Hiking in the Park with Two Names

About a month ago Brandon and I decided we wanted to take a low key hike in the late afternoon. We decided on heading to Peña Adobe (less commonly referred to as Lagoon Valley) Park in Vacaville. Both of us grew up near the park, but I hadn't spent very much time there, so luckily it's kept its novelty.

We originally planned to climb to the highest hill and watch the sunset, but we totally overestimated how long it would take us to get up there, so we chose to take our time, enjoy our little hike and not put too much pressure on our fun.

We stopped to take a water break and soak in some of the views.

I enjoyed my view...

...while Brandon enjoyed his!

I saw this enormous oak tree and had a need to see it up close, so we ventured off the main path for a bit.

The tree and I quickly became best friends.

Brandon got in on the fun, too!

My very fancy hiking equipment.

A cool almost optical illusion photo for kicks

And a couple selfie with personality.

We walked until we didn't feel like it anymore. Then we turned around to head back home. But being me, I tried to make another friend on the way down.

I tried crouching down to get a better angle of her but she freaked out and ran away. Either she thought I was a mountain lion or she sensed my friendship with the tree. Regardless, my friendship with the cow worked out just as well as Cady Heron's first crush...which is to say it didn't (10 points if you got my obscure Mean Girls reference).

Spending the afternoon outside with my favorite person in the world was wonderful. It gave me wiiiiiings!

♥  A

Sarchi

One of my professors from study abroad, we just called him Milton, once mentioned this awesome place called Sarchi. He told me of a place where traditionally painted ox carts packed the roads and where you could really experience traditional Costa Rican coffee culture.

His description of this place sounded like something Disneyland would want to replicate and something I needed to see. 

But I didn't. I totally missed it when I was living in San Jose. 

So with day trips becoming plan A for the last part of our trip, I convinced Andrea that this would be a good idea. 

I'm gonna burst everyone's excited bubble quickly: Sarchi was not that exciting. Did I see a few cool ox carts? Yes. But is Sarchi really a destination worthy of a full day? I'd say no. 

I foolishly expected something straight out of Disneyland and was unimpressed when I didn't get it.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual. Our previous attempt to visit Volcan Poas being unsuccessful, we decided to try again before driving out to Sarchi. This time, we started our trip up the mountain much earlier since I'd read that the morning tends to yield the best chance of a view.

There were a few clouds in the sky, but nothing too daunting. Of course, until we reached the gate. The sun and fluffy white puffs gave way to cold, overcast, misty skies. The same gentleman from the day before warned us that the volcano wasn't visible, so he didn't recommend we use our money to see nothing. By this point, we were already determined to make the hike out to the crater viewing point, so we paid our foreigner entrance fees (even though he totally thought we were nationals) and entered the park.

The hike looked like something out of Into the Woods or Sleeping Beauty. I felt like I was going to encounter an evil dragon around one of the bends, but we only passed up a woman prancing through the mist in high heeled sneakers.

The concerned park ranger was right. The volcano's iconic crater was nowhere to been seen. The fog was thick and revealed nothing. Regardless, we snapped a tourist photo before heading off on our way to Sarchi.

After driving through many more residential streets than I'd mentally prepared myself for, we finally found ourselves near the town square. True to my professor Milton's lore, in the center of the plaza, right in front of the church, was the world's largest ox cart. We walked around it and mildly judged a dozen or so tourist teenagers who were posing for an instagram photo.

The cart is fenced in so you can't really go up to it and see the insane hand painted details, which is a bit of a bummer. So we wandered around the plaza and stared at the church's pretty intricacies. Andrea picked up some pansito (just a cutesy way of saying bread in Spanish) from a bakery across the street for us to enjoy after lunch.

We made a joke that when lost (in Costa Rica), always orient yourself by where the church is.

We'd passed by a big souvenir market on our way into the center of town. It seemed like the best place to ask where we could get a piece of the Sarchi experience. I ended up just asking where I could find some decent food since it was nearing lunch time and we were getting hungry. It turned out that there was a restaurant right behind the souvenir shop called Restaurante La Finca. I drove down a steep hill and parked in a patch of grass near a butterfly garden that we had no intention of visiting, even if we did have time to kill (see previous butterfly-induced fright here). We walked up, and even though we were the only patrons in the middle of the day, we sat down because there was free wifi. Luckily, the food was delectable, the portions were large, and the strawberry lemonade was yummy.

We scarfed our food until we couldn't scarf anymore.

Growing up, my parents routinely, almost obsessively, had coffee after every meal. In fact, the eating time isn't over until everyone who drinks coffee has a mug of it in their hand. They do this to this day. Whenever Brandon and I have lunch or dinner at my parents' house, I'm guaranteed to be offered coffee within five minutes of finishing the food on my plate.

La Finca was no different. Our server came by and offered me some coffee, which I happily accepted. He disappeared for a moment and returned with an old school pour over system. You know, the kind that use cloth as a filter instead of paper? It was so cool...I'm totally kicking myself six months later for not taking a picture of it. But geez if that coffee wasn't delicious. I sat there, sipped my coffee, and soaked in the moment with my sister.

On our way back to the main highway, I made an impulse decision to stop at a furniture store with an ornate front. It ended up paying off because we got to see some real life antique ox cart wheels!

We also got to witness an artisan hand paint a tray.

I asked for his name before we left and I told myself to remember it, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what letter his name started with. I don't actually think we were supposed to be walking around watching them, but no one said anything to us, so we watched intently as this interesting mute man gestured to me as if he was teaching me how to paint traditional designs.

In a nutshell, if you want to experience coffee culture, take a tour of a plantation. But if you do find yourself in Sarchi, visit Restaurante La Finca, you won't be disappointed.

2014 Highlights, In Photos

Everyone and their mother is doing end-of-year roundups and I'm no exception. Here's a look at the high moments of my otherwise tumultuous 2014.

We never did blog about our autumnal trip to Apple Hill, but we went and I love this photo of Barbara. November, Apple Hill, CA

Sold Brandon's Magic cards so he could buy a bass, January

Starbucks with Brandon, February, Fairfield,CA

Watching Say Nothing in the Valentine's Day fort, February

Tahoe, March

I feel like this is what Yellowcard was talking about in Empty Apartment, May

Costa Rica with my sister, June/July

Stunning back road sunset, July

My friend got married! August, Salinas, CA

Trivia night at Woodstock's, August?, Davis, CA

Pre-25th-birthday trip with Barbara, October, Cafe Bassam, San Diego, CA

OMG the colors. The glorious colors! September, Muir Beach Overlook, CA

Exploring our new town's pool scene, May/June, G Street Wunderbar, Davis, CA

The dessert at my friend Kari's wedding was extraordinary..and beautiful to look at, August, Salinas, CA 

Brandon will hate me for this photo but it's one of my favorites. This was our last night in our first apartment. We sat on the floor, laughed and talked just like any other Saturday night. Derek sent Barbara this photo and Brandon tried to be funny. I just laughed. I like to remember that apartment in this context. May, Fairfield, CA 

Brandon and I went ice skating -- as, of course, is tradition -- on the anniversary of
our engagement.We got lucky and had the entire rink to ourselves. I got to pretend I was a real
figure skater and Brandon taught me how to skate backwards. And we got to stand in the
exact spot where he asked me to marry him two years ago. And I wore the same scarf I wore
that night because nostalgia is my love language.

Brandon had his first show with a country cover band out of Chico. I never thought
I'd see the day this man would purposefully listen to country music, but it's nice
to know he can still surprise me after eight years!

Happy 2015, everybody!

♥ A

Manuel Antonio

I realize it's been four months since I was in Costa Rica and I haven't finished telling you the stories of where I went. My only reason is I've been really busy with choir my other blog. Anyway, I've had this post saved as a draft for too long, so here's my overdue account of my day and a half in Manuel Antonio.

I had planned to tell you all the story of Andrea and I getting lost for over two and half hours while we tried to get from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio, but every rendition I wrote seemed like I was stretching a two minute story into ten. So instead, I'll give you the short version. We missed the turn we needed because the signage in Costa Rica is minimal at best, then tried to find our way with only a crappy map. I should mention that we were travelling on Costa Rica's game day against Greece, which would decide the team's fate in the World Cup. We ended up driving through a town and pulling over to ask for directions right as Costa Rica scored the final shootout goal for the victory. I kid you not I got three words out before the entire street exploded with shouts, laughter, and sobs. Grown adults were jumping in place and hugging whoever they could reach. People ran into the street. The flag was everywhere. It was incredible.

This video is over 2 minutes long and there is a lot of wooing, so don't feel obligated to watch the whole thing, just enough to give you an idea of how cool this was.

The video was shot four -- count em, four -- hours after the game ended. And just to drive the point home a little more, I'll tell you that this was one of two road blocks we encountered on our drive. The second one was right in the heart of Quepos, the city closest to Manuel Antonio. Anyway, I took a chance with my directional skillz and they totally paid off! We got back on course and made it to MA. Getting to the hostel in MA was easy since I knew it was on the way to the park and it was a little ways past the hostel I'd stayed in three years ago.

We stayed at the National Park Backpacker's hostel because I read really great reviews on hostelworld. I really wanted us to stay in the same hostel from my study abroad trip, but I couldn't find a booking website anywhere and came upon some depressing reviews of it. Either way, NPB was a decent. We chose to stay in the all-female dorm and were happy to find out we were the only guests that had picked that option. Everyone else had a private room or chose the co-ed dorm. Now, I have to be honest and tell you that I've never slept on a worse bed in my life and that the pool is the only thing I truly loved. The staff was nice and the place was pretty quiet. If there's ever a next time, I'll definitely just take my chances on availability and stay in the Pura Vida hostel, bad reviews be damned! It's where Andrea and I ate breakfast both days we were in town. $4 for gallo pinto, a pancake, fruit, eggs and toast AND free coffee. Yeah, it was yummy and so filling.

The next day was our day in the park. We bought our $10 tourist tickets and headed inside. By this point, we were both pretty desperate to see some animals. We'd seen a lot of undisturbed flora and just wanted to see the fauna. Not five minutes in, we came across a deer walking along the gravel path.

I didn't feel the urgent need to get a close up of this deer because I'm pretty sure I met her three years ago.  But I did get her as she trekked away.

My sister and I were overjoyed at the sight of a wild animal and we hurried along the path hoping to see some more animals. We didn't splurge on the park guide, but we did decide to stay close-ish to a smaller group. Sure enough, we were lucky enough to catch a sighting of a family of squirrel monkeys.

Apparently, squirrel monkeys are spotted every couple of months. And here we were, watching a mom, dad and baby jump and hop around the branches. The guide graciously informed us that the mom was more than likely jumping from branch to branch to teach her young one how to do it. I wish I'd caught some video of this, but after getting a decent couple of shots, I put the cameras down and just watched and soaked it all in.

Baby squirrel monkey.

As if the rare monkey sighting wasn't enough, we also saw a lone howler monkey chillin upside in a tree! It was seriously the closest I've been to a howler, and I've seen them directly overhead of me before. It was an incredible treat.

We finally made it to the beach, where we picked a spot under a tree. We hung up our packs and extended our towels. A raccoon did attempt to get into my backpack, but we caught him before he made any progress.

After a quick dip in the ocean, we decided to relax a little on the beach itself. As I was shutting my eyes to bask in the sun, I heard Andrea shout with excitement. There was a lizard walking nearby! Neither one of us could ID the reptile, but we followed it around for a little bit, which led to a really cool conversation with some Italian Swiss who had never seen a raccoon in their life before.

Thrilled with our wildlife sightings, we took to the waves. The water in MA is amazing. The park's main beach is almost shaped like a bay, so it feels more like swimming in a pool than in the ocean.

One thing we didn't realize was we were swimming during a tidal shift. I'm already not a great swimmer. I can tread and get to point B but I lack confidence in the water. Anyway, at some point I tried to swim through the wave or over it or something and it didn't work.

I was thoroughly tumbled. That's seriously the only word I can think of to describe it. I was tumbled like a rag in a dryer. I washed up on shore smothered in sand. I was so disoriented that I tried to stand up right as another wave came crashing down. You guessed it, I was thrown about again, this time a little too close to the rocks. This happened yet a third time before I finally pulled myself together enough to run out of the water's reach, laughing the whole way.

The best part of the story (for me) is this: Andrea was worried-laughing on her way out of the ocean (you know, to check on me like a good sister and traveling companion). She turned her back on the waves and one of them smacked her right in the back. Seriously, it was comedic the way her body looked when it felt the impact of the water on her back. So she too arose out of the ocean like a sandy mess.

It would take us about two weeks to get the sand out of our scalps.

By this point all of the excitement has made me a little hungry. There are no snack stands in the park, so all I had to eat was my chocolate (read: melted) KIND bar. As I crunched on that almond goodness, Andrea pointed to the coolest animal we saw that day.

A FREAKING CAIMAN CROCODILE! It slowly walked by the tree 15 feet away from our spot. We assumed it was headed out to the ocean, but got freaked by the swarm of tourists that rushed around it. I realize I was also a tourist, but I didn't shout around the animal like the others...I have respect for nature.

Anyway, the poor animal was too scared to venture out further than the tree line, and it eventually retreated back into the trees. That didn't stop the jerky tourists from following it, but I won't rant about that now.

Once closing time got closer, we decided we were hungry enough to pack up and head out. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a local restaurant that overlooked the main strip of the city's beach and ended the night hanging out on a bar rooftop with the bar owner's children.

I didn't want to leave the next day, but we were running out of money and neither of us could stand the idea of another night on the plank of wood called a bed in our hostel. So we woke, up, had breakfast, found a guy who sold me a daiquiri three years ago to say hello, tracked down a vendor who trusted me enough to buy now pay tomorrow, and said goodbye to Manuel Antonio.

I still miss it.

♥ A