Yesterday was a really fun day. It was Sunday, we didn’t have any school to attend, so we had a casual morning. Went out to breakfast at Nogui’s which is the kids favorite place on the beach. We’ve been eating most breakfasts at the hotel so it was nice to branch out and try something new. Ben and Jake are always happy when they can order something like a breakfast sandwich 🙂

After breakfast we walked down the the Super Compro (one of the markets here) and stocked up on lunch supplies, snacks and drinks for the next few days. Grocery store shopping in Costa Rica is not quite like it is in the states.. the stores are very small and they have extremely limited selections. Fruit and vegetables as well as meat seem to be an after thought as they are always in the back corner and not very inviting. The vegetables look like they are a few days old most of the time, but I think that’s just the “natural” look that they try so hard to hide back in the states. I’m honestly not sure.

Post shopping, we headed home to get changed into our suits, stopped by the Suft Institute to grab a few boards and headed to the beach for the morning. This was our first time out on boards without our coaching team. First thing we realized is that Surf Boards are heavy! We’ve had the luxury of having our boards carried for us for the last week and while it looked like work, it didn’t look as difficult as it was. Of course, they don’t have Abby hanging on their leg begging to be carried either 😉 In her defense though (and ours!) it’s not a short walk to the spot we picked, it must have been at least a full mile walk in both directions. Hard to say for sure, but that’d be my guess.

Surfing was mixed.. Ben got up quite a few times on his own (stud!) and Erin got up a few times as well. I got up once, but it was a fun once. The waves weren’t ideal yesterday, so it was a lot of waiting. Jake brought a board out as well, but quickly realized that his instructor (Luke) is a very important piece to his experience, mostly helping him catch the waves, giving him that final push he needs to get moving. It sure was cute watching a 7 year old boy try to negotiate the waves on his board. He was laughing the entire time as the waves kept knocking him off his board and tossing him into the wash cycle.

Abby, of course, met a new friend on the beach and while they didn’t understand a word that was being spoken between the two of them, they had a great time playing in the ocean and making sand castles.

Once the sun screen wore off, it was time to head home for much needed showers and scrubbing. Gotta get all that salt and sand out of their hair (especially abby!) so we can avoid the dreadlocks that want to form so badly 🙂

Post showers we headed to Kahiki’s and were so excited to find the Bronco game on TV. Turns out the guy that now owns Kahiki’s is from Durango, CO. and is a huge bronco fan, so he turned the broncos on two of the TV’s for us and the other TV was showing the Raiders. Ton’s of folks started showing up to watch the game and it turned into a rather festive event! Luke and his staff were great, gave us all kinds of tips and thoughts about living here. The game went into overtime, so we were there for quite a while 🙂

After an amazing come-back and win from the Broncos, we needed some food, but it was getting late, so we decided to try out the Chinese restaurant down the street for something fast and easy. Erin took Abby and Ben home and Jake and I went to order food. Turned out to be pretty good food, but this was the dingiest chinese restaurant I’ve ever seen. I’m sure we’ll go back again sometime, but it’s not high on my list… Jake said it best, “Dad, is this a real restaurant?”

 

Came home to find Ben, Abby and Erin watching Imagination Movers in spanish on the TV, so we all sat down and ate chinese while we tried to pick out a word or two here and there from the Imagination Movers. It was quite amusing. We have a lot to learn.

We’re surfing this morning at 7 am, so I got up early to work and had a few moments to write this post. Time to go get ready for another week in Costa Rica! We start our spanish classes tomorrow, so we are excited about that. Hasn’t been necessary thus far, but will certainly be extremely helpful.

It’s nice to wake up on a Monday morning and be excited for the day.