Surgery.

My surgery is booked. In mid-July my three year old hernia will finally be repaired. I've never had surgery before so, I'm a little apprehensive. I've been talking with others who have had the same 45 minute surgery done before. Their message is, "It's not so bad. The sooner the better." I'm planning to do lots of cooking and freezing the week before the surgery so my friends can swing by, heat up some lunch for the both of us and spend some time hanging out while I'm recovering. I'm told I'll want to rest for the first 3 days after the surgery. I've taken part of the following week off from work too and then of course no heavy lifting for 6 weeks after that. Sigh. It will be nice to have this out of the way. My hernia had gotten so much worse over the last few months. I quickly realized all of the daily tasks that required the use of my abdominal muscles. Those are the things I haven't been able to do comfortably. I can't wait to get outside and start moving again once this is done! Onwards.

Lucky you, Chicago!

Miss Lauren is moving to Chicago. On Friday night, Soe hosted a little gathering so we could all wish Lauren well before she left B-town. There was lots of yummy food and of course champagne so we could toast LZ. Chicago, you're getting one rad lady! Here are a couple of fun pics from the night.

Yep.

It's officially summer. Tonight, Steve and I had corn on the cob, lobster with butter + lemon and some greens with ruby red grapefruit on top! Delicious. What a nice way to end the weekend.

This evening at the cabin...

Veggies? Maybe...

This year, I decided to work on a potted vegetable garden. I started from seed back in early April, which I'm now learning was a brave decision. While many are already enjoying veggies produced from their "starter" plants, I'm still in the early phases of growth. A few months ago I planted seeds to grow basil, lavender, rosemary, hot peppers, sweet peppers, green beans and cherry tomatoes. The lavender never sprouted, (I hear it's really hard to get going) and I'm pretty sure that I burned the green beans with the hot afternoon sun on a few different occasions. Sad. I've finally found a good spot for the pots to sit and I'm leaving them be to do their thing. The hot peppers and sweet peppers are finally on their way and the basil is looking solid! I have one really strong looking cherry tomato plant and 2 others that have some potential. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll get a handful of tomatoes. I did buy two new herbs yesterday to add to the mix: chives and more rosemary. We'll see how the summer goes and grows. I'm hopeful that I'll actually get some food out of this experience.

Finally, some Sunday sunshine!

I woke up right around 7am yesterday morning with lots on my to-do list before Hannah's clothing swap and brunch at noon. The sky was gray. I took a nice long and peaceful walk to pick up some coffee before heading to the grocery store to purchase the food items I was going to prepare for the gathering. Hannah had asked me to bring fruit so, I found: strawberries, blackberries, kiwis, cantaloupe, honeydew and raspberries that looked good. While I was in the produce section I walked by a box of dates. I remembered how my Grandma Clair use to make stuffed dates with hard sauce with pecans on top... and how impatient I felt when we had to wait for the hard sauce to actually get hard. I picked up a little less than a pound of dates. I didn't have much time to put everything together so, I bought some buttercream frosting to use as the stuffing. I pitted the dates, and stuffed them with frosting and decided to roll them in almond granola so they were just a little more brunch appropriate. They were so easy and pretty tasty too! I spent the next 30 minutes cutting, scooping and melon balling (?) until the fruit bowl and I were ready to go.

Everyone who attended the clothing swap brought a little something to add to the brunch spread and some clothing items to share. Once brunch was over, we all moved into the living room to see the mountain of clothing that was up for grabs. There were so many great items in the mix. We went through the clothes for a couple of hours finding new items hidden underneath the pile until the very end. LZ discovered an amazing black sweater that no one had laid eyes on until she pulled it out from the bottom during the last 15 minutes of the swap. Fun times!

After brunch and a couple of mimosas, we chatted and had a little fun with Hannah's wig and hat collection. Here is lovely Lauren looking French Canadian chic and me looking like a sister of the 90's glam metal band Nelson.

A few ladies headed home and the rest decided to head down to Church Street to bask in the afternoon sun. There was some fun discussion, a celebrity sighting (in little old Burlington) and a few add-ons to the group. Somehow the sunny day was already winding down. A group of us decided to order take out from Bearded Frog in Shelburne. We had dinner al fresco at Crooked Path and watched the sun sink into the Adirondacks! Dinner was so easy and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.

Last night's sunset:

We all arrived home at around 10pm. I, eventually, fell into bed and didn't move a muscle until my alarm went off this morning. Gray skies again today... Summer, are you just an acquaintance? Arg.

Costa Rica: Day 5

We woke up just a bit before 6am on our last day. Since we arrived to our hotel after dark the night prior, we weren't able to get a good look at the property. We were staying at a coffee plantation in Costa Rica and we couldn't leave without taking a look at it's inner workings! We made some coffee in the room and took our cups with us on our self guided tour. Our walk was quiet and peaceful.

We soon found out that the plantation was locked first thing in the morning. We decided to return to it after we got a bite to eat. Breakfast was pretty special that day. We watched the clouds settle in the mountains and listened to the classical music that was playing while we chatted about our trip. We started with this frothy fresh squeezed pineapple star fruit juice on ice. Wow, wow, wow. Yes please!
We moved on to this delightful fruit plate! Oh and the coffee...let's not forget that we were enjoying breakfast on a coffee plantation in Costa Rica!! I still get a little excited thinking about that dining experience. Steve and I kept on laughing at how absurdly perfect it all was.
After breakfast we continued our walk. We spotted hotel sheets, hanging to dry! This hotel has made some impressive strides when it comes to sustainability. A statement from their site:

Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation and Inn, the first certified sustainable hotel in Costa Rica, has evolved over the last 20 years to become the highest ranking member of the prestigious Sustainable Tourism Certification program (CST) and the only hotel that has achieved a perfect score of 100%. The CST, regarded as the strictest and most demanding program in the world for verifying the sustainability of hotels and tour operators, awards from one to five “green leaves” to those entities which participate in the program. As of 2009, there are approximately 130 hotels and 10 tour operators which are certified by the CST. The Inn seeks to demonstrate that sustainability can be incorporated into an upscale hotel setting by combining elements of environmental conservation, education, training, luxury, community development and innovative building techniques.

...and then the coffee plantation!

I could have stayed there for a long time. I was relaxed, the temperature was perfect and it smelled amazing.

Here's Steve enjoying the last few moments on our balcony.

Finally, it was time to pack up. We gave ourselves, (what we thought was) plenty of time to get to the airport. We had gotten lost the evening before so, we didn't have the most accurate sense of how long it would take to get back to San Jose. The hotel provided directions from the airport to Finca Rosa but, not in the opposite direction. We took them and felt confident despite the directions being a squiggly line down the page with a few businesses identified to help us know when we were headed in the right direction. We started driving and within minutes we were lost! There were lots of one way roads that made the directions hard to follow. We didn't have the time to try and figure it out on our own so after 5 minutes or so we stopped at a gas station. We filled the tank and I decided to ask the police officers in the parking lot for direction. The first officer I spoke to didn't speak English. The second officer couldn't have been any friendlier. He took my hotel map and went to discuss the best route with the other officers. Eventually, he came back over and said, "We think the best way is for you to follow us. If you don't, you will take a wrong turn." We were about to get a police escort to the airport. We followed them down the road for a few blocks until they stopped at an intersection. The officer I had been chatting with got out and asked another person in the neighborhood for directions. The police officers didn't even know how to get to the airport. Amazing. The officer eventually came over to our car and drew a new map...again with the simple squiggly line down the page. Sigh. He stopped traffic for us, we turned around and headed down the hill on what we hoped would be the route to the airport. It was! Moments later, we passed the gas station we were supposed to see and then, Europcar! We returned our car and picked up the shuttle to the airport. Success.

Costa Rica, you are beautiful! Glad to know you.

Costa Rica: Day 4

This was our morning view of the Arenal Volcano from our hotel room. So pretty! Our tour started at 8:15am so, off to breakfast we went.

The tour bus picked us up right on time. We met a fun couple from Austin, TX who were on the tour as well.

Volcanic rock covered in lichen:

Here is our tour guide and the rest of our crew waiting...for boulders that are close to 15ft in diameter to shoot out of the top of this volcano and bounce down the side. This eruption happens close to every 10 minutes.

Lucky us, clear skies:

Arenal Lake:

There were orchids sprouting up everywhere, (no, of course I didn't pick them)!

After our tour was over, our guide gave us some tips on things to do and places to eat. We decided to hit up the La Fortuna Waterfall on our way out of town. On our way down towards the waterfall, we found this tree that I could probably call home for a night or two.

It was a bit of a hike to get to this waterfall. There were many, many steps.

We finally made it!

...and the POWER of the water....!!!

Yep, we were there.

After our visit to the waterfall, we started our trip back through the mountains towards San Jose. It was a long drive. We left La Fortuna a bit later than we had planned. We knew we needed to make good time so we wouldn't be driving at night. Reminder: No street signs/names in Costa Rica. We didn't know exactly where our next hotel was and thought the trip could be challenging. We were right. We got lost. Once we better understood where we were heading, we attempted to correct ourselves. The final few miles of the trip were very complicated so, we stopped to ask for directions. I ended up chatting with a pharmacist. I showed her the address of our hotel. She was so kind and called the hotel to explain the situation. She told the hotel owners where we were so he could tell me, in English, how to find the hotel. She passed the phone to me so the hotel manager on duty could guide me. I couldn't believe the directions he gave me. They were something like, "Go down the hill into town, take the 2nd left after the church, go down a hill, over a bridge then up a hill, past a motorcycle shop. Finally, you will see a food store. Take the left just before the food store. The hotel is one half KM in." We made a few more wrong turns, rejoiced when we found the motorcycle shop and then really celebrated when we pulled into the hotel just after dark. Success! Our hotel was worth the effort. It was amazing, actually.

The main building at Finca Rosa Blanca!

The lovely pool I didn't get a chance to swim in:

Steve and I in the common area of our hotel:

Neat fixtures!

We had dinner at our hotel's outdoor restaurant. We had a great view of San Jose...well, for most of dinner at least. At one point, I looked out towards the city and the city lights had gone black! I asked our server if there was a power outage. He said, maybe but, most likely the fog was rolling in. Funny.

That Key Lime Tart was the tartest tart I've ever experienced! Delicious. I had a great night of sleep before starting the trip home to Vermont the following morning.