My friends, Joe and Freddie Ann, were to arrive here the early part of January. They arrived at the airport with plenty of time to catch their flight to Houston and then to San Jose. When they approached the ticket counter at Love Field they were told there would be no flight to Houston as they were snowed and iced in! Houston? Houston is about as far south as you can get in Texas. This never happens. They were then told the soonest they could get a flight to San Jose would be in four days. There were so many flights cancelled the future flights were booked. After all our plans and bookings everything had to be cancelled. As disappointed as I was I know theirs was worse. This was their scheduled vacation.
Eight days after Joe and Freddie's miss my mother and sister made it! The fun started when they arrived at the hotel, and I surprised them by being there. I told them I would pick them up the next morning because their flight was a late one. The shocked looks on their faces and the immediate laughing was fantastic.
Our first stop was a tour and history lesson of San Jose. It was so interesting and such a feast for the eyes. Well, maybe not the first stop. The tour company had people at both ends of San Jose taking the tour. They sent a van to pick our side of town up, and we were to meet the tour bus in a parking lot of a museum that was not scheduled on the tour. We got there early, so the driver told us to go ahead and see this museum since we had about a 15 minute wait. We went inside to find an erotic art exhibition. Surprise!
The second day we went to the beach in Jaco. What a crazy trip that was. I was using WazeApp to get us there and back. Going there we had been driving for 45 mins. when we were suddenly back where we started! We turned around, put the information back in the App and this time we made it. On our trip back it happened again! I looked up and saw a sign that said Atenas and San Jose. Wrong way! We pulled off, put the info back in the App and it took us down the smallest roughest scariest road in Costa Rica! We went over a one car bridge we later learned was called the Jesus Bridge because the drop is so far down to the river. We screamed the whole way over it. The rest of the time we laughed non stop at the absurdity of being on such a so called road!
The next day we actually went to Atenas on purpose to visit my friends, Tim and Nancy Muldoon. My family has known Tim since he was in grade school, and Nancy and I were in the same class in high school. They have built a beautiful home there with amazing views. My mother was so excited to see Tim. He was a deacon in the Catholic Church in Dallas for many years. So many of my mother's friends asked her to deliver messages of hello to him. We had a great visit.
After a day of rest I had a party for my mother and sister at my house. I wanted them to meet some of the wonderful friends I have made here. Again...We went to a typical Soda for breakfast and ran a few errands. When we got back to my house to start getting everything ready for the party the water was off! (I am dying laughing just typing all this. It really was one crazy thing after another.) I sent everyone a message letting them know that if I still had no water by 2:30 I would have to cancel the party. The water started to trickle back on at 2:15. I let everyone know it was on. I had to put all the food together, clean things around the house, clean the carport and chairs, set it all up and take a shower and get ready by 4:00. We made it by the lipstick going on my lips. It was so much fun and I think my mother felt a little better about me moving to Costa Rica at that point.
Our last full day together my friends, Tressa and Brian Hofos, treated us to a wonderful brunch at an amazing Tico Soda. They cook everything over an open fire. It was delish and we had a wonderful visit. We all signed the walls inside the Soda as is tradition.
And just like that the week was up. We went to church that morning when during Mass a dog wondered in through the open doors. So normal. It happens all the time. People in Costa Rica love animals. After Church we went to visit George and Aija Lundquist. I first met them when I was seventeen and George was working for my father at Haggar Slacks Company as a plant manager. It was a great visit for my mother. Then we went to see my friends, Cathy and Roland. Two of the sweetest people in Costa Rica. We had to then hurry to my house get their luggage and drive to San Jose back to the Adventure Inn for their early morning flight.
The visit was wonderful despite all the crazy goofs that just kept us laughing. I am looking forward to my next friends arriving in two weeks!
Pura Vida!
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