The Perfect Place for a Dozen Candy Stores

Last week we went to visit Scott's family in Sacramento. When we were making plans to drive down to visit everyone, we told them not to plan anything to entertain us. We mostly wanted to spend time with family and have a week to relax, and for the most part, they listened and we spent the week playing card games and Jackbox.

Halfway through our week of visiting, though, my sister-in-law called to say that one of our nephews would be coming up from Toulare for his school's field trip to the capital. She asked if we might be interested in joining the day of tours. Since I have never been to Old Sac' before, I decided it would be fun to tag along.

The day started for us at the California State Railroad Museum, and it was clear that many school trips begin exactly the same way. There were clear routes for buses to park, and all the shops in Old Sacramento were prepared for children with extra spending money. The morning was planned out that the school children would learn about the transcontinental railroad and then walk around the boardwalk lining saloon looking shops until noon. My nephew had $20 that I'm sure his mother gave him to cover food expenses, but that lucky boy had his grandmother there to pay for anything he might fancy. There were at least six shops with candy in western style barrels, and it felt like we bought those boys sweets at every one. We passed by shops with chocolate confections, mini donuts, California souvenirs, toys, and novelty socks. By the time we escorted the boys back to the bus, they were riding their sugar high, and that Jackson was burning a hole in my nephew's pocket. The time was running short for him to spend his play money on something, anything, and he felt each sand of the hourglass!

A view inside the capitol dome

Grandma and I followed the bus to the capitol building, only a few blocks away. While the kids ate their brown bag lunches, we learned that the school hadn't scheduled a guided tour at the Capitol. So each group of children and chaperones needed to wonder the building and seek out educational opportunities on their own. Perhaps if we had known in advance, we would have come prepared to teach the boys some facts. Instead, we learned that the lower level of the capitol building has a closet-sized souvenir shop where I would wager that 75% of the school class purchased a tchotchke, including my nephew who bought playing cards that were printed to look like a million dollar bill, along with a souvenir penny from one of those crank molds. Before we left, we also discovered that the lower level has a gourmet cafe, that offers delicious pizza (among other menu items) for politicians and staff who work in the building... or for the school children and their chaperones on self-guided tours.

Western Caribbean Friends Cruise

In February of this year we went on a Western Caribbean cruise with a couple who we were friends with during our years in Milwaukee, WI. Even though I had stopped working at the beginning of February, we had budgeted and saved so that we could celebrate our hard work in residency and my job, my 35th birthday, and our 10 year anniversary which we celebrated last year. So many reasons to treat ourselves to a warm vacation!

We had so much fun! Though I was skeptical of the cruiseline, the Carnival Vista was perfect for our seven day trip. We left out of Galveston and visited Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. The waters in the Cayman islands were unbelievable! And we could have spent several more days exploring Cozumel. The best excursion we did was the Amazing Cozumel Race! Our group thrived on the competition an we were able to visit areas of downtown Cozumel that we probably wouldn't have seen if we had just walked around as tourists. It was so fun to interact with the locals a little bit more as well.


If I had to do it all over again, I would go to the gym and hit the stairs before our cruise to prep my calves for the cruise stairs (elevators are unpredictable) and avoid going into Jamaica where we were either hounded by sellers or offered marijuana every few feet.

DisneyWorld at Night

Scott went to the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine conference this last month in Orlando, Florida, and I was lucky enough to tag along to work from the hotel. The conference took place at the Swan and Dolphin Resort on the Walt Disney World campus, so the conference had a connection to Disney and offered reduced fare tickets to DisneyWorld. Ticket options connected with the conference included purchasing multi-day park hopper passes or purchasing one day tickets, or even less expensive afternoon or evening only tickets to one park. Since Scott was going to be in conference sessions all day, we decided to get evening tickets for each day that we were there.

I had been to DisneyWorld twice as a kid, and Scott had only ever been to Disneyland in California. So we were excited to explore the parks as adults. DisneyWorld is so big now, with so many parks! We decided to spend one night at Disney's Hollywood Studios, one night at Epcot, and our last night at Magic Kingdom. We had so much fun going to Disney just in the evening and thought we would share some of tips we learned about DisneyWorld.

 1. Choose your lodging wisely. The cost of staying at a Disney resort was about $100 more per night than staying at a nearby hotel, and the nearby hotel was probably $50+ more than if we had rented a local condo. The conference had a block of rooms at the Disney resort and connections with a hotel nearby that would have a shuttle to the conference every day. Disney resort hotels offer free transportation to and from parks, and the hotel that we stayed at had a complimentary shuttle to Disney parks. However, we didn't realized until we arrived that the shuttle only left at certain times of day, and it never left for the parks in the evening. So we couldn't use that benefit, and since we had a rental car I ended up driving Scott to the conference whenever he wanted instead of him being at the mercy of the shuttle schedule. Knowing what I know now, if I could do it all over again I'd probably book a condo to save money and have the convenience of a kitchen for the week, since none of the hotel benefits actually mattered to us.

2. Uber or park at Disney. Parking at DisneyWorld parks is currently $22 for the day, no matter what time of day you arrive. So when our tickets allowed us to enter the park at 5:00 PM, we still paid $22 for parking. Sure, there's some convenience, but for four hours that price tag hurts. Depending on where your hotel is located from Disney parks, taking an Uber/taxi/Lyft can be as inexpensive as  $10/one way. So it's about the same cost. We tried to be cheap one day and figure out how to take the free park transportation from Disney Springs (where you can park for free) to the parks, but as the bus transportation is really only intended for resort guests, getting to the parks from Disney Springs is complicated on purpose. So we decided to save our time (and my frustration) and just pony up the fee to park on site. It hurt my pride, but because of that fiasco we have the best story about Pedro the helpful parking attendant, who shall never been forgotten, at Disney Hollywood Studios.

3. Epcot is all about the food! We ate only at the counter options in the park, but if we had had more time I would have loved to sit down for dinner once. When I was a kid I didn't see the value of Epcot. There are very few rides, though they upgraded the Norway ride since I was a kid and now it draws lines. I realize now, though, that Epcot is probably the most adult oriented park (focuses on foodie-ness, technology, futuristic, etc.), which made it a great place for Scott and I to spend the evening.We loved the one night eating our way through the countries of Epcot because I had looked through Disney Food Blog and found all the recommended dishes in each park (yes, I plan around food!). Scott and I walked from country to country throughout Epcot in search of the best foods, and along the way we stopped at the Frozen Ever After ride and the Chevy Test Track. My favorite food choice was the Signature Poutine in Canada.

4. Do NOT miss Magic Kingdom's firework show! Magic Kingdom was possibly the least magical of all of our Disney experiences. Rides broke down, crowds were huge, lines were long, staff left early at the end of the night, and surprisingly some of the rides weren't maintenanced well (I'm looking at you, Buzz Lightyear). When the Happily Ever After firework display began at the castle, we took the low crowd opportunity to Fast Pass a ride. In order to get to the ride we walked past the castle, and in retrospect we should have just stopped and enjoyed the show because it was incredible! The technology that changes how the castle looks and displays clips of movie was so awe inspiring. Instead we rushed to Tomorrow Land for a ride, which ended up being a disappointment, and when we got out of the ride we caught the VERY end of the fireworks. I don't want to give anything away if you've never seen the show, but that ending was THE MOST MAGICAL THING we experienced at Disney. This show really unifies the crowd through their love of favorite Disney characters. So fun to hear everyone singing together.

While we have a few other tips about the airport and are still in an on-going debate about whether Disneyland or DisneyWorld is greater, that's it for now. I hope you enjoy your Disney adventure and stop to soak in the magical moments.

Slow Clapping for Goodness

Scott's usual choice: The Tyler (sometimes it's not the menu,
but luckily the staff always remembers the combo)

We are regulars at ModPizza here in Wisconsin. They draw you in with the concept of build your own artisan, brick oven pizza, but you stay for the marionberry lemonade. I mean, seriously, sometimes we go just because we crave the lemonade. It's THAT good! Every time we dine at this fine franchise, we order the exact same thing - not due to a lack of amazing choices. It's only that we discovered the perfect individualized combinations.

The last time we went to ModPizza, Scott took his first bite of pizza, and with a deep sigh said, "Do you think it would appropriate for us to clap for them on our way out?" He would have too, if when we finished eating in and left I hadn't forced him to hold our to-go cup of marionberry lemonade.

We've been slow clapping a lot around our house lately. On Instagram, I follow The Bucket List Family (if you haven't heard their story, here's a little background). Obviously I love travel, so scoping out the pictures of their luxurious adventures is a no-brainer. Also their story is fascinating - I don't think I would choose the same job/lifestyle, but there are days where I like to pretend that I could get paid to vacation. Hmm...

Anyway, The Bucket List Family has been partnering with Airbnb a lot lately, and when Airbnb hosted them at a dream home in Hawaii, the family mentioned that you can create a wishlist on Airbnb. Whaaaat?! So of course, I immediately went to create an account and add that Hawaii water slide party home to the list of places I'd love to visit someday (preferably with lots of friends who could split the bill).

Once I started digging into the site, I realized that Airbnb hosts not only offer homes or rooms to rent, but you can now find hosts for experiences in those places where you are traveling. I mean, who knew that we could have gotten a graffiti lesson while we were in NYC last fall? Or that one could walk through the Louvre with an art historian/stand-up comedian?! {Calling all Southeast Alaska peeps: You need to get some experiences populated! I couldn't find one in Sitka, Juneau, or Ketchikan!}

EVEN better, though... non-profits are encouraged to host social impact experiences where 100% of the profits from that experience go to the charity host. Let's all give a slow clap for Airbnb. Nicely done, Airbnb. Nicely. Done. 

And a slow clap to The Bucket List Family, for introducing me to this new internet rabbit hole of endless possibilities. 

Life Snapshot: November 10

At the base of Holy Hill October 2016

Wisconsin Tidbits: When we first moved to Milwaukee, I was told that Holy Hill is a must see in the fall, because there are incredible views of the foliage. We decided to drive up there one Saturday when we were both free before all the leaves had fallen. Our visit was probably a week or two too early because the leaves were prime when we came back from NYC at the end of October. Plus, the day we went in mid-October was overcast and foggy, so you really couldn't see across the countryside much. Still worth the visit, though! Be prepared to hike a little uphill from the parking lot to the basilica and back.

What I'm Reading: Still slowly making my way through Gilead by Marilynne Robinson while I should be getting started on my November book club read Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng 

Part of My Spiritual Study: There Are Many Gifts by Marvin J. Ashton

Church Calling: Young Women's President for our ward (just sustained a couple weeks ago!)

On the Telly: Poldark and The Durrells in Corfu

Dr. Hubs: He's back at Children's Hospital this month in the Emergency Department. He seemed excited about the rotation until he came back from his first full day in the ED. It's not the children, he says. The countdown begins, I guess!

Goal for Next Week: Even before the election results were announced I saw the need to listen more than I speak and not assume that everyone shares my perspective on life. So I'll continue my goal to listen first and respect new perspectives.

My favorite moment from this last week: Not exactly last week, We traveled to New York City with friends for a long weekend over Scott's birthday and had a blast. I am making a video, but haven't been able to record the commentary yet. Excuses, excuses!

On My Mind: Do all Hallmark Christmas movies have to include: a heroine who should forgo her ambitious career to pursue love, someone who has never once had a real Christmas tree, and intrusive small town neighbors? Shame on you for perpetuating stereotypes, Hallmark!

Also, while we're talking about it, there are SO many things wrong with Christmas Under Wraps. I realize that these are low budget productions, but I'm sure it doesn't cost much to do a little research! To be clear, I'm talking about:

• Alaska in the winter morning should not look like it's noon (more like midnight)
• Fellowships are typically matched into 
• No general surgeon would be so daft as to only apply to one fellowship if they were truly driven enough to pursue that specialty in the first place
• Fellowships in Family Medicine don't exist, especially ones where you're running a rural hospital with no attending
• No local in their right mind would go have a "picnic" in the frozen tundra to watch the northern lights (which look totally fake, by the way) with no hat, gloves, lightweight clothing, and only a thin blanket for extra warmth

 I'm disappointed, but this in no way will stop me from watching all Hallmark Christmas movies that are playing when I happen to be watching TV.

Sitka, Alaska Feels Like Home

You know that feeling where you feel like you're home? Something so comforting and warm that a smile creeps up the corners of your mouth and your muscles relax. I feel that when I watch this movie.


There's something about Sitka, Alaska that will always feel like home to me. It was my home for over a decade, but I haven't had the chance to travel back since 2008. I'm sure if I were to fly there today, I would get that same "home" feeling just by watching out the windows as the plane landed and seeing the O'Connell bridge or Mt. Edgecombe in the distance.

You should go there sometime. See what you feel.

Booking a Caribbean Cruise

Last month I took a cruise with my husband to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday (yes, we still look like we're 16).

The cruise came after several months of dreaming, researching, and planning. While I thoroughly enjoyed our relaxing vacation, I have learned a few things about planning a Caribbean cruise that I want to remember.

1) Keep in mind when booking a cruise departing from Port Canaveral, FL that there may be additional costs compared to cruising from a port closer to the airport. In order to cruise from Port Canaveral, Scott and I flew into Orlando and had the option of finding unreliable shuttles, reserving a rental car and worrying about on-time flights, or booking a $70 round-trip cruiseline shuttle. I ended up finding two one-way car rentals for less than $70 and luckily our cross-country, winter flight arrived on time.

2) If you book early, most cruiselines or travel agents can match to a lower price if your room rate drops before your cruise. Since we booked the cruise this last spring, we were lucky to get an additional discount on the room before our final payment was due 90 days before the cruise. I love saving money!

3) Speaking of saving money, remember that you will have on-board charges during your cruise including gratuities. Each cruise line will have different suggested gratuities for your housekeeping and dining room staff. Royal Caribbean has a set gratuity amount charged to your room per person, per day ($12). When we booked our cruise, the travel agent gave us $100 shipboard credit as part of our deal. Because I did not pay my gratuities in advance (My Time Dining requires prepayment), the shipboard credit was applied to my gratuities. Don't forget to factor in your on-board charges and excursions when budgeting for your cruise.

4) Book a balcony. The extra space is worth it and qualifies breakfast in bed as an excursion.

5) I would absolutely recommend Royal Caribbean as a cruise line, no matter the location. Our housekeeping and dining room staff were extremely friendly and went out of their way to help us have a great time. I was also impressed with the integrity of staff members. We forgot our iPad in one of the restaurants and they were preparing to return it to us when we finally remembered where we forgot it.

Our ship was very family friendly as well. There were many family activities, including games and shows. Many of the movies shown on the ship were family films. Kids activities included DreamWorks  character visits and parades. The cruise directors did a fantastic job scheduling a variety of activities all throughout the day, especially on sailing days.

6)When choosing our cruise, I looked at what ammenities the ship had and specifically chose a ship that had the FlowRider. I thought my husband would want to try it out. While on board he was too intimidated to try, and there were plenty of other activities on board to keep us busy. We did use the miniature golf course, basketball court, and rock climbing wall. We enjoyed the jacuzzis around the pool deck, but didn't use the swimming pools. The kids play zone on the pool deck looked like a great splash pad for kids on sunny sailing days.

7) We absolutely loved our Eastern Caribbean cruise. We stopped in St. Maartin and St. Thomas, in addition to stopping at Royal Caribbean's private island CoCo Cay. However, if I were to schedule another cruise today I wouldn't schedule based on the ports. Both of the ports we visited required additional transportation once on land in order to see historic landmarks or find a low-key beach. Some shopping was available port-side, but it included mostly vendors that you see at every port (jewelry, t-shirts, Del Sol, etc.). The most memorable parts of our cruise were the excursions or the on-board activities. If you're looking to go somewhere specific, it may be a better use of time to fly directly to that port and stay at a resort.

8) The cruise was extremely comfortable. The weather was warm (70-80 degrees F) each day and the water was surprisingly comfortable, even though it was winter. I forgot when packing for this warmer weather that the cruise ship is kept to cooler temperatures. Next time I'll bring a cardigan to wear around the cabin and dining room.

9) The food onboard was sublime! Correction - dinner was sublime. All of the other meals and buffets were mass quantities of average quality food. In order to take advantage of the best meal of the day, I recommend having a light breakfast and making healthy choices at lunch. Don't feel like you need to finish a dish if you don't enjoy it.

I went onboard with a variety of food intolerances. While I'm sure that wait staff would have been more than happy to accommodate those, I was delighted to find that taking digestive enzymes before every meal allowed me to eat menu items worry and pain free!

Though I'm writing this mostly for my future benefit (very selfish of me), maybe you will get some use from this information as well. Bon Voyage!

Birthday Cruise

It was the best birthday cruise EVER!

The Freedom of the Seas, our Royal Caribbean cruise ship, went on an Eastern Caribbean route in the middle of November. Ports included Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Martin. It was a seven night tour, with three sailing days and two formal dining nights. I've been on two cruises before this one, but this was Scott's first cruise. It was a first class cruise, and I would definitely book Royal Caribbean again.

Memorable events on our cruise:
Dinner
Dinner in the main dining room was something I looked forward to every day. Food is such a crucial make-it-or-break-it factor on a cruise, so I was pretty nervous coming on board with several food intolerances. I give all credit for the success of my cruise to Digest Gold digestive enzymes. I took one before every meal and that allowed me to eat what everyone else was eating worry and pain free. LaraBars, my fav downtime snack, are a runner up for making my cruise healthy.

We had fantastic servers in the main dining room. Scott thought that Anthony, our main server, was hilarious. On the second night, Anthony came to take Scott's empty entree plate away and asked if he would like to try any of the other entrees. Scott mentioned that he had thought about one other dish specifically, but he was saving room for dessert.

"Oh," Anthony said. "We don't serve dessert on Day 2, so you might as well order it." Scott readily agreed.

After Scott practically licked his second entree plate clean, Anthony brought out the dessert menu.

Anthony would often bring Scott any of the dishes he mentioned an interest in (three desserts, four crab cakes…) , so Scott had to choose his words wisely.

SeaTrek Underwater Excursion
One of the best decisions we made was to do a shore excursion. We wanted to do something unique and the SeaTrek underwater helmet dive fulfilled that. Even though it was a rainy day, the water in St. Martin was pleasantly warm. We snorkeled with the fish and thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the bottom of the ocean.

My most memorable moment of the entire cruise was having a school of fish eat fish food from my hand. It was like a million tiny suction cups sucking up the pieces on my fingers.  You can't tell in the picture, but I was giggling uncontrolably under that helmet.

Poolside TV

I wouldn't necessarily say this was my most memorably event, but Scott will always remember watching weekend football games on the big screen while sitting in the Jacuzzi.

The whole vacation was perfect, which is more than I could hope for in celebrating my 30th birthday. It was the party of all parties… which Scott now thinks we need to plan for each of my birthdays.

Word.

Pool-side Service is a Must

I am now a firm believer in pool-side service at resorts. Let me tell you why...

It's not that I actually ordered a drink, though I've heard that their pina coladas (virgin, of course) are tastier than at a restaurant. Maybe that's just because you are drinking your pina colada next to a pool! The reason I think pool-side service is a must have for resorts with crowded pools is because they become a second source of security.

It's not a good start to a story, but don't worry we had a good ending.

After all of the Allstate festivities of our Maui trip, we switched from living in a condo to the large resort next door. Scott and I had heard rumors that one of the hotels on our beach strip had a lazy river. I'm kind of vacation obsessed with lazy rivers. If I ever own acres of land in a warm climate, I plan to build a lazy river in my backyard. Anyway,  we walked all the way down the boardwalk to this hotel, only to find that it had a cavernous, non-lazy type of river pool. After the long walk back to our hotel, our feet were achy and we decided to lay by the pool and later take a quick dip.

We picked out some lawn chairs next to the pool with a volley ball net and put on sunscreen. After the loition had solidified with a chapter of reading and cellphone Sudoku, we decided to sit at the edge of the pool to get cool.  We were in the pool for no longer than five minutes when we returned to our chairs and found that my bag had been riffled through. I recognized it immediately, as I am generally paranoid about that sort of thing, and I had distinctly remembered placing Scott's cellphone on top of his shirt. Scott was skeptical. We'd only been gone for a few minutes after all. To prove it I dumped out my whole bag of beach goodies and found that not only had Scott's amazing cellphone been taken, but also my camera with all our Hawaii memories.

Do you see a pattern here? I feel like I'm either a glutton for punishment or there's a sign on my back that says "Steal Here." Scott and I have had a series of unfortunate theft since we've been married. The day after our wedding, we found my car in the hotel parking lot with a window broken and my temple bag gone. Our first year of marriage our apartment was broken into. We must have gotten soft approaching our three year anniversary.

Scott using his beloved phone to text pictures of Hawaii on Day 1

With my bag dumped out, and a burning passion for his cellphone (I've been meaning to post about how Scott adores his new phone... maybe next week.) Scott was convinced that we were indeed robbed. What to do? Tell security. It sounds like a lot of time has passed, but we're still at the five minute mark.

The security guard didn't believe us. "It's rather unusual for someone to rummage through your things to find valuables. Usually the thief will take your whole bag and be long gone. Maybe you should go check your room to see if you left your phone there." I don't know what to tell you, Safety Man. We were here using our phone three minutes ago, SAT by the pool, and then returned to a phone-less, camera-less bag. At a point of clueless desperation, the pool-side waiter came by. He'd seen some unusual teens lingering in our area, and didn't think they were the type to stay at the resort. Not only had he seen the kids near our lounge chairs, the waiter had pinned the scout of the group on the upper pool deck!

Security went to the upper deck. We thanked the waiter profusely, and I began dialing Scott's phone non-stop. Scott, then wandered around the pool area to see if he could hear the phone.

Safety Man returned with a sophomore, junior aged teen and took him inside the hotel. Still calling...

And then someone picked up! "I think this is someone's lost phone," and man answered. "It is! It's my husband's! Where are you?"

Fortunately for us, there were miracles at the pool that day! A couple, returning from a walk on the beach, saw a boy throw a cellphone into the bushes behind him. The couple found that odd, and walked over to the area to see what was going on. At the same time, another couple saw two other boys going through guests bags by the pool. Security was informed, two more boys were taken into the hotel, and the couples returned to us the found cellphone and camera!

We are LUCKY, and have now learned an important lesson - We aren't allowed to swim in crowded pools at the same time. I only hope that those teenagers have also learned a lesson. As my dad put it, I just want them to be successful in life, and obviously they are not successful as thieves.

The Last Day in Paradise

Today was our last full day in Costa Rica. It was also our last day at our volunteer placements. As we mentioned before, Scott volunteered at a transitory HIV home and I volunteered at a special education school working with the music teacher. Both of our placements loved us, in fact as we were talking at dinner tonight the staff called us “pioneers” having been here only two weeks but making such a difference. Of course, we didn’t feel like we did much.

Scott helped with the physical therapy of patients at the home. All of the doctors (psychology, medicine, dentist, and physical therapists) are volunteers from the community. There are only a few full time staff at the HIV home: the director, a nurse, housekeeper, and cook. Most of the CCS volunteers that are sent to this placement are assigned to help with cleaning. However, Scott only had to clean for 30 minutes total during his two weeks work there. We found out, at the end of our stay, that this was because Scott could speak and understand Spanish so well. Other volunteers had a difficult time communicating, and were thus given easier tasks because of the lack of staff help. Scott not only helped the physical therapist, but on Fridays when the physical therapists do not volunteer, Scott worked with individual patients as his own boss.

I felt like I hadn’t done too much to help the music teacher at the special education school, but knew that just by being there I had made a difference. When I would come to the school in the mornings, I would help distribute instruments (maracas and claves), smile and play along, and help some of the kids to move to the music when there wasn’t a para. There were also times that there weren’t classes, and I just sat around feeling unuseful. That was until yesterday. When I arrived in Costa Rica I was told that I would need to participate in a concert the school was having. I downloaded and prepared a classical piano piece, and at the last minute made up a song by changed the words to the teacher’s welcome song for class about my volunteer experience at the school. Two children diagnosed with disabilities that required them to be in wheel chairs also played the piano. The music teacher had taught them to play in G Major by using shapes on the keys and sheet music. I was the final act, and then the teacher told me I needed to make a speech, which is of course when I started to get teary. Then I sang my song, with the teacher playing the guitar as he normally does in class. The crowd laughed and cried, and applauded. Probably the best response I’ve ever gotten at a concert! Even more so today, my teacher told me that the concert was a big success with the teachers and students. Because the students saw that two other students had played with me, they feel less shy and more motivated to practice for more concerts.

We are sad to leave Costa Rica and the work which we’ve only started, but we are also anxious to get back to our ever exciting life in the States.


What we’ll miss from Costa Rica:
- Beans and Rice, it’s true!
- The people are so nice here and greet you off the bat as a friend or even family
- Falling asleep to a stream of rain hitting the roof
- The CCS Staff (we would go into this more, except it’s already a long post)
- Being so aware of international affairs
- Game nights with the late- night security guard (Jenga tonight!)
- The adorable children at the special education school (They love each other so much and laugh all the time!)
- The horse across the street that reminds me of Young Frankenstein

What I will not miss - Having to put toilet paper in the waste basket and sleeping in bunk beds... that's it!

Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia

Don't you just despise when you have a post all written up and then it suddenly disappears!

Let's just say that somewhere, there exists a video sneak peek into our cultural classes in the evening. If you haven't seen Scott dance before you would be in for a treat. Our teacher, Alexandria, provided us with Latin dance moves that ended up being more of an aerobics workout and comedy act than a class that taught me how to dance in the clubs of Costa Rica. By the end, we all wanted showers and Alexandria was just a fresh as when she walked into the CCS homebase.

Primary Presentation - Costa Rican Style

Wow I wish it were even appropriate for me to take pictures in church. On Sunday we decided to find the ward building in Cartago. Church started at 9:00 Am with Sacrament meeting, so we gave ourselves a half an hour to take a taxi to the building. As mentioned before, addresses here in Costa Rica are based off of distances from landmarks, such as 50 meters north from the old dried river, then 100 meters west, etc. So we had no idea looking at the address where the meeting house would be in Cartago.

Luckily for us though the taxi was inexpensive and we knew exactly where we were when he dropped us off. The Cartago ward house is located near the bus terminal on the outskirts of downtown Cartago. We had been there the day before when we went to the mall and Taco Bell outside of San Jose. Knowing where we were we decided to walk home from church when it was over.

When we arrived in the building, everyone was busy but also everyone stopped by to shake our hands and welcome us. It was Primary program day! I mean seriously, could I have picked a better day to come to church besides maybe Christmas or Easter? Best Sunday of the year! Plus I was so excited to see how the primary program would differ from the one we were planning at home.

When church began I noticed that the person in charge of playing the piano did not come. I was SO anxious to play, but couldn't figure out 1) how to ask, 2) who to ask, and 3) where the piano music was. It seems that everyone here brings their own hymn books to church and each of the children had a paper copy of the songs they were singing. But no public books. So I didn't play :( That would have just made my day to play in Cartago just like I did in France. Sad!

Well the children sang He Sent His Son, Follow the Prophet (many verses), Praise to the Man, and Our Saviors Love. They didn't sing the new song that we got this year with the theme, and there were no actions to songs (one of my favorite tools to help the kids learn). It was very cute though, and I was impressed with how well they did without a pianist.

We attended Sunday School after the primary program was over and then decided to walk home from there. We stopped at a bakery, which smells almost exactly like the bakeries in France, to buy lunch of a mini pizza and juice box. The juice box was for me, but take note that apple juice is NOT the same in Costa Rica.

Livin' La Vida Loca

When my cousin, Kyle, challenged me to only speak Spanish this trip, I didn't realize I wouldn't have any other option. This being my first trip outside of the country, I would admit I've had some culture shock, but nothing that camping with my boy scouts hasn't already prepared me for. For example, our second day here I got up to use the bathroom . . . before I continue any further, there are a few things you should know about the bathrooms here. One, the guys and girls bathrooms are separated where the girl's is right outside our rooms and the guy's is on the complete opposite side of the house. Two, toilet paper is bad for the plumbing, so . . . yeah. Anyways, when I got to the bathroom I saw a tail coming out of the toilet. It quickly disappeared but in a matter of seconds reappeared in the form of a rat's head!! I didn't realize that the boys had to share the bathroom!

It has been fun to refer back to my high school Spanish, the Spanish I learned working at my dad's car lot, the Spanish I learned while serving in the inner cities of Connecticut, and the Spanish that my cousin frequently spouts off at me. Of course, it hasn't been perfect. My second day at work . . . I'm working with HIV/AIDS patients in a physical therapy type setting, BTW . . . I was working with a patient and wanted a weight for him to incorporate into the exercise. So I turned to the lady in charge, "la profe," and asked her if she had any "pesos." When she gave me a puzzled look I immediately knew I had the wrong word (like the time I asked a Spanish patient in Lehi if it was her "pollo" (chicken) that hurt instead of her "cuello" (neck)). After clarification I realized that I had asked her for money (pesos) instead of weight (pesas). This is only one of many experiences that I've had with miscommunication.

So Katie and I had this last weekend off to experience the culture of Costa Rica. Our fellow volunteer friends had ideas like white water rafting, hot lava springs, or a dinner theater in the capital city, San Jose. Nah, we were more excited to take a bus thirty minutes away to a mall just outside of Cartago. Not only that, but when we got to the mall we had Taco Bell for lunch! I'm sure you'd understand that everyone needs to try Taco Bell in Costa Rica sometime in their life. Figuring out how to get around town with public transportation and broken Spanish was just as adventurous to us as white water rafting. And only Katie knows how disappointed I am that I wasn't able to find the basketball court where all the locals play on Saturday mornings. Seriously disappointed!

I'm loving my placement because I feel it perfectly utilizes my skills. I can tell that our service here does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. The cultural classes including dancing, cooking, countryside tours, history of the country, and language are just as exciting as the work we do. And anytime I feel overwhelmed I comfortably retire to the bedroom with the World Wide Web and a bowl of Arroz con Leche.

Yes, we even get our own beds!

Dias Uno en Cartago

After such a long trip, you would think that I was exhausted and had gotten plenty of sleep Sunday night. Not exactly... I got some sleep, but I had slept quite a bit on the airplane and I think I was excited by a new place. Monday we had to wake up at 6:00 Am in order to be at breakfast on time and begin our orientation series. Scott slept pretty well and we both woke up easily, anxious to see where we were.

When we arrived in San Jose, the CCS Cartago driver Allan drove us to the home base from the airport. It was very dark at 11:00 Pm and while he had pointed out outlines of things (like the volcanoes), we only could see well the buildings that were lit. So our first point of orientation, after breakfast, was to have a walking city tour guided by Jovel (pronounced like Yobell). We walked and walked and walked around the city to orient ourselves around the CCS home base. It was a beautiful morning, sunny skies and warm (too warm for a black long sleeved shirt).

The first stop was the Basilica. This is one of the buildings we saw the night before because it is REALLY well lit up. I'm talking tons of wattage is used to make this building glow, and for good reason. It is probably the most important and well known basilica in all Central America. There is a pilgrimage to this temple every year around the beginning of August. It is ginormous and so beautiful. Pictured above is Scott in I in front of the basilica's streams of holy water, which are said to come from underneath the building and have healing powers. The water is safe to drink for tourists.

We finished our walking tour by seeing the laundry mat, indoor market, ice cream parlor, central park, and post office were located.  One thing to know about Costa Rica is that there are no street signs because the people use landmarks like, the old Coca Cola factory, to drive anywhere or send mail. This could obviously be difficult for anyone who doesn't know where the previously living fig tree could have been, or even how many blocks are in a meter. To get an idea for the implications of no street signs, here is an article that we were given later in our program orientation.

The program orientation was fantastico! In the afternoon it started to down pour, typical of the rainy season, which worked out perfectly as we spent the rest of the day indoors. In the program orientation, the director described the country, it's many assets, and current issues. Incredibly interesting (ask me in person sometime) and Jose, the Cartago director is muy intelligent. Then we had Spanish class, where the teacher discovered that I understand much and have very little ability to say anything. Scott however has magically remembered everything from high school Spanish classes and has impressed (not surprisingly) all the local staff with his knowledge and humor. After orientation Monday, Tuesday (Sept 21) would be our first day at our volunteer placements.

P.S. I had to Babelfish the post title, because I speak nada Spanish. Did you know that Cartago means Carthage? That's what the babel fish said, anyway.

SLC-Chicago-Miami-San Jose

Sunday morning we woke up ridiculously early to get to the airport for our international travels. I keep telling Scott all these tips about international travel, and I think he’s starting to think that I’m making them all up because nothing has happened as I said it would. A good friend took us to the airport, and we must have arrived before major crowds because it was a breeze to check in. No one really checked our passports, there was no extra procedure for us to go through, and we easily found our gate. Scott looked at me when we got to our gate an hour before boarding, and said, “You sure we needed to be here so early?” Then he pulled out his travel pillow, asked if it looked like a neck brace, and fell asleep.

The flight from Salt Lake was uneventful, though I have to mention that it had the worst food options of all the flights we were on all day. My parents so graciously helped us with mileage tickets to Costa Rica, and most of the seats on our trip are first class. I know! My parents ROCK, as my niece Meghan would say. But would you believe that in first class from SLC to Chicago that they served a fruit cocktail cup, dumped into a glass bowl to look fancy? It was accompanied by a plastic travel cereal bowl.

The flight to Miami was more of what I expect of first class. When we walked to our seats, there were fresh, new pairs of earphones waiting for us. Excitedly, I opened up the in flight magazine to see what we would be watching during our flight eastbound. I have to admit that I was glad because of the timing of the flight, that we never got to start the movie. You must be thinking, “Ooh, I bet it was rated R.” or “Maybe it was a masculine action film.” Yeah, no. It was Letters to Juliette.

I know that there is at least one other person in the blogosphere who shares my opinion on the movie. I recently rented the movie from Redbox. I had relatively low expectations but thought it might be cute and at least I’ll be watching beautiful Tuscany. Well, the Tuscany scenes were the movie’s only asset. In fact, I would probably more enjoy a two hour documentary of Tuscany. The writing was horrible. Who wrote the lines “Girl: Can you move? Boy: Only my lips.”? Probably the same person that made the main girl look completely unintelligent by writing like and awesome in every other sentence. The acting was worse, in my opinion. I expected better of the main and supporting actors. And note to the music editor, you cannot play an upbeat song, pause for said girl to break up with boy, and then start the upbeat song again where you left off. Not cool. If you liked the movie, ignore my comments. Unashamedly, I am entertained by Under the Tuscan Sun. But for me, Chicago to Miami was so much more enjoyable because they played 30 Rock instead of a film.

Miami – Wow! What an airport. I felt like I was the only person who didn’t dress up to go on my flight. Either that, or the only people without dreads. When we first walked to our gate, I thought, “Wow. We are going to be the fairest of them all on this flight," that is, if you exclude the couple who were wearing Bride and Groom mouse ears. It was then that Scott reminded me that we were again, an hour early before boarding, and the flight everyone was waiting for was going to Jamaica. So instead, we watched football in another boarding area, possibly Scott’s favorite part of the trip so far.

The flight to San Jose, Costa Rica was the best of all though. The flight attendant had an accent that was a mix of the guy who does action movie trailers and Enrique Iglesias. His rendition of Costa RICA! and American Airlines were to swoon over. Plus they kept offering us chapagne, like this was a moment to celebrate. We obviously kept refusing, but it was the thought that counts.

We arrived in Costa Rica, with no trouble getting through customs, and are now at our Home Base with CCS. The weather has been great so far. It was warm and sunny this morning, with rain in the afternoons. Every paper that I pick up here seems damp. We are pretty tired, but anxious to get enough sleep tonight to start our placements tomorrow. I probably wont have too much time to blog, what with volunteering, culture/language lessons, and my MBA work. But when we do we'll share stories and pictures.

Hello Denver!

Scott and I had a wonderful trip to Denver. We left on Thursday around noon and took I-70 from Spanish Fork, through the canyons and mountains down to Denver. It was a beautiful ride, though winding, with red rock all around the river and suspended highways.

We even stopped along the way in Palisade, CO which is famous for their fruit, and grabbed a bag of cherries. Mmm! The town had a very quiet, “Andy Griffith” kind of feel to it. As we drove through Palisade trying to find a gas station to fuel up, we ate our cherries and spit the seeds out the car windows.

Picture of Castle Rock, CO

On Friday morning, we took a tour of Parker where Rocky Vista University is located. The town is SO quaint. Though the Denver skyscrapers are a stone’s throw away, the rolling hills and manicured lawns of Parker have a very rural and inviting feel. Scott had arranged for a tour of RVU with the school’s recruiter. So at 10:00 Am, we had a tour of the whole building including: the first year large auditorium, the second year medium auditorium (both equipped with quiet rooms for students with babies), the lecture lab equipped with hologram surgery hardware, the anatomy lab with cadavers (I skipped out on that part), the manipulation lab (where the students learn osteopathic manual manipulation methods), and the library. Oh… the school has a cafeteria too, but for the moment that just means four refrigerators, four microwaves, and long tables for eating. They are planning on having a full buffet eventually. We were very impressed with the school and Parker. It is for sure a place where we could see ourselves for the medical school years.

I didn’t really organize a plan past Friday, except to watch the fireworks on Saturday night. So when we woke up the next day I had to rummage through the local paper and scour internet sites to find things to entertain us until that evening’s events. We drove around Parker looking at condos for sale, visited Castle Rock and Lone Tree (everything in Colorado, Denver area, is surprisingly close though the map may appear to show distance). We walked through a small farmers market, where Scott tried what he claims is the best tasting meat of his life! Then we spent most of the afternoon watching a little league baseball tournament next to the field where the firework concert was going to be.

After four hours of little league and sitting on a blanket in the middle of a field, the concert began and we found ourselves sitting like outcasts in the middle of a town party. Though, I did have my BYU shirt on and got a couple shouts of “Go Cougs!” So after six hours of sitting on a blanket in the middle of a field, with two hours of concert, and two hours more until it was dark enough for a firework display, we decided to skip out on the rest of the concert all together. Mostly we succumbed to the idea of bottomless fries!

That’s right! We left a brass band extravaganza for Red Robin burgers! OH! It was SO yummy. Definitely the best decision I had made that day was to leave the mosquito infested area to eat a guacamole bacon burger. After we ate dinner, we went along the rolling hills of Parker and found a Best Buy that had a parking lot perfect for firework gazing. It was extra perfect because there was a car in the parking lot next to us that had an extra sensitive alarm system. This made for a fun game of “Which firework will set off the car next.” The best ones were the red, white, and blue spread that made no noise until after a good ten seconds, when it exploded the sound barrier. Anything smaller than that would usually only evoke a double beep from the car.



Throughout the whole trip, I kept asking Scott to take pictures. It was NOT an easy task. The most difficult coaxing had to come with the Red Robin bird picture. He was so nervous about it, he had to ask the waiter if it was “cool” to take a picture in front of the bird. I’m sure the waiter was thinking, “maybe not cool, but you’re welcome to do it.” But there was one picture that Scott begged me to take. I guess beg is not the right word. I had no choice. As we drove home from the Parker Fireworks, with aftershocks flaring up in every culdesac, Scott saw the Bronco Football Training Camp along our route and pulled over for me to take a picture of him… in the dark… in front of this sign! Gotta love him!


All in all I would call this a successful trip, minus the whole part about us driving home on I-80, adding another 100 miles to our exhausting drive home. But that’s another story.

Rexburg Trip - Big Jud Challenge

Our Rexburg trip was quite the success! On my list of things to do, I was able to cross off many. I visited with my Paris roomie from 2006, Jennifer, and my great Alaskan friend Claire. So much fun to see them both and catch up! The Thornocks and the Chandlers walked around campus to see the changes from construction.... AmAzInG! I couldn't believe that the only remnant of the MC that I remember is the bowling alley, virtually untouched. I also checked off my list a visit Big Jud's (can you believe that little place has a website).

Here is a picture of Scott with his Big Jud one-pound burger special... which he shared with Steve-O.

Unfortunately for Scott, since we've been married he has become accustomed to sharing my meals and adapting to my tiny stomach. But he was successful in eating HALF of a Big Jud burger. Really, no one should be eating that much beef in one meal. Did you know that Big Jud's even has a FIVE POUND burger challenge? Gag! My quarter pounder was very tasty though!

My most favorite discovery at Big Jud's though, was Maplenut ice cream. Heaven! If you know my family, you know that we are coffee ice cream connoisseurs. We try to find the ice cream with coffee flavoring over actually coffee used in the ice cream. My favorite coffee flavor in ice cream, is like vanilla with a hint of coffee, but sometimes the coffee ice cream you order tastes more like a strong espresso. Well, Maplenut may be my new favorite. It was such a great flavor, reminding me of my vanilla type coffee ice cream, but with a good taste of maple. Scott and I shared a Maplenut shake as part of the Big Jud Meal Deal!

Next to the door at Big Jud's was this vending machine! I LOVE this idea.


I mean, seriously, why aren't there more gum ball machines with mustaches inside?! A whole table of Big Jud's visitors bought these trinkets to take pictures. I'm contemplating a gum ball machine business now.

A Rexburg Weekend

We are almost officially going to Rexburg tomorrow. BYU Graduation is tomorrow and the University encourages staff to leave early on Thursday to make way for visitor parking spots. I say almost officially leaving, because I'm still waiting for someone to be my sub chorister in primary this Sunday.

Idahoans in the House! This may very well be the last trip to Rexburg until I bring my dear future offspring to the hallowed halls of BYU-I and Edna R. Ricks. So this means I have to get in every last nostalgic bit. We considered stay the night at the Blue Heron Bed and Breakfast (a.k.a. heaven) like we did on our last trip, because it's closing it's doors in the near future. I know! *tear* But we actually decided to stay with Scott's sister Christie instead, because she promised us an amazing breakfast with bacon. That's her trick to get me to say yes to the four hour drive... bribe me with bacon. Right, Christie?

So list of things to do while in Rexburg:
- Attempt a visit with all friends that are in Rexburg (that may take some serious Facebook stalking)
- Watch Scott eat a burger at Big Judds (not sure if I can eat one on my own)
- Millhollow, maybe?
- Paul Mitchell hair cut? (Still considering whether it's worth the risk)
- Take an evening stroll in the gardens of the Y-I with my schnookims... Oooh Shoot!
- Some Rexburgian activity (dunes, water sports, ice caves, night games with the youngin's)
- Play so many card games that Christie's pantry is robbed of sweet treat snackies
- Watch as Christie leaves all the fun at the house to go to class


K... so my list is kind of short. What am I forgetting?

Thanksgiving Recap

Well it was a fast move and we survived! The weekend after we heard about the open apartment in our Relief Society President's basement, we moved in! Our home teacher was nice enough to gather together some of our great ward buddies with trucks and trailers (not that we own many large amenities), and "the men" moved one big load to our new place in less than one hour. We then made small loads in the Matrix, getting all of our possession from our previous apartment and into our new apartment by Saturday night.

I made one last stop to our apartment to gather our laundry (our new apartment is being furnished with a new washer/dryer this week... and until then we are dirty) and any last little nic-naks left over. As I folded our whites in our old closet of a bathroom, I heard a noise that had become more common in our old place...yelling in Spanish. This time it was out on the front lawn, and I'm not going to lie, I was imagining what kind of weapons could be whipped out at any moment in this obviously domestic dispute. This image was not based on precedence, but prejudice... I admit. Needless to say, I tried hard not to draw attention to myself until one apartment door was slammed and a car was heard screeching out of the parking lot. I then quickly packed every last crumb we owned into my car, and haven't returned since. We were able to get our furniture set-up and some decorations on the wall before leaving for our family filled Thanksgiving.

I got some Christmas decorations up when we got back from Thanksgiving.

Scott is really proud of our Family is Everything wall which he arranged, ALL by HIMSELF!

Thanksgiving was a TON of fun! The Alaskan parentals came to Sacramento to check out the area for potential retirement communities. They want to live near the Princess (that's me, if you haven't seen my tiara). And since Scott and I will most likely end up around the great city of trees, home of the Governator, my island parents decided they needed to research the radius. We drove around Apple Hill and Old Auburn, after my parents had already visited more northern cities like Redding.


We also made a dizzying tour down the windy road to Cool. I don't recommend the trip if you get car sick or fall asleep in cars, because if you blink at any point, you may just miss the city of Cool. Fortunately, my dad the driver kept his eyes open and stopped for me to take this most awesome picture.

Pretty sure you can see the other edge of Cool at the back of this picture.

The vacation was great! It was probably the first Thanksgiving I've had with my parents since high school. Turkey was amazing, as was the ham, pomegranate salad, rolls, cheescake, pie... the list goes on. I got much needed rest and now we are home again to work and finish out the semester.

Can't wait for Christmas!

Hey, and how do you like my new Christmasy blog theme? It was overdue for an update.

Picture from Orlando

Here's a picture that my mom took of Scott and I at the Rainforest Cafe in Orlando, Fl. It was raining the whole time we were there, minus four hours of sunshine of which we took full advantage.

I'm feeling a desperate need for a hair cut if anyone has any suggestions for a good stylist...