Pura Vida

Charles (isn't this such a cute shot of him?) is off to Costa Rica for 10 days. He's going on an Operation Freedom trip with Tom Grady and about 15 other men. They're staying in Quepos at a Jungle Villa, going sea kayaking, ziplining through the rain forest and tons of other fun adventure things. He headed out today, which is 3 days early so that he can surf for a few days. After all of our traveling these past two months, I don't envy him going on another trip, but dropping him off this morning I did get a little twinge of, hey, he gets to go on this cool trip without me.

We left for the airport at 6:30am, didn't turn on the radio to see what was going on, and ended up sitting in 2 1/2 hours of the parking lot on 75 S from that terrible bus accident. So, despite our efforts to get Charles to the airport 3 hours early, he was only a little over an hour early, but still had time to buy breakfast and a Spanish dictionary before boarding.

I'm tracking his flight on Delta.com and it looks like he's arriving 20 minutes ahead of schedule, which is good because he's got a connecting hopper flight out to the coast that leaves only 55 minutes after his anticipated arrival. So hopefully I should hear from him this afternoon, and then not much more for most of the trip, but I'll update as I have news.

Mari Ann and Bear are visiting until Tuesday, which is really nice. Gordy and Bear are still adjusting to each other. Half the time they ignore each other, and then other times Bear will startle Gordy and he'll go skidding away renewing Bear's interest in him. I had them both out on the deck this morning and I was petting Bear as he sunbathed, so Gordy kept coming over to check him out while he was laying down. One time Gordy put his front paws on Bear's chest and hopped on him to get past. Neither animal seemed to think this was strange, but I did. Of course, they are pretty well adjusted- as I write they are both sleeping down in the living room-Bear on top of the couch and Gordy underneath.