Costa Rican Christmas

Christmas in Costa Rica again....Pura Vida!  This year we booked the Small Beach House at Coconut Grove in Dominical.  We arrived a few days before Christmas and settled in..great to see Richard and Diane, the owners.  We were sad to hear our favorite dog, Flaco had passed away since our last stay!
Christmas Eve we went to the annual Christmas Party and enjoyed seeing some of the locals.

We spent our days at the beach....Playa Hermosa or Playa Linda......both beautiful!  We ate at some local places and went to the market. Joined Richard and Diane one evening for dinner at Tortilla Flats..they have the best Basil Margarita.  New Year’s Eve we went over to have drinks with the owners and later watched the fireworks.

As usual Dale was the Boogie Board champ, riding the board all the way in.  We both found out that Boogie Boarding was a real workout!

We walked the beach of Dominicalito and managed to enjoy almost every breathtaking sunset!

The rest of the time we enjoyed the pool and the Rancho...meeting and talking with other guest!

Dale forget my Christmas card and my birthday card at
home, so he made me  perfect cards in the sand on the beach!  Very creative!
Loved both of them!
I may never get a store bought card again!

















                     

We had a great two weeks....very relaxing!  Our drive back to San Jose was easy and we flew out the next morning early!

 

Christmas 2019

 

Christmas was at Brian and Hollie’s home at
Mission Valley.

 Grandma and the Great Grandkids








Grandma and Grandkids....
Lanell, Brian, Chuck

         A group shot of all the ladies!

        Chelsea and Hayden

                                      Lexi and Ethan












Randi, Chuck, and Lennon

                                     

               Brian’s family!

Going South on the Silhouette

Cruising the Southern Caribbean on the Celebrity Silhouette for Thanksgiving was the plan, stopping at our favorite ABC Islands! We had cabin 1088 which was one of the largest inside cabins we have ever had on a cruise.

First up was Aruba where we spent the day at a beach club and enjoyed dinner onshore at Pinchos since we stayed in port until midnight!

                    Pinchos for dinner!

Next port was Curacao......relaxing at the
Renaissance Resort and the beautiful infinity pool near the port, having lunch and drinks!
We stayed late and had a very relaxing day.

In Bonaire we got off the ship and just walked around, enjoyed a drink at a bar over the Walter.
Then it was back to ship to enjoy the pool!

In Grand Cayman we stayed onboard since we have been there many times and we had a short stay in port.

                On the way home we killed time at Margaritaville in the Fort Lauderdale airport!

                                                        Thanksgiving Formal night!

Giant Omelet!

The Omelet Festival and visiting kinfolk in Abbeville, La was on our agenda.  We checked into our B&B, which was a couple blocks off the square and walked to a seafood dinner at Dupuy’s! The next day was filled with Cajun food, Cajun music, Cold beer, and Cajun kinfolks!  I even participated in a egg cracking contest on a big tractor.....winning the Texas division! That evening we went to his cousin’s home for baby back ribs, sweet potatoes, and baked apples with the Omelet folks!

Gayla, Harlo, Mike, Bonnie and Dale

The day of the festival Dale and I walked around town, checking out a old cemetery!  We had lunch and listened to some good music before the omelet cooking began.
The omelet folks marched from the church and down Main Street, where the egg cracking began!  5,035 eggs are used along with lots of other ingredients including crawfish! French bread was sliced to serve with the omelet.
We sat with a big crowd watching the Omelet cooking tradition which dates back to Napoleon!
Dale’s cousin brought a tray with a serving of omelet and bread for each of us....yummy!
That evening we joined Mike and Bonnie for a lovely dinner! Bonnie prepared a delicious fish chowder with all the trimmings.
The next morning we headed out taking the beach road to Port Arthur, Texas.  We stopped in Cameron, Louisiana for a seafood lunch..our last Cajun food fix!
We made it home after a weekend filled with fun and family!

Boerne Car Show

Off to a weekend car show in Boerne, we stayed at a lovely hotel off the square called The William.  Lots and lots of beautiful restored autos to admire!   The weather was cool as we had just gotten the first cold front.

Diving with the Dietzels!

Spent a week in Grand Cayman on the East End with my friends Dennis and Tamara.  Dale insisted I go and get away, that he would be fine!  We dove 2 dives every morning, and the diving was okay.....not many little critters.  We did see some sharks, lots of eels, and a few interesting things. Steve, the owner put a tag on my BC denoting that I had completed the 55 Green Shorts Dive Challenge.


Dennis was the usual great host and chef.....prepared a killer salmon filet on a cedar plank on the grill.

.
Tamara and I worked on photos and talked camera stuff.  One evening we watched Lexi playing a college volleyball game in Austin, Texas thanks to the internet.


It was rainy and cloudy most of the week and my ears give me problems one day.  All in all it was a good trip and I really needed a break. The best was....Dale survived without me!

Lady Go Divers 16th Trip!

Celebrating 16 years of dive travel with an amazing group of ladies in Grenada.

I have been blessed to be part of this great group for the past ten trips.

Brac, Roatan, Cozumel, Belize, Bonaire, St Lucia, Brac, Bonaire, St Lucia, Grenada

It was that time of year, for the annual Lady Go Divers trip, and we were headed to Grenada and the True Blue Boutique Resort, diving with Aquanauts.  Cecilia and I settled into our room, Cocoa Pods #64 and unpacked. The next day we took the shuttle to Grand Anse Beach for lunch and drinks.

After a dive briefing on Sunday, it was time to dive, our dive masters were Bruce and Michelle.  Boy did they have their hands full with a boat load of women.  We found the reefs to be very healthy and lush...loaded with marine life. 

 The highlights of the week were a big seahorse, frog fish, two octopus, a ray, lobsters, and lots of eels. My favorite dive was a wreck dive named Veronica, it was loaded with marine life.  The visibility wasn’t great most days because of the rain, but diving was good!  Currents ranged from gentle to mild, to strong! The highlight of my week for me was a tug of war experience with octopus I found in a coral head!  Found out that octopus are pretty dang strong!    

He latched onto my tickle stick and then proceeded to make his way toward my arm....Yikes!

Cecilia found a tiny little blenny, that she managed to coax out of a coral finger and I grabbed a shot so we could identify later!  It was identified as a Ramirez’s Blenny or a Red Banner Blenny. Pretty cool find!

One evening Cecilia booked a sunset cruise for our group, and it turned out to be great, ending with a beautiful rainbow before sunset over Grenada.

We even managed to get Bonnie on board after she was injured when she slipped on the dock and was put on crutches.  Hopefully she is on the mend soon.......and is one tough gal!

On Friday everyone did their own thing, I chose to go back to the beach where I met a lovely woman from Grenada named Jenell.  We enjoyed talking, laughing, and enjoying some really good mojitos! We decided she was “My Sista by Another Mista”!

For our farewell dinner we went to a restaurant called Sails overlooking the water.  Patty, our leader gave pins to the new members of our group and we kicked around our trip in 2020!

Flying back to crazy Miami, then on to Houston where Dale picked me up......We pulled into the house about 2:30 am.  A long day, but a great trip, with a great group of gals!