New York City

The weekend before Christmas I set off on a trip to the Big Apple! I had friends who were gracious enough to let me stay with them in their Manhattan apartment. I met Ted and Daniel on my Costa Rica trip this summer and we have stayed in touch. They told me I was welcome to crash on their couch anytime so I took them up on the offer. I got to see so many things on my 3 day trip. The weather was pretty cold, but no snow while I was there.

On Saturday I began by seeing Times Square and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree! I went on an NBC Studio tour and got to see where they film the Nightly News with Brian Williams, MSNBC, The Dr. Oz Show and Saturday Night Live. Afterwards I went to the Top of The Rock for some beautiful views of the city. Then I grabbed some lunch in the Rockefeller Center Food Court, spotted an SNL cast member (Bobby Moynahan!), and headed to see a Broadway Show. I saw Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with Patti LuPone! I enjoyed it and was lucky enough to get better seats since the theatre was not full. I met up with Ted and Daniel afterwards for a great Italian dinner in the West Village.

The next morning I was up bright and early to catch the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island. I got to see the Statue of Liberty and tour the Ellis Island Museum. Both were very cool to see. Afterwards I met up with the boys to see Ground Zero, which is under construction to complete the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in time for the 10 year anniversary. We then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and found our way to Jacque Torres a delicious chocolate shop. After a Wicked Hot Chocolate we made our way to the Guggenheim Museum for a Christmas Concert that Daniel was singing in. That night the guys took me to an Indian Restaraunt. It was a crazy restaraunt with chilli pepper and christmas lights hanging frome every inch of the ceiling. Indian music was blaring the whole time! This was my first experience with Indian food, but I really like it and the restaraunt was lots of fun!

On Monday it was time for some shopping so I went to Chinatown and Little Italy. Ted and I then made our way to Fifth Avenue to see the stores all decorated for the holidays. We also saw St. Patrick's Cathedral. I had tickets for the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall that evening. It was a very festive show! Afterwards I walked around to see the Christmas Tree and Times Square one last time before meeting Ted and Daniel for dinner in the West Village. On our way to dinner Daniel spotted another celebrity. This time it was T.R. Knight (he played George on Grey's Anatomy). It was a jam packed 3 days in NYC, but I had a great time and I can't wait to go back when it is a little warmer.

I will post a slide show with all my pictures!!

Running

Since July I have been training for the Evansville Half-Marathon, which will take place on 10/10/10! I am participating in the Team 13 training through the YMCA. We meet on Tuesday/Thursday nights and Saturday mornings to run. I have progressed to running for 7 minutes and walking for 3 minutes. I can keep this pace pretty good. A couple of weeks ago I ran in the 10K (6.2 miles) race and finished in 1 hour 13 min! My sister-in-law Amber is also training and it is nice to have someone to run with although she is faster than me :-)

This Saturday we will be doing 11 miles, which is our longest run before the Half-Marathon which is 13.1 miles! I feel confident that I can complete the half in less than 3 hours, which is my goal. I am glad that I have avoided inury and have actually found running to be enjoyable. I hope to continue running even after the half is complete.

Costa Rica - Part 5

The final city we went to was Quepos, which meant we were back on the beach! This time it was the Pacific Ocean and the waters were much rougher, but the views were just as beautiful. Besides lounging on the beach we went to the Manuel Antonio National Park. This is Costa Rica's smallest National Park, which makes it very easy to see wildlife. We spotted some sloths, lizzards, and lots of monkeys. This time it was the white faced monkeys which we hadn't seen yet. The monkeys have become accustomed to people and were very close to the beach hoping to snatch some food from the visitors. I was able to get some really close up shots of them. We took a hike up to Cathedral Point which had some great views of the ocean. While on our hike we came across more monkeys in the wild, which felt much more natural. The beaches inside Manuel Antonio were gorgeous as well. Our hotel had a swimming pool so we enjoyed many dips in the pool after retuning from the beach. It was a very relaxing way to end the trip.

Once we were back in San Jose we had a final group dinner and had to say goodbye. Magnus and Jenni headed off the next morning for Honduras. They are continuing their travel for a total of 7 weeks! Right now I believe they are in Canada. Monique was headed home to the Netherlands and is now cheering on the Dutch team in the World Cup. They will face Spain in the finals this Sunday!

Ted, Daniel and I had all arranged to stay in San Jose for an extra day so we decided to go white water rafting again! This time it was on the Pacuare River, which is one of the top 5 rivers in the world to raft on. They picked us up at our hotel and we had about a 2 hour van ride to get to the actual river. The drive was very pretty and took us through the mountains. Rafting on the Pacuare was much different and very cool. The water was faster and higher, which made for some big rapids including four Class 4 sections. Somehow I managed to stay in the boat the whole time! The river took us through some very dense and lush jungle. We spotted many beautiful waterfalls and at one point the water was calm enough to jump in and just float. We all agreed it was the perfect way to end our trip. The next morning I left very early for the airport and arrived in Nashville that afternoon with no complications. I feel very lucky to have gone to Costa Rica and had such a great time while meeting some new friends.
The pictures for Quepos are included in the Monteverde slideshow.

Costa Rica Part 4

Next we went to Monteverde, which means green mountain. It was a beautiful, slow and curvy drive to get there. We stayed in another very nice hotel not far from the center of town. One of our first activities was to go horseback riding, which I always enjoy. The next morning we had a guided hike through the Santa Elena Cloud Forest. This was another rainforest, but since the elevation was much higher they call it cloud forest. Luckily we had good weather so we were able to see a lot. We spotted lots of hummingbirds, beautiful flowers, birds, and insects. We also took a night hike that evening where we saw 2 tarantulas!

The next day we all went zip lining!! Monteverde is known for this activity due to the elevation and gorgeous scenery! I went zip lining in South Africa, but that was nothing compared to this. We went on 15 cables many of which were over 1500 feet long. We were approximately 225-540 feet high in the air!! On one cable I looked down and saw cows grazing in the pasture below!! If all of that wasn't enough they also have a Tarzan Swing, which I forced myself to do. It was the only part of the tour that I found scary, but I was glad I did it. Here is a video of the Tarzan Swing so you can get an idea. The girl is not me because I am taking the video.

The final cable is 1 kilometer long and they give you the option of going superman style! I had planned on doing it, but I changed my mind after I went on the Tarzan Swing. It was still awesome to do it the normal way. In my slide show you will see some pics of Magnus doing the superman style though.

Our final activity in Monteverde was a Sugar and Coffee Plantation Tour. We got to see how they grow and process both sugarcane and coffee. I do not drink coffee, but I still found it interesting. The best part was the candy we got to make using the pure molassess they made using the sugarcane. It was yummy! We also got to ride in an ox drawn cart, which was pretty funny. Other highlights in Monteverde were the cheap and delicious tacos from the Taco Taco stand we found as well as the famous Monteverde cheeses. We also had some seriously fun Uno games in the evening!

I attached another slideshow as well.

Costa Rica Part 3

Our group on the Night Hike

Our next stop was in La Fortuna a town known for the Arenal Volcano, which attracts many tourists to the town. Despite some heavy clouds we had some pretty good views of the volcano which errupts daily. We took a night hike to a lookout point where we were lucky enough to see red lava when the volcano errupted! Our very first night in La Fortuna we went to the Hot Springs, which are numerous since the volcano is so close. This was very nice for our sore muscles. La Fortuna is also known for its adventure activities. Our whole group went white water rafting together which was a blast! I had never been before so it was quite an experience. Our guide, David, made sure we had a great time. I did fall out of the boat, but only once. They had a "paparazzi" come with us down the river to take pictures of us. He did a great job because the pictures are awesome.

The next day Ted, Daniel, and I decided to try another adventure activity, Canyoning! This is where you walk through a river canyon and do a combination of down-climbing and repelling. It was really cool and again the "paparazzi" took pictures for us. Our guides Viktor and Carlos were really cute and fun! I did fall a couple of times and had some scrapes/bruises as a result, but I would absolutely go canyoning again. I uploaded another slide show for this part of the trip as well.

Costa Rica Part 2

The next part of our trip was to Rara Avis(rare bird), which is a rainforest lodge in the middle of an untouched rainforest. It was one of the best parts of the trip for me. Everything about this place is awesome including the journey to get there. We started out getting fitted for our rubber boots, which are highly recommended during your stay due to all the mud! Then we got on an all terrain truck for our an hour or so beginning our climb up to the lodge. About half way the truck can no longer continue so we got on to a tractor drawn wagon and things got really bumpy! A couple of times we had to get off and walk ahead so that the tractor could maneuver its way over some large rocks. Once we had enough of the tractor we hiked the last hour of the way there. The accomodations were very simple and rustic. The only electricity is in the dining area for about 5 hours or so in the evening. My years as a camp counselor prepared me well for this.

The next day we took a 3 hour nature hike with our guide Josh. We learned more about the rainforest and its plants and animals. We had a very interesting encounter with some spider monkeys as well. Hiking in the rubber boots through the mud, water, and rocks took some concentration, but was very fun. At the end of our hike we went to the lookout point for the beautiful waterfall they have at Rara Avis. By this point we were hot, muddy and wet so the water was calling our names. We got to swim in the waterfall!!

After lunch a big thunderstorm came through with lots and lots of rain. While we were sitting in the dining room we all of the sudden heard a loud noise. Our guide quickly realized that the river was flash flooding due to the rain. We quickly walked to the bridge to see the river rising and picking up speed. We then grabbed our boots and hiked back to the waterfall lookout point to see the comletely flooded waterfall. It was amazing to see the river moving with such force. I included some videos below so you can get an idea of how massive it really was.

The next morning we got up very early to leave because the tractor was broke down! This meant we had to hike about 6 kilometers down the hill to where the all terrain truck was waiting for us. Needless to say I had several blisters from the rubber boots, but it was worth it! Check out the videos and I also attached a slide show of Rara Avis pictures.

Sorry this is sideways and I don't know how to rotate it

Costa Rica Part 1

I am back from my adventure vacation in Costa Rica and I had a great time!! I saw and did so much during my 2 1/2 week stay so I am going to share a little bit at a time. I arrived in San Jose with no complications and luckily my luggage!! I got settled into the hotel and met my group leader, Annika. She is originally from California, but married a Costa Rican man and has lived in the country for several years. She was a fantastic group leader and knew a lot about the country. My fellow group members were Monique (Netherlands), Magnus & Jannie (Denmark), and Ted & Daniel (New York City). We all got along great and had a lot of fun together.

Early on Day 2 we boarded a city bus to Puerto Viejo a small town along the Caribbean Ocean. The town is very laid back and has a Jamaican influence. The beaches were beautiful with black and white sand. Our hotel was so nice and we stayed in a little bungalow with a hammock on our porch. The main thing to do in Puerto Viejo is to rent a bike and ride around. Monique and I rode to Manzanillo about an hour away. We stopped along the way at some of the beaches which were practically empty! Once in Manzanillo there is another beach!! It was a very relaxing way to start off our trip.

Puerto Viejo

We left Puerto Viejo and drove to Moin where we boarded a boat for our trip to Tortuguero, which can only be reached by boat. The ride was awesome and we spotted some animals like the Jesus Christ lizzard, howler monkeys, birds, and sloths. Torguguero is another very small town which is known for the sea tutles that come along shore at night. Unfortunately we were ther a little too early in the season to see them. We had another nice hotel on the opposite side of the river from the town center. We only stayed here one night and then we were back on the river for another hour or so. Once we were back on land we drove through some farming communities and saw lots of cows and banana plantations. We even caught a gimpse of how they harvest bananas.

I attached a slideshow of pictures from this part of the trip.

Boat Ride to Tortuguero