Costa Rica

When in Costa Rica, do as the tourists do. The Costa Ricans eat beans, rice, and work all day. The tourists, at least these tourists, lead a much more glamorous life. They fly first class, zip line through the jungle, ride horses to mud baths and thermal pools, learn the mating call of the holwer monkey and the Costa Rican men, shower outside, snorkel, zip line upside down, wear sexy diapers to go on gigantic cement water slides...

Zip lining through the jungle.

  We stumbled upon some monkeys, just hanging out in the trees next to the zip line. We got pretty close for some great pics.  :)

Auditioning for Lord of the Rings... ;)

The tourists ride Sea Doos, stumble upon these monkeys hanging out in trees...

ride ATVs through the jungle and high five little kids who run out to great them, feed birds on the patio, see Toucans up close instead of just on a cereal box, have monkeys sit on their shoulders without ripping off their eyelids (thankfully!), lay by the pool, get sun, sunburn, eat fancy dinners at luxurious restaurants, and sit in the spa every night. And that's all in just one week! One tourist in this particular group, me, was also stung by a scorpion, but that's an entirely different story.

Summer 2012!

Summer is finally here. Well, almost here. Three more days with students, then check out day. Is it too late to make a countdown chain? I feel like, somehow, if I don't, things will be anti-climactic. ;)

This school year has been hectic, as always and, unfortunately, as expected, but it's been a fun year. I have some really good students this year and it's actually been fun to get to know some of them. Teaching 9th graders is kind of nice because I'll still see the kids around school next year.

What are my big summer plans? Will the summer of 2012 come close to topping the most incredible vacation of all time in 2011? It just may. :)

• A 7 day cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage. We had such a great time last summer, the girls and I decided we needed a repeat. My cousin, Kara, lives in Anchorage, so we are staying there after the cruise to see some more sites. We HAVE to take a helicopter to the top of a glacier and dog sled, of course. I mean, a trip to Alaska just couldn't be complete without that! 
• After Alaska, I may take a quick trip to Dallas to visit a boy, a friend, and my aunt's family.
• Middle of July? Costa Rica with Heather and her family. We booked an excursion in Costa Rica that includes horseback riding, which I haven't done in years, so I'm not sure if I'm excited or nervous about that. Either way, I'm sure it will be beautiful! :) 
• Some friends and I are going to a church conference in Orange County in the beginning of August.
• My brother, Matt, is getting married in the middle of August. That means a quick trip to Utah for his wedding, then next think you know... summer will be gone and it's back to school. 

It's crazy to think that summer hasn't even started yet, yet somehow, listing all of my plans and looking at my calendar suddenly makes me feel like it's almost over! Luckily, I have over two months of freedom just ahead! Freedom. Hoo-ray!!  :)

New York City! (Spring Break 2012)

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We arrived in New York around 7:45 PM. We went to the hotel, dropped off our stuff, and took off to find food. We ate at Shake Shack, just down the street from our hotel. We'd heard good things and were not disappointed at all. On Wednesday, we spent a nice, relaxing morning wandering around Central Park. It was nice to be out in the sun after Boston, which was windy, cold, and a bit rainy. We saw an underpass (photo at top right) that seems the type where bodies are always found on CSI. Surprisingly, there were no dead bodies anywhere in sight.

In the afternoon, we visited the Museum of Natural History. We didn't spent much time, but just ran through and saw the highlights. We had lunch at a cute little Greek place, then searched for Levain's Bakery, the reported home of the best chocolate chip peanut butter cookies in the world. It took us a while to find the cookies and, when we did, they were dark chocolate with peanut butter in them. I'm not a fan of dark chocolate, so I just got regular chocolate chip walnut. At $4 a piece, I decided to just get one, then quickly decided I could have easily had one or two more. The cookies were absolutely delicious. On our way back to the hotel, we spotted Nick Jonas. He was standing in front of the theatre where he is performing "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." His car dropped him off in front of the theatre so he could sign autographs before going inside to get ready for the performance.

We visited the 9/11 Memorial and Ellis Island on Saturday. My great-great-great (who knows how many greats) grandmother, Jeanie Milligan, came through Ellis Island in 1904 or 1906. I'd seen the movie "Hitch," so I had unrealistic expectations about Ellis Island. I hoped to find a big book of records to thumb through, but they had computers you could use for $5 an hour. I could do the same research online at home for free. Disappointing, but...

Boston and Salem, MA (Spring Break 2012!)

We flew into Boston on Saturday night. It was cold, rainy, and we were tired, so we ordered pizza, chatted, and tried to plan out the rest of our trip.

On Sunday, we walked The Freedom Trail. I love U.S. History, so I was fascinated the entire morning. We saw the gravestones of Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Mother Goose.

We spent Monday in Salem, Massachusetts. I've taught "The Crucible" and Scarlet Letter in my American Lit classes, so I've been interested in the witch trials and Puritan history.

We met up with my friend Jamar and his wife, Sheena, for dinner that night. Jamar and I were friends when he lived in Las Vegas during the summer of 2005. We haven't kept in touch much since then, but are friends on Facebook, of course. He messaged me when he saw I was in Boston and asked if I'd be interested in meeting up. It was fun to catch up and didn't feel at all like it had been so many years since we'd seen one another.

Tuesday morning we visited the USS Constitution. We left Boston on Tuesday afternoon. The bus to New York City was only $15 and just over 4 hours. Kristin and I both sat alone and tried to get some sleep while on the bus.