My favorite cave

During shelter in place, I went through so much. Friday of the13th, right before SIP, my boss passed away. Then the world went to pandemic and our city was locked down. I worked at home with super stress from the boss’s daughter in law. I just had to go hiking to calm down from all the stresses. Luckily Ken started going hiking with me considering his health. He must have been bored of SIP with no jobs. We went so many different parks. As State loosened SIP at the beginning of June, I moved my home office back to normal. We found a new owner of our business and the transition will take place on my BD. Before it happens, I could take a few days off. Last Saturday my band performed at the outside venue by the water. My band was one of the first bands that were allowed to perform and gathered a lot of people. Then next day Ken and I went back to the same direction and stayed in our favorite town, Murphy. Today we went to my favorite cave. It needs some hiking to get there but Ken did it for me for my BD and even went into water with me. This is our second time visiting here. First time when I was inside of the cave, I didn’t have a camera. I enjoyed so much that I felt like I was in Disneyland but a real deal!!!

Ken’s life jackets came in handy. Going into the cave! Excuse my quarantine hair

We quickly went to the other side because a lot of kids were jumping into water inside the cave.

Expected less people this side but more

People were listening to ghetto music.

Water was much warmer than the last time but outside was cooler.

We wish we could stay there longer but we were afraid of water getting cold. We headed back and ghetto music followed us

Ken was swimming away and I took time to take some pictures very carefully in the water.

Too bad this guy in the middle didn’t move. Ken already reached the land.

Much less people by the time at the front side.

We had a dinner at a restaurant in Murphy. Only one restaurant was open. Food was good but super slow service. The owner apologized giving us a slow service femininely

The day before going back

We had a great time in Costa Rica. It is very expensive for foreigners so one week is a good length. Peace Lodge’s deluxe room was fabulous! Not to mention the appearance was great but also the bed was super comfortable.

Is this the volcano that had been hiding?!?

Bye bye my favorite room!

Our rental car. Good that we didn’t rent a Jeep which the sales person at the enterprise was pushing on us.

We went all four restaurants at the property. This restaurant’s food was good. Papaya drink was so delicious!

Cute public bathroom.

Today we did a few activities which we missed yesterday. I got the cap for Ken at the gift shop.

At 2:30pm there was a butterfly release. Those were hatched today!

The butterfly peed on me!

Que?

Then 3pm, milking time!

My first time milking a cow. The nipples were dry and harder than I thought.

Not a big fan of frogs.

Bye bye our room!

Bye bye Peace Lodge!

Our new view from tonight’s hotel.

We have to go to the airport at 4:30 am tomorrow.

La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Before changing the room, we got to enjoy the outside tub and had some Costa Rican coffee at the balcony.

Finally his hair looks better

Our room left bottom

Nobody was using pool. It looked dirty

We went to get a buffet brunch before changing the rooms.

The room was ready! Much nicer! It’s on the second floor so nobody can see us at the balcony tub!

And this bathroom which is about the same size as the bedroom. The best bathroom I have ever stayed

The previous room has imitation plants but this room has all real. I want to make my bathroom like this!

Yay! Free upgrade!

Then we looked around the park to make sure where our favorite sloths were because we wanted to catch their feeding time at 2pm. The guide was nice and let us come inside the cage. I love sloths

I didn’t know they had such cute faces. This place rescues wild animals. It is different from seeing them in nature.

Toucan

Bwahahaha

Scary! Stared at me

Jungle cats. We came back there at their meal time later.

Sorry to see they were tied and wore heavy hats.

2pm! Sloths’ feeding time! I took too many pictures of them.

This was the image I thought sloths looked like.

Their names are Rocket, Flash and we forgot the other one which was least active.

Inside the sloths’ cage, a lady traveler from Toronto talked to us. She saw us at Tabacon and La Fortuna waterfall. What a coincidence

She even saw me swimming in the waterfall and said Ken didn’t swim

I could spend all day long watching sloths but we left to see other things. I want them in my backyard!

It was raining but for a second it got sunny so we headed to waterfalls.

There are five waterfalls. This is the top one.

The second one.

Looked like way more than 530 steps there!

Going down more steps. Our legs hurt not even going up.

By this time my hair was wet and all messed up

Made it to the last waterfall, La Paz Waterfall!

So wet, cold and tired!

Going back up. There was a cheat way to go up on their shuttle. Whew! Still we had to climb many stairs to catch it.

Shuttle to the main building. We were hoping to catch Jungle cats’ feeding time. We were 10 minutes late.

Yes! They were awake and eating!

I took so many pictures of this kitty cat

I was wondering why they separated their cages between the father and mom with kid. This is Ashelitta, a kid I think.

The mother has a different patterns?!? Ken says the Spanish speaking guide was trying to tell us the mother was a different kind. That’s why separated? Who knows! Ken doesn’t know the language even he looks like Spanish

Trout lake. You can do fishing here.

It was an early dinner but we wanted to save money. Only one expensive restaurant stays open after 6pm.

I got trout from this lake!

Came back to the room and rushed to the bath tub!

Night time looks good!

Peace Lodge

Breakfast at Tabacon before checking out. Finally we got the front row table.

We headed to Peace Lodge, which is the sister property of The Springs Resort & Spa. Bye bye Arenal Volcano! You never showed us the top.

Thankful to Waze! It’s impossible to drive there without it. Going through locals and twisty roads for two hours, we arrived! We didn’t know it was on the mountain. Very high up here!

It’s much cooler here. About 20 Fahrenheit lower.

We missed a free upgrade but the room is so cute and lovely

It has everything we ask for except slippers

It is like Disneyland with a good taste

The back wall is the waterfall. It’s got the on/off switch.

Outside tub, not natural water.

I will talk about this chair later!

Hummingbirds were fighting to get sugar water. A bunch of them!

Sunset.

Nothing is around this property other than La Paz waterfall gardens so we had only one choice of the dinner restaurant.

Garlic food is really good here in Costa Rica. Bread with their garlic spread was great but the main dishes were so so.

Creme brûlées without sugar coating were great! Three tastes: vanilla, strawberry and coffee. All good but our favorite was coffee.

The similar one we saw at Tabacon, but the tale is different.

Night time with lights on. Looking good, too!

So, go back to talk about the chair. When I was enjoying the fireplace, I kept smelling bad under arm smell

I removed all the cushions and covers and found out that the top of the green cushion had the smell! So aweful! Some under arm odor stays forever. I know because my T-shirt from Greece had the same problem from the previous customer. Somebody who had under arm smell tried it on and didn’t buy it. I turned the cushion upside down but I still remembered the smell. Yuck! After I enjoyed bathing in the cute tub, I realized the bed had the same smell! I couldn’t stand it! Now we put towels there. Ken switched positions for me and went to sleep. I called the front desk. They will upgrade our room tomorrow. Yikes! Packing and unpacking again. Good side is that we will get upgraded to the room with two beds! I need to survive from Ken’s world loudest snoring

La Fortuna Waterfall

Very friendly elder American couples were sitting next to our table at the breakfast. He offered to take our pictures. Very nice! His pictures didn’t turn out well though

so I post another picture taken by a waiter when he was away from his table

My favorite papayas were there

After the breakfast we quickly went to the hot springs.

Yay! Less people!

Better selfies with less crowds.

Found a geko (or lizard but I always call them gekos

Better the weather is the better the pictures are!

We were looking for a cozy warmer water place to stay for a while and ended up with staying at Shangri-la garden again. The same American couples were there, too

So kind to inform us about amoebas.

Oh wow! Another geko! I guess they like day time.

We stayed there for a while. We ordered a couple of drinks and Ken went to sleep. I wanted to stay in this resort all day long just to relax but it wasn’t my nature I guess. I tried to give up on going to La Fortuna Waterfall for Ken. It has 530 steps. Since the weather was good, I got restless and woke Ken up.

Yay! Nobody!

View from our room. Arena was behind the clouds.

Heading to La Fortuna Waterfall.

We got lost and turned around. Skinny cows here.

We arrived less than two hours before the closing.

As soon as I saw this view, I was glad that we came here. More variety of things to do. Because of my limited physical ability due to my shoulder dislocation and backache, we couldn’t do horse riding or zip line etc. Going up and down the stairs was at least within the range of what we could do to move our lazy asses

Many resting areas.

I went in the cold water. Just got in there for a second. It was deep and the current was strong, I couldn’t go near the waterfall. Nobody actually wet there too close. It’s dangerous. Just I wanted to experience it.

Going back up 530 steps!

It wasn’t that bad. Taking many breaks on the way helped. The exercise was followed by Costa Rican beers

This restaurant in the city was very good! Local food is way better than luxury hotels’.

Later we went back to our hotel’s hot springs again and stayed until the closing. This time I didn’t bring my phone. It was much easier to soak in springs without valuables. Only thing that I missed to take a good photo was my pina colada. The bartender made it in the real pineapple container. Later I got hives wondering why. I guess I developed pineapple allergies, too

Tabacon vs The Springs Resort & Spa

Today was grey all day long. Perfect weather to soak in outdoor hot springs. We were going to stay our hotel and relax all day long.

In the morning, we were having fun in the real hot springs.

Many places to soak in

At this place, I got bitten by something under water

I felt something was stinging on my right wrist. It hurt so much!!! I had to get out of the water.

Later I felt my right arm was so heavy. I researched what bit me. Still don’t know. I wonder it was a leech or amoeba or something as I was rubbing black slippery rock surfaces. I had to rest at our room totally disappointed with the pain. After a few hours with the help of medicine ointment, I started feeling better and decided to go to another hot spring resort which is not 100% natural, thinking it was safer from all unknown bugs.

We came to The Springs Resort & Spa where TV show, Bachelor, was filmed. It has the best Arenal view while soaking in the hot spring but it was covered by the clouds.

Beautiful place.

We found this secluded nice tub but it smelt chlorine

Tubs were made with fake rocks. Quickly figured out that our hotel was way better.

Felt like this place was Disneyland. Very Americanized and fake

I would have tried the water slide if I didn’t have backache

We stayed here for a while.

Lights up! Nice!

The view would have been incredible on sunny days.

Two day pass included dinner for $110 per person. Since everything is expensive in La Fortuna, it was acceptable but we wouldn’t want to come back here tomorrow

As we get older and fatter, water place pictures of us are getting harder to post

Probably I am the fattest in my life now. Not looking forward to be on diet after this trip

Hopefully my wrist gets better tomorrow.

SJSJ

Away from cold weather! Away from coronavirus!

My boss has been in hospital after his major surgery. COVID-19 came to my city and Facebook is full of sad news. When I heard my boss was in critical condition, my stress level went up and I got hives on my body. I really needed to take care of my health. My boss is stabilized and we didn’t have to cancel this non refundable trip.

Taking a red eye flight, we arrived at San Jose airport yesterday morning. We went through Immigration and renting a car smoothly and drove three hours with sleepy eyes to La Fontuna. Not too hot! Good weather! It took one hour to check in our room because we arrived too early, but everything as we planned

It is our 19th Anniversary Trip even our anniversary was last month

Kind of disappointed that we don’t have a balcony but it’s ok because I don’t want scorpions in my room. The view is great except a building in front, from which people can see us so we have to close the screen curtains all the time

Food is super expensive here. We wanted to avoid dinner buffets which cost us $76. All the restaurants here are expensive and we ended up with that buffet

Food in Costa Rica is not so good but I found a couple of my favorite dishes.

Beef briskets were so melty

Tom Kha Gai soup with small crabs was the best! Luckily I didn’t develop shellfish allergy.

Hotel guests usually wear bath lobes for dinner at this restaurant and go to hot springs afterwards. We explored the property and soaked in Shangri-La adult only place.

We waited until everybody was gone and stayed until closing.

Then we got drinks at the pool bar. I wanted to sit in the water and drink. It was my first time!

It rained for a short time while we had drinks under the cover. Luckily we missed the rain when we went back to the room.

March 3rd. Hinamatsuri.

Good morning! Our day started with hotel breakfast.

As usual, my greedy all you can eat plate

I need to lose weight after this trip.

Walking around in the property.

Then we saw cat like animals

They are SO CUTE

Many of them, with babies, too! The tail curled like our cat, eating something.

Adorable

After I did the blog above, Ken was totally sleeping. I took a shower and it was already 2pm. 40% precipitation forecast, but I decided to go see sloths. My new iPhone 11 really sucks. It’s heavy and Waze or any navigation systems don’t work

I had to use another phone in personal hotspot and connect to run GPS. It was supposed to take only 15 mintutes but it took one hour because we couldn’t find it. Only an hour and half left until closing but we made it to Bogarin trail!

It took us a while to find this guy even a kind photographer told us where it is.

We saw three sloths. The first one was at really high up on the tree. We lost him in all the trees so no picture. This is the second sloth, a baby. We caught up with a group tour and they were looking at it. Otherwise we’d never found it.

Then some people were aiming cameras to the sky. There it is! Another baby sloth

This time it started raining and the rain made the sloth move! I could video tape the movement. It was so slow

My neck and arm were tired of looking up filming. It was eating leaves so slow

Good to be able to catch it’s face!

We couldn’t stay there for a long time so we’ve got going hoping to see an adult sloth.

Leaf carrying ants were there. No pics here.

Many huge nests.

Birds.

Red bird.

A bear.

Oh well. Without an expert, we couldn’t find any more sloths.

Then we left to get dinner and souvenirs in the city of San Carlos ?!? Here is a sloth

Tire art.

Dogs are everywhere without leash in Costa Rica.

We stopped by some souvenir stores but I didn’t buy anything.

I ended up with buying souvenirs in our hotel. The selections were better. Then we went to a jacuzzi in front of the breakfast restaurant and stayed until we were told to get out for closing again

Namm Work

2020 Namm. I think this is my 20th Namm visit. We got here late on Thursday but we were able to catch the second show of Kurt Rosenwinkel. Last year I saw him on D’Angelico’s stage from far away, I was blown away. The top of my must-do list at this Namm was to see his show since my favorite Greg Howe wasn’t here. When we were finding a spot in front of the stage, I didn’t even recognize Kurt because I saw only one side of his face last time

Jazz players do not really move because they play so complicated lines. He is more handsome than I thought

The legendary drummer, Omar Hakim, was really good and of course Kurt was amazing! Kurt reminded me of Reb Beach who is also my favorite.

After the show, I had to go to a dealer party. We won an award, which wasn’t a big deal

I almost forgot the trophy there

Ken was happy getting free alcohol beverages.

Yesterday was busy, too. On the way to catch Frank Gambale’s demo, we saw Paul Gilbert and Steve Morse.

Frank was amazing as always.

My coworker’s daughter always gets the best demo stage on the prime time. She was with us 4-5 years ago stuck with our boring dealer meeting lunch

Now she is famous!

Then we went to see Kurt again. He was using Fractal

Same as mine! As usual his cords were super tangled

Totally in love with him

Before my dealer meeting, Ken saw his old playing mates. Earth Wind Fire’s drummer.

Then we went to Costa Mesa to eat delicious Japanese food. We missed Earth Wind Fire’s show though ugh

Today was even busier. My work relationship got closer and felt a lot of pressure.

Nice outdoor area away from crowds!

Between business, our favorite artists’ demos were more important

Today was acoustic. Love it! He never betrays our expectations.

I wanted to see Brandon Taz, 16 year old genius kid. I stole his tasty licks.

On the way to get together with Ken’s friends, Kurt happened to be walking in front of me. Picture time Yay

He was nice to us.

Then we watched TOP with friends.

Ken’s play mate, Tom, on the big screens. Good that we could catch “What is Hip” before the dealer dinner.

Dinner was delicious!

Huge desert! Really good!

Free dinner was good, but it was still business. It was a long day.

Beautiful stage

Cold is trying to get me and I am not feeling super perfect but I went to Ken’s gig yesterday. It was a long drive and he had extra dinner coupon for me. Last time I came here was a month ago, it had a nice Christmas tree. This time was Chinese New Year theme.

They made a brand new stage so quickly! The casino is making a lot of money even from me

Beautiful singer and the nice back screen, my photographic passion came back and l took some pictures.

Ken is not photogenic

When he plays solos, he always has a double chin. When he isn’t taking a solo, he looks sleeping or bored

When he had a better face, the spot light hit directly to the camera and the exposure got white.

Bear ears

On the contrary I took very good pictures of the singer but I will post only one here. I don’t have her permission. Somewhat she reminds me of Teresa Teng. “Tokino nagareni miwomakase” was my mom’s fav song.

Only this casino uses direct input. No amp on stage. Ken had to wear headphones.

Eddie ish back ground.

Nice back screen but Ken’s face is not very good

Finally one acceptable pic of him

No double chin ✔️ Ok exposure ✔️ He doesn’t look bored ✔️

Merry Christmas

Celebrating Christmas in Riverside. So glad that the hotel check in went smoothly. This place impressed us more than we expected. Beautiful

Perfect place to spend Christmas time

I feel it is the best Christmas so far! The hotel looks totally different in day light. I love old buildings.

Beautiful Spanish patio. Later we came back here for dining.

St. Francis chapel is a part of the hotel

Outside is impressive, but the room is old and the bathtub is small and dated. I am glad that we are spending one night instead of two.

The view from our room.

The owner of the building in the past. People say his sprit is still here.

Love these cute old dolls which move awkwardly

Later we came back to this restaurant.

Walking in the city of Christmas sprits.

We were going to get the Cinderella ride for $50, but I ended up with spending money at the antique store. Riverside has a lot of antiques and cheap! I’ve got to come back here!

After shopping at the antique store, Christmas lights were already turned on.

We got the best parking

This car was blasting music. It’s funny that Ken played with the original artist of the song. He said he felt old

Already a line for Festival of Lights.

We came back to the Italian restaurant and got some drinks and appetizers. We were full from Japanese lunch. The nice waitress brought a wrong drink and we got one free

Santa was walking around and offering free photo shots to people specially for children. He came to us, too

It’s hard to take a good shot without people in the background.

In order to get to our room, we had to go through this chapel. Everytime passing by I couldn’t ignore this beauty and kept taking pictures. Time of the day makes the different look.