California Dreamin' on such a winter's day.

So the Packers just won the super bowl (on a 100" projector screen), and the football players and glee club tried to make nice by becoming zombies together. I am supposed to be working on a rough draft for my fictional story for writing. Instead I feel compelled to write about my weekend trip. I found a cheap plane ticket last month and after a quick phone call to make sure the weekend was a good one to visit, I decided to go. I boarded the plane just as it started to rain in Portland for the first time in a couple of weeks, and I felt like a lucky girl to be heading to the California sun.

David rolled up to terminal 7 and we headed straight to a place that I love to visit every time I'm here in LA - IN-N-OUT!!!!! Animal style fries, a cheeseburger and strawberry shake! LOVE IT!
Next stop: Santa Monica Pier.

Ferris Wheel!

Intense funnel cake with frozen yogurt and strawberries!

STARS!


We went up the road to the 3rd street promenade. I like it here too! We heard live music, and wandered through stores.




Saturday was a big day full of fun. Our first stop, as always, was Porto's Bakery. Here's a photo of the pina colada yumminess...


When David suggested going to Huntington Library, I pictured us wandering through rooms full of books and artwork. This place was unbelievable! There is a library, several buildings of art collections & botanical gardens!
I saw the Gutenberg Bible and an illustrated Canterbury Tales.




There was a festival going on to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit! Here are some photos from the Chinese Gardens...







We wandered a couple of hours longer than planned, but made it to the Griffith Observatory in time for sunset!






Our last adventure took us to the Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood. Great food, THE BEST company and killer jazz. We listened to the Kenny Garrett Quartet. We loved it so much, we stayed for the 2nd show. The musicians were phenomenal!


Today we took it easy. I slept in and then headed to church. Then wings and super bowl. David is passed out on the couch. I am hoping to get one more trip to In-n-Out before I leave early tomorrow morning. Better wake him up...

Weekend Trip

I love road trips! I especially love them when they take me to visit friends. So on Jan 21st (after attending all my classes), I loaded up Yoshi with my furry purple blanket, a pillow, pretzels, red vines and string cheese and I was off to drive about 900 miles in all to spend the weekend in Boise.



The Boise Philharmonic presented "The Magic of Mozart" and I have to say I was impressed! The conductor, Robert Franz was great to watch. I found some conducting gestures that I need to rip off. He was very much into the music and entertaining for the audience. This season, they want the audience to get to know some of the musicians, so they had one of the cello players introduce the program and share a personal story. It was a great addition to the evening. And the concert was a highlight of the trip.

It was sunny and freezing. The Basque pub where we had lunch, put this sign in the window. I thought it was funny. We also saw some baskets that were made by using recycled VHS tape. All in all, a low key weekend with a good friend, good music and good times.

BLING! BLING!!

So, I've been home for a couple of weeks now, but I did take a small break in October (in the middle of the term) to go to Las Vegas! There was a conference involved in all of this. I met up with my friend Tony and we got to play every night! I usually will splurge on ONE show on a trip to Vegas, but this time we got such good deals that we saw a show EVERY NIGHT we were there! It was AMAZING!!!!!

Thursday I arrived and took a taxi ride to the hotel where I got to freshen up before we went to see KA at the MGM Grand. We had such amazing seats and the show... WOW! They have this stage that rotates and even extends vertically. Cirque shows are famous for a reason. I have not been disappointed with any of them that I have seen. Tony is a Cirque FREAK! Of the 6 shows I've seen - 5 have been with him. I do believe it is his favorite activity in life :)

Friday we sat in the poncho section at Blue Man Group. Such an innovative and fun show. I feel like I learned a lot and I laughed a lot! Thankfully, no food flew our way, but the poncho kept me nice and warm. At the end of the show they have rolls and rolls of "toilet paper" that start at the back of the auditorium and everyone unrolls it and throws it forward until there is a huge pile on the stage. One of my favorite moments was when a couple of people walked in late - they stopped the ENTIRE show to focus a camera on the late-comers and sing a song about them. Once they found their seats, the show resumed. HA!

After the show we had a nice dinner at the Monte Carlo - I had fresh salmon! YUM! Then we left for a night at the Palms hotel. We splurged and bought VIP passes so we didn't have to stand in line and we got into all 5 clubs at the hotel. We made one go-round to see everything and then went back to our favorites. The Ghostbar is on the 52nd floor and they have a patio outside where we could cool off. They also have a cut out in the floor that has a clear acrylic - so you see all the way to the street. Trippy! We finished the evening at Rain where DJ Jazzy Jeff was spinning. YES!!!! THAT DJ JAZZY JEFF!!! He was GREAT! We danced til nearly 4am and I hurt for 2 days after :) Who's feeling old? That's right - ME!

CREEPY!


READY TO DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY!



Saturday brought us to the newest hotel on the strip. Aria! This is where Cirque's show Viva Elvis is showing. SO FUN! We enjoyed popcorn and Elvis tunes before we went to a fancy dinner at the Palazzo.

Sunday was our last day. We had some time in the afternoon to wander around the Bellagio! I love to see how they decorate the atrium. They had these cool, funky whimsical trees made from willow branches. We also enjoyed the art exhibit "A Survey of the Human Form". There were Renoir and Picasso and Degas! All genres and all periods of art. Very cool! We also wandered into some of the galleries and saw some pretty sweet sculptures. No trip to Vegas is complete without a stop at the Jean-Phillipe chocolate shop. We got some super delicious treats. I love having a friend who likes to try everything and is willing to share. We got an opera cake, raspberry tart, chocolate dipped strawberry and dulce de leche brioche. You may notice the severe lack of pictures at this point. I had forgotten to bring my camera on our adventure :( I remembered to take a couple of pics... but the memories are vivid without the documentation, right?!

Beatles Love was the last show of the trip. It would have been perfect - except that THOSE PEOPLE sat behind us! First - they spilled beer on us! And when I was wiping it off, I turned around and shot them a dirty look and said "SERIOUSLY!? NOT COOL!" They totally ignored me! And then they TALKED THROUGH THE ENTIRE SHOW! SooooooOOOoo Annoying! At one point Tony turned around and yelled "SHUT UP!" It didn't help. Thankfully they talked a little less loudly durning the quiet parts. I think my favorite scene was "Something". It was beautifully done! Even with THOSE PEOPLE behind us, I really enjoyed the show. At one pint there is a huge silk sheet that is thrown over most of the audience. We had seats in the balcony and it looked so amazing with all the lights. It would be cool to see the scene from under the silk to see how different the experience is.

That's it! The fun stuff of Vegas in a nutshell! You wouldn't think that 2 Mormon kids could have so much fun in Sin City, with no gambling, no drinking and no "hot babes direct to your door". But we did :)

Relaxation

Not much to report when you spend all your time at a 5 star resort with hot springs.

http://www.tabacon.com/

Q:What do a blind man, a nun and a box of live chickens have in common?

A: They were all on our bus from San Jose!




As bored as we were in San Jose, we have LOVED our time in El Castillo! We took a local bus ($4!) from the city up to the Arenal volcano area. We heard the trip would take anything from 2 1/2 hours to 4 hours. It took a little over 5! This was due to a stopover in a little town after one of the bus tires blew out. I think it was the most excitement the town had seen in a long time.






Since our bus was late, we missed our shuttle to the hotel. It was a $25 - 30 min drive from La Fortuna to Essence Arenal in El Castillo. Our taxi driver, Jesus, was awesome! He made us practice our Spanish and he practiced his English. We were glad to spend some time with him! And our hotel is SO AMAZING! We have the most gorgeous view of the volcano and the lake (see photos above). After a little hike on the property, we soaked our feet in the pool and took in the view. It is a little slice o' heaven! The hotel is pretty far away from things, but they have a shuttle (an old white van whose sliding door takes at least 3 tries to close) and they are really accommodating. Isaac and Kelly kind of keep the shuttle and the kitchen running. They do a community dinner where we all help cook (if we want) and then we all eat together. Food really should be an event! Don't ya think? We have gotten to know everyone else that is staying here and we love it! Last night we had sushi. This morning brought banana french toast and tonight was Indian. I am still hanging out near the kitchen listening to the lingering dinner conversations.





Today is Kate's birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!!!!!! After our delicious french toast, we headed to the Arenal Observatory to spend the morning hiking to waterfalls and check out the volcano in an up close and personal way. Every time it erupted, we could see the rocks falling down the side of the mountain. We found a really cool waterfall and I spent some time in the pool at the base of the waterfall, basking in the power and the beauty. We also saw lots of hummingbirds and butterflies and even some monkeys!





After hiking, we headed to Tabacon. Kate's favorite place from her last visit here. It is a super posh and fancy resort that is built around the hot springs. It was the birthday splurge! We bought s day pass and then found out it was 2 days for one, so I think we are going to spend an extra day in this area, so we can go back to the hot springs tomorrow. We enjoyed delicious sea bass for lunch and then soaked for almost three hours in different pools. IT WAS DIVINE! I am very excited to go back tomorrow :)



We have met some really great people! I really do love traveling! I feel so close to the person I crave to be when I travel. I am not sure if I can pinpoint what it is that I love so much, but I read a great description from the book I am reading. This is from Elizabeth Gilbert's "eat pray love" --

"...to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby - I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to - I just don't care."

San Jose - Day 1

Man are we tired! We took a late flight to Denver which connected to an overnight flight to San Jose. I don't know if you know this - but there is a hurricane going on, so we flew around it - but it was bumpy! So the sleeping on the plane was minimal. We arrived in San Jose and got through immigration and customs to find that there was not a taxi from our hotel waiting for us. We were warned that the taxis will sometimes "not know" where your hotel is and take you to a different one, or charge more than they should. So our hotel commissions taxis, but it turns out they didn't get our email in time. These 2 guys asked us where we were going and quoted $25 for both of us. It was only a few dollars more than the hotel said it would be, and they were right there, so we took it. Thankfully, the funny drunk guy wasn't driving (no, it was the "Crazy Nicaraguan") :)

We found our hotel and woke up Fredrico (it was 630am), he got us checked in and we dropped off our bags and went hunting for food (HUNGRY!) Unfortunately, not much is open that early. Fortunately, there were some very attractive men walking around. We did find a little bakery and got some meat pies and took them to the park. The park has a little island with tables in the middle of a pond with fountains, so we had breakfast there. It was adorable and our tummys were a bit more satisfied, so we walked across a cute stone footbridge and found a spot of grass in the sun to take a short nap. It was lovely... until it was itchy. We headed back to the hostel to hang out until our room was ready. The next few hours are blurry for me, I fell asleep on the couch while watching the Biography channel (something about extra-terrestrials) and then I fell asleep on the bed in our room? Anyway, at about 2pm we were ready to explore the city! At 5 we were back in the hostel for the evening. True confession? We're kinda bored by San Jose.

We are staying in a part of the city that is close to everything that you would want to see. It is a short walk to the Central Market and museums and the National Theater. And we saw them all. We are a bit disappointed that there is not a concert at the theater. We settled for seeing the outside of it and the lobby. It is neo-classical and beautiful! Built by an Italian, the first production was Goethe's Faust in 1897. Currently, the National Symphonic Orchestra performs there.

Here is a pic -


Here are some statues on the inside --




And one from the outside -- Did you know that this year is the bicentennial celebration of Fryderyk Chopin's birth? Celebrate! And listen to Chopin!


We also saw pre-Columbian gold and some abstract art, and learned the history of currency in Costa Rica.





We weren't all that impressed by the Central Market (except for this pose of the street dancers - who were dancing with no music?).


That is, until we went off the beaten path to get our bus tickets for tomorrow's adventure. We ended up in a pretty sketchy part of the city... but we are safe and AWESOME! I ignored the guy who called me sweetheart and asked if we needed him to show us around. And the doorman who had to unlock and open the front door to the Best Western was really nice about telling us where we needed to go, only to find out that we have to go back at 7 tomorrow morning. And you can be sure that we are taking a taxi.

It is hot. I am sweaty. We are exhausted! And REALLY looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing the countryside. We are headed up to Arenal tomorrow and will spend a couple of days near the famous volcano. Oh, we did find time for a graffiti photo shoot!