Day 1--Portantorchas!!!

Welcome to Day 1 of our Costa Rican adventure!

We started day 1 VERY early in the morning.  We were all packed up and headed for the airport by 4:50 a.m.!!!  (Thanks, Matt, for getting up so early to haul us all there!) 

First order of business:  Where in the world is Costa Rica?

Yep, waaaaaayy down there in Central America--just above Panama.  It's amazing that it's just a short 3 1/2 hour flight from Houston!

In Houston by 8:30 a.m., our adventures began. . .

First item lost by my adorable son, was his half-read Harry Potter book.  Seems he left it on the first plane.  Dave, being the awesome dad that he is, trudged ALL the way back to the first gate to see if perhaps someone had found it and turned it in.  No such luck. 

To the kid that finds it:  you're welcome, from the Anderson's.

With the book lost so early in the trip, of course the only place to go was to the screens. . .

We arrived mid-afternoon in San Jose and were met at the airport by our friend Tom.  Thanks, Tom, for picking us up, entertaining us, feeding us, and putting us up for the night!  Our digs for the first night were absolutely amazing!  We were blessed to stay at Portantorchas.  You can read all about that facility here, but basically, it is a Christian School that teaches a variety of bible classes on a semester by semester basis.  If you know of any college-aged kids that need a break from the hum-drum of American life, they should check this place out!  Amazing!  If I were 21, I would absolutely do this for a year.

This was one of the many mountain views from the property. . .

There is a large field in the middle of the facility that acts as a walking path, jogging path, and soccer field.  It is Central America, after all!

The most recent addition, at the edge of the soccer field is this little amphitheater.  It has tiered seating with a fire pit, and even a small pool for the occasional baptism.  Really beautiful!

I just loved this tree/bush.  Made me think of "The Lorax". . .

At the back of the property is "the boathouse".  Not sure why it's called that. . . neither was our friend Tom, but it sits next to this gorgeous lily pond that is teaming with ducks, mosquitoes, and I suspect a number of unsavory water-borne bacteria, but I digress. . .

I just adored the bridge. . .

And then there were the rabbits. . .

Seems my son is "the rabbit whisperer".  He got closer than any of us!

I finally managed to sneak up on this little guy while he was napping and snapped this pic with the telephoto.

According to Tom, these are eucalyptus trees.  They are not indigenous to Costa Rica.  The property has a number of them, though, and the word on the street is that they were brought over from Australia and planted on the property. The colors are absolutely amazing.  These pictures are NOT photo-shopped!  They are really that pretty!

The wood is really heavy and burns very hot.  So, this is a stack of trimmed eucalyptus that they use for the fire pit.

The Coy Pond. . .

And the ducks. . .

It's hard to see, but this is a duck with her chicks. . . there are much better shots below. . .

The chicks were all crammed underneath her. . . so funny!

Of course, the foliage was spectacular!

It was so quiet, with no wind. . . We were able to have great conversations on our walk. . . I'm pretty sure that this is the closest thing to heaven I will ever experience here on Earth.

Yep, Dave needs to buy LOTS of guns, and spend LOTS of time practicing his art of intimidation. . . just sayin'. . .

So many spiders!  I have much better photos from later in the trip of these creepy things, but Portantorchas had it's share, too!

Coffee plants!!!

Dave's "hot spot"!  I was hoping he wouldn't find wifi too early in the trip, but alas he did!

We enjoyed our stay at Portantorchas, but stay tuned for "the rest of the story". . .

El Lagarto

As many of you know, my family recently returned from a week-long trip to the glorious country of Costa Rica.  This was our kids' first time out of the US, and my husband and I are so pleased that we chose such a magnificent place for this occasion.  I have over 1,000 photos and lots of stories that I want to share, and it's gonna take me some time to get through them all. 

My intention is to do a day-by-day recap of our trip, but I just could not wait until day 5 to tell the story of our best meal ever.  Anywhere.  Not just on this trip, in this particular country, but on ANY trip in ANY country!

Quick disclaimer:  prior to our trek to the restaurant, there were TORRENTIAL rains--of biblical proportions.  So, sadly, I did not have my good camera with me.  All photos of this amazing experience were captured in poor lighting with a camera phone. . . really sad that I don't have better pics, but still worth the effort to post in a blog.

To give you some back-story, our family has a phrase that we use regularly when we travel.  That phrase is "route 3".  It all goes back to several years ago when we were traveling (by car) from Texas to California.  Having done this trek a number of times--alone, as a couple, and as a family--we decided to plug in our destination to the new iPhone maps app just to see what would happen.  As luck would have it, the app gave us 3 different routes that we could take, and we opted to take "route 3", the scenic, off-the-beaten-path route.  It took us far from the familiar interstate, through deserts, over mountains, and across some gorgeous landscapes.  What that trip taught all of us is that life is more than the destination.  Half the fun is the journey itself.  Since that time, we have tried to incorporate an attitude of "route 3" and it has thus become common verbiage in our family.  So, if you hear me or my kids refer to "route 3" in the future, you now know what it means!

Okay. . . our best meal EVER. . . here we go. . .

El Lagarto is the name of the restaurant.  In Spanish, it translates to "the lizard", or "the alligator".  We almost missed this place, and only managed to hear about it from the lady acting as our concierge on this trip. 

This is an external shot taken from across the valley with my telephoto lens from our morning coffee shop (another post, for another day). I know, not very impressive from the outside. . . but wait till you get a look at the inside. . .

All natural teak wood with clam shell chandeliers!

This was the flooring in the front half of the restaurant.  Wood inlaid tiles!  Absolutely beautiful. . . the photo does NOT do it justice!

 

All of the tables were big, flat slabs of polished wood.  This particular one was the most beautiful of them all.  We thought it was funny that some poor sap would have to sit in the spot (at the lower right of the pic) where there was a hole in the wood that went all the way through!  Again, the photo does not do this amazing piece of furniture justice.

Keep in mind, that we were in this restaurant after sundown, in really torrential rains, and were actually the only people here for the first half of the meal.  So, now that we have the ambiance established, here's where the meal got REALLY fun!

This was a huge wood burning stove in the front corner of the restaurant.  You can see the wood in the very top box burning with embers/hot coals in a chamber below.  This is the crazy apparatus that the cook was going to use to prepare our meal!

 

Once the meat was prepped, the cook would pull a rope (it's hard to see, but it's hanging down on the right side of the photo).  When this rope was pulled, a giant metal plate would pound down onto the logs in the top chamber, crushing the embers/coals and forcing them into the chamber below.  The embers/coals would then be scooped out with what looked like a regular gardening hoe and ushered down one of the two ramps that you see to the grill plate below.

 

 

The grill, already prepared with whatever meat had been ordered, was then lowered down just above the smoldering coals.  You can see the grill and coals at the very bottom of the pic.  This is where the chef would then proceed to cook our meal to it's desired consistency.

 

This was our chef for the evening, as he was preparing our meal.

 

 

Dave snapped this pic of the girls while we were waiting for our food.

 

Our kids were all about "route 3" on this particular night, so we all ordered a different entrée to give everyone a taste of everything.  

 

 

Mine was the most boring (albeit quite delicious) meal of the night.  I didn't even get one of the cool plates like everyone else.  I felt a little cheated, but the awesomeness of this perfectly prepared beef tenderloin with grilled zucchini, grilled tomato, and baked potato, made up for the boring white plate.

 

 

Trevor ordered the pork tenderloin.  Also very delicious.  And. . . check out how cool that plate was!  If it didn't weigh about 10 lbs, I probably would have asked if I could buy one!

 

 

Kaylee's grilled Mahi Mahi was absolutely amazing (and I'm not even a big fish eater)!  It was freshly caught that day (as was all of the fish we ate on this trip).  But, she was most impressed with the cool plate and smiley face the chef made out of lettuce, carrots, and a tomato.

 

BUT. . .

 

Dave's meal completely stole the show!  Sadly, he only was able to eat about half of it, because the rest of us kept stealing it (especially Kaylee)! 

 

Calamares rellenos y camarones (stuffed squid and shrimp), was the clear winner of the "route 3" meal of the trip!

 

The photos look more disgusting than they did in real life--I think, mostly because the smell was unbelievably awesome (oh, and the lighting was a bit dim, too)!

 

We all enjoyed the squid. . .

 



 

 

 

Especially Kaylee. . .

Yep, that's a tentacle hanging out of her mouth. . .

 

Fun times!  Can't wait to go back to this place!

 

To be continued. . .

My Shocking New Enabling Moment!!

It's April.  For many folks that means nice weather, the real beginning of spring, tax time, and the wind-up to the end of the school year.  For the Anderson family, April is "birthday month"! 

We LOVE birthdays at our house.  So much so, that we generally celebrate as early and as long as possible every time one occurs in our family.

That being said, I don't think Dave and I fully appreciated the enormity of having both of our kids' birthdays land in the same month.  Thankfully, one is at the very beginning and the other is at the very end so that we can prolong the celebration and excessive consumption of birthday treats for weeks on end.  However, it does create quite a bit of extra work, planning, and creativity for an extended period of time too.

We are now, quite successfully, over halfway through the month.  As I scurried around my home on my day off, I was hit square between my type-A, overly organized eyes with yet another way that I have continued to enable my children over the past few years--birthday invitations and thank you cards!

As I sat at my kitchen table this afternoon with the stack of thank-you cards for my son's big bash and the stack of invites for my daughter's upcoming shin-dig, I thought "What in the crap am I doing?"  Really, those were the words that rang in my head and right out of my mouth as I sat alone in my house, pen in hand and address book ready.

As luck would have it, I had only managed to address a few envelopes before my latest epiphany hit.  Also, as luck would have it, it was my day off and I was going to be right there at the front door smiling as my kids disembarked from Mr. School Bus.

So began yet another impromptu teaching moment in the Anderson house. 

I was surprised to find that my annual enabling-fest--disguised as "serving" my children--had resulted in my kids' complete lack of knowledge as to how to properly address and stamp an envelope fit for the good ol' US Postal Service. 

Wow!  Really?!?  I'm that parent? 

Why, yes, yes I am. . . but not anymore!

I simply sat my kids down at the table--their respective cards in front of them--and proceeded to instruct them on how to properly address and stamp an envelope.  I was fully prepared for all the whining and complaining that I assumed would ensue.  Much to my surprise, they dutifully sat and listened to the instructions and commenced licking, addressing and stamping said cards.

There were a few mishaps in the stack, but I am optimistic that they will all arrive at the correct locales several days from today.  So, if you happen to be one of the recipients of our latest "lesson", please be forgiving of the scribbled out "mistakes", or elementary school chicken-scratch.  If you happen to be the recipient of one that is clearly not child-written, just know your card was on the top of the stack and was the "instructional" letter hand-addressed by yours truly.

To say I feel a sense of freedom today would be an understatement.  I don't think I ever really realized how much effort and time I have put into these birthday-month endeavors.  Of course, I still can't quite get my kids to grasp the concept of picking up their socks and shoes, but doggonit, they know how to address an envelope now!

Pretty sure that in the next few decades, there will be no need for my kids to know how to accomplish such a task, but I guess that didn't stop my parents from teaching me how to program a VCR or wind a cassette ribbon back up with a pencil.  At the very least, now my kids will have something to talk about when they tell their kids stories about "life, back in the day".