On Thursday my dad and his wife flew in! My SO had to go to yoga class (it's his PE for college), so just my dad, his wife and I went to eat dinner. We went to my favorite (and only) Korean place around the corner. They loved it. They also gave me all the goodies they brought down from the USA, including some extra goodies my mom added because she knows I love- lotion tissues and her hummus which is the most fabulous thing on the planet. Well maybe 2nd most fabulous, right after lotion tissues. All my clothes fit and of course, I wish I had bought more camisoles. I swear I will never own enough, and at $2/each, how can you turn that down? Only one shirt looked butt ugly, so my dad is going to return it for me.

Friday we headed off to Dominical in my SO's sister's car. We decided to take it because it's bigger and more comfortable, but mostly because it has AC. My SO's car is a 2-door Honda, no AC and only 1 window goes down. That is hella hot. Usually we arrive at our destination melted and with our clothes all wet from sweat. His sister's car is some SUV with awesome AC. I think from now on we'll have to take her car on all road trips. I'm all about the footprint and what not, but goddamn this trip was a million times more comfortable with AC.

We stopped at the famous crocodile bridge where all the tourists get off and walk over the bridge and look at the crocodiles. My dad and his wife walked over and my SO and I waited for them on the other side. I also finally got a picture of the crocodile crossing sign I've been wanting forever. It cracks me up.


Crocodile crossing!

We got to Dominical and the place we were staying was awesome. It was really beautiful and my dad and his wife went crazy looking at all the birdies and nature and what not. We ate lunch and had some of the awesome craft beer that Costa Rica is finally making, then walked down to the beach. Which was AWFUL. I don't know why all these people told me Dominical was such a nice place. Dominical sucks. The beach is just rocks and sticks and the waves are so giant it's impossible to swim in the water. WTF friends? So we went back to the hotel and sat around the pool, took a nap, then went out to eat dinner. We hung out for a while on our porches (which only had mosquito netting on 2/3 sides of it, what the hell?) then went to sleep.


Pretty cabinas


Yummy beer! My dad and his wife


Awful beach.

The next day my dad and his wife went early to a birding tour. My SO and I asked the lady at the desk for a nearby beach that didn't suck as much as Dominical. She told us "yeah, just 1 km away is a beautiful beach that no one knows about" Cool. Well of course by 1 km, she meant 10 km! And then we went down this "road" which was more like a path with huge water filled potholes so we had no idea how deep they were. But the beach really was beautiful. And it went on and on and there was not a single person there. Except for the pipa (coconut) man! So we bought a few pipas, mine was huge! We eventually headed back to the hotel and the pool where we waited for my dad and his wife to get back from their birding trip.


The "road"


Playa Linda, the deserted beach

They had a great time birding! They saw a bunch of stuff and seemed really happy which made me happy. We hung out around the pool and saw a bunch of toucans and drank mojitos and ate ceviche. Took a nap, went to dinner, hung out, went to sleep.

Sunday, we decided to go to the nearby beach called Uvita (which means "little grape" ) It has this cool whale tale shape beach. Turns out it's a national park and I almost got in for resident's price, but the lady didn't believe me. We had to walk a good mile, or maybe even 1.5 miles to get out to the whale tale. It was really pretty, but there was no cover at all. I know all too well the dangers of my white skin + the Costa Rican sun, so I put on a ton of sunscreen and covered up. Both my dad and his wife were sitting there like they were back on the NC beach. I kept telling them they needed to cover up, they didn't. And they got burned. Oh well!


Me in my "burqini" as my friend has dubbed that blue scarf that I cover myself in whenever I'm in the sun.


Walking out to the "whale tail"

We rushed back to the hotel to shower and check out. We had a quick lunch then headed back to San Jose. Which is when my dad said he was feeling sick.

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Annd new day! My dad and his wife ended up coming over to my in-laws place and I was so happy they did. But for the first time there was a lot of trying to figure out what language to speak in. See my mom speaks decent Spanish and her husband can make anyone laugh so they fit in just fine. My dad and his wife speak 0 Spanish, and my SO's parents speak 0 English. We spoke almost solely in English which made my SO's dad feel isolated so he left the room. Not to be mean or anything, but because he doesn't like feeling left out. And anytime the table spoke in Spanish my dad and his wife looked really uncomfortable. It was certainly a juggling act. (although my dad's wife looked super uncomfortable the entire time, not sure why, my SO's family is super friendly and inviting and awesome. I totally won in the in-law category. Well my SO did better, my family rocks )

Today my dad and his wife leave. It was a great little weekend vacation.

My SO and I did have to have a discussion, which of course we should have had beforehand. My SO wanted to pay for everything. And I don't mind paying for a few things, I took them out to dinner that first night and I sort of thought that would be it. From there on out my SO and I would pay for us, and they would pay for them. Or so I thought. But my SO was constantly insisting on paying. I kept mentioning how we don't have to pay, and then finally when we got back to San Jose and went to buy Gatorade and medicine for my dad my SO was talking about how he would pay for that as well. I finally said "no". I mean the thing is both my dad and his wife make really good money in the USA. We make jack shit. I don't mind paying for a couple things, but they can pay for their own damn Gatorade, ya know? I think it's very much a macho-Latino-man thing. He wants to be the "provider". But we don't have to pay for their vacation. They can more than afford it.

Speaking of affording things (I wonder when I'll get cut off here for length) my SO is thinking of quitting his job again. Money would be tight, but he is so damned stressed out all the time. We've already said no more weekend trips this month, to save some money.

(now at work, geeze this has been a marathon of blog writing!)

So yeah we're figuring out if my SO wants to quit his job or not. We'd like it to spend more time together, but then we wouldn't really be able to do anything or go anywhere since we would be tight on money. We'll have to see how things work out. I think my SO has decided to not cut our Cuba trip short, which of course makes me super happy.

We have a wedding this Saturday to go to. I'm going to wear my new dress! I asked my SO if it was too slutty for a wedding and he says "just wait til you see what my trashy aunt wears, you'll look like a nun!" Okay, fair enough!

Well I must actually start working! Have a good day everyone!