going to Central America, not because we had to get shots before we left and not because we are going somewhere that we don't have to pay for our hotel. It's unusual because we got to leave out of YVR! Ordinarily we jump in a car and drive to our destination or we drive to the States to catch our flight. Our flight for Toronto left at 11:00p and was scheduled to arrive in Toronto at 6:20a for our 7:20a flight for Costa Rica. We were a bit late leaving and despite Kerry's frequent questions to multiple stewardesses about whether we should be concerned, we were assured we had plenty of time. We were a bit relieved when I discovered that our flight to Costa Rica was delayed by 10 minutes. This relief was quickly dashed when we heard over the speakers that 'If you are catching a flight to Liberia, Costa Rica, please rush!" We got off the plane and the desk agent had a sign that said 'Please rush to your Liberia Flight".

We rushed! We were stuck at the back of the plane for 10 minutes un-boarding. We got stuck behind a security incident. We were stuck behind a mob that rushed the security gate when it cleared. We got stuck at a checkpoint that made us scan our ticket to get through. We were almost eaten by the worst airport walkway I've ever been on. We arrived at our gate just as they were giving all the delinquent travelers a last call over the PA system including our names. We made it! For all that rushing it still took us 45 minutes to take off waiting at the gate and getting deiced.

We arrived in Liberia, Costa Rica about an hour behind schedule but it was before lunch and we had no real plans for our arrival day. I'm not sure if it was because of the size of our plane but they dropped us off on the tarmac instead of one of the gates and we walked to immigration. We were on an older Air Canada plane and there were quite a few older couples already dressed for the beach so the whole experience felt a bit like we had actually arrived in 1990. It took us a bit of time to find the shuttle to our rental car. I don't recommend Ace for Liberia. The shuttle was very infrequent.

We've been to Maui and Florida as a family but this was the first time the kids had been to Central America. Our plan was to stock up on a few necessities in Liberia before heading to the condo and although it's not very adventurous, our first destination was the local Walmart. We have no idea what to expect in Costa Rica so our hope was going somewhere familiar first would ease us in. It was not as familiar as I was expecting. It's very difficult to figure out what kind  of meat is in a hot dog on a normal day let alone trying to translate from Spanish and figure out which one is 'All Beef'.

We knew in advance that Google wasn't a great map service for this area but I had forgotten to download Waze onto Kerry's phone so I tried Google anyways. It took us on a very interesting local tour of some back allies before getting us going in the right direction.

We arrived at our Condo just before dinner and spent the evening getting comfortable and checking out the pool. We haven't seen any monkeys yet but there is a family of mourning doves on one of the posts on our deck. I was out last night shining my camera light in their faces. They didn't seem to upset and they are still there the next morning. They are pretty big so I expect they will be gone before we leave.

Hopefully we find monkeys today!

Carter's Science Fair

I only recall doing science fair once as a kid. I grew bean plants and subjected them to various forms of music. I still recall that Jazz was their favourite. I was hoping that Carter would do Science Fair last year since they traditionally open it up for grade four students, however his teachers decided that Grade 4 is 'not mature enough'. Not sure I agree with that. Carter and I disagreed so profusely that we did our own science fair last year. We used various kinds of solvents to melt things. Our favourite was lego and styrofoam in acetone.

I was hoping for a better decision from his teacher this year and I was initially disappointed. Carter came home with the task of selecting an experiment that he could do in 90 minutes at school. Initially I thought this was just a practice for his real science fair project but we both soon learned that science fair was in a mere two weeks and what we chose was his project. This mean no time to grow plants or anything that took any amount of time.

I say initially disappointed because as it turned out Carter was definitely able to make the best of an undesired situation. He picked a fairly interesting topic and his teachers were quite impressed with his scientific approach to selecting an eco-friendly laundry detergent. His presentation was excellent and his experiment was very sound. He did the vast majority of the work on his own at school and when it came time for judging at the school science fair he managed to get top 5 for the school. The judges were very impressed with how well he presented his findings, both visually and verbally. Top 5 meant he got to go to the district science fair and once again his judges were impressed with how well he spoke. They don't award winners and instead everyone gets either gold, silver or bronze. He managed to come away with a Gold!!! Just to be on the safe side we're already thinking about projects for next year. We will have plenty of time to do something interesting.

Art of Lights

I had my eye on this particular event since the summer time. It's unusual for Surrey to get this sort of thing and it looked legit based on the advertising. Things sounded a bit less legit when they failed their electrical inspection with the city of Surrey three times. They then had to post pone to the new year due to weather. It's a good thing they had multiple themes including Christmas, Canada, New Years and Chinese New Year because they didn't open until well into January.

You might ask why something that appeared so professional would fail their electrical inspection. The Fire Distinguisher signs were a pretty good indicator that something wasn't right. The electrical boxes were also all imported from China with no Canadian signage on them implying that they were not exactly CSA approved. With all the cables running through mud puddles I'm glad the City of Surrey stuck to their guns and made sure things were done properly before approving the opening.

Most of the Chinese themes displays were very well done and you could tell they came from a company that specialized in Chinese Lantern festivals. The Canadian wall was a little less impressive with what appear to be cross eyed beavers. I think if they had stuck to the professional exhibits and held the event in a drier and smaller area like Surrey City hall it would have been a much cosier and better experience. Having said that, the family definitely had good laugh.

Snowshoeing at Callaghan Valley

One of Kerry's friends from work recently purchased snowshoes for the family and they needed a vehicle to take some things to the dump. A quick trade later and the Schwab family was set to go snowshoeing. I've been in the past but we have never been as a family and although there was no local snow when we went we're close enough to the local ski hills that we had several options for destinations. Callaghan Valley near whistler was recommended to us and although it's not cheap considering all you are doing is walking in snow with your own equipment, it's still a great destination.

Callaghan Valley is the same area that held the cross country skiing events during the 2010 Olympics and they have many kilometres of both groomed and un-groomed areas for you to go. The main trailers are for a mix of cross country skiing types and you can also show shoe on them. We started down one of these trails thinking we knew where we were going but soon realized that there were better options for us. There was a pre-walked track that was no wider than 2 show shoes that ran alongside the main trails and zigzagged through the trees. I was a little nervous when we hit the first hill because it seemed a bit more extreme than I was expecting for a novice trail but once we got over the first hill and into the woods the travel was much easier.

Carter had a good time at the start and insisted on going on some flat areas with actual deep snow. He really wanted to try out the snowshoes and they worked as designed. Once we got into the woods however things were not quite so enjoyable and by the end I was carrying his poles and shoes. Next time we might get him some grips for his boots instead. He enjoyed being outdoors but didn't really see the point of the snow shoes if you are on groomed trails.

I think we travelled about 5k which was not too bad for our first trek. We aren't ready to purchase our own equipment yet but we definitely plan on going again. If we lived in Prince George still I definitely think I would own a pair of my own. Much more enjoyable when you can just drive to the end of a road and head out on trails you're already familiar with.

Christmas

Christmas got a bit of a slow start this year. November was a busy month for us and Kerry and I both had other commitments on the first weekend of December which is usually when we kick Christmas off with the Christmas tree hunt, decorations, lights etc. We did manage to find time to get the tree but that was pretty much it. We've had a real tree for 4 or 5 years now and our new tradition is to go to the Dogwood Christmas Tree Farm in Aldergrove. It's a great place to cut your own tree because they have a lot of different species to choose from, there's a place to get hot chocolate and the paths to the trees are covered in gravel or sawdust so it's not super muddy.  Apparently we aren't the only ones that think it's a great place to get a tree. Kerry likes to watch Hallmark Christmas movies and we've seen this farm in at least one of them. We managed to pick our tree fairly quickly and after a bit of sawing we brought home 'Noble - Part Deux'. We also have a tradition of naming our Christmas tree every year.

This might be the last year for us to attend the BC Hydro Christmas party. Carter can keep coming until he is 12 and he remained interested in it this year but I get the sense that he may feel he is too old by next year. It's traditionally been at Science World because it has to be a big venue. They open the doors at 7:00a and we have free rein of the place until 9:30a. We can stick around past that point but they open the doors to the rest of the public and put away the breakfast. Carter had a great time in the various exhibits. He had been to Science World the week before with his class but he was probably restricted on what he could do and when. Now he could roam free and was taking in all the exhibits that he didn't get to with his class.

We did Gingerbread houses again this year. I have a mould from Lee Valley that I use to make the house parts and Callie and Carter each invited some friends over. I had to make 6 houses this year. That's a lot of gingerbread. Prep time is a lot of work but the actual event is getting easier because the kids can put the houses together on their own. In past years I've had to try to assemble all the houses. Soup cans and heavy cups along with decorating first and assembling later are the keys to success.

Christmas holidays officially kicked off with the arrival of Barb and Reg a few days before school finished. Callie is in grade 8 this year and is taking band which meant we had some additional concerts to attend. We got to go to her Jazz band concert first which is an extra curricular club she's joined followed by the overall band concert. The Jazz one was fun because it was in a smaller venue with nice seats and only about 90 minutes. The second one was more than I could handle and was about 3 hours. Luckily Callie was first and I got to leave at the intermission. I was very impressed by how much everyone had improved since grade 7 and things get really good with the seniors.

I think I've maxed out on Christmas lights finally. I decorate the eaves of the house, all of the trees and bushes and Snoopy gets his place of honour on top of the house. I may have to start decorating the back yard. 

Christmas vacation was busy with Barb and Reg with Christmas dinner and a fondue followed by my parents for New Years Eve and a few more days before they headed off to Costa Rica. We managed to get everything taken down by New Years day and are ready for 2019!