Summer days and nights

As summer closes and starts fading away, here are the spoils of my time. I spent many hours in the gardens trying to get things to grow, flower, and fruit.

At the side of the front of our property there is a little niche that I had thought I could sneak in a vegetable garden. Kerry and I cut as many branches down as we could from the neighbors trees that block out sunlight and I put in an above ground garden were I was able to plant tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers and a few herbs. The herbs have done very well, especially the basil. I have some tomatoes that are still green and a few tiny red peppers that are not even close to being big enough for a mouse to eat. I know I planted late this year, but I have a feeling the lack of vegetables is from the lack of light. Next spring Ill have to get Kerry up on a ladder with a chain saw to let in some more sun.

Near our driveway I had cut and filled one flower garden and have been rearranging it all summer, adding things, moving things, and killing things occasionally while I was on vacation. Last weekend I even cut a new bed and planted a whole new set of flowers and shrubs. I have a feeling next year will look even more spectacular especially when i figure out how to organize the first bed. I have three different kinds of hydrangeas (blue, pinky winky, and incredibal), weiglas, summer wine, chocolate, sedum, mums, pansies, impatients, stargazer lilies, pink and white lilies, some shrubs that flower red and purple....next year: perennial hibiscus.

In the back we have really made a spectacular spot for dinners, grilling, having people over, and sitting for hours having girl talk. I love sitting out there in the morning with my pups. Next spring I am going to try growing grass. I extended the patio this summer to include some of the slate pieces I had found over next to our fence on the side of our house. Its able to hold all of our lawn furniture which is great, and we want to make the patio even bigger next summer. Not sure if we are going to do more slate or do an imprinted cement. Stay tuned.

I spent four days in Situit, MA, with two of my girlfriends Sharon and Katrina and their kids. They had rented a beach house right on the shore. Sharon and I went for morning runs along the ocean and daily we were able to sit out and relax in the sun. We then of course would get a bit punchy and silly and have dance parties in the house in the afternoons with the kids. The weather was spectacular, ocean freezing though.

Many of my days off this year I have spent at Hampton, at the beach. My friend Ann has gotten me into bike riding and was so kind as to lend me her bike for the summer. I bought some click-in shoes and off I went. Its really not that hard as long as you remember when you stop at a stop sign that you have to turn your heels to get your feet out of the pedals. The amazing thing is seeing how much farther and faster you can go without any extra effort with your feet stuck to the pedals! I haven't done any competing for a few years; though I had signed up for a triathalon this year, I decided to forgo it in exchange for the time spent in my garden and working on other various crafts around the house. I am always doing a lot of running and am thinking about the November half marathon.

We also had a manch-vegas style Birthday party for Tarrah who turned the dreaded treinta anos. She appreciated the tanks I made and I know Kerry appreciated the fabric spray that is permanently applied to our dining room table. The party was complete with purple streamers and an icecream cake. Heather, Tarrah and I sported the message and the boys tagged along; we all ended up at the deck which is a norm for all of us.

Lola has graced us with her lovely presence this summer quite a bit too. She is the daughter of my girlfriend Arlyn and friend Marc. She is just three now, and can talk up a storm. Happy little girl, smart and smiling and always looking for hugs. I usually get to take her for a day or two every couple of months when she is here. So far we have done the park, swimming, store. Next up - baking cookies.

Kerry has had a very busy summer with Tyler and his dad getting this business up and running. They are officially open for business September 1. The distribution company is called Paul Mitchell of Northern New England. Kerry's role has been hiring and setting up the sales force. The office has been in shambles since John put in beadboard so I spent two days of my summer painting and getting it back together for ker so he has a place to do his work until their office building is complete.
now our family is trying to facilitate his working; including Linda who is helping a ton with dog care. Kerry and I are totally in work mode these last few months; we are very lucky to have this spectacular home to relax and unwind in! Oh, and sleep with our babies. Simon is now 7 months old and is probably not going to get much bigger. We took all three to the dog park at the beginning of the summer. The three of them went around the perimeter smelling and peeing on everything and then played with eachother. They love other dogs but did not know the etiquette at the park so did not do much mingling.
Simon and Mabel have established themselves as best friends and has a few friends in Tarrah's dog Sammie and Heathers dog Tucker. The two of them come over about once per week on days we all have off and play in the back yard, at the baseball field or in the house all together. I had thought
dogs was insane, but its not much different having 5 running around. Hmmm....... Sure is nice letting them occupy themselves while the three of us enjoy our adult female time.

A few weeks ago we had a BBQ in the back yard and invited everyone. Its become a 2nd annual birthday party for one of Kerrys friends Chris. Kerry cleaned up the garage and we had two tables of Beruit going, and then Marc taught us a new game involving moving dollars around a table based on dice results.

Summers ending, now to decide which halloween costume to use this year!

En mis viajes en Costa RICA

En sustantive por unas vacaciones en Costa Rica, tengo nececita practicar espanol muchas. Nosotros tome el coche en la autopista. Hay muchas Costa Ricans aqui. Hay menos americanos aqui. Nececito preguntar conductor en el taxista de donde es el centro y que es el calle la casa de Strattons por la semana. Espero no estoy perdido! Ahora haco planes la dia llego a la casa en sabado. Estoy solo el primero dia. Hace mucas calor en el verano. Llevo muchas vestidos y camisetas y no pantalones. Pero, cuando vamos "ziplining: en el bosque llevo largo calzones! No leeimos mi bragas!

May 2010, the Strattons/Drivdahl traverse south to a little known land called Costa Rica. Tarcoles, to be specific. This is a small beach town about an hour outside of one of the main tourist sites named Manuel Antonio. We were lucky enough to have a 3 bedroom house with its own wrap around porch and pool in the back. There were many fruit trees, a monkey, and dirty dogs everywhere. (they were very friendly and cute, just a bit rank smelling). The trip consisted of me, mom, my sister Allison, and my aunt. In general the climate and weather would be described as hot and humid, but didn't seem to stop us from going on our adventures. Perfect vacation; lush, warm and sunny. Our house had many plants growing in the yard; the first day there the gardener Frankie cut me some fresh coconut, papaya and mango. All the fruit we had was of course much more ripe, juicy and tasty than anything I have had in the states. We went swimming every day in the pool in our back yard and got to sit out on the porch for meals, reading time and naps.

Manuel Antonio turned out to be the place to be for the first few days of our trip. We immediatly signed up for some hefty adventures and spent that first day convincing ourselves to go ahead with them. After a juicy dinner of raw tuna with avocado and lime we were able to relax in the pool and on the porch together.

Ziplining, as it turned out, was not quite as intimidating as we had originally thought. I was completely convinced that I could not handle the heights, but after much prompting my my mom, no less, we all pitched out the fear and geared up. The Zipline course included 14 ropes, three of which were high enough for us to touch the sun. We all completed the whole course, none worse for the wear, and were happy to be fed a plate of local tropical fruit at the end. Once you were up in the trees climbing heights you never thought you could climb, the adrenaline kept you up there looking for the next cable. It also helped that you were strapped into a harness and there was a safety cable attaching you at all times.Some sites included a baby sloth that had passed from this world, passing stool prior to its end, as well as a 13 inch poisonous millipede that pooped a pebble as big as some of mine are. Quite entertaining.

Sea kayaking was the second thing on our agenda. The waves were not too choppy and our kayaks were the plastic beginner type. Allison and I share one kayak and mom and my aunt shared the other. David was our guide. It took about 45 minutes to kayak over to the beach where we ate snack and spent an hour or so looking for wildlife. The kayaking was a great arm workout and my sea partner Allison did awesome! Over on the beach is where we had our first real encounter with the Capuchin monkeys, or the white faced monkeys. There was a whole pack; even a momma with her baby. We also saw a few white Iybus; a big Jesus Christ lizard. Here I would like to point out that Allison and I kicked their butts, (if only for mom getting quite sea-sick on the way back, poor thing....must not mention that though). We kayaked over to another beach that held many of the wildlife we had not seen yet including many many monkeys.

The last day Manuel Antonio we spent in the park reserve with a guide that was able to show us wildlife through his scope that we would not have been able to otherwise pick out. There were many sloths sleeping in the trees. Sloths are funny creatures; apparently they can hold a baby inside them, despite the date they are supposed to be birthing them, if the environment is not right. They also are unable to get down to the ground to help any wayward babies as they could die themselves by not being able to get back up due to lack of energy.

After all of our adventures we spent the next day relaxing at home. Around the corner from our house there is a fresh fish market. The men who worked there spent every day fixing their nets, and all fish was taken directly out of the ocean locally. We had a dinner of red snapper one night, with rice and beans, and then shrimp, rice with cilantro, and beans with avocado. was a local supermercado that carried everything we needed and was our nightly stop off to fill up on coffee and water. There were many coffee plantations in costa rica so we spent all week testing the different coffee that was available. Rich, thick, with no bitterness. Much better than Starbucks! We also spent an afternoon in Sarchi which is known as a shopping area. There is not many Costa Rican crafts, so we bought a few wooden pieces and instead spent our money at a vanilla plantation where they grow their own vanilla beans, cinnamon trees and other spices. It was the most spectacular place to go; we got lucky, pulling in right as dusk hit. The man selling his spices only spoke Spanish but still gave us his rundown on how the plantation works. My favorite part was when he took a knife and cut off some cinnamon bark for us. Cinnamon is the actual bark from a tree, and when you debark the wood even smells of the spice.

There is an active volcano near where our house was so we went to check that out as well. It was huge, and in the middle was a big lake. I had thought it was lava, but apparently we would not be near it if it actually was lava -- we would be running for our lives.
There was a local attraction that provided tourists sites of alligators near the road. This is one example, but there were about 33 that we were able to see and count. It wasnt too stinky luckily as we were up on the bridge looking down at them. Nothing really happened while we watched them; it was too hot for them to be doing something cool like eating a rabbit while
The There was a hike near our beach house that we were all set to do; unfortunatly it didnt happen. Aunt Cheri drove the 5 mile trek all the way up the mountain; the plan was to hike down to our car or something convoluded like that. However on the way up we passed a man in an old creepy red car. He passed us going in the opposite direction and slowed, wanting us to roll down our windows. I believe he even said "hello" or something of that sort. We continued driving up the mountain, stopped at 3/4 up to take pictures of the scenery, and lo and behold he had turned his death trap of a car around. He stopped, got out of his car and again tried to make verbal contact with us. We quickly got back into our car and drove the rest of the way to the top of the mountain, but by then it was getting on in the afternoon and we were too nervous to do the hike incase he were to find us in the midst of it and try to kill us. Its unfortunate that we didnt get to do that hike, but I am still very comfortable with our decision. I was really afraid of becoming one of those unfortunate americans that dissappear and they find 2 years later buried in a mass grave for women that all perished in the same way; dismembered and skinned.
On a lighter note, the last day in Costa Rica we spent in a bigger city next to the airport in a Hotel called 1915. Big spanish tiles, beautiful woodwork and old antique furniture made up this building, and you could walk up to the roof deck and see the city from the top. That night we went out to our last dinner of Costa Rican food.

Sad to leave, happy to be home. I havent had a family vacation like that in forever and am blessed that I have such a great family to have one with! Next up....

GERMANY!!!!