mostly Costa Rica 2025 (part I)

Even more pics from the end of the school year :)  Then onto Costa Rica!

Sora and friends at Mission San Juan Bautista.  One of her best
friends, Kaitlyn (sp?), is moving away though will finish
next year at Noble still so that's been a bit sad

Jad at the year end dance festival.  2 classes did
a TikTok Indian inspired dance this year!

Kai was sick for a few days so he got lots of rest at home
and finished the Lego Baby Yoda that Popo gave him

There was a bit of a heat wave in early summer so there was a lot of water play.  Luckily, the Aoalins have been very generous with us invading their pool.  We also hosted the garage party at the end of May and had a lot of water balloons and gun fights that day.  Lots of fun :)

Fill up those balloons and resevoirs

Everyone got into the action

Lucky the party goers did not get splashed :)

Before hopping in the Aoalin pool

Jad had his soccer tournament.  It was up in Redwood City so was a bit of a distance but good experience for him.  They won 1/4 games but had fun

This girl on the other team was really good.  Latino
soccer families :)

Mojo, Jad, Colton and Ashton.  Just missing Orion

I got two weeks of vacation this summer and we had thought we would try to make it to Thailand to visit my dad.  Joe and Chris couldn't make it with their families though so we decided to postpone a Thailand trip until next year (luckily, I have a bit more time off then too.)  We thought about Japan (where everyone seems to be going these days) but though it might be fun to go somewhere new.  We already went to Europe last year so in the end, we decided to go to Costa Rica.  

I was there for 2 months in 2003 as part of a medical Spanish learning program.  I went with Jean and Suzanne, Emily Willner and a few other med students.  We were mainly based in San Jose but every weekend, we'd hop on a bus to another town/area from Limon to Manuel Antonio to Arenal/Monteverde to the Nicoya Peninsula.  It was a great time and I have fond memories of volcanoes, beaches, sloths, monkeys, tropical birds, cheap food/drink and lots of time with friends.  I don't think I'd be such good friends with Jean and Suzanne now if not for that trip and for that I'm extremely grateful.

Travel with the kids would be different, of course.  We rented our own car and planned for three places: Manuel Antonio, Arenal and Tamarindo, figuring we'd see the animals in Manuel Antonio along with some beach time then head up to the cloud forest to see the volcano and go ziplining then finish off with some relaxing beach days on the Nicoya Peninsula.  It was really hot on the trip, usually 80-90's and humid, but we dealt with that like we did in Asia.  Go out in the earlier mornings, come back to the hotel/rental when possible to rest in the afternoon and maybe go out again in the evening.  Mosquitoes were ubiquitous but I think that's probably a problem in any tropical place.  It was also really expensive!  I knew that the $1 beers and $3 dishes of 2003 were gone but I did not expect the cost.  Touristy areas were comparable with US prices and non-touristy areas with costs about 60% US.  Most restaurants will also charge a 13% tax as well as a 10% service charge (wasn't consistent) so that's almost another 25% to the total. I don't know how to locals afford it though maybe overall, it means Costa Rica is better off than other Latin American countries.

A picture of me from the old days.. 
ahh, good times :D

Due to some flights and efficiency planning, our trip out was a red eye directly from SFO to San Jose CR.  We had a nice day then headed off to the airport at about 7pm.  I'm sad that the Priority Pass accessible lounges are all on the A side of the SFO International Terminal as we always seem to be on the other side (they are not connected) so we didn't get to use any lounges this time.  We flew out at about 1130p and the kids were pretty tired by then so they slept on the plane.  I'm very proud of our kids for being such good travelers.  They each carried their own backpack with cloths and a few items while Amy and I had packs with our stuff and various items and that was it.  No big suitcases or anything.  I felt kinda proud when seeing families carting all their stuff around the airports :p

Jad knocked out on the plane

Shuttled to pick up the car.  Adobe car rental was very professional
and cost about $55 a day

After a quick meal at a local spot, we began driving
and all the kids passed out in the back

Our first stop was at Crocodile Bridge on the
Rio Tarcoles.. just two crocs below

Our VRBO rental turned out to be very nice (thanks, Amy!)  It was between the windy hilly road between Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park.  Plenty of room for us with two bedrooms and the small pool in the back was the best.  Our only mishap was the scorpion that came out of the drain in the kids shower (I caught it in a cup and tossed it outside).  

A nice homey base for us

The pool was great for cooling off from the heat

The first evening, we had dinner at a fancy marina area in Quepos
and then went to the local Pops for ice cream

The next day we met our guide Pablo (though his name is actually Paul and from Toronto) who took us into Manuel Antonio National Park.  Again, the price was steep at about $50 per person but the park delivered immediately as we saw a sloth hanging out under the eves of a restaurant even before we got in the entrance.  We saw all sorts of cool animals in the 2 hours it took to leisurely walk through the park with Paul and his scope.  What's amazing to me is that the animals just hang out near enough to the path for people to see and there are so many of them.  Manel Antonio isn't  that big I guess but, from the maps I can see, the paths you walk are only about 20% of the park, so either the animals are attracted here for some reason of they are just so abundant everywhere in the park.  Very cool to just walk along and see so many animals though.

This two toed sloth was just chillin'

Monkeys came right up to us.. they apparently
steal stuff if you're not careful

Three toed sloth through the scope

A fer-de-lance the deadliest snake in
Central America due to its aggresive nature
(also seen through the scope!)

Crab are an incredibly important part of the
ecosystem of the park

This really impressed me because these Rainbow Grasshoppers were
on a branch high up in a tree (guide scope!)

Black iguana on the beach

The beaches of Manuel Antonio are also renowned and less crowded.  I didn't mention earlier that June is their early rainy season so less tourists and slightly better prices than their busy season, which is Dec-May.  The water was warm and the waves generally mild so it was a lot fun to hang out in the water.  Kai and Sora braved the bigger waves while I stayed close to Jad. 

Really beautiful beach inside the park.. we hung out for a couple of hours in the water

Jad looks like he's drowning here but the water 
is really only up to his waist

This mama monkey and baby came right up next
to Amy

Haha, we saw a lot of the animals on this sign :)

We grabbed lunch at a place near the park entrance that our guide had recommended then went back home to relax and swim for the afternoon.  Later that day we went out to El Avion, a restaurant with an old plane they had turned into a bar.  Kitschy (there was a lot of that type of thing there) but still fun.  

My first michelada since 2003 (made with
lemon juice rather than tomato Mexican style)

A nice sunset from the restaurant balcony

The next day, we drove out to Nauyaca Falls.  It was about 45 mins by car and cost $10 a person to walk 2.5 miles along a trail to the falls.  You could pay more to have a truck drive you or even more to ride horses there but we just opted to walk.  The way there was a bit tough as it was a steady uphill though really only I had trouble.  Kai pushed me on the steep parts and Jad also helped to pull me along.  Sora would have helped too but the boys were more eager to so she didn't as much.  Coming back downhill was much easier.

Even in the early rainy season the falls were pretty big.. I can't imagine
them in the middle of rainy season.  This was the upper part of the falls.

The lower falls were where you could swim.  It was a bit chilly but not too bad
and when you got out, it wasn't super cold because of the humidity.  

We all had a dip though the water was too rough to really get in there.  There
were guides who brought another group to climb / rappel up the falls
which looked really wet (and dangerous :) 

One more swim in the pool before leaving .. such a luxury :p

The next day, we had breakfast then packed up and headed out to the Arenal area.  There are technically two areas in the central part of the country to visit, Arenal and Monterverde.  Arenal has the volcano and Monteverde has more jungle and animals, both have ziplining and waterfalls etc.  We opted for the Arenal area, which was about 4.5 hours driving.  It's said that everywhere in Costa Rica is about 4 hours away from another, not so much because of the distance as it's a fairly small country (same size as W. Virginia) but the roads are small and slow.  

We stopped in San Ramon for a nice lunch at Soda El Chapperal
Giant empanadas here along with some good shakes.

Got our coconut at a small local market where they
even chopped it up so we could eat the meat!

We stayed at the Heliconias Nature Inn and Hot Springs.  They got really good reviews on various sites so I took a chance.  Overall, the place was really nice.  I think it was largely family run and it seems they have been slowly building up their property over time, adding rooms, pools, hot spring soaking areas, etc.  There were probably about 20 rooms of various sizes but, maybe because of low tourist season, it was very quite and peaceful.  Almost too much so as we were the only family there on three of the four nights we stayed.  There was a huge pool and some warm spring tubs (most likely river water that was heated and then pumped over, rather than natural hot spring water) but only two of the five were filled while the others were under going maintenance.  There was also a restaurant on premises where both locals and tourists could come by but it was pretty expensive. Our included breakfast was there as well (best gallo pinto that we had in CR) but after 4 days, it got pretty repetitive.

The room we initially booked was smaller and I wasn't very happy about it but figured we'd manage.  Later that day, we found ants all over the room.  Insects are somewhat understandable as it is the jungle after all, but there were like 50 large ants in our room that we had to kill, which was just too much. I spoke to the front office the next morning and we got moved into a larger "treehouse" room which was on raised pillars.  The room was bigger with a larger bathroom and had no bugs so we were pretty happy with that.  Location wise, it was a bit far from La Fortuna and the main things around the area so we had to drive at least 30 mins to get to anything.  It was ok as we had a car but looking back I realize I should have booked a place near La Fortuna or on the road between the town and Arenal.  

Our first small room.  Kids love towel animals!

This pool was gigantic but nice that Jad could touch the
bottom everywhere

One of the hot tubs with warm waterfall. Above Sora's hands
are a cluster of frog eggs we found on the wall

You could see the little early tadpole
moving around in there!

Our "deluxe" treehouse upgrade.. the TV was nice as we ended
up spending a lot of time here due to the rain

There were also hammocks underneath

Our first day out, we explored La Fortuna town.  It really is a pretty small place with shops, restaurants and tour booking places around the main square and church.  We picked up a couple souvenirs from an artist collective and got pastries from La Principal for lunch.  Then we headed to El Choyin Rio Termal, the hot spring river.  So, because of Arenal Volcano, there are some hot springs around this area.  Various hotels and properties have tapped into them to create some really amazing resorts with multiple pools of varying temps that are pretty cool, the most famous of which is probably Tabacon Hot Springs.  Tabacon uses naturally heated water from a nearby spring and is pretty amazing, but also costs almost $100 per person for a day pass (which is crazy!)  Behind Tabacon is the Arenal river which is also warmed by the same geothermal energy.  The river is more of a local attraction, though there were plenty of touristas too, and free!  Though there was a $10 street parking "fee".. we ran into many of these situation near attractions where one or several people would be regulating parking and charge you something.  It's a bit of a protection racket but seemed accepted by even locals so we went along with it.  The river itself was very cool once we walked down to it.  Very warm and there were several pools where people spread out.  It wasn't too crowded though also certainly not private but I can see where it could get really packed in the high tourist season.  

Really neat experience soaking in the hot spring river

Sora spent much of her time trying to catch some fish

Jad photobombing Amy

As is typical in the rainy season of the tropics, the clouds rolled in in the afternoon so we headed back to the hotel to relax.  The next day, we started off bright and early after breakfast so we could make our ziplining appointment.  I chose Sky Adventures Arenal which has 8 big ziplines (according to them the highest, longest and fastest in CR though I'm not sure about the accuracy of that statement.  Jad was a bit apprehensive at first but he became comfortable very quickly, especially as he had to go with Amy or me.  Sora and Kai also had to go together because of their weight.  I was the one who stopped towards the end of one line as I was probably the lightest when I was by myself.  We were lucky that the rain stopped while we were ziplining and we had some great views (though never got to see Arenal volcano itself) over the canopy.  The kids said it was their favorite activity in CR so I'm glad they had a great experience.  

The Heliconias restaurant had a kitschy giant sloth photo op

Kitschy hand at the top of the mountain where the ziplining started.. Pura Vida!

Kai and Sora zipping in

Look at Jad smiling :D

A quick break in the middle with a view
of Lake Arenal

Sky Adventures also came with a hiking path with two hanging bridges.  I am not sure why we even paid for this as it was on an unmonitored path near the parking area.  I suppose if there were more touristas, maybe they would be more careful maybe?  Anyway, we set off on an easy hike that turned out not to be short or easy at all.  It was a trek through the forest and we did eventually reach the two hanging bridges (it was neat to be above the forest canopy but we didn't see any animals) but it started raining so we turned back.  The rain increased in intensity until it was a fair thunder storm by the time we got back to the car.   We were all a bit soaked but it was a fun experience for the most part.

Natural umbrella for Jad

One of the hanging bridges

I love how the mists came over the forest and mountains there

That night we had dinner at a super local place near
Heliconias.. their special was slow roasted skewered pork :)

I found a frog in our bathtub later that night

...

...

...Time warp!  .. it's now Aug 25th and I'm just getting back to the blog.  After our trip, July was busy with visitors and then we went to San Diego and then school started ..  I'll stop this post for now as it's already super long and continue with Costa Rica part II and catch up over the next few weeks :) 

End of (school) year craziness // Kids growing up // Science Olympiad // Garden Bros Circus

 You know, I think we always forget how busy the end of the school year gets.  There are just so many activities that pile up.. soccer tournaments, Science Olympiad, Kai's birthday, end of year parties, school concerts, planning for summer.  Those are my excuses for not having written a blog post sooner :p  No big trips or anything, just regular life stuff..

The biggest thing is probably Kai's birthday.  He turned 12 (!!!) and had several celebrations.  First with cupcakes with his soccer team where he also was MVP for the previous game.  Then we went to Lasermaxx with the church friends and after that celebrated at home with neighbors.  I think he had a good time and is growing up a bit.  He's still very disorganized and not always thoughtful but he's very smart and generally a very good person.  He does still tend to goof off and poke at others a lot, especially his siblings, but still usually listens to us (so not fully teen yet).  He has come to really enjoy his friends in church youth group so I'm glad there is that constant in his life.  He's also challenged himself to a lot new things like track and field, cross country and violin while also keeping up with jujitsu and soccer.  It's hard to believe that he'll be 18 in just six more years.  Hopefully, we've done an ok job raising him.  I still tell him I love him every chance I get :)

Low light pic from inside the laser tag area

The church friends and giant donut .. love Kai and Evelyn's no smile here :!

Jad has also finished up the competitive soccer season.  It was shorter than the rec season and probably cost 3x as much with all the uniforms.  It's still not terribly expensive but I'm not sure if it's worth it either.  Jad is definitely picking up some good technique and footwork.  He's getting stronger for sure and has some athletic potential.  The Arsenal White team did not do super well overall this season but it's a bunch of 7 year olds so not a big deal.  We probably will continue, though mostly that's because he enjoys playing with his friends who are on the team.   

Jad usually plays mid field or defender

Sora is still continuing with gymnastics, as well as piano, ice skating (all medium priced activities) and Girl Scouts.  She enjoys gymnastics and likes the friends that she sees there but is also probably not competitive.  Sometimes, we question whether it's worth it because it's a bit far, takes a lot of time and especially when Sora doesn't practice regularly at home.  We'll see, I think she'll have to pare down her activities a bit once she reaches middle school anyway.

Sora showing Jad some stretches during
home practice

I've been doing some little quality of life improvements around the house.  Put up some solar lights around the backyard fence, some hooks for helmets, cleaning up the garage and getting some storage boxes for the shelves.  I put up a bike hook so we could stand Amy's bike up.  It's much lighter than my bike so can be stored this way to save room.  Nothing big but still, I like doing little things to make everyday better.  Some of the larger project always get put off so it's nice to see these things and just get 'em done.  It'll also help with closet space as the kids prepare to move into their own rooms this summer which will be a big project. 

Looks so cool :)

Amy has continued to run and says she's getting back in shape, though the metrics are completely skewed here because she's already in great shape 💝 Still, she has signed up for a couple of half marathons this summer and is training hard.  She's also finishing up her lactation nurse certification which has been on delay for much of the last year due to her mom's cancer diagnosis.  

Running the spring rains

I'd be remiss if I didn't add our last family member.  Sesame is (as Jad says) "living the life, dude".  Food, shelter, love.. what else does one need?  He's come to make friends with Callie, our outdoor feral, and will sometimes sit around in the front yard with her. Luckily, we got them both neutered or else who knows what black/calico mixed kittens we could find some day.

This cat is very comfortable here

Callie still hisses at us, maybe
a bit less than before though

Some other random bits..

A great picture of Jad as he finishes
the 1st grade

Kai reunited with some of his best buds from Noble at the Spring Carnival.  They all went to different middle schools so it was nice to see them getting back into their silliness so quickly

Amy went to visit Jen Nagaran and (as usual for them) they went
all out for their party with caricature artists and great food

Sora lost another tooth while Jad lost two
so they are keeping the tooth fairy busy

One day, I walked out in our front yard and found a random young bird out there. Surprising because it was very friendly and walked right up to me and also because of the number of cats that roam our neighborhood.  I told Jad to keep an eye on it, grabbed our cat carrier, threw some sunflower seeds in there and it walked right in.  After some internet sleuthing and Amy posting on a chicken forum, we realized it was a quail, probably domestic because it was used to people.  Despite Amy's cousin's suggestion that we eat it, Amy managed to find a bird lover who took it off our hands.  About 2 weeks after, we got an update that it was fattening up and had become friends with another found quail.  Happy ending!

I thought it was a young chicken at first

Jad is fascinated by the quail

Kai finished up Track and Field, where he mostly ran the longer distances (800m+).  I think he made some friends there and also reconnected with Micah a bit, who was doing some jumping and shot put.  Kai is definitely more of a steady runner rather than sprinter and did ok though I don't think he liked this as much as cross country so we may not do it next year.  The track meets are also a bit of a zoo since there are multiple events going at once and took up so much time.  Interesting experince.

Kai lining up for the 800m

We took Amy's mom out to celebrate the end of her chemo treatments.  

One of things that took up more time the last 4 weeks was Science Olympiad.  It's a competition for 2nd-6th graders (they have a separate level for high school, I think) to encourage interest in STEM.  Kai and Sora did it last year and did very well with their school team winning 1st place so they were excited to join again this year.  Kai decided to do Codebusters again as well as Spaghetti Bridge building and Sora went for broke doing Ecology, Experimental Design and Write It-Do It (where one person writes down a description of a structure made of various objects and a second person has to recreate that thing from the write up.  Lots of meetings, parents ranged from very tiger to medium (us) to drop off kids then go (seriously, two 3rd graders were dropped off at our house who we didn't know at all and the parents were like, "see ya, we'll be back in a couple of hours".  Some parents made notes and powerpoint presentations and Amy showed Sora how to cram as much info as possible into a cheat sheet (1 page, double sided, no margins, tiny font.. allowed in Ecology). 

Sora and Jad had fun with the spaghetti bridge too

We even got real civil engineers from our church group involved!

In the end, Sora and Olivia won 1st place in Ecology and 3rd place in Write it-Do it, a testament to their studying and practice since they beat out a lot of 5th and 6th grade teams.  Kai got 3rd place for Codebusters, which was great already but there was some controversy with Spaghetti Bridge.  After much testing and building, Kai determined that building a solid bridge without any fancy triangles or arches with the best with the limitation of only 25 sticks and clay given.  He built the bridge with Brian and it held 196 pennies(!), which is amazing as most other bridges held only 30-50, before the judges told them to stop.  They were supposed to test the bridge to failure but it was clear they won.  They were so very proud and thought they had 1st place in the bag.  Unfortunately, this was a competition largely run by high school students and there were two testing stations for the bridge load.  The other station has one bridge that they let go up to 200 pennies (very impressive as well) before that team was told to stop.  In the end, the judges realized they messed up because the testing conditions were not consistent but then decided to give 1st place to the other team and 2nd place to Kai and Brian.  The kids felt cheated and talked to the judges but there was no changed so they were pretty sad and angry.  They should have probably just given 1st place to both teams and had no 2nd place winner but again, they were high school students.  Anyway, Amy wrote a letter to the judges and we emphasized to the kids that they should still be very proud of their work.  After a day, I think things were better.  We told them that when they are in high school, they can run this thing and then do it fair!

Sora and Olivia getting their 1st place medal!

Brian and Kai proudly right after their
bridge testing

Kai, Brian and Abhai's Codebusters team

This past weekend, we went to the Garden Bros circus which was in San Jose.  We got a pretty good deal at $15 a seat so it was worth it.  It was definitely a working man's circus, meaning there was a lot of loud music, movie projections, pop culture references and selling of items/food (as opposed to Cirque de Soleil or something of that level where the focus is on the art and performance).  Still it was entertaining and there were definitely very talented people in the acts.  

This spinning rings was probably most impressive/terrifying, especially when the people would run
on the outside of the ring, jumping so they were suspended in the air for a few seconds

There were also a lot of aerial stunts and they were also very neat

The weather is warming up and the kids are getting outside in the street again.  Biking to school, running around and I even put up a make shift zipline in our backyard again.

Flying foam airplanes around on a windy day
makes for some crazy loops and spins

Is it safe?  Probably.  Fun for sure though :)

Kai took a break from violin lessons for 2 months while he had track, jujitsu and soccer.  Now that things are cooling down, he's back to it.  Funny, I'm never sure how much  he likes things because he's so blaise but he's willing to try and does stick to these things so that's a huge plus for him.  I'm glad the kids are getting some music education as I never had a chance for that with our family restaurant's need for labor and the money we didn't have for extra things.  I think it'll enrich them in the future.. they already hear music better than I do, especially Sora :)

Lessons with Jackie

This guy looks pretty good all dressed up!

Our neighborhood continues to be active, even though everyone is pretty busy.. except for Kegan, who's early retired but he's busy surfing and biking :p  We had a nice gathering for memorial day.  Amy and I smoked a duck for the first time.  Pretty easy overall, done in the wok and it came out pretty smoky for having been in there for only about 30 mins.  

Looks pretty good, huh?

All the moms and a great dinner spread!

I'll leave you with a pic of Jad and his 2nd lost tooth.  He's very reluctant about wiggling his teeth which I think has caused one of his lower incisors to come in recessed behind his normal row of teeth.  I have some anxiety about it because I have a canine which has been recessed my whole life, I think, because the baby tooth was in for too long.  We never could afford braces so it's always affected the way I smile and bothered me.  Obviously, I did fine despite but I don't want our kids to go through the same thing.  Luckily, I think they will all be able to get braces to correct any major problems.  Funny, the things that we carry with us from when we were young.  

Jad also asked Amy last night, "when do we know when we're grown up?"  Cute and very insightful.  I thought about it and I think probably about 45-50 :)  I still feel like I don't know so much.  

That's about it for this one.  Til next time!