Starting the Morning with a Workout

            Today was another early morning.  Mom had enjoyed the stand-up paddle boards so much yesterday that we had rented two for the day, planning to switch off throughout the day.  Mom and I had the first outing and we were to be at the surf shop by 7:00.  We acquired the boards and carried them to the beach to start what was to become our “early morning workout.”

            To start it off, we had a super hard time putting the leg strap of the leash on and I’m sure all the Tico’s (native Costa Ricans) were laughing at us with our obvious struggle and boards constantly getting pummeled by the waves.  Note to self; next time, put the leash on BEFORE you get in the water and are standing right in the middle of the wave break…

            Once we got over the wave break and on our boards we hoped that the sea would be a little calmer but it was not to be so.  It was relatively windy this morning so the water in turn decided to be quite choppy.  I don’t think I stood up even once the whole time. I just sat on my knees pretty much the whole time. The wind was strong enough that I really only had to paddle on the right side of the board and the wind would do the rest from the left to keep me going straight. I guess I should be happy I didn't have to do a ton of that hand changing business!

            It was still super fun though and we got within a relative distance of Isla Chora before turning about. Mom said “Tell me when you’re tired so we can turn around.” Boy am I glad we turned around before I was tired because the way back was much more of a workout than the way out.  We were fighting against the current AND the wind the whole way and I think it took us about four times as long. But seriously, it was still super fun.  I got to see a bunch of flying fish jump in front of my board as well as a needle fish! There was one time when I was looking off towards the wave break by the reef and I could of sworn I saw some sort of ray jump out of the water.

            “No way.” I thought “Must have just been a bird diving or something.” No 10 minutes later we had this fair sized manta ray leap out of the water and splash back down right in front of our boards! Whaaaaaat??

            Since we got back to land a bit earlier than we had told Luke and Anna, we walked up the beach to their house and left the boards leaning against the side of the house. Mom and I then spent the next hour just sitting on the beach and talking.  Good times J.

            We went to check and see if they were up a while later and after saying our good mornings bid them farewell to let them get more woken up on their own while we headed back to the hotel.  By about 11:30 we were back at their house again and took over care of Arden while Luke and Anna took the paddle boards out for a spin. They were out for several hours and I got to spend my time doing my own thing and finally got to Skype with my best friend! That was awesome and just what I needed J.

            After Luke and Anna got back Mom, Luke, and Dad decided to go into town to get supplies for dinner and the daughter of Luke’s neighbors, Julianna, came over and wanted to hang out.  We spent a little time just hanging out in her house before we headed down to the beach.  We mostly just hung out and talked and I got to meet some locals that she had grown up with.  We also played a little Frisbee on the beach.  I think we might be having lunch sometime tomorrow after church so I am pretty excited for that!

            When I got back to the house, it was just Anna as Dad had been dropped off at the hotel and Mom and Luke had gone to take the paddle boards back to the shop.  The two of us (with Arden of course) got to just sit on the floor and hang out for a while and that was awesome! Anna has been so busy with school and such that we haven’t seen much of her much less had much time to just sit and chat! After a while we got a call from the others and that was our cue to pack up and head back to the hotel for dinner.