Milking a cow at the Merced Ranch. Before this we rode horses on the beach. After this I roped a calf. 

This is the infamous waterfall. 

Hanging out on the "Tree Climbing Tour" at Hacienda Baru. 

Just another deserted beach with some palm trees and jungle and mountains in the background. 

A nice flower that we found at the Hacienda Baru nature preserve. 

This is where we stayed for the first week. 

Costa Rica/Engagement

Julia and I arrived in Costa Rica on Saturday. We traveled via bus and taxi to Dominical, where we've been staying at a beautiful jungle resort.

The surfing has been good. Although the second day I went out I broke a rental longboard on a fairly large wave that took me for an entirely different kind of ride. After that I bought an inexpensive shortboard that I've been spending time learning to ride.

Since we've been here we've done some hiking and taken a few tours. We hiked through a nature preserve and saw some monkeys, a sloth, a toucan, leaf-cutter ants, butterflies, and a coati. We also did a "tree climbing" tour in which we ascended through the secondary canopy and into the primary. We hung-out there for a while and took in the sites and sounds of the jungle. We were also given a nice bit of natural history of the area.

Today we went on a horseback tour in the foothills of the Talamancan Mountains. We were treated to breakfast and lunch. The highlight of the horseback ride was a stop at a two-tiered waterfall with a great swimming hole at it's base. A guide showed me a place to scale the waterfall that came out to a ledge about 20 or 30 feet up where one could jump in to the pool below (Julia was not interested in this).

After taken the plunge into the water I took another sort of plunge. I proposed to Julia under the waterfall. She did not expect this at all. I guess she didn't think that I would be dumb enough to have a ring in my boardshorts. Boy was she wrong.

Unfortunately, Julia leaves for Minnesota and school tomorrow. I will be starting my Spanish Immersion program on Monday. Look for some good pictures and more posting soon.

Preparing for the next journey.

I've been terrible about posting since I've been home. Sorry about that. It's tough when I don't have regular internet access.

Below are the pictures of the trip to Arizona with Julia and her family. There are also a few pictures of a fun day on the lake that Heather took last December.

February moved along pretty quickly for me. I've been bouncing around the state and having fun. I've been enjoying winter quite a bit. I've been able to ski quite a bit this winter while working out at Ski Gull as well as going to watch Kaitlyn's ski meets.

Kaitlyn, by the way, did very well this year in skiing. She placed second in a few meets, one of which was the biggest in the midwest. She also had a very impressive 6th place finish at the sections meet at Spirit Mountain which won her a place in the state individual meet. The BHS girls also placed second at sections and moved on to state as well.

The Costa Rica trip is quickly approaching. Julia and I have been getting ready for that. Julia will be down there with me for a week, but then must come back to Minnesota for school. I'll be staying for a while longer to learn some spanish and surf. I'll be bringing my camera, so hopefully I can find someplace to upload pictures.

I hope everyone has been enjoying winter as much as I have. Take care and look for some posts from paradise soon.

Julia climbing and me belaying. A very nice photo taken by Terry. 

Julia the explorer. 

Julia and Joanna deep in the desert amidst some big saguaro and cholla cacti. 

Everyone together at Rustler's Roost. It's a very unique place with some entertainment and good food. 

A successful summit bid on Camelback Mountain overlooking Phoenix. 

Suiting up on a great day. The air temperature was about as good as it gets in December (in the 30s) with hardly any wind. 

Sam dropping in on a nice one.