Montezuma and Tortuga Island

Costa Rica Part 3: Finally! After a fun time by Arenal, we took a detour to Montezuma to take a boat tour to Tortuga Island. The detour ended up being a bit longer than we were expecting and included a ferry ride...
After the ferry, we ended up on some crazy dirt roads with a few unexpected guests...It was a little scary.
As was the town of Montezuma. It is a total hippie town with a lot of partying going on...Kind of like the Boulder of the US, but we'll talk about that later.
I had to steal this picture of the dreds from Amelia because it was just so great!
Montezuma did have it's pretty partsThe next morning we took off on our boat adventure to Tortuga Island. I absolutely LOVED the boat ride and the scenery was incredible! We stopped for a while to go snorkeling then the tour guys made us a delicious lunch.
We spent the afternoon on Tortuga Island basking in the sun...and shade. It was hot! The picture below is also courtesy of Amelia. Apparently her camera made things look a lot prettier than mine.

Arenal and La Fortuna

After an exciting drive through mountains, over bridges, and around other crazy drivers, we arrived in the town of La Fortuna. The area is famous for having an active volcano called Arenal. This was actually my favorite stop in Costa Rica. It helped that we had a cute cabin...

The town with the volcano right next to it

The first thing we did was take a hike through the rain forest on hanging bridges.

There were some amazing views!That evening we went to some hot springs. This particular site had about 15 pools. Each were different temperatures. We ate dinner there, but not in the water. Take a look at the top left picture. The bar stools are in the water!

On our second day in La Fortuna, we hiked to a better view of the volcano. It was crazy because some of the hike looked like desert and other parts were rain forest. I liked this hike because Tim and I got our first taste of Costa Rican monkeys! We saw 5! (Pictures to come)

We also did a short hike to a huge, beautiful waterfall. Jon and Tim got in, but the water was freezing-No thanks!

Costa Rica....the Rich Coast

It will take me a few posts to tell about our trip to Costa Rica, but I thought I'd start with a brief summary. We got to see a lot more of the country by renting and driving our own car around. I guess a lot of people either take buses, or they visit less places than we did. I now know why. Some of the roads in Costa Rica are not quite up to par with the U.S. Take a look at the scenery from our car...

Notice the crocodiles in the bottom middle picture and the top two corner pictures.

Costa Rica also had some pretty awesome road signs.Translation: Watch out for short, boxy women, dogs, sloths, and monkeys. (You do not want to get caught behind a sloth crossing the road)

Translation: Ducks in the road - don't kill them.

Travel buddies Amelia and Jon added lots of fun to our trip!

Next stop: Arenal Volcano...

Saying Goodbye

I'm going to miss my job at the Prince William Hospital Fitness Center. I had a blast working with two of my best friends and coming up with crazy schemes. My co-workers threw me a going away party, but I didn't take many pictures. Below is me with Jen. My farewell is a little sweeter because she is moving to another site, too. Notice my Colorado shirt!

One of the (many) boards I created... (along with the fliers on the right hand side and my creative palm trees for our luau)

I enjoyed getting creative when it came to our "Welcome Board"

And I discovered my artistic talent with dry erase markers. This is my farewell picture -me in the Rockies!The day after I finished work, Tim's mom took "the girls" to Mary Poppins at the Kennedy Center. I REALLY loved it and was impressed by all of the props and detail. I would say it's my favorite of the musicals I've seen!

Me, Aubrey, and Deanne

Thanks for taking us, Diney!

Take Me Home, Country Road...

...To the place, I belong.
Tim, Aubrey (his sister), and I took our first trip since we moved here up to Harper's Ferry West Virginia. I didn't realize it was so pretty or so close! We weren't sure quite what to do, but we parked at the National Park Visitor Center and took a bus to the down town area that was a mixture of run-down places to eat, real stores, fake stores, and historical sites.

We also took our pick on which direction to hike the Appalachian Trail. Only 1,013 miles to Georgia!
We ended up learning about John Brown (left middle), the church (top left), and the canal that was never quite finished because the railroad boxed out.

Our sweet friends from church threw us a goodbye party complete with rock band. Thanks guys! We'll miss all of you!

And my third go-around of a 5k Running Training Clinic at work. We had a great turn out and trained for two races! The ladies did awesome and improved so much!

COLORADO, HERE WE COME!

I've been waiting to post this until I gave notice at work, etc., but our whole point in moving to DC was to get work experience so Tim could apply to graduate school. He would love to be an Economics professor and do research someday studying primarily International Development. He's decided to go to University of Colorado at Boulder. We went out there in April to check things out, and felt that that is going to be our new home for the next 5 years. We can't wait!

To celebrate, I threw a surprise party for him at work. He had no idea!

We made him choose hats like they do for football prospects.

His dad and brother, Scott came too
And here's his future home (away from home)...

Congratulations Tim! I'm so proud of you!

Lately...

It's hard to believe Tim and I have lived here for almost two years and are just now visiting Great Falls National Park. It is crazy that all of this is right on the edge of DC and only about 15 minutes from us!

Last Saturday, Michelle Prince and I ran the first ever Marine Corp 17.75k! Yes-it's a strange distance (11 miles), but it is to celebrate the year the Marine Corp was founded. The race was a difficult one with trails and forests and several hills, but we survived it. It finished at the Marine Corp Museum in Quantico, VA. I am very grateful that Michelle and I could do something together before we move. Thanks Michelle! Our awesome husbands and Michelle's baby Gabbi came to cheer us on...