Around here Bb has trained us (read: Trained Steve) to consider her birthday more of a multi-day event than simply a couple hours of celebration. It works out pretty well as we all have a great time and it forces us to take a little mini-vacation, which is always nice. This year we headed down to Al Mare, our favorite quick little get away. The food is delicious, the owners friendly, the setting quiet and beautiful. Sure, it is a little tough to get to, but that mostly serves to keep the riffraff away and we often get the whole place to ourselves, which suits us fine.
Because Louie (our hj60) is in the shop getting some maintenance taken care of, we were rolling in a rental 2-door Prado. Great car! Not quite big enough or trucky enough to be called a truck, and definately not a "real" Landcruiser, but nearly ideal for a fairly small 2 door 4wd vehicle. The diesel motor in it was a little noisier than many new diesels and a touch underpowered, but again- perfect for this area where passing people on the highway is much less important than smooth torque-y performance at low and medium speeds. For a 2door, the rear and cargo space is impressive. Four people and a dog, 2 small coolers, 4 overnight bags, a guitar, and some beach junk all fit in without any trouble at all.
So we took our rental and headed off to San Juanillo to start the day as there is a beautiful little white sand beach there that we seldom visit. The most notable feature of the beach is that a spit of sand connects a tiny island to the beach. At high tide, the waves wash over it but it is still mostly pasable. Very pretty. Even more so with sunlight. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so hot. Instead of laying out and snorkeling, we mixed up a cocktail and flew Brian's stunt kite for a while before rain drops chased us back into the Praod and we headed north towards lunch/dinner.
Just prior to leaving the beach, our trusty little canon camera started acting up again. It seems that the chip gets "loose" or something and produces some really whacked-out pictures, like this one, of Brian. Fun, huh? Hopefully we can get it fixed here at the canon dealer, otherwise it may finally be time to replace our point and shoot with something more reliable.
Well, the camera's lack of cooperation explains why we don't have any more photographic evidence of the excellent meal that ensued. But trust me, we had a GREAT time! Six of us enjoyed a splendid meal then sat around playing charades before strumming the guitar out by the pool. Again, rain chased us inside, which was fine as we were all pretty tired anyway. Woke up to a cloudy but cool and beautiful morning on a big, empty beach. Driving back up we did a little real estate shopping, then stopped off for another feast at yet another nearly empty but excellent beachside restaurant, then headed home for a lazy afternoon of watching movies and napping.

Blogging at *work* now too.... sheesh.
As if I keep up with one blog, now I've got two. This new one is for those of you who are looking for real estate info. I decided to keep Sandcruiser relatively free of that stuff as the spirit of Sandcruiser.com has always been more of an escape from work than a chronicle of it.

Labels: travel

Just got an email today from another aspiring world traveler, Eric is driving Central and South America next year in an HJ61 landcruiser (that's a turbo diesel but otherwise similar to Sandy). His website is www.educruiser.com give it a look.
We are loading up this morning to head down to Drake's Bay to catch a catamaran for a ride back to Tamarindo. Very exciting. Stay tuned for pictures sometime after Monday, probably.

Labels: landcruiser, travel

Jocelyn's brother Kelley and his wife Lori are here visiting, which is awesome since we haven't spent much time with them in the last few years and really enjoy it every time we do see them. You can check out some previous adventures with them here: Idaho Trip #1, Guatemala/Honduras, Idaho #2 (brief) Seeing as how they are coming down from sub-50's Idaho temperatures, we've been spending a lot of time chilling out (literally) by and in the pool. It continues to impress us how much difference a light breeze and wet skin make when the temps start rising. Some greenery goes a long ways as well.
Of course, greenery also brings critters, like this howler monkey who was hanging out in the tree behind our back yard on Sunday. The picture doesn't really do him justice, but the backlighting was strong and I was too lazy to get a better angle.

In other news: we've finally got something like a sidewalk out in front of the house, as well as a nicer entrance for the car. Little things... but it is amazing the psychological difference it makes when you don't have to tromp through dirt to get into your home. And, of course, it looks a whole lot better.

Labels: travel