TravelStream™ news feed for member janda on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/janda en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 28 May 2007 13:10:51 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/janda/gobigorgohome/1180371360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/janda/gobigorgohome/1180371360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/janda/gobigorgohome/1180371360/tpod.html Mon, 28 May 2007 13:10:51 -0400 It didn't take long to conquer North Gower, world travel seems like a logical next step...

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North Gower, Ontario, Canada

Well you may have guessed by now that we are home. We arrived back in Canada in March.We dropped by Niagra Falls on our way to Guelph. It was a beautiful day in March. I think it was about 23 degrees celcius which is bizarre for that time of year. On our way from Ohio the temerature was constantly changing. It went from a high of 27 to a low of 7 degrees. We had a great visit with the "Hastings Girls" and families while we were in Guelph and are now looking forward to them visiting us in June. We moved on to visit my cousin Jeff and his family and my cousin Lynn and her family. The girls and I went downtown to watch their cousin Ambur perform in a dance competition. We arrived back in Ottawa on March 30th and were lucky enough to be able to stay the weekend with Andrew's brother Rick and his wife Ange.

So, what have we done since then? We have painted the house. Moved back into the house (April 1st) and thrown more stuff out!! I have been back supply teaching at North Grenville HS in Kemptville. Andrew continues to enjoy his year off. (He keeps telling everyone he is a kept man!) He has been busy building furniture for the back yard though. (I will try to post some pictures).

The kids have all settled back into school life. The transition was very smooth. They do sometimes wish that the weekend was 5 days though! (Don't we all?)

I have been keeping in touch with a fair number of people that I met on our travels. I think this trip was a great thing. I learned a lot about the world, myself and our family. I think the kids are closer than they were before the trip. Its hard to believe but before the trip I didn't really have any wanderlust or urge to travel. (The trip was sort of just something we dreamed up) Now, however, I find myself dreaming of going back to some of the places we've been. Seeing them more in depth or parts of a country we didn't get to. Seeing people we met....

Well for now I will settle on reading my friends emails and blogs and hosting others. In fact we have a family from France coming to stay with us in August. I think this journey will never end. : )
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Dallas, Texas, United States

Oh yes I kid you not there is deep fried bread here! At more than one restraunt too!

So we have enjoyed our visits with cousins Betty Jo, Georgia Lee and Burts. We also enjoyed a quick visit to the science museum and some outlet shops!

We are leaving now to go to Waco to see some other cousins and the small town of Cameron where my Grandma Gilbert was raised. One of the girls said the other day that Texas wasn't as they imagined it. I told them to wait until we got to Waco as Dallas is a large city like any other. I will have to let you know their impressions of rural Texas later!

I hope all is well with y'all.
Julia
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Alajuela, Costa Rica

Hi All,

So our taxi is about to arrive to take us to the airport. We went to the Poas Volcano this morning and although there was too much cloud to see the main crater we did see the second crater. We also got a few wonderful pictures including one that will explain the title of this post.

Tonight we have a 4 hour drive from Miami to Orlando ahead of us beginning at 10pm! I am looking forward to landing in the house in Orlando safely and staying put for 10 days of relaxation (and homework!).

I hope all is well with you.
Julia
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Waco, Texas, United States

Today is Darcy's 10th birthday!

She started her birthday out right with a new birthday tradition from her cousins in Texas. On their birthdays they get to eat donuts for breakfast. So Darcy and the other kids all ate donuts for breakfast! YUM! (OK I had one too!)

We had a great time today at a museum at Baylor University. The kids explored and got great new hairstyles too! (Wait for the pictures!)

We went out to eat at a buffet. It even had all you can eat soft ice cream! The kids loved it. The adults didn't seem to mind it too much either! Then we came back to the Lauka's house for presents and ice cream cake.

It all came to an end too fast though and we are leaving in the morning to start our journey north. We think we will get to Memphis tomorrow night and then Louisville Kentucky the next night before hitting the Great White North the day after that. (It isn't still white up there is it???)

We have had a great time. We are looking forward to visiting our friends and family in Guelph and Toronto on our way home. We are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds (we haven't done that since June!).

Hope you are all well.
Julia
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Marshall, Texas, United States

Wow, we have been through 5 states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas) since yesterday morning! We have been driving 9-10hrs a day taking turns as we go. I, unfortuneately, have been feeling sick a fair bit since the night before we left Florida. I just finished booking our next hotel in Irving Texas, a merciful 2 hour drive from here, for tomorrow night. I think I will have computer access there too which will be nice. I think we will head in and see the famous JFK site in Dallas tomorrow and enjoy walking around the downtown shopping area.

I better go. Someone is waiting for this computer. I will try to update again soon.
Julia
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Kissimmee, Florida, United States

So we have arrived in the U S of A now and survived our late night drive from Miami to Kissimmee. We have been getting a lot of homework done and enjoying the warm (but not as hot and humid as Costa Rica) weather. I won't be updating the blog much while we are here as the internet cafes charge an unbelievable $12 an hour!!!!! I am used to $1 an hour in Ecuador and free at the hostels. The libraries here give you only 20min free a day. Except today we have located a library that gives you an hour so that is good. I am hoping my cousins in Texas have internet that I can use. If they do I will definately update the blog and add some pictures from our last days in Costa Rica.

I hear it was raining in Ottawa yesterday and there is little to no snow on the ground. That is moving in the right direction!
See you soon,
Julia
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Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Wow what an awesome time!

We have just finished our 4 nights here in Manuel Antonio and have had a great ( although sweaty) time. We spent the day at the park yesterday and were lucky to see a lot of different animals. We saw (from a great height) a three toed sloth sleeping high up in a tree. A howler monkey picking fruits. A whole gang (including a mommy and baby) of white faced monkeys, a coati (member of the racoon family) and an anteater. Apparently we were very lucky to see this guy. He is only spotted once every 2 months in the park as they are nocturnal. We have also seen the squirrel monkeys all over the village.

Today Darcy and Morgan took surfing lessons at the beach. They had a great time but I think they will be sore! We got some video and a lot of pictures. I will try to post some pictures in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow we take one of our last crazy bus rides of our trip. We take a 3hour bus ride to Punteranus (which is only 66km away!) and then a 3.5 hr bus ride to Santa Elena (Monteverde). We leave at 7:30am and won't arrive at our hostal until 5:30pm! That is the one thing they need to fix here in Costa Rica. A lot of the roads are terrible and the bus schedules are worse. There are two buses that leave Puntaranus for Monteverde one is at 1:50pm and the other is at 2:15 pm is that crazy or what? Worse still was our choices for leaving Uvita. We could catch the 5am bus or the 2pm bus. Oh well.....

Hope all is well with you. I hear you've been hit with another snow storm. Do I hear snow day????
Julia
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Monteverde, Costa Rica

Hi again,

So we went on a canopy tour of a cloud forest early this morning. Andrew and Brett went on the zip lines (and a tarzan rope) high above the tree tops while Darcy, Morgan and I walked the suspension bridges through the canopy. It was raining as we set out (as it is known to do 80% of the time in a cloud forest). As we walked though it began to clear up. There wasn't a lot to see in terms of animals (although we did see a wild boar type creature on our way in). The birds are good to see here but the kids are patient enough to wait. We did see a beautiful violet throated hummingbird. (good spotting Darcy!)

The views of the canopy were gorgeous though. I will load some pictures. Hope you are all well.
Julia
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Monteverde, Costa Rica

So today was a great day! We started out early and walked to a butterfly garden (accompanied by 3-4 stray dogs). We got a full tour of butterflies from all of the different ecosystems here in Costa Rica. (Lots of Blue Morphos!!) The guide was a graduate of a zoology program in the states. She also showed us a lot of insects including tarantulas, flying cockroaches and the hercules beetle that can lift 5lbs making it the strongest animal in the world (what it can lift compared to its weight).

We walked back to the hostal (without our escort) and relaxed for the afternoon. Then at 5pm we took a taxi to the Children's eternal Rainforest. This is a 60,000 hectare park bought and paid for by children and parents around the world. We took a guided night walk throught the forest during the full moon lunar eclipse! We were able to see 2 agouti (LARGE rodents), a two toed sloth, a viper snake, a tarantula and a number of different insects and sleeping birds. It was great!

Julia
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Uvita, Costa Rica

So we took one last trip to the beach today. We had a nice time playing in the surf and walking on water (what can we say?). We are looking forward to packing up and heading to Manuel Antonio tomorrow. The kids are really going to miss their friends Ollie and Nelson though. We have made some nice friends here. We met a couple (Nic and Renske) and their son Jack from the Netherlands. Jack is 20 months old and Darcy and Brett worked their charms on him. He especially like Brett's Wheelies. Whenever he saw her rolling he would try to get his shoe to roll to. It was very funny.

I don't have much more to say. Its hard to write about much when you spend most of your time in a hammock. I finished the book "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" while here. It is a great book. The movie "Simon Birtch" is based on it.

I hope all is well with you. Drop me an email and let me know how you all are doing.
Julia
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