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...

Outer Banks part II

I am finally getting to the second part of our trip. We mostly enjoyed the beach...
We rented a kayak, but it made me seasick :(
We saw yet another lighthouse, but this one was covered in scaffolding. If you look closely, you will see my frown....we took a nature walk by the lighthouse.
We also got to visit the Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawk (actually, the location is now in a town called Kill Devil Hills, but at the time, just the hill was called Kill Devil Hill). It was pretty cool!
And since we were on vacation, we had smores for breakfast!

Fabulous. Just like our trip!

The Outer Banks: My future home

We took a trip down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and I fell in LOVE! The Outer Banks are a strip of land off of the coast of North Carolina which includes Roanoake Island (the lost colony), Rodanthe (remember the Nicholas Sparks book/movie), Cape Hatteras (the beautiful Lighthouse), Kitty Hawk (Wright Bros.), and the waters once patrolled by Blackbeard. A member of the fitness center I work at has a beach house in Nags Head, and he gave us a discount to stay there. Tim mentioned it to some co-workers and before we knew it, the trip was planned!

Above: Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tallest in the US
Below: A view from the top...
The entire lighthouse was moved a few years ago to avoid falling into the ocean. The middle picture shows the opening in the trees (now a parking lot) where it came.

Jockey's Ridge State Park dunes. The highest natural dunes in the East Coast.
And about the hottest. These are probably some of the sand the Wright Brothers flew off of though over the years, the dunes have moved and covered an entire miniature golf course. It's now popular to fly kites there. There's lots of wind.

A cute town called Manteo on Roanoake Island...

And the Manteo Lighthouse with a wedding going on. You can see the bride walking down the aisle!

Our beach house. Located 2 1/2 blocks from the beach!

More to come...