Hike at Minnekhada Regional Park

This hike location was chosen for a slightly less than healthy reason. Kerry wanted to go for a hike. Carter and I have wanted to try out Popeyes for a while because one of the shows we watch has lots of commercials and the lower mainland got its first Popeyes just recently. The issue has been that's about 25 minutes from our house and we weren't about to go that for just for fast food. I didn't see why we could do both so I found the Popeyes and then I randomly choose a hike location in the vicinity which turned out to be Minnekhada Regional Park.

I continue to be amazed at the caliber of hiking trails we have so close to our house. This place was less than a half hour away and when you get there you can't see any signs of civilization. The hike is focused around a large marsh area that has multiple beaver dams. As we walked around we saw turtles, frogs, fish and ducks. There are many hikes of different distances and the trails were well maintained. There is also some sort of lodge that apparently is open just a few times per here. Looks interesting enough that I might time a future hike on a day when it's open.

Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad

From the first time I visited Oliver, I've wanted to go the Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad. It's in a nondescript warehorse building and you see it as you are coming down the hill into Osoyoos. It's clearly marked and the hours are frequent enough that it should not have taken 11 years to go. I think the issue is that it's about a 20 minute drive to Osoyoos and we never want to stop on our way through so it has to be a trip on it's own and our typical trip to Osoyoos involves mini-golf. This past Easter however we had nothing planned so I asked the family who wanted to go. There was reluctance but Carter decided he would come.

I will admit I had rather low expectations. I've been to places like this in the past and they are often dusty and old smelling. This place was a lot different. The lower portion of the warehouse seems to be the hobby space for the 4+ individuals who created and maintain the models. The upper floor was partially dedicated to the models and rather than dust we were met with a meticulously clean and surprisingly interactive set of scenes. The room is about 1000 square feet and is absolutely full. Everything is behind glass and it takes at least a half hour to see everything in detail.

The most amazing part was that every so often the conductor, he even has a booth and a hat, will turn off the lights and the whole room turns into night mode. The ski-hill is lit, the houses have lights and there was a concert going on with  music and stage lights. Once the lights came on we found a feature we hadn't seen before. There are buttons that will activate a portion of the model. We made sure to press every button and we pressed the button of the man peeing in the bushes after a night of drinking more than once. The place was packed with people when we were there and I definitely recommend it if you are in the area.

Costa Rica - Our Final Day

It's our last day and we had accomplished everything on our list except for one item. Carter really wanted to have a drink in a pineapple on the beach. We had really liked the beach at Playa Conchal so we went for the morning. This time we picked the other parking lot guy to take our money. He also appears to look after the beach horses and the ATV's. It seems you have to have more than one hustle if you want to be successful in Costa Rica. We parked our car beside the horses and walked down to the beach.

It was much windier today so we found a spot in the trees in the shade and Carter and I went to the pineapple drink guy. Kerry had spoken to him to ask the price but didn't get a clear answer. When I went I only had a single bill and coincidentally that's exactly how much it was. Callie thinks I paid too much and set the price for the day because she had to pay the same amount later. The drinks were well presented though Carter's had a shell in it and Callie's tasted like alcohol from the previous pineapple. Good thing we all got our hepatitis boosters.

We came back to the condo and sorted out prepping for the next tenants. There is a gap between rentals and I met a guy from Calgary in one of the other units who needed to extend his stay by a few days so we had to arrange to have the place turned over to them. Carter and Kerry headed out a bit before us and went to a local brew pub. The owners are from California and Texas and they are expanding because they ran out of beer recently. What I tasted was very good and Kerry met some new America friends who indicated they were embarrassed by their President. (Kerry didn't even ask.)

Dinner was at a castle themed open air restaurant just down the street. We were quite early so we got our choice of table and time with the restaurant cat. The food was absolutely delicious including dessert. They only have two dessert items on the menu, an orange Creme Brulee and a Guinness chocolate cheese cake so we ordered one of each for the four of us. We missed the actual sunset but still had time to take in the last bits of the Costa Rica daylight. We didn't know what to expect when we came but it really is a great place to visit. We highly recommend it.

Costa Rica - A Trip to Margaritaville

Our first trip to Margaritaville was in the morning. Yes, there was more than one trip. We had cased the location yesterday and we really liked the beach at Playa Flamingo which is right in front of Margaritaville so we came to the beach for the morning. There are lots of different types of beach material where we are in Costa Rica and this was the nicest sand version we've been too. The beaches in Costa Rica have been incredibly clean. Very little garbage and very little organic material either.

The whole family spent the morning playing in the waves. The waves were very unpredictable. Some would be a gentle lap on the shore and others would be 4 or 5 feet tall and would break at a random distance from the shore. This meant you might gently rise with the wave in one instance and be knocked off your feet for the next. The waves break too close to shore for surfing but using the body board was lots of fun. Only Carter seems to end up having any trouble with wave playing. Somehow he always ends up with sand in places he doesn't want it.

We came back to the condo for lunch and some pool time before heading back to Margaritaville for dinner. This time we went to the "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere' bar. The menu has definitely not been Jimmy Buffet approved and most of the hotel is under various stages of construction. The major signage has all been updated but there weren't many people and there still isn't a souvenir shop. Kerry will have to come back at a later date to get her Jimmy Buffet shot glass.

We stuck around for sunset. By this time the tide was coming in and the wind was starting to pick up. Some of the waves hitting the beach were over six feet high. Some crazy dad was out in the surf making halfhearted attempts at keeping his kids out of the water. There was at least one point where the rip tide back out looked very strong though it ended quickly. Sunset was amazing. Only one day left and then back to spring time in BC.

Costa Rica - A Trip to the Souvenir Shop

We started our day with a bit of a detour into Playa Flamingo. It's a peninsula to the left of where we are staying so the main road doesn't go directly through it. Our main goal was to do a drive by of the beach to look for parking and to check out what appears to be a new Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet. We were quite suspicious because it's not on his main website and the menu didn't include a 'Cheeseburger in Paradise'. After some more digging we've discovered it is legit but it hasn't had it's official opening yet. It's a re-branding of another hotel. We will still check it out before we leave.

We only had one item on the agenda today and that was to go back to Tamarindo for some souvenir shopping. Carter has Colons in his pocket and wanted to spend them. He's enjoying doing the conversions between Colons, American and Canadian so he knows if he's getting a good deal or not. We picked up a parrot, a sloth and a frog shaped instrument of some kind. I tried to convince him that he doesn't have to spend all his money at once but he really wanted that frog.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Or perhaps it was eventful but I was napping really hard and didn't see anything happen. We had hamburgers and grilled pineapple for dinner and watched the sunset from our deck. We haven't seen any scary insects yet but there are a lot of creatures out there. There is some sort of bug that likes to sing in unison and the air is often filled by bright green dragon flies. Our biggest disappointment has been the lack of colourful birds. I think we expected to have parrots dive bombing us. I suppose the mourning doves on our deck will have to do.

Costa Rica - A Trip to a Volcano

Costa Rica is home to over 60 volcanoes with six of them active. The one with the classic volcano shape is Arenal but it's over 3 hours from us so we decided to check out Rincon de la Vieja instead. The ride there ended up being about 2 hours and it was all paved which was a bonus. Google got us most of the way there but it eventually tried to take us into an open pasture where there was a broken down bus. Kerry was smart enough not to follow and after asking for directions we made it to our destination.

When we got to the parking lot we had two options. The national park was above us and there was also advertising for a waterfall below us. Our destination was the national park so we checked that out first. There was a $15 US per person entry fee which was kind of steep but the trail itself was very well maintained. Probably too maintained since it was concrete with steps rather than a hike through the rain forest. Their goal was obviously to keep people on the trails as much as possible. It was about 4km total when you include all the side trips to see the various vents, mud pits and water falls.

One of our bucket list items for Costa Rica was to see a really nice water fall. It's dry season right now so the waterfalls in the national park were mostly dry. We went back to the parking lot and went down to the building that was advertising a waterfall. This one is on private land and there was another $10 fee. I hope all these fees are ending up in a good place. The waterfall was about a 10 minute walk through a well established path. The final stretch is over a 100 foot cable bridge with a 300 kg limit.

Once we crossed the bridge we came across one of the nicest waterfalls I've ever seen. Only about 100 people can be in the area at a time and the water falls down a single chute from the rocks above. There is a pool that ranges from about a foot deep to 10 feet deep and you can even climb behind the waterfall. There are signs that indicate no swimming and flash floods however that is for people that break in when the area is closed for the wet season. There was a ladder down to the water which was cool and crystal clear.

The drive home was fairly uneventful with the exception of a team of horses that was being driven down the road by some cowboys. They had pretty good control of them but had some trouble with one in particular that they had to lasso and drag along with them. It's fun seeing all the animals on the road but we also had to witness the drawback as about 30 minutes later there was a traffic jam on the main highway and a poor horse that had been hit by a vehicle. Drive slowly in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica - A Trip to the Sailing Centre

After our long day yesterday we stuck close to home today. The Costa Rica Sailing Centre is across the street from us and offers kayaks, boogie boards and small sailboats for rent. We rented a double kayak and a boogie board and Kerry and Callie were the first to attempt the kayak. It was low tide and the waves were breaking quite irregularly. Some were very small and others were a few feet tall as they hit shore. I'm glad that one of the rental guys came to help them because my plan for getting them into the water was unlikely to be successful.

I was planning on just shoving them out in between waves and telling them to paddle really fast. This might have worked however since the waves were unpredictable they may have ended up heading right into the one shown above. It was better to push them out past the waves and release them from waste deep water. Coming back they got lucky and paddled ashore right in between waves. Carter and I were not so lucky and were almost swamped. We both leaned in to the wave and surfed it into shore.

We still had a bit of time left after kayaking with the boogie board. The waves were big enough to push you towards shore but not so big that you could truly surf them. Callie tried first but she soon got distracted by the many beach dogs that were coming down to the water to cool down. My favourite was the one that looked like the dog from Pirates of the Caribbean. Put some keys in his mouth and he looked just like him. He really enjoyed getting his head scratched.

Our only other excursion was to Perlas for dinner. It's an open air bar and tonight was BBQ night. Well, maybe every night is BBQ night but since it was our first time I can make it sound like it was something unusual. The atmosphere was a bit unusual because it was Bingo night. Well, maybe every night is Bingo night but since it was our first time I can make it sound like it was something unusual. All the patrons were crowded into the bingo area and from what I could tell, some kid kept trying to steel the bingo balls.