This is the new color of the casa. You can see the before below and the after above. I believe it is a real Improvement in color and certainly cleans it up!!

Hola and Welcome to Paradise. I am attempting to make this the first picture you see.. but don't know how to do that without deleting the first one and adding it as another message... All is good in paradise and hope things are warming at home.

Dec 27 and in Houston. Well this is definitly out of order, but worth a post. We had a layover in Houston, planned, so we could see the "Mathews". It was a quick visit but a good one! Got a chance to see everyone and it was a treat for us.

Emmm dinner!! :-)

At the far end, Cory, Wendy, Mel, and Jose next to Wayne.

Had to get a view of the other end of the table and the back of Cory's head!

Don't you just love those big brown eyes!! What a cutie! and the rib Alexander is enjoying is really good too!

With Grampa! Lots of love in this picture!

Emmm Dinner... These pictures taken with Wayne's new Underwater Camera. This is the first try so hopefully we will get better!
Star Fish

Puffer fish

I know this next one is out of order... But this little guy visits every night and he is very camera shy. We just pointed at the noise and hoped we got him. Believe me there were several that we didnt have anything.. But finally we got about 4. I think this is the best of those 4.

Also out of order... but always a Thrill and we will Never tire of this.. We were fortunate enough to release turtles about 2 weeks ago. They are so very cute. We released 63 this night. One had died or there would have been 64. I believe they are Olive Ridley Turtles.

This is the race to the water! And they know exactly where they need to go!

Did I mention that we are very lucky to have a wonderful garden, and a fantastic new Gardener.

The gardens have been a work in progress, one I have enjoyed and it is paying off. These are just a few of the flowers and pictures I have taken this year.

My Arches are starting to really come alive with color.

Two Hibiscus, double flowering.

This is Pink Ginger and I also have Red. Just got to love them! This one is just outside our patio!

These next two are just outside our patio and the hummingbirds love them.. Thus they Stay where they are!







and of course there is the orchid.




Ok. this one needs a little explaination. This is Wilson. Last year he didn't look so good and they told me he was going to die. Well Jose, who is now our gardener, told me to give it fertilizer, water and wait. Well the picture below tells you how Wilson is today!

Doesn't Wilson look great!

The next few pictures are of a couple of Critters.

This first one is of a sand crab that Wayne chased on the beach. He tired as he couldn't find his hole to go down. I was able to get a good close up of him.

The Next critter, the Iguana privides hours of entertainment! Going for a dip in the pool. Eating the hibiscus, bugs or what ever else it is after. This is one of the regular visitors on a daily basis.

This one climbs the tree to the west of the unit and then wanders around the roof waiting for something to eat to come to him, I suppose...

This particular day, there were two.. emm the war is on.

I just happened to have the camera.. the Chase was on..

and what a racket they make on the roof..

Down to the other side... and off the roof.

Here are a few more pictures: The pool in the Daytime

The pool by Night, with the lights.. Reflection was great!

Did I tell you we have some amazing sunsets!!

Trip to Panama

We have a wonderful time in paradise but there are times we leave for a trip so we can extend our stay and we did this, this year. We went to Panama. I got there in 1 hour, but Wayne took a little longer as he and Jorge rode BMW, 1200, about 850 km to get there. Of course he had the 850 back again as well.

This first picture is of Wayne and Jorge before they left Jorge's office. They arrived in Panama City about 3pm the next day!! Not bad really and they both had smiles, so the ride went well. At least they didn't tell us otherwise.

We then headed out on Sunday to the Panama Canal. It was wonderful!! We got there just as a cargo ship was going through. The gate had just opened and it was being pulled through. They then closed the gate before filling the gate. It took only 8 minutes to raise the ship 27 feet. The ship then was pulled out of the lock.

The ship starts it engine to help..

This is the picture of the lock door. They are the original doors when the lock was built over 100 years ago!

There are two locks side by side and this is the Evergreen Barge going through just a little behind the first one. (don't know the line it belonged to)

The next ship through was a Cruise ship. Made me think of the ship my Mom was on and what it would have been like for her to go through. It must have been fabulous. Everyone on this ship seemed very happy to be there and they lined the rails.

The one I really enjoyed was this little guy. He piggy backed the Cruise ship threw the locks.

We then toured the Canal facilities, as they have a museum and show how it was built. How the locks work. They also show how the new locks are going to work using and reusing the water from one lock to the other.

When we left the canal, we headed to a peninsula that Jorge and Jessenia knew of. We went to the yacht club, (just viewing from the outside of course) We had lunch at a little resturant that overlooked the bay and all the sail boats. Hopefully I have a good picture of the Panama City sky line that I can include. (and I figure out how to add them.. )

Monday morning Jessenia and I flew out early, probably getting back to San Jose before Jorge and Wayne were even out of bed. (we got to San Jose at 6am) I then spend a wonderful day with Karolina and Michael. That will be the next post, but hopefully the last picture on this post will be the one of Jorge and Wayne arriving at Jorge's office Tuesday at about 11:30 am. They did look like they had a wonderful trip on the bikes.

I think these pictures say it all. They travelled a long way on those bikes but had a wonderful trip. They both have stories to tell I am sure, some of which I will try and get posted, but I don't think I have heard them all yet. Wayne took some pictures, but I don't know the details yet. All in all they were safe! and both were still smiling!

Hats off to my kids who do their blogs.. this is not as easy as they make it look!! I will even enjoy your blogs more now that I know how much work they are!!

Two last photo's. Taken By Wayne on the trip into Panama City. He and Jorge stopped an a lock and a US Naval ship was going through the lock. They didn't much like the guys looking at them and taking photos.. There is a naval person watching them closely.. can you see him?