Feeling great while traveling.

So I was feeling pretty great while I traveled this trip. The allergies weren't too bad (even with all the extra dust and strange plants) and I slept great but never long enough (even the nights when I had my own room).

But the part I really noticed was:

Jill Twiss is a Terrible Person.

Jill Twiss always makes me laugh. Lately she's had a lot of great posts so check out her site, in particular I really liked her recent Google thinks I'm a terrible person post....

Stuff I didn't Use in Costa Rica

I lug a lot of stuff on vacation, before I left my Mom asked how much stuff I take on vacations but don't use. I tried to pay attention this trip:

So I took along my XO Laptop with me and didn't use it all (this is the durable OLPC kids laptop I purchased recently). We were running around more than usual (I usually try to stay in the same place for more than a few days), so just relaxing outside and typing never really happened. The reason I purchased this computer was because it's screen is designed for outside use and I'm tired of sitting inside in the summer when I have things I'd like to type or edit.

I didn't use my video camera at all, I usually don't use it that much but I do use it a little. Once again, never sitting still for very long I just didn't get the opportunity to pull it out.

Even though I didn't use them the most useless large item I brought were a regular pair of sandals. I just didn't get around to wearing them very much. They're heavy and take up space and I just really didn't need them. These and the few magazines I never read could have been left behind.

There were probably some adaptors / connectors, medicines and other little things but nothing very large (but they probably added up). The problem in Costa Rica verses traveling in other places is that you might not be able to get somethings that you might need if you don't have it.

Sand Castles

So there was a Sand Castle Festival in Manzanillo, we knew about it a few days in advance but we couldn't find a single piece of information on it, looked in the newspaper and on-line. If we hadn't seen them building stuff (platforms / shelter) for the festival a few days before, we never would have known about it (we hunted around and saw a single banner).

We only made it for the first day, which it turns out was kid's day, they said it'd be busier the rest of the weekend but we couldn't make it then. Different sand structures were built by local school's teams (I think the team was the whole school). There were only a dozen different structures but it was fun, they kids had volleyball and soccer (and the ocean) to play with too.

But the whole advertising thing was very strange. Even when we were there it was hard to find out more information on it. It was sponsored by one of the major banks and still was no info (this was actually a bank we went into on the trip and saw about it). There was no information in any of the local towns as far as I saw. BTW, the bank sponsorship was why there was a kid's day, previously the sponsor was a beer company.