Our 12 Days of Christmas including Snakes and Deadly Water slides

So each year I send a few Christmas cards out and recieve a few and one thing I always like getting is the folded up 1-page paper talking about family highlights; what jobs people are at, where they vacationed and what grade their children are in... I never remember to send anything like that, so I thought I would post a blog entry on some of our more comical travel highlights from this year, but only the most entertaining ones and in the form of the twelve days of Christmas....

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

One bear-a-scaring us out of our campsite in Yosimiteeeeee

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Two bights of Costa Rica Disantereeeee

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Three hot spring water slides of death that will give you a wedgeeee

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Four unaware rafters in wetsuits paddling in water that was muddyeeee

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Five States of traveling though to lose my avocado to agriculture poliiicceeeee

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Six Moab paddlers-a-drinking, getting dehydrated, camping and floating

in duckieeeeees

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Seven snakes a squirming past our feet at Dome Rock as we jumped and screeeeamed

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Eight-near-crashes into tourists on the Golden Bridge while riding our

bikes when it was windyeeee

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Nine minutes of surfing lessons before I got seasick and ended up

sitting on the beach watching Wesleyeeee

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Ten-white-knuckled fingers gripping the steering wheel going over Wolf Creek Pass in a blizzardeeee

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Eleven mini-breaks to reach to the top of the Sand Dunes with nowhere

to hide and peeee

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Twelve feet of trail-clearing that took us all day to remove rocks and

shrubberies!!!

A Year in Review: Our Travels and Adventures of 2009

The Wild Bush Whackers Give Back

We had been hiking all over Colorado this past year and decided it was time to give a little back. We signed up to do a weekend of clearing trails near Steamboat Springs at Stage Coach State Park. This seemed like a win win situation because:

1. We would get some physical activity in the outdoors.
2. We would make new friends with like-minded people.
3. We would get a chance to camp for free!

Our Journey to the Fire Tower!

After Yosemite we headed to San Francisco for a day. We wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge and decided the best way would by bike... a bit of advice, yes, this is a great way to see the bridge but at 11:00 a.m. you have to dodge sightseers and other bikers (who look like they have not ridden bikes since they were 12.) Seriously, we had near-crash experiences every other minute, I don't know how we even got around some of the crowds of people.

The agriculture police AND bears wanted our food!

Our second big trip of the year was by car over the week of July 4th. We wanted to save our skymiles and get out on the open road. So we packed the car full or camping, hiking and biking gear and hit the road, destination: California.

Don't wear your sunglasses around the monkeys!

So to catch up on our travels I thought I would post an entry about our trip to Costa Rica. Wes and I needed a break from Europe and wanted to see something more, ehhh, scenic. So we booked a trip through GAP adventures, a lower budget tour operator. They provide transportation to the different cities, Eco-friendly hotels and some activities. This was the first trip we had done together that was considered a tour.

Wes and I arrived in San Jose a day late, we got grounded in Jackson, Mississippi while horrible thunderstorms cycled around Atlanta like a car wash (for four hours.) We were hoping to have more time in San Jose, but it ended up being OK since it was the day before Easter and a lot of businesses were closed.

Hmm, this is a long overdue blog post!

So, I must admit we have forgotten to blog... for a lonnnggg time, a lot has happened in the year and a good couple of months of not blogging. I should have been writing posts since I am currently unemployed and have done quite a bit of traveling but enough dwelling on the past, lets recap on our travels since the last post!!