Costa Rica...pura vida!

Costa Rica - November 2014

My colleague, Todd, and his daughter Shelby and I traveled to Costa Rica recently to set up a faculty-led study abroad experience for our students at ISU.  We met with a university to establish some connections as well as explored the nature of Costa Rica.  These are coffee beans which are almost ready for harvest.

It look like I will be traveling back to CR in May to take 10-12 students plus another faculty member!

 Shelby and her dad embraced  the opportunity to hold the boa constrictor.

If you click on this picture you'll see a little dart frog on the green plant. I enjoyed the frogs and butterflies much more than the snakes.

 Marta and I visited Costa Rica 28 years ago and our visit to this volcano, Poas, was unlike our current trip because usually the crater is socked in with clouds.  Todd, Shelby, and I had a rare experience to see Volcan de Poas on a clear day!

Both this picture and the previous were taken at Universidad de Veritas. Apparently this food vendor is the most popular person on campus with all of his tasty treats like empanadas!

We did a canopy (ziplining) tour and these fellas were our guides.  I had a blast with them.  The one with the helmet asked if I had ever been in Costa Rica before. I said yes, 28 years ago, probably before you were born. He grinned and said, Actually, I was already 2 years old."

I didn't take my camera with me for fear of dropping it, but this is the kind of ziplining we did. The most amazing moment was when we went belly down and head first over a rain forest gorge.

 The guy in the blue shirt with me, Luis, organizes ecotours for many universities in the US including SUNY Cortland and U Nebraska at Kearney to name a few.

This picture of me with the sacks of coffee beans was taken at a coffee plantation.  The beans are ready to be roasted.  The white beans are for export and the brown and white beans are sold locally.

Dan created a GPS unit for one of his engineering projects at school. He is demonstrating it to us in this picture.

We had the whole family on Thanksgiving this year!  It was surprising how capable we were in polishing off a 16 lb turkey over the course of 2 days! After dinner we broke out the instruments and had a jam session.  Joel is playing the nose flute. Do you see Dan on the guitar? He's been playing since August and is pretty good!

We had a bass guitar, mandolins, and guitars all going.  It was a blast!







The last picture below is young Maddox. We are watching him for our friends so they can have a getaway to Indy for the night.  He's quite the charmer (actually, he's sound asleep right now)!

Shadow, the dog who lived every day like it was a Saturday

This picture was taken on September 12, 2014, the day we realized she had lost her sight.  She continued to enjoy snoozing in the sunshine and eating her doggie dinners which were often enhanced with table scraps. She especially enjoyed washing it all down with our reverse osmosis water and ice cubes.

Kids loved Shadow. Braydon was especially fond of her.  She had such a soft, furry coat to pet, not to mention her pleasant disposition.

She kept careful watch over the farmstead. She faced off in the middle of the night against coyotes, treed squirrels, and tried to convince the cats that she was queen.  

Family photos seemed better when Shadow joined the party.

 A boy and his dog.

Shadow came to us in June 2004 when Lori, from Dr. Whitman's office, called to say someone had brought in a stray dog that was too nice and smart to put down.  Lori was right.

This-n-That

 Family Weekend at U Colorado! Buffs won!

Tasty Ethiopian dinner in Boulder. You unroll and tear off a piece of the spongy bread and use it to scoop the food with your hand. There were several orders of food on this big platter including lamb, spicy beef, spinach, and other goodies.  It was a neat experience!

Digging in. No forks, knives, or spoons needed!

I love this picture. It's Tom's favorite place to buy chocolate bars (see all the stacks of chocolate?). Only $2 a bar in Boulder!

Chatting after dinner at K n J's.

Demand to Divest from Fossil Fuels!  This was a climate change march on Pearl Street. We had to catch our bus to the airport so we didn't join the festivities.

Enjoying the glorious aspens along the Peak to Peak Highway.

Pretty darn purdy.

Tom's beans look rather purdy, too! These beans will be made into feed for farm-raised salmon.

And look at what the Wall Street Journal is claiming about farm raised salmon!  Yippee.

 Polish students and me on the "Bridge of Doom." 

 Polish students

 Watching the corn grow.

Shadow von Shepherd Schlatter

Summer 2014

Tom and I traveled to Montana to collect Dan and his belongings from the 2 month internship he had with his sister and brother-in-law.  On the way we did some hiking. This particular hike warned of bears, rattlesnakes, and poison ivy.  I ended up with the poison ivy.

We opted for this hike because there was no elevation gain.  The day prior we climbed a mountain with significant elevation gain. I quickly realized that bicycling doesn't not properly prepare one for hiking. Dan laughed at me the rest of the week each time I walked up and down the stairs saying, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

Here is the 7000+ ft beauty we climbed - Storm Castle Peak. When Tom realized I had selected this mountain to climb his comment was, "it's insurmountable."

Later we caught up with Dan.

We also visited Williston, ND where all of the oil drilling and fracking is going gangbusters.  It was fascinating to see. We drove in on a Saturday night and couldn't believe how much traffic there was. The landscape was dotted with oil wells and flairs of natural gas burning, billboards advertising employment and housing, new businesses, and much more.

Tom was intrigued with this little business in Williston: Boomtown Babes - a drive up coffee shop whereby scantily-clad women serve up hot drinks to their customers. He thought the coffee and service were both quite good... 

This museum in Glendive, MT took a creationist approach to dinosaurs.

Montana rest area

Back on the farm in IL, bass fishing has become quite the evening activity among Dan and his buddies.

Enjoying the front porch