Little Miss Kaeli grows UP

Alice has had several opportunities to watch Kaeli while her parents had to work or run errands. At 28 months, she is very talkative and very mature. She is not at all shy and will strike up a conversation with a stranger, not unlike her Aunt Melinda. She does an amazing job of entertaining herself, playing with dolls or toys for extended periods of time. She and Grandma Johnson had fun in the kitchen, too! We colored and crafted and read and cooked and played and napped- whew! She made her first big car trip, going to Clovis for two of her cousins' birthdays. Dad Eric went along, too, and enjoyed seeing sister Alison and her family. He and Arlene will have to run FAST to catch up with this kid!! Family photo above.

Alice Takes Care of Busyness at Home!

Alice has been VERY busy this past month. She flew home from Costa Rica on March 4 and will return on April 7. Between doing taxes, seeing doctors, family and friends, as well as opening a zillion pieces of mail and processing the important ones, she is closing in on being ready to catch up with Capt. Bill in Golfito, C.R., were he took the boat shortly after she left. We have friends there and it will be nice to get together with them, as well as take in some more of the land before we head on to Panama in May.

Above you will see a couple of interesting family photos. Margaret and Jeff flew from Ohio to Fresno for her birthday. Alice drove up and brought Jeff's parents, too. We all met at Alison and Rod's home. We had a whirlwind weekend, but a fun one as well. Son-in-law Rod had just had double knee surgery, so he was NOT having fun. The above picture shows Jeff, Margaret, Rob and Mary. The other unusual photo is at the Shoot-out in Indio Hills! Melinda and Owen (center) came to the desert one weekend with friends of theirs. It worked out for them to go shooting with both of Alice's sons, Justin and Eric, on left. They were surprised that Alice went along, doing most of her shooting with her camera, but they insisted she take a turn with the guns, too. She shot a round with a pistol and one shot with the SKS! Why not??? That is her mantra these days~

Tourist Heaven~ Costa Rica Part One

After a week in Nicaragua and making all the needed repairs, we headed for Costa Rica. Two sailboats we knew had taken off the day before, so we were not surprised to find them on anchor in Bahia Santa Elena when we pulled in from a 24 hour overnighter. The weather looked pretty good the next morning so we took off ahead of them to travel to Playa del Coco- our point of entry for Costa Rica. We did encounter our share of wind and waves, but nothing compared to what we have been in. We arrived mid-afternoon and anchored in the large bay where at least fifty other boats were anchored, some sailboats, some power boats, many fishing boats and ONE gigantic commercial sailboat, complete with shore tenders and four huge sails- See above. She is a unique version of a cruise ship!

The next day found us ashore and working to get all the needed paperwork filled out with the port captain, immigration and customs. It took most of the day, since customs is NOT located in Coco, but rather at the airport in Liberia, some 20 miles inland. Bill made the trip there while Alice kept an eye on our dinghy, ate lunch, and did some gawking and shopping. This town is VERY touristy, with more tourists on the streets than locals! Most prices in stores were in U.S. dollars, not colones.

We then headed south around the Nicoyan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Nicoya. There were good anchorages on both the east and west coasts, and we decided to head to the eastern anchorage of Bahia Herredura where Los Suenos Marina is located. We knew from reading that it was pricey, but nearly fell over when we called to see how much it would be to take our dinghy to the dock there: $40 U.S. dollars per day!!! The next day we pulled anchor and left.

Traveling north to Puntarenas, we experienced the shallow water that surrounds this peninsula. The "Backside" is where the marina is and our guide book indicated very shallow water there at low tide. By the time we were into 13 feet of water and still quite a distance from shore Bill thought better of it and hung a U and headed south again, skirting the numerous islands in this gulf. See above photo Alice took when she flew to the capital.

We wound up anchoring in Bahia Ballena, on the west coast, for a week, going ashore numerous times and locating a place to buy a puddlejumper ticket so Alice could travel to San Jose and on home on March 4. We met an expat New Yorker who runs a small restaurant. He was very helpful and even took us to the airstrip (no airport) when March 4 rolled around. While in Bahia Ballena we had the pleasure of visiting with people on three sailboats we had met earlier. We also got to know a couple from Vancouver, B.C. who have been circum- navigating the world for the past six years. They expect to be home again in 2010! Amazing~ After Alice left, Bill got word that our friends Ray and Paddy were home from the U.S., so he did an overnighter, arriving in Golfito on March 7. He reports it is beautiful there~ Alice will return April 7.