Costa Rica!

Chris decided to save the best 30th of 2009 for the last. The story for this month starts in Florida on my birthday when Chris gave me a nice backpack with a Frommer's guide to Costa Rica tucked inside! Our entire trip was a blast! On the 30th we woke up to a gorgeous view of Arenal Volcano outside our hotel window. Good thing we woke up early - by 8 AM the top of the volcano was cloudy and we didn't see a full view for the rest of the day. Anyway, we started the day with horseback riding. It was amusing as I could not control my horse very well. As the trip was around the volcano, there wasn't a great deal of open fields and so most of the time we were trotting which is pretty much the worst on your butt. The views were wonderful and the company even better (There was a couple from Russia and Canada that joined us). After making our muscles sufficiently sore, Chris took me to Tabacon Hot Springs. No sulfur smell! Chris has tried before to take me to hot springs that reek of sulfur. This was the type of place that made me wish I was a millionaire so I could send everyone I loved down to this hot springs because it was so amazing. Although our muscles were sore and I knew the heat would only inflame them more, we loved our time there. We went from hot spring to hot spring and enjoyed the varying temperatures. Some were comfortable, some very very hot. Anyways, I loved our last 30th of 2009 and am looking forward to see more surprises in 2010. (Chris probably outdid himself on this one) Happy New Year!

Puzzles, Soup, Movie, and Wicked

What do all of these things have in common? They are all things you can do on the 30th when you had a tonsillectomy last week! It was a low-key monthly celebration. I unfortunately still had to take a quiz in the morning, but after that we went out to lunch at a little Chinese place called Seven Seas just across Rockville Pike. The prices were pretty good for lunch anyways and we would recommend it to others. I just had egg drop soup (which was a good change of pace from apple sauce and oatmeal), and Leigh had a rice bowl and a salad with a really good pineapple dressing.

Afterwards we went home and worked on a puzzle we bought this summer. It wasn't huge, but it had the funkiest shaped pieces. We also watched a movie and Leigh read Wicked to me. We really have to finish that this week, since we're going to the play on Saturday. We'll have four hours on the bus on Friday though. I really hope I'm feeling better so I can concentrate on that, be able to eat dinner in NY as well as enjoy the show. For dinner, Leigh made me another soup that her mom sent us. A chicken and dumpling soup that was really, really good (and soft). And to top it all off, the Wirthlins were nice enough to stop by and bring us ice cream!

Quiet Evening at Home... then Busch Gardens

It would be nice if the 30th fell on a Saturday every month! This month it fell on a Friday. The plan was to go to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg for Halloween and maybe go down early on Friday to see colonial Williamsburg. Unfortunately, my last class got out at 4 and traffic on I-95 after 4PM can be awful, especially on a Friday, so we decided to stay at home on the 30th and keep it simple. We went out for a simple dinner at Noodles and Company (one of our favorite places) and then we came home to watch a movie. I always like trying new things on the 30th, so this time I tried to give Leigh a pedicure at home. It turned out to be a drawn out foot massage with soaking in sea salt and a little bit of scrubbing. So exciting, huh? Well we had fun.

The 31st turned out to be pretty good weather. It seems like it has been raining just on Fridays and Saturdays and then it's sunny during the week. It did drizzle a little bit, but I think that scared away enough people that the lines were really short. Also, it was nice and cool. We never actually drove down to Shenandoah Natl Forest this year to see the leaves (because of the aforementioned rain), but seeing the leaves from the tops of the roller coasters was actually a pretty cool way to see them this year.

Being Intellectual...

Often I see people playing chess in a park during a movie. Since high school I have wanted to see a park with people playing chess. Well, a few weeks ago Chris and I were walking downtown and came across one of these parks. I made him walk me through it; however, I have to admit it wasn't a very nice place. That was disappointing.

I am not often in charge of the "30th" as we call it. Unfortunately it is getting chilly here and I am afraid that all of our activities will be indoors over the next few months so I wanted to make sure this one was outdoors. I decided I would take our trip to a "chess park" and expand it a little. I thought we could have an "intellectual" celebration. (I know, Chris is in school all day and gets enough brain food.) I found out that Rockville Town Center has chess tables. So Chris and I headed to the Rockville Town Center, which also has a library and picked out a book to read together. I realized we don't have a great deal of time to read together - so Chris picked out Wicked on CD. We then went outside and Chris taught me how to play chess. Lucky for him I was clueless and he won. Somehow throughout the game new rules kept popping up that always seemed to benefit only him. Ha! I'll show him next time. Well, it was too cold for me to stay outside and we headed home for a warm bath. (Chris didn't mind.) Chris then gave me my Halloween present early - Wicked tickets! We are headed to NYC with some friends in December. So it was my turn for the 30th but Chris still takes the spotlight for making it exciting. I'll let him win at chess anytime he wants for that kind of surprise!

Relaxing Sunday

This month the 30th fell on a Sunday and so we went to church in the middle of the day. Unfortunately we can't be on vacation every month. I made Leigh her favorite breakfast, french toast. After church we went down to Great Falls park and threw a frisbee around. We also laid on a blanket and read our books for a little while, but you have to remember DC used to be a swamp, so the mosquitoes encouraged us to come home a little early. I tried a new recipe for dinner. It was some sort of chicken with lime juice and orange juice used to flavor it. Leigh had to use ketchup if that says anything. So this month it was simple, but fun.

Kayaking in Hawaii

This month the 3oth came while we were in Hawaii on vacation/assignment. For school I had to create my own training experience and for some reason Hawaii seemed like a wonderful place to do it. While our time in Hawaii was fun and amazing, the task of re-telling the story is daunting so I am grateful that the basis for our blog is simply our monthly celebrations of our marriage. For a quick run-down though, we stayed at Bellows beach for the most part on the windward side of Oahu, with a four day trip to the Big Island where we stayed right next to the Kilauea crater in Volcanoes National park, and finally our last four days we stayed in Waikiki.


On the day before the 30th we rent a two person kayak and paddled out to the Twin Islands off Kailua. The following morning we wanted to ride into the sunrise and paddle out to Rabbit Island off Makapu'u Point. Unfortunately the surf was rough and there were lots of rocks so we decided to play it safe and not launch from Makapu'u Beach. We did get to see the sunrise though, the first time in our marriage. Afterwards we went back to Bellows and kayaked out towards the Twin Islands again. Didn't make it all the way, but it was fun just to ride the waves.



The parents had flown in the previous day, and so for the afternoon we all went up to the North Shore. Being quite naive, I decided we should take the scenic coastal route rather than the highways. So we spent a little time at the beach, ate at Ted's bakery, saw some sea turtles at Turtle Beach, and spent entirely too much time in the car to get there and back. All in all we had a wonderful time and I am still glad that I married this girl. And I enjoy her family too, so having them along was wonderful as well.

Germany

This month for the 30th we were in Germany. We took a military hop and stayed in Heidelberg and then Bacharach on the Rhine River. We arrived on the 30th around noon. With our little phrasebook and the help of some Germans who spoke pretty good English we got a taxi to the train station and a ticket to Heidelberg immediately. The trip took a little over two hours. Fortunately we chose to stay at a Marriott so we could drop off our bags and relax for a little while before exploring. Once well-rested, we walked along the Neckar River (a tributary of the Rhine) down to the historic district of town. The scene at the river-side park was instantly recognizable as Europe with old men in speedos and students with their books and bottles of beer. Apparently, riding a bike is the popular mode of transportation so we had to be careful on our walking path to avoid being run over. In the historic district, below the Heidelberg castle, we ate at a local restaurant called Kulturbrauerei, which a friend recommended. The food was excellent. Dining is so much more relaxed there. You don't wait to be seated, but rather just sit down and chat until they stop by and give you a menu. And when you're done they almost expect you to stick around and talk for a while. We strolled though the old town and then returned home. The rest of the trip continued on just as wonderfully. Leigh says she loves the idea of traveling on the 30th.

Our First Anniversary

"The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry." Man did I have a sweet weekend planned. It did NOT go as expected, but still turned out to be a wonderful time spent with Leigh. First, we thought we would beat traffic by leaving at 2:30, but little did we know that traffic in DC on the Beltway on Friday is already well underway at that point. And we got in a lane that wasn't moving at the toll booths and didn't realize the other lanes were moving (however slowly) on the opposite side until about 30 minutes later. The people in front of us were just sitting there the whole time... we were all clueless! We made it across the bridge but then torrential downpours slowed us down a bit. We ate at Captain's Galley II, whose crab cake sandwich lived up to the reviews, but everything else was so-so. We then drove to the hotel in pouring rain and hail. I really thought that I had booked a wonderful hotel with a nice secluded room, but it turned out to be older and they put us right next to the pool where little kids could see into our room. Not the best environment for an anniversary celebration, right? So we moved rooms. The next day at the beach and boardwalk was fun and the weather was perfect. Thrasher's fries are supposed to be a big deal and they were pretty good. My gift to Leigh was supposed to be sunglasses bought discretely (this has been a long-time goal to be able to buy something in-store without her realizing it). The cashier was not discrete enough and she noticed, but at least she pretended until after I gave them to her. The water was cold! but refreshing. The culmination of the evening was supposed to be at Philips Original Crab House. It was supposed to be a fine dining experience with great seafood, but it turned out to be a lot of work shelling your own shrimp and cutting and cracking your own average quality lobster and crab. It was average and we felt like we should have been paid to do all that work :)


Leigh's thoughts....
I have to admit, I did not expect Ocean city to be the location of our anniversary. Chris did do a good job keeping it a secret and I did not guess the correct location until Friday morning. The wonderful thing about Chris an I are how differently we think through things......and we both second guess ourselves constantly. The entire traffic filled ride we discussed our (well, his) plans and how differently it could have been in various sorts of situations. But honestly- it turned out great. Chris loved his scrapbook I made for him (turns out, with the help of my sister, I am a bit domestic after all!) and I think the trip would make a great page in a future scrapbook. :) I love my sunglasses and am trying very hard not to misplace them.

Bonsai Festival

For the month of April, Leigh was in charge. She picked me up at school and we started driving towards Northeast DC. I had never been there, but it didn't look like that nice of a neighborhood so I was really curious where we were headed. It turned out the be the National Arboretum. For those of you who don't know what an arboretum is, it is like a botanical gardens, just for trees and shrubs. We saw lots of sweet bonsai trees. Some were over a hundred years old but now more than a few feet tall. I tried to groom a bonsai tree when I was a kid, but I killed it and then forgot about it. So we went ahead and bought a couple seedlings to see how we do. Red japanese maple and dwarf fig were our choices. Now they are out on our balcony with our little potted herb garden. Leigh picked a wonderful place and I had a fun time. Almost a year and I still love her! I should also mention that there was a wonderful azalea display, and an interesting exhibit on potential biofuels.

Cherry Blossom Festival

The plan this time was to take Leigh to see the cherry blossoms and ride on a paddleboat in the Tidal Basin. Unfortunately the winds were too strong or something so the paddleboat place was closed. We still enjoyed the cherry blossoms, which were beautiful and enjoyed a little picnic lunch. Many people go to the National Mall and walk around, but I think the Tidal Basin is underappreciated except for during this event. The FDR Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial are absolutely beautiful.

Valentine's Day

February does not have a 30th to commemorate our anniversary... yet Valentine's Day seemed an appropriate alternative. Luckily, it coincided with a 3-day weekend at school, so we had enough time for a trip to New York. We went with our friends, Lara and Elliott, and took a bus up on Friday night. The next day was Valentine's Day so we had lots planned. We found out that at least in New York many good things require waiting in lines. First, we tried a pizza place called Grimaldi's just across the Brooklyn bridge. The wait was about an hour, but the pizza was so good, I would be willing to do it again every time I visit New York. Oh, and before that we went to get day-of tickets for half-price for a Broadway show. Ideally we wanted to go to Wicked or Jersey Boys, but you actually have to plan ahead to get tickets plus have a good deal of money. That line was about an hour and a half. We ended up finding tickets to Mary Poppins. After pizza we stopped by the biggest Macy's, Columbia Circle, and Central Park. Then it was time for the show, which was very fun and entertaining. Mary Poppins just has so many fun songs that I remember from childhood. The next day, Sunday, we went to church in the same building as the Manhattan temple, and then took an afternoon walk in Central Park. Dinner and the evening was spent with Elliott's family, who were fun to be around. On Monday we did various things, like FAO Swartz, and riding a tandem bike in Central Park.

S'mores!

This month on the 30th Leigh was in charge and decided to make s'mores. This was an idea I had several months ago but she mentioned her claim to the idea before I could go through with it. Afterall, she did hunt down this table for me for several months. (long story there) So between the table, the s'mores, and an early birthday present (chairs), we sat on our small little deck and enjoyed the freezing cold weather. We lasted for about two smores each before feeling quite hyperglycemic - not to mention cold - and then quickly went inside to watch a movie and read our new favorite book, Brisingr.