Dierks Bentley – Drunk on a Plane
For all the times I’ve ordered a beer or a Bailey’s and coffee in the air…
Download the song by clicking the pic below:
Les Bourgeois Goodbye
I lost one of my best friends recently. Well, I didn’t lose her lose her, but she moved away. We had a wonderful parting evening at Les Bourgeois Vineyards in Rocheport, Mo.
Jim and Krissi move into our cul-de-sac a couple of years ago. It started off kind of rough, their kids and our kids kept playing together. But we didn’t know them that well, so we didn’t let the kids play inside the house unless they asked their parents first. We didn’t want them to think we were kidnappers or anything. Although there is a website to check that out.
As time went on, we got to know Jim and Krissi better. I think the point of no return was the Halloween party we all had in the cul-de-sac. Jim had made a huge batch of jambalaya, hubby was in full costume (he was a hideous clown before clowns got such a bad rap) carrying around his chainless, albeit noisy chainsaw. Other neighbors brought over jack-o-lanterns spewing dip, jello shots and homemade grilled chicken wings. Let’s just say, I think the grown ups had the best time that night! Even the mailman found a leftover bowl of jambalaya in our mailbox two days later (we did not put it there) .
Shortly after that, I had a new found bestie in Krissi. We excercised together, went shopping, visited some local eateries and festivals. We had some fun evenings dining out with the families and even more dining in or just hanging out celebrating birthdays or venting about daily life nuisances.
It was awesome knowing I had someone to pal around with and confide in just across the cul-de-sac. But alas, the day came when Jim got a job transfer and they were relocating to another state. It seemed like just as quick as they moved here, they were moving away! To celebrate their life change and move forward, Krissi and I took a short road trip to Rocheport, Mo.
Rocheport is a sleepy little river town about 20 minutes from here. It isn’t very big, but they have a wonderful little gem in the winery there, Les Bourgeois Vineyards. Krissi had been wanting to go there and this was potentially our last chance to go before she left.
If you ever get the chance, check the place out! We started off at the A-frame, which is located up on a bluff top, amidst the growing grapes, overlooking the Missouri River. Who says you need to be on the beach to catch a good sunset? We got a great one!
After it got dark, we headed over to the Bistro, which is their restaurant located on the next bluff over.
Their food was incredible! We shared a Hummus plate as an appetizer and then for the entrees, Krissi had Cajun Chicken Pasta and I had Seafood Bianco. Obviously, we had to have some of their wines, but I won’t go into detail on how much…
What a wonderful evening. We both resolved NOT to cry, and we dreaded the impending moving day. But we didn’t cry! We had a very fun, memorable evening at a place we are lucky to have so near! And we created a memory we will both cherish forever. Krissi probably won’t even read this post. She’s so busy setting up house in her new town, she won’t get a chance to read my posts for at least a month. Maybe we’ll have some new neighbors who by then. And maybe they’ll read my posts. Ah, no one will be able to replace my friend Krissi! I miss you guys!
Countdown Mexico
We’re headed to Mexico soon. Meeting up with our British friends, the Beards, for a replay of a vacation 7 years ago at The Grand Palladium in the Riviera Maya. Here’s a list of what I’ll need to get done before we go:
- Check cambio to see what the current exchange rate is so I can decide how much money to exchange (please be a good exchange rate, so I can shop more!)
- Gather up travel insurance info, which is already saved in my email
- Get our passports out of the safe
- Make color copies of our passports to leave behind with trustworthy friends in case they’d need to bail us out of any situation. I also keep a copy on my phone.
- Switch my phone over to Mexico calling and text package (we rarely use our phones while out of the country, but you never know when you may need more than wi-fi
- Alert my bank and credit card company of our travel dates, so they don’t think someone stole my cards and ran off to Mexico
- Bring the suitcases
up from storage, so we can start packing
- Round up a lot of small bills for tipping
up from storage, so we can start packingThings to remember to pack besides clothes:
- iPad mini
and chargers
- Water shoes or dive boots
(probably boots this time considering how many sting rays we saw in that area last time)
- Underwater camera
—I’ll make sure everything is cleaned and fully charged before packing it in my carry-on
- Ear buds and a book for the plane (I will also have a sweater and pair of socks in my carry-on in case it’s a cold flight)
- Band aids, nail polish, and polish remover pads
- Prescription meds and OTC meds–Tums, Benadryl, ibuprofen, Imodium just in case. It costs way more to buy them there
- Sunscreen and insect repellant to ward off mosquitos
- Snorkel gear
: mask, snorkel, fins—the last time we needed to borrow fins the crew could only find one fin in hubby’s size
- If we decide to dive, I can rent that gear there
- Dive log
and chargers
(probably boots this time considering how many sting rays we saw in that area last time)
—I’ll make sure everything is cleaned and fully charged before packing it in my carry-on
: mask, snorkel, fins—the last time we needed to borrow fins the crew could only find one fin in hubby’s sizeClothes wise, I will mostly pack:
- bathing suits
- Cover ups
- Dresses for dinner
- Flip flops and sandals
- One pair of tennis shoes
- Some gym/workout clothes (the resort has a pretty cool gym)
Pretty much anything else beyond that, is going to be overkill for a week-long trip. Honestly, I probably don’t need much more than the bathing suits anyway.
Travel Music Tuesday–Kid Rock
Kid Rock – All Summer Long
This song reminds me of summer road trips, usually to the Lake. Every time I hear it, I’m ready to go somewhere warm, sunny, and fun!
Download the song by clicking on the pic below:
Costa Rica–Secret Beach
On one of our first days at the RIU Palace in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, we started hearing other guests talk about a secret beach. It was referred to as obscenely beautiful, with lots of shady spots to be found under the palm trees. The more we heard about it, the more we decided we wanted to see it. Everyone said to just walk left, down the beach, go around the cliff and you will be there.
One morning, after lunch, me, hubby, and our travel buddy Paula set off for this gorgeous beach. We turned left down the beach and a little while later came to the cliff. Apparently, none of us had heard the complete instructions for going around the cliff.
It jutted out into the ocean that was filled with a lot of rocks. We made the executive decision to walk around the cliff the other direction.
This way took us up a small footpath, around the cliff, and we came out on a gravel road. We could tell others had been back there on foot and on horse. This is where our Waiting For Godot story begins. The play by Samuel Beckett (buy it here), is basically a play in which nothing happens. It has the characters continually wait for Godot, but they come to no definite conclusions. This is how I felt about our hike to the secret beach.
We walked. And we walked. We walked uphill, we walked downhill. We walked for what seemed like forever. We walked up another hill, thinking the beach had to be just on the other side. It wasn’t.
When we had started out that morning, while still on the beach, I had pointed at a ridge and joked that if we found ourselves on the road that was visible way up near the top, we had probably gone too far. When we reached a stretch of that road that allowed us to see back to our beach, we realized that’s exactly what happened! We were almost at the top of that ridge.
We turned around and began walking back. It turns out we walked about 6 miles that day, but only really needed to have gone 2 to get to the secret beach. The crucial instruction that we missed was that we were supposed to go during low tide, when we could easily have walked around the front side of the cliff to the secret beach. I suppose that the next time we decide to go find the next secret beach, we will know to get better instructions AND pay attention to them. Or, we’ll just need to return to the RIU Palace in Costa Rica now that we know how to find their secret beach.
More Costa Rica–RIU Palace
A couple of years ago, we caught an end-of-season sale on Apple Vacations to go to Costa Rica. While we had many options of excursions, we really didn’t leave the resort for much. If you want to see what we left the resort for, you can check it out here. There was so much to do at the RIU Palace!
Hubby and I love getting massages and the first thing we did was get a chair massage poolside the day we arrived. Not a bad start to vacay! We then made an appointment to visit the resort’s spa, which was a Renova Spa. We had a nice relaxing couples massage that also included hanging out afterwards in their quiet community Jacuzzi.
The next day, we discovered the beach spas set up on the beach by locals. As much as we love massages, and when we discovered that their massages were half the price of the spa, we reserved time for two more massages each, for later in the week. It sounded so relaxing to have a massage on the beach. During the beach massages, when you can hear people walking by, laughing and chatting, and the massage ladies are recruiting their next appointment from passers-by during your time, you realize that it maybe wasn’t as relaxing as it sounded.
In hindsight, I preferred the spa massage more even though it cost more.. The quiet and serenity of Renova Spa, was just what I needed on vacay.
On the beach, we were also lucky enough to have vendors who were peddling all kinds of souvenir-worthy wares. You could find anything from wood-carvings to pottery, from dresses and cover-ups to jewelry. I had a particularly good time shopping with the jewelry lady. She had so many incredible pieces, and sometimes finding the matching sets in what she had, became challenging. It took quite a bit of time to stock up on sets for my friends, but it was worth her while. I ended up buying a LOT of it!
So much, in fact, that she threw in a wood-carved vase for free! She was such a sweetie!
Later in the week, we discovered there was going to be a poolside class on carving fruits. One of our travel buddies, Paula, and I showed up for it. Wow! Could these guys carve some incredible designs!
And they did it so fast and made it look so easy! But here’s what mine turned out like:
I’m not the craftiest one in the bunch, but I’ll keep practicing…
If I haven’t mentioned before how incredible the food is at a Riu Palace (oh wait, I have here) I must bring it up again, since we spent a lot of time dining on resort with our friends. We had a sushi restaurant where I could get Sake—I love the stuff! The Papagayo, which was the steakhouse, gave you the options of steak and lobster. It was so good, we went back twice! Saving the best for last, our themed buffet restaurant had seafood night the last night we were there.
The line for lobster tails stayed 20 people deep the entire time we were there for dinner. Luckily, hubby made friends with our waitress who admirably kept going over to the cook for more lobster, so we wouldn’t have to stand in the line. I believe he polished off 8 tails in the end. I might also add, that was ALL he ate. He loves lobster so much, he said there was no room for sides.
The last thing I discovered at our resort, that I really took a liking to were Cassava chips. Cassava is similar to a potato, but is actually what tapioca is made from. While I’m no fan of tapioca, I really enjoyed the chips.
The next time I go to Costa Rica, I do vow to leave the resort and experience more of the culture and environment. However, for this trip the Riu Palace was a great experience.
Travel Music Tuesday–Steve Winwood
While You See A Chance – Steve Winwood
Because life is too short!
Download the song by clicking the pic below:
Monkeying Around in Costa Rica
A couple of years back, we found a steal of a deal on a trip to Guanacaste, Costa Rica because it was the last non-stop flight for the season. Costa Rica had been on the “list” for a long time, so we couldn’t pass up going. This trip was to a RIU Palace, which is one of our favorite resort brands. We like it enough that we got married at RIU in Negril, Jamaica. What we didn’t realize in Jamaica, but we learned in Costa Rica, is that the “Palace” side would have been slightly more upscale–better food, premium drinks, and adults only.
Costa Rica is known for it’s population of monkeys, and in doing my research, I discovered a place called Monkey’s Bar just down from our resort where guests would go to watch and feed the monkeys. Much to hubby’s chagrin, I made him get up so early on a number of mornings that it wasn’t even light out, just so we could go down to Monkey’s Bar. It wasn’t open in mornings, but it looked like a pretty neat place to grab a beer in the evening.
Some people would feed the monkey’s bananas and strawberries. We didn’t. Most mornings we could barely see them, and only once did our friend get to see one up close. They were really cute, but reputably vicious.
We hung out a lot with our friends on this trip, but one afternoon we took a snorkeling and sunset cruise excursion. We went out on a huge catamaran, the Vision, and toured the Gulf of Papagayo.
The crew served a really tasty light lunch and there were fun cocktails available.
We stopped off to do a little snorkeling and then continued over to Monkey Head Rock. Who knew we’d even see monkeys in the ocean?
Shortly after the big rock, we ran into some dolphins swimming along side our boat. They looked like they were having as much fun as we were having, yet looked so graceful.
We then witnessed one of the most beautiful, albeit cloudy sunsets ever before being returned back to the RIU.
I may just have considered it to be so beautiful, because we had just had one of the most relaxed, fun days ever. It was a day that will make me always consider Costa Rica a wonderful, beautiful place!
A Morning Engagement–Best Sunrise Ever!
We were in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in February a few years ago. Hubby wasn’t yet my hubby and we decided this trip would be great for him to get his scuba certification. I was already certified, so I decided to work on my advanced certification. Needless to say, this vacay turned in to more of a “working” dive trip. We didn’t have much free time, but I think we made the most out of the time we DID have.
We were at an Iberostar resort, which is one of my favorites. Our villa rooms were close to the pool and dive shop and were nicely decorated. We had turtles living in the courtyard.
I loved the colors of the buildings because they complemented the colors of the sunrise here. Over the years, hubby and I, upon arrival, determine if we are in a locale that will have a better sunrise or sunset and then we make sure to watch some. Due to the way Punta Cana is situated in the DR, we determined sunrises here should be incredible.
The food was also something to write home about. We loved that there was an ice cream “parlor” right next to the pool, and one afternoon, lunch was served poolside–a paella with prawns the size of small lobsters.
Besides diving, we got in a substantial amount of pool and beach time. And there were always chairs available at both. The ocean was a little rough, so we probably camped more at the pool.
We did get the chance to take one excursion–an all-day trip to Saona Island–which is a protected nature reserve. We took a long bus ride over to Hacienda Dominicus and got to use their amenities while waiting for our boat. We then went out for diving (the rest of our group went snorkeling) just off Saona Island. After our dive, we had an incredible beach BBQ and had time to relax and enjoy their beach. There were a few vendors selling their wares, and on our way back we got to stop at a natural pool where we got to see starfish. (Don’t worry, the one in the picture was not alive. The boat hands had planted many of them, so no one would disturb the live ones.)
My favorite part about being on the trip to Saona Island is that I got to meet my friend Melissa. She is one of the encouraging people I had met along the blogging path and you may want to check out her blog The Mellyboo Project. We had a great time on our bus trip back to our Iberostar and she is quite the inspiration!
Our last morning in Punta Cana was Valentine’s Day. We again got up before dawn so we could watch sunrise on the beach. It didn’t even cross my mind that this would be the BEST sunrise ever. We found a nice spot on the beach and had fun posing with the rising sun in the palms of our hands. Just after daybreak, Sonny got down on one knee in the sand and asked if I would marry him. Of course I said yes! We still keep up our tradition of catching sunrises and sunsets wherever we go, but none will be quite as special as this one was.
A Morning Engagement–Best Sunrise Ever!
We were in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in February a few years ago. Hubby wasn’t yet my hubby and we decided this trip would be great for him to get his scuba certification. I was already certified, so I decided to work on my advanced certification. Needless to say, this vacay turned in to more of a “working” dive trip. We didn’t have much free time, but I think we made the most out of the time we DID have.
We were at an Iberostar resort, which is one of my favorites. Our villa rooms were close to the pool and dive shop and were nicely decorated. We had turtles living in the courtyard.
I loved the colors of the buildings because they complemented the colors of the sunrise here. Over the years, hubby and I, upon arrival, determine if we are in a locale that will have a better sunrise or sunset and then we make sure to watch some. Due to the way Punta Cana is situated in the DR, we determined sunrises here should be incredible.
The food was also something to write home about. We loved that there was an ice cream “parlor” right next to the pool, and one afternoon, lunch was served poolside–a paella with prawns the size of small lobsters.Besides diving, we got in a substantial amount of pool and beach time. And there were always chairs available at both. The ocean was a little rough, so we probably camped more at the pool.
We did get the chance to take one excursion–an all-day trip to Saona Island–which is a protected nature reserve. We took a long bus ride over to Hacienda Dominicus and got to use their amenities while waiting for our boat. We then went out for diving (the rest of our group went snorkeling) just off Saona Island. After our dive, we had an incredible beach BBQ and had time to relax and enjoy their beach. There were a few vendors selling their wares, and on our way back we got to stop at a natural pool where we got to see starfish. (Don’t worry, the one in the picture was not alive. The boat hands had planted many of them, so no one would disturb the live ones.)My favorite part about being on the trip to Saona Island is that I got to meet my friend Melissa. She is one of the encouraging people I had met along the blogging path and you may want to check out her blog The Mellyboo Project. We had a great time on our bus trip back to our Iberostar and she is quite the inspiration!
Our last morning in Punta Cana was Valentine’s Day. We again got up before dawn so we could watch sunrise on the beach. It didn’t even cross my mind that this would be the BEST sunrise ever. We found a nice spot on the beach and had fun posing with the rising sun in the palms of our hands. Just after daybreak, Sonny got down on one knee in the sand and asked if I would marry him. Of course I said yes! We still keep up our tradition of catching sunrises and sunsets wherever we go, but none will be quite as special as this one was.