Seattle 2015

We stayed at the Maxwell Hotel, just one block off the Seattle Center, home to the Space Needle, new Chihuly garden and glass museum, science center, monorail, and so much more--we could easily have spent another three nights or more in Seattle.  Although we have been here several times, one forgets how magnificent the city is.  Our first night we dined in the Seattle Center near the Chihuly display, and had a delicious meal, but were entranced by what we coud see of the Chihuly exhibit from the outside looking in.

It was warm, and as we explored the Seattle Center, passing the large fountain,children were running and splashing in the water:

We had a fun trip the next morning, using the Maxwell's free shuttle service, to Pioneer Square to enjoy the humorous Seattle Underground tour, something we had never fit in before.  I knew about the fire and the city re-building itself with fill and raised streets, leaving the first story to become the future underground basements and sidewalks.  We lunched at a New Orlean's cuisine restaurant spot, and then caught a train back to Westlake Center, and the end of the monorail that could take us to Seattle Center. At the Center, we first explored Chihuly during daylight, then had dinner at the Space Needle--delicious but expensive; best steak EVER-- and later returned again at dusk to see Chihuly's works at night.

 The museum features Dale Chihuly's works as well as depicting his life and growth as an artist.  The pieces are impressive, from the huge glass flowers and abstract organic/biologic works below

to the orange floral growth in the huge greenhouse:

To the garden entwined glassworks lit for evening display:

The next day was spent at the Pike Place Market sand the pier with the ferris wheel,which we rode before walking back to our hotel--5.6 miles of walking that day!

The next day is cruise departure day and off we head for Alaska!

San Diego Explorations

Liz and I are visiting Helen in San Diego, and today we explored a little of Balboa Park.  Our friend David Miles, trainee docent for the Museum of Art, took us on a visit through three sections of the museum that he has studied, explaining in wonderful detail about the background and history of an art piece and the period of the artist, known and unknown.  He is in the first semester of a four-semester long docent training, and I can see why learning to be a docent is so intensive at this wonderful museum!  It was quite informative and enjoyable.  Afterwards, we lunched at the nearby little plaza restaurant, then David had to hurry back to his afternoon docent training session.

We wandered back to our car via the small sculpture garden--in which the piece below is featured:

The small garden reminds a little of the much larger sculpture garden at MaryHill Museum on the Columbia Gorge, another "must see" for anyone interested in art and which is shown in this blog from a few years past--I should talk to David about MaryHill if he has never been there.  I would like to re-visit MaryHill after the recent Museum expansion there.

Yesterday, we hiked along a nature trail on the strand going to Coronado--the bird/wildlife preserve protected by the Navy is along the entire length of the trail, and fenced off to protect from human intrusion.  It was lovely day, and we saw plenty of birds, jack rabbits, and other critters. 

After the hike, we lunched at the Coronado Hotel--lovely and the food was great!  It was a nice break after helping Helen do a little more packing and sorting of household items as she prepares for the last of her new carpet installation.

Tidepool Addiction

We have the tide perfectly timed now--we can go in early (around 8:30 a.m.) and soak for a couple of hours, then come out to dry, before returning to soak again around 1:00,  This morning, Liz and i ventured down early and the tide had`gone out just far enough to expose our favorite tidepool  The water is clear and the pool is about three feet deep at its deepest.

The two rocks on the right in the picture below are  located perfectly for leaning against, stretching across the pool with your toes touching the rock on the opposite side, keeping you wedged so the salty, buoyant sea does not float you away.

There we sat and soaked in the sea water (not as warm as in the afternoon before the tide starts coming back in) watching all manners of tropical fish--two or three kinds of sculpin, the cute little striped guys that are everywhere, sea slugs, harlequin-colored fish, sea worms coming out of their crevice then darting back, hermit crab and other snail shell occupiers--just being still and exploring the clear`water around where we lazed was almost like snorkeling.  Then, behind us about thirty feet on the dark rocky cliff, four iguanas spent time fighting each other--chasing one another across the rocks, Life is good.

We decided at last that we ought to get out for a little bit to dry off, plus Helen hadn't made it down, so we strolled back to our house, finding that Helen had not been able to lock and then unlock her door with the key, and she hadn't wanted to leave the house unlocked.    It doesn't seem like our key works on the back or side doors, so I had told Helen she would have to go our the front them come down the side of the house, but she must not have heard me.  She will go out with us when we go out again in an hour or so,

Meanwhile, Lizzie was sitting by out pool drying when she saw a crab had somehow made its way from the beach into our pool.

Thinking the spa water would not be good for the little guy, she used a little scoop net to try to catch it, having it chase it around a little bit before she snagged him:

After`catching him, she returned the little guy (or gal) to the beach.

This is our last day, and we have had a lot of fun--too short, of course!

Lazy Days

So, yesterday (Sunday) was a day hanging around Los Almendros and the beach--we soaked in the tdepool for hours, then meandered next door had a good lunch at the nearby beachside restaurant.  Later we went intio our own little spa pool since the tide was way in and no tide pools were visible.

We have already talked about the large nest hanging in the trees overhead--Darcie tells me it is a termite nest--although as you can see from the picture below the opening is quite large:

While relaxing in the water, and looking up at the nests, we noticed a parrot (actually it was an orange fronted parakeet)m flying to the hole, then slowly working its way inside where it would disapear into the nest, only to back out a few moments later, then fly to a nearby branch and repeat the process.  Later, Liz noticed there were TWO birds working on the nest, so maybe they are making it over for their own apartment:

Today, Monday, we toured nearby agricultural areas where melons (especially canteloupes), rice, and corn are being grown, then went to the Guanacaste capital City of Liberia touring the hospital, stadium, old church and more.  Near the church was a group of young people in a a marching band celebrating people with special Olympics type disabilities, and everyone was happy and dancing. Our driver, Luis, told us a great deal about the typical Costa Rican lifestyle, educating the young, and was over all very interesting. Then Luis took us up the road toward a volcano (the park is closed on Mondays), then finally wound his way back to where we had a lovely lunch, and home again.

Liz and I (Helen decided to nap) hurried down to the tidepool which we shared with a local man named "Freddie" and his young son, Andres. An Iguana stood watch over our pool,which Andres thought was cool, I could tell. Freddie and I conversed as well as we could in Spanish, he complaining about the cold water, and me telling him it seemed warm as the water off my coast of California was much colder.  He asked where I was staying and I told him at a friend's house is Los Almendros, and in response to his question as to whether the friend was a relative, I told him no, a good friend, then told him also that Liz was the wife of my brother who was deceased (in Heaven, Freddie said, and I agreed).  He wanted to know where I had learned my Spanish and I told him it was in school over fifty years ago, and that I didn't get to practice it much.    The tide had turned and was coming in fiercely, so we decided to go as the incoming water was "mucho frio" compared to the early sun-heated pool water.   We said goodbye to Freddie and Andres and made our way back home.

Tempisque River

The Tempisque River originates in the uplands of Costa Rica and Nicaraugua, draining from volcanoes down the the Pacific to its estuary near the Palo Verde National Park.  We took a boat tour with David as our tour guide, and he and our boat captain maneuvered us close to monkeys, crocodiles, iguanas, and many lovely birds.

The drive from Los Almenos to Palo Verde is about 1.5 hours, and the roads are challenging as you pass deep into agricultural lands of rice, sugar cane, canteloupes, and cattle.  The boat dock is on a side tributary to the Tempisque, and shows the huge tidal fluctuation of the estuary--greater than ten feet high to low.

As we entered the main channel of the Tempisque, we say many egrets--the most numerous bird around on this trip:

Herons of various colors and sizes were also plentiful--boat-billed (seen but unable to capture a picture), blue, juvenile great blues, adult great blues, green herons--they were fishing the shoreline avoiding crocodiles.:

The crocodiles were there also--such as the one at the top of the blog--and another swimming in the middle of the river:

We were fiortunate to first encounter a large group of white-faced Capuchin monkeys, who climbed all over our boat (and us):

We also saw Howler Monkeys (which actually roar), but kept our distance from these territorial animals which will fling poop at you if you get too close.  These were eating some white fruit in the treetops.

Iguana's were plentiful, from this nearly grey one high in tree foliage...

To tan ones to orange ones:

We also saw a group of bats hanging in a line on a tree--mimicking a snake, we were told.

Tomorrow is another day at the beach!

Soaking in a Tide Pool

Today is Friday and  we booked a couple of excursions with Stefani's help in the office at Los Almendros.  The light in my bathroom was replaced, and a man investigated the hot water heater, but has to return tomorrow with his tester.  The leak under the sink will wait till some other day, but we have figured out that it doesn't cause a problem if there is no hydraulic head, so we just don't use the stopper nor fill the sink when we wash dishes.  No problema.

This morning we lazed away nearly two hours sitting in a lovely big tide pool, watching spotted, yellow, and striped fish swim around us (or run into us to see if we were edible).  A Great Kiskidee came down and perched on the rock next to us for a long time--I had no camera with me (thus the internet picture above), but he was a very pretty bird.  We took a taxi to the town  (young man does not believe in slow, even when passing slower cars which do not move over and it sure doesn't look like two vehicles can share the lane) and lunched at Los Milanes today.  We enjoyed the  "typica" meal, which was delicious,  We walked back to the market, picked up some more supplies, and took a much slower taxi back to Los Almendros.

By now it was time to soak in the pool/tub on our patio and as we did a very large bird flew into the trees overhead.  He kept the tree between us and him, so we never did make him out, but he was definitely big, much bigger than a pigeon, more large chicken sized:

   The trees also hold a large insect (?) nest:

Tomorrow we take an excursion up the Rio de Tempisque--hope to see parrots and monkeys.

Los Almendros #3

The view through the foliage to the beach beyond is lovely, and the surf is crashing close at high tide, a time when the sea engulfs the tidepools to the north.  Many boats are sheltered in the small bay, and fishermen are shuttled out to their boats by locals, it seems,   Several men were also fishing from the beach, using toss lines.

Overhead, pelicans flocked by, some just driufting in the water, and other diving into the sea, making a large splash.

As we walked back toward the north end of the beach, a magnificent frigate bird passed overhead:

The tide pools were exposed, although the tide was quickly coming in, and we could see the water was clear and would be good for tide pooling:

We were pretty warm by this time, so we headed back to enjoy our private pool-tub on our patio: