Like a Dream

Joan swimming laps at sunset in the Mauna Loa condo pool, no one else there.  Then she hears the conch shell blown.  WOW!

Dave's House Starts To Be Built

Joan's brother Dave's's property we saw last year, November-December 2011 was purchased and building started in October 2012.  We see the progress even while we are here this year.

Piles of rock after drilling the lava shelf. Swimming pool forms in

Below the swimming pool, most all vegetation was removed

Smoothing out the place for the house

See Ron way down at the bottom of the property?  There will be garden all down there....

Linda - "And here's where there will be..[XYZ]....... in the garden."

Ron walks along the swimming pool

House outlined now

Foundation walls ready to pour

Dave sitting in (on?) his "house"

Ron blows the conch shell at sunset

Hawaiian Timeshare Condo Logistics



Joan’s brother and wife (Dave and Linda) were going to be in Kona for Christmas this year so we thought we would be able to join them.  It was actually pretty easy to get four timeshare weeks, especially the first three weeks of December, one of the slowest travel times.  We had been wanting to go to HGVC’s  Bay Club ever since we had read the good reviews, and we got the first week of December there from RCI.  The second week we will be at Sea Mountain, one of our favorite places,  from Platinum Interchange, and the third week, our favorite 2 BD unit at Wyndham  Mauna Loa (with an ocean view!) from SFX, (which is a 5 minute walk from Joan’s brother’s condo) and with a 2 BD, we have invited friends to join us.  We were also able to get Christmas week in a 1 BD at Mauna Loa from RCI.   We got the weeks and then had to get the airline tickets: that was more difficult because of the Christmas season.   We had to wait until January 4^th to return, otherwise the cost was too high.

     We have rented a car for 4 weeks, but again, that meant we had 4 extra days after Dec 30^th with no transportation as during Christmas week, the prices for cars went into the $1000’s  (other people arriving that week were also shocked.)    What to do?

  We found a condo unit on www.vrbo.com in the same condo complex as Joan’s brother so we rented it for the four days and hoping Dave could return us to the airport.

      We arrived in the afternoon, got our rental car (and were upgraded one level since they had none of the smaller ones we had rented --Alamo) and checked into the Bay Club.

The Bay Club unit is very nice and sooooo large,

but we're not sure it is the "classical Hawaiian" decore they say it is.

A Modern CoffeeHouse in a Costa Rican Village!

We just got back from a walk into town again, to get chicken and eggs at the butcher - and apples at the grocery. And to get more money changed at the bank:  Interesting experience at a bank to get in: two security guards, only one person at a time through the security arch…….

     Had a special coffee at a coffee shop, very modern..... Even had a mocha!!! Yay!!! And Joan had a chocolate croissant... It had been over a year!!!

    The coffee shop was very modern especially compared to the rest of the town!!  Samara is maybe 5 to 6 blocks…(bigger than Cable, WI though.)

     We’re thinking maybe the rainy off season is best=cooler. We've walked in soft rain two days now and it is so much cooler as it rains; it was sunny on the beach coming back, now softly raining again.

A Great Meal

Today we took a walk up the hill for a relative short distance, then down to the beach and along the beach to town.  When we left, it was 81 degrees and Ron was READY to go!!!  It started sprinkling while we were still up the hill but it felt so good... Cooling.  Then as we came down toward the beach, it started pouring, so we huddled under the umbrella under a tree until it settled down. Then we continued, still some sprinkling, but now, we are used to it.  We got to town, trying to decide what to do... Eat? Butcher? Grocery?  All or none of the above, and it started pouring.. pouring again... So we went under a nice shelter with benches.   It stopped somewhat and we continued to the grocery store (especially for Ron’s celery that we needed!) then decided to look for a place to eat.  Many were closed whether for weather or Sunday.  We went to one recommended by our landlords and it was delicious!!   There was another pouring rainstorm while we were there, but within 15 minutes, it was a beautiful sunny day!



A great fish dinner



Seafood rice...with shells!



Swimming Laps in a “Dipping Pool”

The pool is 4. 1/2 to 5 strokes long (that's two arms per stroke) so it is sufficient to use for laps (most pools are 13-18 strokes), but Joan wasn't going to count so just timed for 25 minutes today.  It was real nice. 

     Toward the end, it started raining again.  Ron said, "Are you getting wet?"

     Haha!

LOST!

DAY 3  After so much rain, today turned out beautifully. We were headed out at 7:45 am to walk to the beach below our unit and then to walk to town along the beach.  ... It’s about a 10 minute walk downhill to the beach and then 20 minutes to town, safer and shorter than walking along the narrow curving road.   When our landlords drove by and offered us a ride into the town of Samara again, we took it!  We went shopping  and then started on the walk back. 

   We’d made a mistake though:  we did not know which route to take from the beach up to our road since we had not seen it from the beach side before.  There was a very small village between the beach and the road which we had never seen but just been told about (two shops were there: a fish market and a small grocery.)  We kept walking, and finally came to a river.  Had we gone too far?  On both sides of the river was jungle and no pathways beside it, so no use for us to try to cross it: it was rather deep anyway.  It looked like the tropical jungle rivers we have heard about…like floating down the Amazon River to see jungle hanging over both sides.   Joan had just read, The River of Doubt about Teddy Roosevelt exploring an unknown Amazonian River in 1914, but when they came to an obstacle, there was no turning back….at least, we could turn back.

The river to cross, but then what?

Here's the path to the village

     We walked back, looking for pathways into the jungle where the village might be.  We finally found a path and walked down a road, saw the pescador sign and then the small shop.  We had made it!

Day 2: More Rain

This 'blob' we see in the tree just in front of our balcony that looks like a wasps best, is a howler monkey curled up and dripping wet and waiting out the rain.

    We thought he would be under more leaf cover, but guess he knows best!!!

A really great thing about here is...almost NO Mosquitos!!!!!  We used the mosquito net the first night... Very difficult... Decided for sure that if the owners didn't use one, we wouldn't either.  No, they never use one! They only have it for renters who are so concerned.....
We've seen two mosquitos since we've been here.  Why, we see more in Wisconsin! 

(Of course, isn’t that the state bird of WI and MN?)

Day 1 Continued: Howler Monkeys

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What a surprise to find monkeys just steps from us!  The male howlers are quite loud and when we heard one so close we went outside and there was one busy eating leaves, right near us.  Then we saw more…then more…and finally , a total of ten!  Jumping from tree to tree and eating leaves.  Not worried about us at all.  They were there for a long time, going back and forth in the trees.

 

Look how close!

Day 1 Continued - Rain

Initially we were going to rent a car because we like to explore. And we had found a good rate, for here at least since it's off season, and the shuttle to here was rather expensive.  But then we found the required deposit  was $4K and we could not get around that.... Plus the poor poor local drivers here..... The road to Samara was paved but probably not other roads, so a 4W drive was recommended.  But the car rental company would not guarantee a 4W drive! Hmmmm, what to do.   So we elected to cancel the car rental... And were so relieved when we did!
  
  On the shuttle ride down from the LIberia airport yesterday (about 2 hours),  Joan asked Ron, “Are you glad you are not driving???”  And he said, “YES!!!!” 


Ocean view in rain

 The road is paved, yes, but narrow with no center strip and no shoulder;  bicycles and people all along..   Plus not knowing exactly where to go… there were signs and the instructions to our place were good, but…..
  
  So we will just walk around, try the local buses, maybe take a tour or two, mainly enjoy the weather ....however, it has not stopped raining yet!!  Steve, owner, said it may rain all day...but it's still pretty and interesting.

 

Another ocean view in the rain - haha

Costa Rica Day 1

We had always wanted to go to Costa Rica to see a rain forest. But Joan doesn't zip line (Ron did in Mexico) and she doesn't like bugs too much.  And she wanted to see the volcano.
     Ron reminded her that we have a volcano to see any time (Mt. St. Helens) and yes, last year we went to the Olympic National Park where there is a rain forest.
      But, she wanted to see a tropical rain forest!
      So when we got a chance to trade the Seattle condo for Costa Rica, we jumped at it.  (Steve, from Costa Rica, had rented the Seattle condo, but said he had a vacation rental in Costa Rica he could trade….so we had two weeks to use!).  When we decided to go, we looked on the map…and their place was in Samara, a small town on the Pacific coast….not by the volcano, not by the “cloud forest”…And we found out that Costa Rica is bigger than we think!!  (It looks so small on the maps, doesn't it).   Then, too,  Samara was on the (dry) side, on the northern pacific side. So no tropical rain forest.... ?
    But, we came as requested by the owners – off season – so during the rainy or “green season”! So, we are indeed in a tropical rain forest as it is pouring raining this morning, rained all night too... Lots of lightning and thunder...BUT.... It's WARM and the rain is coming STRAIGHT down.. Different rain than anywhere we've seen... We're sitting on the balcony completely comfortable watching the rain and seeing birds and hearing what we think are howler monkeys.
    So this is what it's like in the jungle, e.g. Ecuador, where the natives walk in the rain while hunting their food. We can be thankful that we have shelter and food!!
    And now, we can see the ocean more and more as it is beginning to clear in the west.. Oh, it just started pouring again.
    Ron says the clouds overhead don't seem to be so dark now as they are dumping...but it's still brighter in the west! Landlord Steve said the rainy season: clear and sunny mornings and early afternoon, will rain late afternoon and night.
    Wonder when it stops raining, guess we’ll see.

Beautiful view from the balcony (when the rain clears.)



Our own private pool…shared with other casita on the property, but it is not occupied now so it  is our provate pool!   To the right is a large common gathering area, called the “rancho.”

To Samara, Costa Rica

After staying at Wyndham Nashville, we drove to Atlanta the next day --- why is it taking us soooooo long to get places?  (Maybe we’re tired?)  Our friends who will keep our van for 3 months were busy in the afternoon, so we drove to the motel and unloaded the van, returning to their house to park it.  They took us back to the motel, and we walked over to a nearby McDonald’s (at 10 p.m.) for supper – had not had time earlier.  And it was actually open 24 hours a day – in Union City, GA.  Wow!
     We took the motel shuttle to the airport the next morning and had a very nice flight, a non-stop 4-hour Delta flight to Liberia, Costa Rica, passing over the Keys (and Cuba!).


The Florida Keys




Key West

     At the new Liberia airport, the immigration, customs, and baggage retrieval was super-fast; we were driving away in the shuttle we had reserved (for a 2 hour drive!) within 1/2 hour!
      It was a beautiful drive, everything was so green! Of course it's the rainy season.

Costa Rica Unit

Our balcony: like in the jungle

 We traded for this one-bedroom casita in the dry tropical forest coast of Costa Rica, but we are in the rainy season so we have the jungle experience as well as the beaches!  It is Casa Mango (http://casaelgecko.com/page13.html; for more information about Costa Rica http://sandy-shorts.com/ )  The town is Samara in the province of Guanacaste.  Our balcony extends out into the foliage so it is like sitting in the jungle, looking at the ocean view as we sip our morning coffee and then have breakfast. 
   The owners, Steve and Lavae are so helpful and both retired from the Pacific Northwest.  Lavae designed the property here (http://www.aldricharchitects.com/el_gecko.html  ) and also designs glass fusion pieces (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ6h2YWCsBI ) and we were thrilled to buy some of them.   

Sometimes we sit in the Rancho overlooking the pool

     Joan wakes up at 5:30 every morning with the “Morning Chorus”, the sunrising of birds and animals, but on the other hand, that makes us sleepy earlier in the evening than ‘normal.’  Nearer the equator, it is a 12 hour cycle, so it is completely dark at 6 p.m.

Traveling to Tennessee

The quintessential Tennessee landscape: a log cabin, stone fireplace, split rail fence, trees turning!  And that was the rest area!

Interstate 65, on the way to Nashville

Even along the interstate, the trees are turning their colors beautifully.

Leaving Springfield, IL, going south!

We planted more plants yesterday... Exhausted!!!! Then took the kids out to Culver’s for dinner.  Keenan had some nice 2-for-1 coupons.

On our way now at 9 a.m. heading south. Ron can't believe we have so little in the truck. He can see out the back window. Guess it makes him nervous. Has commented on it three times already this morning.... “Why are we taking so little to FL?”  “Are you sure we have everything we need?”  “ Why is the truck (van) so empty??”

But we sorted carefully yesterday at the storage unit:  Do we need this or that?

We are heading for Wyndham Nashville tonight, a small one bedroom unit with a mini kitchen... It was the only unit there available for a long time.  We finally got a one night reservation (instead of 2) so then we cancelled the 2 night reservation).  A great price for a hotel stop! 

 

We can just use the kitchenette to prepare supper (with leftovers!)

Packing for 8 Months

We are leaving Springfield, IL now where we have a storage unit and will be returning next June, so we are updating our van’s packing from Telemark (northern WI) to Florida, leaving behind the fishing items and other things for Wisconsin.  When we swing by next June, on our way to Telemark, we’ll pick up those things again.  We also have the military notes and items that Ron will need for a reunion next September (2013) that we can leave here until then.  So, we have to decide:  what are the things we need for

1.     An immediate 2-week trip to Costa Rica

2.     Returning to Seattle for a month in November, one week in January and one week in Feb

3.     A month in Hawaii (December)

     4.     A month in St Augustine FL (January)

5.     A month in Puerto Vallarta (Feb)

6.     Back to Seattle for part of March and April

7.     Flying back to Florida, staying a week there, then driving up the East coast, visiting family and friends (as well as 2 timeshare weeks) , then through the Midwest to…

8.     …Springfield IL, in  late June, on our way to Telemark (check in July 7 for 3 weeks)

Then head South again!  (Plans are almost finalized to March 2014.)

    
We have a storage unit in Seattle as well, so it means that we do not have to carry so much in our suitcases when flying back and forth (some of you will remember that Joan’s mother is ill in a home, and therefore, we need to regularly visit), and we have a car in Seattle, which we park at our son’s condo (where we stay when we are there – we hope!) and a car on the East Coast, which we leave at various places for months at a time (some very nice friends!...free parking at the Bloomington IL airport, and the St Augustine timeshare.) 
          When we got to the storage unit this year, we more carefully sorted out what exactly we needed to take and what we could leave behind that we had before; therefore, we actually were not STUFFED as we have been. 
     Since we will not return to this vehicle until January 7^th, we had to say:  Which things do we need for Florida and beyond but not in Costa Rica, Seattle and Hawaii?  (those things would stay behind in the van).  Which things here will we need in Seattle that we’ll have to take (on the airplane) to Costa Rica too?  Which things do we just need in Hawaii?   And where are they? (Christmas presents are already in the Seattle storeroom.)
    We asked ourselves:  Where are the tax papers?  (because we do Ron’s mother’s, Joan’s mother’s, and ours);   Where are the Power of Attorney papers (for Joan’s mother);  Where are our medical records?  making sure we know where all those kinds of papers are.  Remembering to order the car registration tags and having them with us in the right place at the right time for each car; etc etc.
    And we did it!   It made it easier in that the Costa Rica clothes and Hawaii clothes would be about the same. 

Planting Roses

Ron respreads the rock

As usual, we’ve been very busy while visiting son Keenan.   Lots of errands to run for both him and us (we have the large van to transport things, like building materials), making calls to find certain services (like winterizing the boat), reorganizing our storage unit, and of course, repacking….. 

One task he wanted us to help with was continuing the landscaping of the yard, especially in the front.  We purchased plants today and planted the bush roses first…but, what a job!  There was 4 inches of rock mulch, a thick plastic lining, a thin layer of sand and then CLAY!


 

 

All Packed Up

We always say the worse days  are packing days, and we are sure you say it also  …and thus, that means leaving. 

    Today, we are leaving Telemark until next year!

Boat and trailer, ready to go

We’ll drive as far as Madison tonight, stay in one of our favorite Comfort Inns, then goon to northern Chicago to visit Ron’s uncle in the nursing home, and then visit with our good friends for the night just down the road.   Monday, we’ll drive on to Springfield IL and our son there, Keenan.

Color Around our Telemark Pointe unit

The driveway to the units.  There are just 4 at the Pointe.

Right outside our door....

...and the other side of the building.

The Telemark Pointe property from the lake.  Docks on the right. 
Our unit is in the middle; more property is to the left.

The timeshare life continues

We are right now  in the 6^th week staying in our favorite timeshare at Telemark in Cable WI where we can spend 6 weeks per year with the owner benefit of a $200 bonus week for each week we own and we own three.  People complain about the MF here, one of the highest, but by no means the highest in the industry, but when we checked to rent a week at a summer resort in the area, it was more than half again the MF.  So with the bonus weeks amortizing the MF to almost half, it is a better deal, at this timeshare at least.

      We’ve been trying to decide where to finally settle down, since we are now in our 5^th year of full time timesharing, but we like so many places.  But this summer, Joan realized that it is so nice here that she would like to be able to spend 6 months here and 6 months in the south.  Then, we saw today a 4 BD 2 Bath townhouse on Telemark grounds (in the Vahallia Townhouses) is available for full-ownership purchase for $59K.  It was tempting…especially since there is a full-time maintenance man so the winter security would not be a problem. 

     However, the costs and ongoing maintenance issues alone did not make sense since we now, essentially, already live in the north in the summer and in the south in the winter.  And maybe more importantly, we are maintenance free…as far as us physically taking care of it, since, of course, timeshare units do have a maintenance cost. 

     (Any property has a maintenance cost!)

    All that to say, as people commented:  if you USE your timeshare and are happy, it is a great thing.

    So we will continue this lifestyle, until we can find a “real” place to settle down

Flaming trees from the boat

And others!

With geese!

Reflections

From a distance

How To Vote and Other Official Issues

Certain lifelong activities, especially official ones become a little difficult when we are moving around a lot.  Obviously, we need Absentee Ballots.  So we ordered them early.  They were to be sent to the UPS Store address we have set up in Ohio, so we waited until we thought they would be there, a date that we could get them in time to mail them in time (considering that we will be out of area for two weeks in October)  and then ordered our mail to be sent to us.  This mail system normally works out very well: we just need to count our days to be sure we’ll get it when we’ll still be somewhere.
      It didn’t come and didn’t come.  We contacted the UPS Store and they gave us the tracking number.  Yep!  It had been delivered to the Cable (WI) post office.
    Perhaps we should inject here that we had trouble at the post office last year.  It returned three packages we had ordered to be sent here as the Telemark condo’s street address had changed  (and some eBay companies would not take a box number.)   But the addresses were still addressed to “Telemark.”  The postmistress sent them back anyway; we couldn’t figure it:  in a town of 200, and Telemark being the biggest entity here, couldn’t she send them on?  This year, we were more careful:  we used a staff member’s name plus “Telemark”, plus “TIOA”  and doubled checked the addresses.  We had successfully received other mail already; why not this?
        We checked and checked and called and called people.  Nothing.  It had arrived at the Cable post office at 7:11 a.m. September 27^th and been checked in there at 8:48 a.m. (they open at 8:30.)   The Telemark staff person made a special trip Saturday to the post office for it.  Nothing.   Finally, after the weekend, we called the post office.  No, not there.  Well, I’ll check, she said.

      At 11 a.m., it was found:  misplaced in the post office!

     Happy news!  We picked it up…. But...No ballots.

 Went back to our unit and looked up absentee voting on the web:  absentee ballots are sent out 35 days before the election.  That would be tomorrow, October 2^nd!  So we emailed the UPS Store to send them express mail to our son’s house in Springfield, IL as soon as they come.
     
 Official Issue Two:   Car registration renewals.  Not so timely a problem since we can do it quite early.  Due the end of November, we can order them now, online, and for two years!  So we have.  We are having them sent to our son in Seattle, where they will wait until we get there in November.  The biggest issue will be to remember to bring the one for our east coast car (which will be sitting in Atlanta at a friend’s house)  back with us in January!

Tree Artistry

We like Impressionalists.  We might have found some on the lake.  The artists were TREES!



Joan used to scrapbook mosaics.

Fall Colors in Northern Wisconsin

From the top of Mt Telemark

Once again I can post the fabulous colors of the Northern Woods.  Ron’s cousin Jim, from just south of here, said they didn’t like having any evergreens in the forests, but we think it makes for a nice contrast.  We climbed Mt Telemark today (1699 ft high).



A small yellow plane does Touch and Go's

A new sunset at Telemark

Back to Telemark for another two weeks to see the fall colors, and the sun is further south, so we get a different view!  But still so fun and amazing to see.

The Taxi Didn't Come to Get to the Airport

We are at the airport now, the taxi hadn’t come.   Joan had reserved and was  re – calling  twice,  when they finally said they don't guarantee timed pickups and had no one in the area.  Well, they have for over 5 years and that’s why we call ahead!

And we HAD to get to the airport!   We had been standing outside for over 30 minutes, waiting.

They said they had not dispatched anyone.  Ron said, “What are we going to do? “

 
Joan was looking on her cell phone for another company when a neighbor in the condo complex returned from walking his dog (he had passed us going out with the dog, too) and said, “Taxi forgot you?”  She said, “Yes.”   He said , “I‘ll take you....”

So we said okay and  called the taxi back and cancelled.  

 

 As we were going, Joan suddenly thought:   We do not know this neighbor!!!!!

Taking a ride from a stranger!!!!!

We got there fine, and fast – super nice guy: Bruce.

When told this experience, one friend said, “Most people are nice, not like those coots on TV,”  and another one said, “Not smart!”

What do you think?