Just Flew in from Costa Rica...

...and Boy are My Arms Tired! Ba-da-dum ching!

12 days ago I boarded a plane from JFK and some hours later met up with 3 of my oldest friends and the 4.5 year old of 2 of them in San Jose, Costa Rica. The next morning we rented a car and made the sometimes scary, very scenic drive down to Quepos/Manuel Antonio. Once there we found the house we rented - which was a bajillion times more amazing than we ever imagined - and settled in for an 11 day vacation in paradise. On the 6th day my sister joined us and the trip just got more magical.

Highlights from the trip include....

The view from one of our many verandas.


The sunsets.


The spider monkeys outside my bedroom window.


Zipline rain forest canopy tour.


The barking geckos that ran all over our house eating the bugs.

Spending a million hours in the ocean.

Surfing!


The food!




The drinks!




The Brazilian night at gay bar!

Having the time to read 4 books.

Tasting the most delicious bacon in the world.

Pacific Northwest Getaway

This past weekend Abe and I went to a wedding on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington. Paws did not want me to leave.

Abe got there on Tuesday because he was a groomsman in the wedding and then I flew in on Friday, drove a car 2.5 hours to the ferry, took the 1.5 hour ferry, and made it just in time to have dessert at the rehearsal dinner. The wedding was amazing and special, but it was particularly exciting for me because I finally got a chance to meet the rest of Abe's friends that I have heard about for 3 years!

Orcas Island is totally Jurassic Park.

Saturday morning I went for a walk and ran into some deer by the resort mansion. They are wild, but tame, and will let you pet them. It was awesome.


I found some celery by the kitchen door - deers ain't interested in celery.


I had some time to kill before the ceremony so I went for a long hike in Moran State Park. Here is where I saw my first Banana Slug.




The ceremony took place on a grassy cliff overlooking the bay. They had a mariachi band playing in the background.

The reception was fun - great food (I must have had 10 bacon wrapped scallops), lots and lots of dancing, and even a hot dog station late night.

The after-party was just straight up shenanigans back at the suite. Abe and I got locked out of our room at 3am and didn't get in till 4am. The next morning we pulled ourselves together with the rest of the kids and took the ferry back to Anacortes. I think this is Mt. Baker.

From there we drove to Seattle where Abe's dad picked us up and took us to Olympia.

On Monday we took a day trip into Tacoma. We were going to go to Mt. Ranier, but it was rainy in the morning. All the museums were closed in Tacoma, but we walked the Crystal Bridge that features Dale Chihuly's work.




On our way back to Olympia we stopped at some crazy outdoors store called Cabela's. There was an aquarium inside and a huge taxidermy display. I got a great sleeping bag on sale.


Then Abe took me to Evergreen State College (where he went to school). It was real purty. Too bad Ted Bundy is forever linked to this place in my mind. We poked around the new buildings, which were really cool - great architecture and it really incorporated nature into the structure.


We kind of just hung out for the rest of the time and flew back Tuesday afternoon. Biggest lesson learned: if you live in Brooklyn do not fly into Newark airport at night and take the train home. It took us 2.5 hours and we had to take 4 trains.

Heading West

Tomorrow I fly out to Seattle to join Abe for 5 glorious days in Washington. We are going to a wedding on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands for the weekend and then we'll head back down to Olympia for a couple nights at his dad's house.

I am renting a car from the airport and driving to the ferry in Anacortes. The islands we are going to are practically in Canada. I'm very excited. Here is my driving route:


View Larger Map

On a sad note - very, very sad. My Sven's won't be here on time to come on this trip with me. I had 5 outfits planned around those boots. Life is truly like a box of chocolates.

Minnesota :: Thursday

Ah, Minnesota. It's a wonderful state. I flew into Minneapolis late Wednesday night and spent Thursday and Friday in the Twin Cities. On Saturday my sister and I drove up to Duluth, MN and communed with nature for a couple days. Then it was back to St. Paul Sunday night and I shipped off early Monday morning. Here are some highlights from my trip...I wish I was still there!


On Thursday and Friday I drove my sister to work at the University of Minnesota and then afterwards I would get an iced coffee. It was awesome cause it was cold pressed.



On Thursday I went to the American-Swedish Institute. There was an exhibit of all the Queen's ball gowns, which was kind of fun. It wasn't a mind blowing museum, but still neat.

The coolest thing was that the museum was a former residence and there were 11 porcelain stoves in the mansion that had been ordered from Sweden. I would love to have just one!

At the musuem I picked up some Swedish treats. I grew up eating Swedish pancakes - my next door neighbor's family is Swedish and whenever I would sleepover his house his mom would make them for us in the morning. And then I got this Swedish facial soap that is made with egg whites. I have been looking for something to spruce up my skin, but I hate chemical stuff from the drug store so I decided to give this soap a whirl. So far I love it.


Later in the day I went back to Como Park while I waited for Jaime to get off work. I got a little artsy.




I discovered empty snail shells all along the bank of the pond. At first it was cool....


...then I felt them crunching under my feet like the cockroaches in Indiana Jones and I got really freaked out and got the hell out of there.

Jaime and I went to Stella's Fish Cafe for dinner and it was awesome. We ate crab dip and coconut shrimp till we were bloated and had to roll to the car.



Afterwards we took a walk in the park and a weird girl told us to look at the moon. Glad we did because it looked really cool.

Minnesota :: Friday

Friday I dropped Jaime off at work and went back to Como Park, but this time I went to the Conservatory and to the Zoo. Both are free to enter, which is amazing and a big change from NYC.

The Conservatory is kind of like the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I loved walking around.

The Zoo was sad. I hate zoos and I should have listened to my gut and not gone in there. I do not believe in capturing wild animals to cage them up in unnatural settings in order for people to go and gawk at them. It makes me really sad - even "good" zoos (nature reserves and animal rehabilitation centers are fine though). The Como Zoo was fine, but there is definitely not enough space to keep gorillas, giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers.... seeing a giant male gorilla spacing out on the cement floor of a glassed in cage breaks my heart. It has nothing to do with whether or not the people running the zoo love the animals/take good care of them - it's just not fair to lock wild animals up like that.

Anyway, the Conservatory was great.



Nice use of succulents:



For the evening I decided we were going to go to Nye's Polonaise per the request of my friend, Colleen, who made me promise we would go. The front room is a slightly dive-y, but awesome, bar. It is here where you can dance to the music of The World's Most Dangerous Polka Band. No joke. They might be old, but they will play the hokey poky for all the youngsters.



When Jaime's friend/internmate, Lindsay, showed up we went into the formal dining room. This is where the late-night magic happens. It is very 70's and reminded me of the restaurant in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The food is Polish - and not like the Polish food I get in Greenpoint. This is very heavy on the gravy. We ate like our lives depended on it.





There is also karaoke. An old lady plays the piano a la Billy Joel and sings along to every song. There is no television - instead you read the lyrics from a sheet of paper while sitting at the piano bar. It's pretty freaking great. We were too busy eating massive amounts of gravy to make it up to the bar. There is also a man (not shown) in the corner that I am positive must sit there every single night - he looks very pissed off most of the time, but he will mouth the words to every single song. The only performance we saw him applaud was of 2 girls singing "I Will Survive". Go fig.


This was a very enjoyable night and I demand that anyone visiting Minneapolis must go to Nye's Polonaise. Just don't order the spinach dip - my sister and I will eat just about anything - especially dips - and this thing was sick.

More Minnesota

I was going to post photos and captions for Saturday and Sunday in Minnesota, but I got lazy. So here are just some photos. Let me just emphasize that Lake Superior is freaking awesome and we spent 80% of our two days up there in the freezing cold water. I also did some major rock collecting.


At Tom's Logging Camp.


My fave wild flowers.


Me taking a dip.


Me and Jaime in Two Harbors, MN.

Gooseberry Falls :




Trail Shelter


Why did Dan and Goldie stop coming?


Thousands of hobbit caves.


Crater in the river rocks.