Costa Rica Day 6

On Friday we rented a car and drove to see some of the beaches. Our resort is kind of out of the way and secluded so it was nice to get away. I'm glad we waited until the end of our trip to rent a car and venture off without a tour guide. 

The roads were easy to navigate because there no traffic or busy freeways. 

Our first stop was at a super market. It's always fun to see what every day life is like in Costa Rica. We picked up some snacks and Costa Rican beer. 

The first beach we stopped at was Tamarindo. I really wanted to come here because my co-worker recommended the banana creme pie at Noguis. The pie was definitely worth the drive! 

Next time I come to Costa Rica, I'll definitely spend the majority of my time in Tamarindo. The town was so laid back. When we first arrived, some guys sitting in a tree were like, "Do you guys need any weed?" 

Nope, I need banana creme pie! :P

The next beach we went to was Conchal Beach. We almost didn't stop here because we realized we would have to drive through some sand to get to the beach. I didn't think our little rental car could make it in the sand. We ended up chancing it and I'm so glad we did. This beach is beautiful. We spent over an hour walking along the beach looking at shells.

After that, we went to Flamingo Beach. Sharlene loves flamingos so we had to go just to say that we went.

After that, we went to Coco Beach for more shopping.

We got a little lost on the way home because the roads were so dark. We did eventually make it home in time to eat dinner and sit in the hot tub for a few hours before bed.

Costa Rica Day 5

On Thursday we woke up super early to go to Nicaragua!

Here we are at the Nicaraguan boarder.

One of our first stops was at a lookout spot in Masaya. The view overlooked Apoyo Crater Lake. 

As we were leaving the city there were people flooding the streets and jumping on to cars. If I understood the tour guide correctly, they were welcoming home Oscar Duarte, a Nicaraguan born Costa Rica soccer player. 

We drove up to Masaya Volcano National Park where we got to stand at the edge of a volcano. Unfortunately, it was difficult to see anything exciting because of the sulfur emitted by the volcano. 

We stopped for lunch which was good, but I rushed through it in order to go shopping! Everything is very cheap in Nicaragua. I bought two hammocks for $30. I'm glad I bought most of my souvenirs in Nicaragua!

There were two brothers from Costa Rica that were on the tour. They were about my age so I had fun talking to them during lunch and while shopping. When they saw my giant bag of stuff I bought, I was like, "Yeah, I'm a shopaholic." They found the word very amusing and even asked me later, "what was the word you said? Shopaholic?" LOL. I realized that my American consumerism mentality is soooo different than the Costa Rican values of simple living and environmental sustainability.

After we went shopping we got on the bus and drove to Granada. We took a boat ride to look at the little mansions located on tiny islands in Lake Nicaragua. 

Then we walked around the city of Granda. I LOVED the colorful buildings. I wish I could have spent more time exploring!

Then it was time for our 4 hour journey back to Costa Rica. 

One of the main reasons why we wanted to go to Nicaragua was to get another stamp on our passports. Friends and family members at home "warned" us that Nicaragua was dangerous. We were a little nervous to go because we didn't know what to expect. We asked a lot of Costa Ricans if they felt save in Nicaragua and everyone said we should go. In the end, I'm so glad we went! Because we were part of a tour and we stuck to tourist spots I didn't feel unsafe at all!

My Nicaraguan souvenirs:

Santa Barbara, CA

Santa Barbara (State Street specifically) is one of my favorite places in the whole world! Someone recently asked me where I would live if I could live anywhere and of course I picked SB. He was like, "Oh, because you went to school there?" and I was like, "Nooo... I went to school there because it's always been my favorite place!"

I especially love State Street during the holidays. I love shopping at Paseo Nuevo during the night because of all the white Christmas lights. Ahhhhh.

So today, we were spontaneous and took a drive out to SB to do some Christmas shopping. My sister met us and we had lunch at Palazzio. I've been here a couple times before, once for my 20th birthday. I love the bread and the caesar salad. For the first time in months, I kinda took a break from being a true vegetarian. This place serves their pasta family style, so we ordered pasta with chicken and I just picked the chicken out. I'm sure I ate some tiny pieces, but oh well. Anyways, I'm not sure why I didn't eat here more often during college. It was delicious!

I love Santa Barbara. I always feel so sad whenever I have to leave. <3

Flagstaff 2011- Day Three

We were really slow to wake up on Sunday. We really didn't have much planned for the day other than a late lunch with Justin and friends.

Christine and I went to another super cute coffee shop downtown called Late for the Train. I got a Coconino Mocha and Christine got some sort of latte.



We sat outside and enjoyed our drinks in the sunshine.



Here's a pic of us that you won't find on Facebook. Most of the pics I have of myself from this weekend are unacceptable for Facebook because my bangs make it look like I have a mullet! But since only, like, two people read this blog I'll go ahead and post a pic here. Hahahaha.



After coffee, we just walked around Target (our fav store!) and Jo-anns to kill some time before we had our late lunch.

Then, we went back to Christine's so I could pack my stuff and say goodbye to her roomie.

I'll post more later... lunch break is almost over :)

Flagstaff 2011- Day Two

We slowly woke up and got ready for our day.

To start, we went to the coolest coffee shop/restaurant called Macy's. Everything looked sooo good, I had a hard time deciding what to order. I ended up choosing some fancy soy latte and vegan waffles from their amazing all-vegetarian menu! I loved that everything was vegetarian. Love love loved it!









After breakfast, we walked around downtown. We went back into a lot of the shops we went to the night before during artwalk. It was nice to go back when it wasn't so crowded. I bought a couple little things.

Christine had to be at NAU for the football game at 2:30 and we had lunch plans with some friends including a friend from high school, Justin (actually I've technically known him since preschool I think). We were really short on time, so we just sat with them for like 15 minutes and then went off to enjoy the game. Since we didn't have much time to catch up over lunch, we made plans to BBQ in the evening.

Christine is part of a club called Chain Gang so I sat with Cassie and her swim team friends while Christine fulfilled her Chain Gang duties.





Christine was able to save me a seat next to her so I went down to sit with the Chain Gang... right behind the football players. It was smelly! Also, number 69 had a mullet.



Christine was able to leave after the first quarter. Per the boy's request, Christine baked cookies as a contribution to the BBQ. So, we went back to the apartment and Christine did what she does best... baked cookies!





After the cookies were done, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some other BBQ essentials. Then we were off to the BBQ.

Here's a pic of my cheeseburger with no meat. I did end up taking a 10 second break from being a vegetarian so that I could try a tiny piece of lamb. Hahaha. I just wanted to be able to say I tried it, plus it smelled really flavorful. I'll admit, it didn't taste bad!



Unfortunately I didn't take any more pics at the BBQ. We spent the evening watching Netflix, eating, and laughing. We left at about midnight.

I had such a fun day. I really like Christine's friends, Flagstaff, and of course, Christine. <3

Weekend Road Trip 9/16/11

Right after work Friday, I drove down to Camarillo for another weekend getaway. My sister's apartment is turning into the weekend party place and I love it!

As soon as I arrived, Kelsey and her roomie, Lindsey, were ready to go to dinner. We drove back up to Oxnard and met my mom and nino who came separately. Our wait was almost 1.5 hours just to get seated! BJs is the place to be on a Friday night! While we waited for a table, we took some pictures...

When our food finally came, we were disappointed to find out that they made my sister's order wrong. They took her pizza back and offered to buy us dessert! Of course we got pizookie!

I love my sister's roommate. When the desserts came out (we decided on sharing two pizookies) Lindsey was like, "I always feel like it's a competition when you're sharing a dessert." Hahahaha... Judging by the photo above, Kelsey was in it to win it!

Kelsey drove us back to Camarillo and we had another fun photo shoot/dance party in the car.

Back at the apartment, we just relaxed and had a fun little slumber party!

____

By the time I woke up the next morning, my sister had cooked us all a delicious breakfast! Such a little Martha Stewart! We all took our time getting ready. By 10:30 I was back on the road with my favorite little travel buddy. <3

I drove down to Torrance to meet up with my friend, Michael. He just moved back to California after attending grad school in Virginia. Yay!

We ate at El Torito Grill. It was so nice to just catch up on each other's lives. Mike actually drove back to California from Virginia and turned it into a road trip. It was a baseball theme road trip where he and his friend stopped at various baseball stadiums along the way! Sooo cool!

I thought the tortilla looked kinda funny...

After lunch, we were soooo stuffed! Mike suggested that we go shopping! We drove to a nearby shopping mall which was half indoor and half outdoor. As I was walking around, I started recognizing some of the places. I realized that I had actually been to this mall before!

They had this cool used book/CDs/video game store. I bought a Sheryl Crow CD for $5.

We tried to take a picture of ourselves to send to Sarah, but it was really difficult because Mike is like a foot taller than me. We eventually took a good pic that included most of both of us.

Then, some man offered to take a real picture of us. :)

Hanging out with Mike made me really miss my college life. I'm so glad he's back in California, but it's kinda depressing because now Sarah has left the state :(

Anyways, I had to leave so that I could drive to Culver City to drop off my Auntie Julie's cane (she left it at our house during Labor Day weekend). When I got to her house, we chatted for a bit. I was disappointed to find out that I had just missed my cousin, Miki. She left for work right before I showed up. I told my Auntie that I would have liked to visit Miki at work, but I didn't have a GPS and I didn't want to get lost. Auntie Julie was so cute, she was like, "Want me to show you how to get there?!" So we hopped in the car and drove to the grocery store Miki works at.

One cool thing was that my Auntie had a handicap parking thingy so I got to park right in front! We said hi to Miki, but she was super busy so we just walked around the huge store. Auntie Julie pointed out the Jamba Juice, Starbucks, bank, pharmacy, florist, bakery etc. (the store was huge).

After that, I dropped Auntie Julie off at her house and was back on the road again.

I drove to Krispy Kreme where I bought 3 dozen doughnuts. Yum!

Then, I drove to Camarillo to drop off doughnuts with Kelsey and Lindsey. Lindsey was at the gym, so I just waited around for her to come back so I could say hi. I left about a half hour later.

On the drive back home, I blasted my new Sheryl Crow CD and I just felt happy. I love making little road trips. I love getting away. I love visiting old friends. I love spending time with my family. And I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. <3