Friends on the Caribbean

We're just back from a fun few days over on the Caribbean - the area we first fell in love with in Costa Rica. Pretty nice these days - we have friends who actually live over there to visit. Judy and Bob are in the process of adding on a huge patio to their adorable little house. But don't take my word for it. Check out Judy's blog.
We also discovered a really fun new restaurant where they have an outdoor kitchen just like what I want but I'm not going to bother to tell you about it because as soon as we discovered it, we learned that the place has been sold. So next month the fabulous Swiss trained chef from Cameroon, along with her husband and three children, will be in Switzerland - and the fabulous meal that she served us will be but a memory!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing all of my friends and family an especially Romantic Day!

I got a Valentine Card! (Yes, we do have such things in Costa Rica!)

Late Night Breakfast at Denny's!

After spending the afternoon playing cards with Emma & Jon, and talking about some of our old favorite food haunts, Gene suddenly remembered that he hadn't had chicken fried steak in at least five years! And yes, we really do have a Denny's! This was our first time there and it was weird. It looks exactly like the ones in the US, with the prices to match - and maybe more! But Gene got his fix of chicken fried steak. Late night breakfast was fun, with free coffee refills and all! Of course Jon's $3 coca cola made up for the coffee refills!

Sunday Afternoon

Sunday brunch at Maiz Tico. Really good "tipico" food. Really fun band. Really great friends. It doesn't get any better than this.

An Afternoon with Old & New Friends

One of the luxuries included in our retired in Costa Rica lifestyle is having the time to visit with friends. We had been wanting to get back to the Spanish restaurant that we recently "discovered." So we called a few friends who agreed that spending Friday afternoon consuming tapas and paellas and sangria would be a great idea. Then Jim (of Jim & Flora in the mountains) decided we should post a message on Costa Rica Living in case anyone else wanted to join us. What a great idea. Loyd (Zendude) showed up. We hadn't seen him in ages. He says one thing he loves about living in Costa Rica is that he can go dancing almost every night of the week. He's buying a house back in Texas and planning to spend part of his time back there in order to help out his Mom. The trouble with traveling, he says, is that he always needs an extra suitcase for all of his footwear for various types of dancing! What a guy! Jim's post also got noticed by Charlotte and David, which was a real bonus. We had been meaning to call and make arrangements to meet these new imports from Texas ever since David had posted a message on CRL which had got us involved with volunteering at the orphanage. Then we had heard that they had spent last month on the Caribbean, where they had met our friends Judy and Bob (who deserted all of us in the central valley last year and decided to live in a tropical jungle beach area.) So now instead of hearing about this new immigrant couple from the sidelines, we have acquired them as new friends. Our buddies Emma and Jon had given us (Gene and me and our good friend Dale) a ride to the restaurant, so we drove to their house after the lunch, with Charlotte & David following. After some more conversation and another glass of wine at their house (OK, some of us had Emma's delicious fruit drink!), Charlotte & David dropped us off at our house so they'll know how to get here next Friday when we do a follow up afternoon at our house. As usual we got so busy having fun that we forgot to take photos 'til the end. So here you have Gene & me and then Flora and Jim, followed by Loyd and then Dale. Some people claim that we never stop partying around here! I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but we certainly have a good time!

Where Are We From?

It's always interesting to note where everyone is from when a group of our friends get together. At today's lunch, everyone in attendance lives in Costa Rica. There were 4 people from Texas (I tried to add myself but they all said that 10 years residence there did not a Texan make!), 1 originally from Washington state, 1 from Maine, 1 from Michigan, 1 from New Zealand, 1 from Boliva and 1 from Costa Rica. It's interesting that there is always some confusion over the question of "Where are you from?" Although many people answer this by saying where they were born, others refer to where they grew up or where they've spent most of their lives. My friend Emma says she's from Bolivia, although I happen to know that she has spent most of her adult life in Virginia. I think her husband Jon usually says he's from Virginia, where he spent most of his adult years, although he grew up in Washington state. I'm still trying to figure out how to answer this question. It's true I was born in Maine, but since my family moved to New Hampshire before I was a year old, it seems kind of weird to claim it as my "home." New Hampshire makes a little more sense since I grew up there, but I haven't lived there since I was 17 and that doesn't feel like home, either. At times I seem to be a New Englander and at others, not. Some people here seem to think I should say I'm from Florida because that's where we lived immediately before moving to Costa Rica, but I never felt a part of Florida. I'd like to claim Seattle, just because it's one of my 2 favorite cities in the United States, but I didn't really live there long enough to earn it (1 year) or San Juan Island, off the coast of Washington State, where I lived for 4 years. In my adult life, I've also lived in Japan, the Philippines, Mississippi, Texas. "Home is where you hang your hat," they used to say before we all started going bare-headed. I certainly feel like this is my home, but when I try to get away with saying I am "from" Costa Rica, I am always told that I have to be "from" somewhere in the United States. Now if I could just figure out where.

Flowers for my Birthday

Gene & Dale both arrived with an arm load of flowers. The combination made a huge bouquet!