Garden Update 2013

The garden has been in full swing the last couple months!  This was my first year trying a winter garden, and its February and has been a success so far.  I overwintered my strawberries, and some of my herbs, it looks like the catnip is gonna do fine too.  I had vacation this week, and spent the last couple days planting seeds and cleaning up the garden a bit.  The weather has finally behaved and hasnt been in the 20-30s at night, so it made for a nice day to be outside!

A lot of things have been taking up my time lately, so it was nice to get back outside to work out there.  The holidays were a busy time for all, plus it was really cold, even some of the plants in the greenhouse didnt make it.  I just recently bought a fishing kayak to add to the arsenal of toys, and have been excited to get back out on the lakes and try it out.  I also started River City Succulents, my very own at home business making centerpieces, wreaths, and wedding stuff.

I started several months ago (I want to say October) planting seeds in the greenhouse for the winter garden.  For me, gardening is trial and error, and figuring out what will work, where and when...this year has been a testament to that!  The broccoli I ended up ordering starter plants from burpee, and had a couple I started on my own.  I lost one when I tore out the loofah right next to it, and two others gotten eatten (Im guessing) by the dogs.  I dont really want to try broccoli again, because for the time and effort its not worth it.  Its taken soooo long, just to get little tiny heads growing, dont tell Jeremy but I dont think Ill grow them again.

The onions are kind of the same as the broccoli.  I dont know what Im doing wrong!  I couldnt really grow them in the summer, and Im not really having that much more luck with them this winter.  I also planted some garlic, which seemed to be growing strong, then just kind of stopped.  The shallots and purple/yellow onions I planted didnt grow at all.  I attempted to grow beans and peppers (which I sort of knew werent going to make it, but I thought I would try), yeah they didnt the first sign of any cold weather. 

BUT, the arugula just took off the last couple weeks with the warm(ish) weather.  I was worried at first because it didnt look all that great with the cold, but man I cant keep up with it!  I think I overplanted this one.  Im happy though because I LOVE arugula!  The lettuce has been doing well too.  I lost some plants to the freeze but overall, theyve been doing well too.  Burpee ended up sending me a couple packets of some Heat Wave Lettuce Blend, so Im excited to try some lettuce all year long.  (Lettuce isnt known to grow well in the summer heat of California).

Lets just say Jeremy and I will be eating lots of salads this year becase the spinach is growing strong too.  I also tried to grow some carrots over the summer, that didnt come out too well.  Let just say they ended up in the compost bin.  This time around, I got a different kind and they turned out OK, enough for me to give them a second chance over the summer.  I think the soil I planted them in was too rocky and some of the carrots I pulled out this weekend were kind of funky looking.  The guinea pigs were happy though!

 

The herbs are still doing good...I think a little too well cause I had to cut them back a little.  Im excited to start some more herbs once the spring and summer gets going. 

 

 

Overall Im pretty excited for the winter garden, and Im pretty impatient for the spring garden to get up and going.  We had to move the greenhouse over behind the shed for some shelter, the winter weather shredded the roof and tore it to pieces.  Now it seems like its in a good location.   This weekend I started some beans, more lettuce, bell peppers, banana peppers (not so many this year, we learned our lesson), cucumbers (ditto), tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, carrots, onions (I wont give up), garlic, red and yellow potatoes, raspberries, sage, parsley, lavender, and basil! Not to mention the blueberries and blood oranges that are already planted a couple months ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nike Womens Marathon 2012, San Francisco

Well hello blogging world.  I have forgotten about you!

Not only did I forget, I forgot to leave my two sense about the Nike Womens (Half)Marathon this last October, so here it goes.

I had a few friends that have done this race in the past and had talked about how amazing it was, so I thought I would give it a try.  Too bad when I decided I wanted to train for it, it was about two weeks after the cut off for the lottery.  Fear not!  I did some searching and found out I can apply for the race and skip all the lottery bs if I apply as a student. There really werent any credit requirements (I only had 6 credits that semester), all you needed was to have a student ID.  I signed up that night!  I was stoked...not so much on the price (since I signed up late, I didnt get the student discount).

Meanwhile, I had a couple months to train, so in true Chrissy fashion...I trained for hard for about 4 weeks, then kind of half assed the rest of the time.  I already had a previous half under my belt, so the butterflies of finishing werent as bad.  I still felt comfortable that I would finish and be fine.

The Expo:

Jeremy and I got there early (I think maybe about an hour after it officially started) on that Saturday, and Im glad we did because the crowd wasnt too bad.  The expo was a little overwhelming at first, even for the small crowd.  But for such a huge race it was well put together.  I checked in and grabbed my bib number, the wait was maybe 10 minutes.  They were really adamant about if you registered as a student that you must show a valid student ID.  I had my transcripts handy just in case they decided not to take my ID, but they didnt even ask. For such a hard race to get into, I thought it was weird that they didnt really confirm.  I dont know what was stopping someone from signing up for one class, get an ID and dropping the class just to get into the race...but you didnt hear that from me.

Anyway, the Expo was awesome.  I think the only thing we didnt check out was the hair cutting/styling section.  We stocked up on some free trail mix from the Safeway booth (the one I got had mini PB cups in it- Im a fan of anything with mini PB cups!).  I was too tempted to buy new shoes, so I shied away from trying on a new pair.  I also checked out the ear buds booth and even bought a pair.  I grabbed some free power bars and rub on tattoos on the way out.  I wanted to check out the Nike Town before we left, so we ran across the street to check out the swag, and the wall with my name on it.  Who knew a gigantic wall with your name plastered on it could be so interesting.  Evidently everyone and their mom thought it was interesting too, cause it was hard to jockey for a position.

The vibe in the store was amazing.  All the employees would periodically run around and dance all the while the music blaring real loud.  It definitely got you pumped for the start of the race.  I ended up buying a really cute but overly priced bright CalTrans orange running sweater, while Jeremy was perusing the Niners gear.  Good thing he could never find anything in Smedium, cause we couldve spent a lot of money there.

Im glad we went when we did cause by the time we bought our stuff, the line for check in was around the corner and the Expo wasnt worth going back inside for.  I heard through Facebook after everything was over that some people were really disappointed in the Expo, BUT I must say that those people that complained were the same people that came an hour before closing time and were pissed the line was around the corner (twice).  I heard some people waited over an hour just to check in.  Oh well....the early bird gets the worm.

The night before I got plenty of rest, and stayed hydrated.  I didnt really get much sleep and woke up early to boot.  I dont know what it is but I can never eat a full breakfast before a race.  I try to stomach it, but I always feel like I have to puke...I dont even want to mention the nervous poops!  Ugh.  Jeremy ended up dropping me off a couple blocks away and I walked the rest since the traffic was getting bad.  The start was a little nerve racking since I really wasnt sure where I needed to be.  On the plus side...they had plenty of bathrooms!

I got there with plenty of time to spare, there was enough room to stretch and get warm for the start.  Once the gun went off, it took about 20 minutes to finally get to the start.  I was in the 10-15 minute mile pace group so it took us a while to get there, but once we got to the start the moment was awesome.  FINALLY!!

The first few miles were a breeze.  I heard about issues with people starting in the wrong pace corral, and this race did not disappoint, they were already dropping like flies at mile 2.  Now Im all for people getting out there and running, but please if youre clearly winded after 2 miles, you need to not be starting in the corral before me (now Im not talking about the run/walkers), Im talking about the walkers...you know who you are!

The run down by the pier was awesome, they had a gospel choir singing and a couple bands performing.  They definitely kept you entertained right off the bat.  Once we hit just outside the Marina and hit Presido the fun was over!  This was where the hills started.  Luckily Jeremy caught a few pictures of me as I was running by.  Mental note:  Dont tell your significant other to keep an eye out for you, especially if your wearing purple...TNT wears purple...he wont find you.  I found him!

The views of the bridge were amazing.  The clouds were covering it just a little, but it was great to look at something other then the hill that was to come.  Crissy Field is always pretty to run through (love the name).  The hill up the bridge was miserable!  You can kind of see it in the distance to the left...it was so much worse in person.  Now my goal was to not walk the race, but I knew how unrealistic that was considering its San Francisco.  I threw that goal out the window about half way up the hill...not really because I was tired, but because it was impossible to dodge 1000s of people walking.  I ended up running half way up on the dirt then looked to the person next to me and realized they were walking just as fast as I was "running."  Eff this, Im walking.

The middle part of the race was a blur...no really, about mile 6-10 was kind of eh.  The signs were awesome, and the volunteers kept you going!!  They were so encouraging!  Once you hit the hill at Ocean Beach, you could see the finish line...I was almost there!  The hill going down to Ocean Beach was almost as bad as the hill going up, it was rough on the knees.  I think the worst part of the race was mile 11 to 12ish...I so wanted it to be over with.  The guy handing out the PBR at mile 11 was my hero.  Jeremy was great and drove all over SF to meet me at the finish line and finally snapped a pic of me towards the end.  

The final stretch was so awesome!  I wish every finish was like this one!  I almost cried, Im pretty sure it was because of my feet hurting so bad, but it was a good feeling that it was finally over with!  The sad thing was, I finished just as the full marathoners were finishing.  Oh well!  I finished thats all I cared about.  The finish line was a huge mess...1000s of people being corralled to a small tent to collect your goodies was interesting.  Ocean Beach was cold, so I waited in line for the foil blankets.  At the end they literally gave you a shopping bag and you held it open while passing through all the tents handing out food.  They had a little bit of everything...bananas, coconut water (gross- I dont know what the big fad is on that one), fruit, water, bagels, chocolate (they were out when I crossed, bummer).  Of course we all got our necklaces and finisher t-shirts.  I dont know what some of the ladies were talking about, the firefighter giving out my necklace was HOT.  I opted to not take a picture with him, since Im sure he was tired of us smelly women hanging all over him.

The post race expo was crazy.  I didnt wait in line for the merchandise (I heard they ran out of a lot of sizes), I also didnt really want to take pictures with the fireman.  I finally got a hold of Jeremy (your phones wont work at the finish line, no matter what carrier you have), and we made the walk back to the car.  I will be buying the ticket to use the shuttle back to the car, the walk back was worse then the half marathon!

Overall the race was awesome, and I will do it again next year!  I had a blast running this one.

Things I liked:

- The expo was awesome and got you pumped for the race!

- The girl power all throughout the race and even before was cool too.  Yes, guys can run it too, but be prepared for glares from the girls when you run by.

- The signs were funny and kept me chuckling while running.  Some that stood out "Dont poop yourself" (with a hand drawn picture of a pile of poopy), "We didnt want those toenails anyway," etc etc.  They were great.

- The supporters along the way were encouraging and clapping as we ran by.  Which really isnt a big deal, but when you think about sitting there and clapping for several hours, Im sure they were bored.

- The aid stations weren't too crowded considering how many people were running.  I tend to run to the end of the tables where its not too crowded.  

- NWM organizers actually took the feedback from past runners and definitely applied it to this race.

Okay so the things I hated:

- TNT!  Ugh I seriously dislike these people.  They are rude inconsiderate and really dont know the etiquette of running.  Walking 4 abreast hand in hand is NOT okay.  Running then abruptly stopping without looking behind you is NOT okay.  Being completely obnoxiously loud, and not only loud, but look at me loud, is really NOT okay.

- So now that I got that over with...

- I heard people complaining about the Expo and the lines but I never had an issue.  Some were also complaining about how they ran out of everything once they crossed.  I could only imagine finishing a full marathon, and having nothing at the finish line.  I hope they change this for next year...I would hate to cross with a ghost town at the Finish.  I heard they also ran out of oranges (they ran out of the hand wipes when I ran by).  Again, I didnt have an issue with some of this because I did the half.

- They seriously need volunteers to stand in front of mile markers to take pictures of everyone that stops by. I really loath these people.  I say loath because some of my friends do this, if you are not my friend that does this, I hate you.  Not like Im going to PR this race, but I really dont need to be bothered when Im huffing and puffing up a hill to be bothered to take a picture of you at mile marker 2.

- The Tiffany necklace really isnt all that great.  No really, its not.  Its not really a Tiffany necklace per se, its a Nike necklace with a tiny Tiffany logo on the back.  I wore it straight for about two months and it was already starting to fade and just look beat up.  I thought because it was Tiffany, it would last through a couple showers and some runs.  Oh well...its a cool reminder of what I accomplished.

- NWM doesnt have a website...its a Facebook page!  For such a huge race, they need to have a website...I felt really not informed when it came to details about the race.  I really hope they improve this next year.  

Happy racing in 2013.

Day 13: Never ending flight day

Our flight left early today, so we caught a cab the owner called for us.  Customs wasnt that difficult, nor long.  But the $25/ person to leave was irritating, oh well.  We were stuck on Coach on the way to Texas, but it wasnt too bad.  We flew over Nicaragua and saw an active volcano, which was pretty neat, and then on the way into Texas, saw the Gulf.

We had a VERY LONG lay over in Dallas, which American Airlines kept pushing back so we were stuck there for about 8 hours.  We made our way over to the terminal and tried to catch an earlier flight, but were told that our bags might not make it on the plane.  Didnt really make sense to us, so we left disappointed.

The first class lounge was just right across the way, so we went into the glass doors and were secretly really excited to relax for 8 hours.  We were pissed when they turned us away because we didnt have a first class international flight.  I guess you need to fly first class on an international flight in order to go up to the first class lounge.  Who knew?! We voiced our displeasure, especially since multiple people told us we could go up there!  They tried to sell us a one day first class pass for $90/person.  Pshyeah right!

We made our way back to our terminal and decided on a plan....I would stay quiet while Jeremy did the talking.  We tried another first class lounge in a different terminal to see if we could get the same results.  This time we werent going to advertise that we didnt take a first class international flight, since our tickets really didnt say we had a coach trip there.  Luckily we got the guy on his first day and was training, so it took him a while to figure out why our tickets werent scanning in.  The lady helping him just flagged us in!

No one could prepare me for how amazing awesome the first class lounge was, and amazingly out of place both of us were.  They had a gym, showers, kids play room, cigar room, a bar, and a huge lounge area.  We stuck out like sore thumbs, we didnt have roller Coach carry-ons, suit and ties, and a laptop, but we didnt care.  I took advantage of the free cookies and coffee while Jeremy took advantage of the free beer (I might have too)!

Our flight finally left, late of course but we were bummed because we couldnt enjoy First Class as much as the way down since it was late.  We didnt get any hot food, and Jeremy was a little grumpy cause we really didnt get much to eat.  We were so tired and ended up sleeping the whole way back to Sacramento.




Now that the trip is over, I am so glad we did it!  There were times that I wished we wouldve stayed in nice hotels and rented a car, but we would've missed so many cultural opportunities.  Im so glad that I could spent this time with the one I love, and wish we will have many more to come!  Here's to the next trip!!

Day 12: Travel day back to San Jose

Today was the day to get back to San Jose so we could catch our flight the next day.  This is the day I appreciated the fact that we paid to take a private shuttle up to La Fortuna!  There were two buses out of town, one leaving at 11 and one at 2:15.  We opted for the one at 11am, since we heard it was about a 4 1/2 hour ride.  

We were told that we could buy our bus ticket from the driver and save some dough, but now that I look back, Im so glad we didnt do that!  I wanna say it was only 5-10 dollars for the trip back to San Jose.  We stocked up on some snacks for the ride since the supermarket was right there by the bus stop.  

I wanted to be one of the first ones on the bus, so I could get a seat situated on top of the luggage storage below us.  I stood right were I thought the bus would pull up, and I was waiting patiently as the bus started to pull in.  I looked down for a split second to grab the packs and like flies to honey I had about 10 little Costa Rican ladies get in front of me.  Now, I dont really get irritated with crowds of people but people were pushing and yelling to get on the bus, it was irritating, it didnt help either that about 15 teenagers from Australia were linking arms trying to get on the bus.  

This is why I would suggest to buy your tickets before hand.  The ones with pre-bought tickets boarded first and the ones that didnt have tickets boarded last.  Needless to say, the ladies that went in front of me still had to wait, but we all ended up getting on the bus.  

The actual bus to San Jose was so painfully long and crowded!  I called the window since Jeremy had the window the majority of the trip, and Im glad I did since he had crotch awkwardly in his face the whole time.  At one point it was raining, so we had to close the windows, but it was a catch 22 because if you closed the windows it would get REALLY stuffy, but if you opened the windows the rain would drip on you.  I tried to get sleep, but I was constantly opening and closing the windows the whole time.

The trip ended up taking almost 6 hours.  I thought it would be somewhat of a straight shot to San Jose like the trip to Quepos, but it wasnt!  Ugh, we probably stopped every few minutes to let people on and off.  To make matters worse we got stuck in traffic when we made it close to San Jose.  There was some confusion (and slight panic) when we were getting close to our destination...we quickly noticed we werent being dropped off at the same place when we first started out trip.  I heard about the Coca Cola bus station in Lonely Planet and we found out from some of the other people on the bus thats were we were being dropped off.

I was a little apprehensive about this place, as I heard it was a horrible place for a bus station as a few travelers recently got mugged.  I quickly briefed Jeremy and what our plan of attack was going to be once the bus stopped.  Nothing really prepared me for this place!  The taxi drivers were on the bus just as we stopped.  They even offered to grab our bags and take them to their taxi for us, how nice!!  Yeah right!  Jeremy grabbed our bags, as I pretended not to understand what the guys were saying to me.  We learned our lesson this time and found a red taxi waiting on the street.

We still were stuck in traffic on the way to Casa de Parque, but made it in about 30 minutes.  We were so happy to be there, and had the same room as before.  We settled in a little and made some soup we had packed from home.  We relaxed and watched soccer while chit chatting with the owner of the place.

Day 11: Eco Centro Denaus and Baldi Hot Springs

We both woke up late (which was nice) and walked around town for a bit since we were sore from the hike up Cerro Chato.  We had a late breakfast in town, and did some last minute shopping for friends and family, I was limited on the shopping since I was quickly running out of room in the pack since we bought that hammock.  

We went to Eco Centro Denaus, which was recommended by Lonely Planet, it was close to town, fairly cheap, and didn’t involve hiking!  I wish we would have done this on the first day at La Fortuna, this place was great!  It’s a little bit outside of town, and on a dirt road but a super cheap cab ride which was a plus.  I don’t know how to describe it other than it was like a miniature ecocenter.  We paid, I wanna say around 20-30 bucks for a guided tour and I'm glad we did because we definitely wouldn’t have spotted that much stuff without one. 

We saw so much wildlife, iguanas, frogs, birds, sloths, butterflies, monkeys, everything!  The tour lasted for about an hour, and the tour guide was super knowledgeable.  We ended up spotting the red eyed tree frog on the underneath of a leaf, which I was soooo excited to see up close since the last time I saw one was in the car, and we couldn’t get him to sit still long enough to take a decent picture.  I was stoked! 

We left and on the way back into town ended up booking a hotsprings trip to Baldi with dinner included.  We went back to the room, Jeremy ate some more (shocker) while I had a cappuccino   We figured out a way to pack the hammock in the backpack (I don’t know how we fit it), and left for the taxi up to the hot springs.

The place was a nice way to end a vacation.  The buffet was okay, not really something to write home about, but for a couple extra bucks added on the price it was worth it.  The only thing that irritated me about Baldi is that we had to pay for lockers… Well I thought I would outsmart them and bring my own lock and towel (they charge for towels too).  Evidently we still had to pay for a locker!  I was pissed.  We heard some horror stories of employees going through peoples stuff and taking money, and when you go to return your towel, they would still charge you for it.  The locker and towel rental would have been just as much as the hot springs.  If you go bring your own stuff!!

 The hot springs itself we were nice, and relaxing.  There were many different types of pools, with a range of temperatures…one being 150 degrees!  Needless to say, no one was in those ones.  The place was pretty empty so it was nice to be somewhat secluded.  The natural saunas were at the top in the 150 degree pools in some rock formations.  We didn’t stay there long since it was virtually impossible to breath.  Glad we decided to finish off our trip with this!

Day 10: Death hike to Cerro Chato Lagoon

The hike to Cerro Chato was definitely a well thought out trip considering it was the most intense hike we went on in Costa Rica.  I planned on starting my own geocache up there, and was well aware before hand of what the hike entailed.  Cerra Chato is the dormant volcano next to the active Arenal, that has a lagoon were the crater would be.

The hike started out and the same area as the La Catarata waterfall from yesterday, again it was around $10 per person.  At least this time I could justify the $20 because the hike took a good part of the day.  Too be honest with you, I was a little disappointed at first.  The hike was a little grass path flanked with bushes and flowers.  I guess I pictured it to be a more intense hike...boy was I wrong.

We started the hike off pretty slow at first because it was straight up, but again it was fairly easy because the road was pretty well maintained.  We made it to a little flat stopping point with an awesome vista.  Thats when the hike started to get intense...once we hit the trees, the stairs were ON!  I swear it was never ending!    I thought we were at the top about 5 times.  Ugh.  It was seriously humid and we were doing some serious sweating.

It was so worth it once we made it to the top!  The views were breath taking and the lagoon was perfect.  There were frogs everywhere, and I mean everywhere...in the water, on our toes, on the trees, hoping everywhere!  We didnt do any swimming, but went calf deef to cool off.  We had lunch up there and cooled off for a little while, before hiking back up to the top to hike back off the volcano.

We decided the best spot for our geocache was the stopping point at the highest part of the hike, just before you drop down into the lagoon.  We found a hiding spot at the base of a tree under some roots.  Right when we were placing the geocache someone was coming up from the lagoon too.  I felt weird placing the cache when people were watching, so we idled for a little while waiting for them to leave.  Right when I felt comfortable we had hid it well enough, a coati jumped out of the bushes and scared the crap out of Jeremy and I!  The guy looked like a huge version of Ron!  He sniffed around our bags and walked around the area for a good 5 minutes before we shooed him away.

The way back down was amazing.  I think in part because it was downhill and we could actually enjoy the scenery.  Jeremy did stick his hand on a gigantic spikey green scary bug thing, I seriously have a pretty high tolerance for bugs and such, but this thing made me scream like a little girl...I high tailed it down the mountain.  He started to fall and put his hand down and the thing spiked him right in the finger making him bleed, I was a little scared for a little bit cause we both didnt know what it was or if it was poisonous.

We didnt see any monkey or any cool big birds, but the place was full of ants.  I started to call them the ant highways, they had used some of the trails so much that there were little paths of dirt leading straight to their ant hills.  Some of the plants were completely eaten by the ants, once they were finished they would move to the next plant until that plant was all gone too.

The whole trip took around 3(ish) hours to get up, but took about 30 minutes to get back down.  Once down we caught a cab back to the hostel and took a nap because we were beat!  We ended the night doing a little shopping in town and had a huge banana split in a pineapple at the place right next to the hostel.

Day 9: Hike to La Catarata de La Fortuna, (Another) hike to Arenal

Jeremy and I decided to sleep in a little and take a trip to the waterfall and take a look at some interesting shops we read about in Lonely Planet.  If I havent said it already, this book was a life saver...I lot of stuff we saw we read about in LP, and probably wouldnt have given it a second glance.

We took the taxi to the waterfall, which didnt take too long and was pretty cheap, the entrance fee to get in not so much.  I mean I guess it was only $10 per person, but really, to just take a 20 minute hike was $20 bucks...I would definitely do it again, cause the waterfall was awesome, but I grumbled a little bit about the price.  The hike was easy getting to the waterfall because it was all down hill, it maybe took 10-15 minutes to get down.  You definitely need good soles because it was slippery, it wasnt too crowded though, which was nice.  Their were two waterfalls down there, both of which were gorgeous.  We brought bathing suits but the water was far to cold to take a swim..there were a couple people milling around in the water, but we decided not to.  The hike back up took a little bit longer, but again wasnt too bad.

On the way back home we walked back to a cool place we read about, Neptune's House of Hammocks!  This place was so cool.  Its run by this weird bohemian Costa Rican hippy guy, that (Im sure) was high as a kite.  We couldnt leave that place without getting a hammock.  First off, they have kitty hammocks, and human hammocks, both of which were handmade..and cheap!  We ended up getting one sit-down type, and a small one for Ron, all for less than $50USD.  I think the Ron hammock was probably for my entertainment then anything else...I cant imagine Ron ever liking this thing.  I think hes going to step onto it, flip it over and run away hissing.

We caught a cab back and walked around town for a cool tour to do.  We ended up at this desk attached to a pizza place we had dinner at the night before.  The guy was clearly American and was always bull shitting with Jeremy when we walked back up to the hostel.  We were a little leery of buying a tour outside the hostel, but we took a gamble.  He had a lot of tours available...I was really interested in seeing the turtles but they were hanging out on the East side of Costa Rica, so it was an all day tour that ran well over $100, and the majority of the day was driving.  I also really wanted to see the Rio Celeste, but it was also a long drive and an all day trip.  We opted against them.  Instead, we decided to take the half(ish) day tour to Arenal, since the last hike up there was rained out.  This tour was so awesome, in fact, we ended up stopping by the guy the next day and told him how much fun we had!  Highly recommended!

The tour was jammed packed with a bunch of stuff to do, a hike around Arenal, hanging bridges, tons of wildlife, waterfalls, the observation deck, tree frogs, hot springs, and mud...all for around $45 per person.  We jumped on it, we didnt realize though that the tour started at 2:00...it was 1:30.  We booked the trip, ran down to Super Christian for some snacks, and back to the hostel for a change of clothes.  The van picked us up in front of our hostel, and we were off!  Jeremy was excited because the tour guide was Italian, I was excited because it wasnt raining.  There were a couple other couples about our age that were taking the tour too, one couple was from Denmark, the other from Germany, and Austria.  The Austrian couple were interesting (to say the least), she (clearly) didnt wear a bra which Im sure we all noticed right away when she bent over and we could all see down her shirt.  Needless to say, Jeremy LOVED her as well!

We spent about a couple hours hiking around Arenal.  We saw a ton of wildlife while we were walking around.  The hike wasnt too intense and was mainly on a concrete path.  The hike to the little waterfall was really neat and we even saw a bunch of spider monkey swinging around above us.  We decided not to swim, but the Austria couple had other plans.  He decided he wanted to take a dip...without his clothes.  It was like a train wreck, I could not help but watch.  He literally just dropped trou, bare bottom in front of everyone.

On the way back to the van we saw a cool ant eater in a tree.  Thats when it started to rain, and I mean rain.  But then it started to thunder and lightning to the point where it seriously touched ground a couple 100 yards away from us.  I seriously screamed, and possibly crapped myself as did Jeremy, Ive never been so scared from lighting in my life...it was close too, like deaf for a couple minutes because of the noise close.  I thought it would be a good idea at this point to grab my umbrella, as it was really coming down and I was getting pretty wet.  Smart move I thought...in hind sight, not so much.  I dont know what I thinking...really holding a lightning rod when its thundering/lightning seemed like a smart idea at the time

The rain slowed up a bit and we hung out a saw a glimpse of the volcano at the observation deck, and drank some yummy coffee.  I swear, I hate black coffee but this was probably the best coffee Ive ever had...it might have been because I was cold (the first time on this trip) and a little wet.  It was nice to kick back for a second and relax without it raining.  We met up with another group of hikers, and drove back down of the mountain to enjoy the hot springs.  First we stopped on the side of the road to check out the red eyed tree frog..this is the frog you see all over town on souvenirs etc etc.  He was super cute and he hopped around the inside of the car when we passed him around.

We stopped at Tabacon Hot Springs, one of the really nice hot springs in town...and promptly walked across the street.  I came prepared....already wearing my bathing suit, the Austrian couple not so much.  She just took her top off and put on her suit right on the side of the road.  I wish I was that modest!  LOL.  A lot of tour guides wont tell you that there is a free hot springs right next to Tabacon, of course they would rather have you buy the expensive Tabacon that runs more then our whole tour combined.  The hot springs were so cool, and were probably one of the most favorite things we did in Costa Rica.

The river is right on the other side of the street, behind a gate, but its pretty easy to spot since its across the way from Tabacon.  The river had a few people in it already, but there was still plenty of room for the 10 of us.  The river had a couple secluded little spa type areas were you could just sit and relax, but the best part was underneath the tiny waterfall, were there was a natural sauna.  The tour guides were awesome, and brought us some vodka they tried to convince us was "Costa Rican Firewater," it was basically a 1/5 of Vodka and Fanta, we were in heaven!  They also brought some mud from the volcano and we all had mud masks.  I swear my face has never been so happy.  We hung out for about an hour and half in the 100 degree water, and were definitely reluctant to get out.

We got dropped off at the hostel and we went to the grocery store for some snacks for the hike to Cerro Chato the next day.