On November 30 of 2016, we celebrated our 9th year living here in beautiful Atenas, Costa Rica. We love the wonderful people, the weather and the low cost of living, and especially, the relaxing atmosphere that we live in. With all this, it was pretty easy to make our decision to stay and live here. As it is becoming more obvious every year - it appears that we are here to stay, and I can guarantee you that we have not looked back at all!
Enjoy!
Remember our friends and neighbors Ed and Johanna Lane?
Within a few months of moving to Costa Rica, we became friends with them and then became their neighbors when we built our home in Hacienda Atenas. Ed and Jo are from Connecticut. Ed is a retired fireman from the New York Fire Department and Jo is a retired attorney. They are great people and we cherish their friendship. Near the end of last year, they sold their home here, but promised to return and visit us often.
Well, recently Jo's mother who is over 95 yrs old is not doing very well, Jo is consistently by her side and doing everything she can to help her. Both of them have been getting extensive dental work done here because of the quality of the work and the price. It may be well to note that dental work is Costa Rica's 2nd largest industry.
Anyway, Ed had to come down for more work - But this time, Jo had to stay back home. We promised her that we would take good care of her sweetie because after all - they recently celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Pretty cool don't you think?
In spite of his trip being so short, we still made the best of it. I picked him up at the airport Sunday morning, made his dental appointment Monday morning and still had time for him to catch up with some old friends and relax a bit. I got him to the airport early Wednesday afternoon and got him on the way back to his sweetie in the US of A.
Now, the night before Ed left - he took Stef and me out to dinner at one of Atenas' finest restaurants. We had a picture taken to make sure that Jo saw it. So here ya go Jo - This Bud's for you dear!!
Ed's visit was brief, but very fulfilling and we enjoyed every minute of it. Waiting for the next time when both of you will join us.
We had a great time last year and decided to make our St. Pat's Celebration an annual event. The second annual party took place Saturday night and everybody had another great time.
I'm not really sure how many attendees joined us, but it was a lot. We had seating set up for about 90 people and the tables were not far from all being full. I guess when the word spreads about a party, no one is going to want to miss it.
The party started at 5:00 PM, and Stef and I worked all day to get things set up - Then the crew got here around 3:00 PM to finalize the details.
This is Lis and Elieth who made sure our guests had everything they needed. They got here early to make sure everything was ready.
This is Ana Cecilia who was in charge of "Ana Cecilia's Shuttle Service. Notice that she is driving the most dependable vehicle I own, but she is very experienced with it and handles it like a pro.
One thing that worked out great is that my neighbor Henry who owns the lots across the street from me offered to let me use his parking lot for everyone to park their car - this worked out great- people would park their car there, Ana CC would pick them up and bring them to the house. - Aren't good neighbors wonderful!
Anyway, I got Ozzie to do the DJ thing, and he did a great job again this year. By the Way - Ozzie also takes care of our pest control needs and has given us the best results since we moved here. He provided the music and later in the night, some got several brave soles involved in karaoke.(Pictures to come a bit later) This is Ozzie on the far left with his son and his son's sweet girlfriend.
The guests started arriving just after 5:00 PM and I told Ozzie to get the music going. Within 1/2 hour, this is what it looked like.
People coming in and getting ready to see friends and have a good time. Well, that is exactly what we did. First thing - when our neighbors Don & Elaine got here, they brought some offerings.
This is Don and me getting ready to get started - you will see much more a little later. I look a little ridiculous don't you think?
Things started gearing up and this gives you a little idea of how things were going.
My theory is: As long as everyone is having a good time - I am happy and satisfied. I am happy this night!
Now, we get to the karaoke and dancing. I started things off with a little bit of Elvis, then the talented people got things rocking. Check this out.
This is Melani and Mercedes doing a duet
Your's truly trying to do a song, but I forgot the words,and they tried not to make it obvious.
Another famous group doing New York, New York - look at the emotions they are expressing with this song.
One girl who loves to do karaoke got going and did a great job - unfortunately, she had to leave early in order to catch a flight the next morning.
Then there was the dancing - one neighbor who said that they were not really too sociable got to rock'n out there on the dance floor. Then, there were the others who were already wound up and rock'n.
With all this, the party kept going on and people were having a great time
And of course, my lovely wife who always enjoys a good party
Quite a few smiling faces don't you think :-)
There were burgers and hot dogs for everyone and people brought a side dish that made the meal complete. And, I want to thank Cameron and Howard for being so kind to grill them for us.
Well, we finally wrapped it up around 11:00 PM and thank God Liz and Elieth got things cleaned up. I think that everyone had a great time, and that made it worthwhile to Stef and me. - We want people to know that this is what Costa Rica is all about.
As we say goodbye to St Pat this year, below, you will see some of our loyal Irish residents, but I am not going to tell you their names...
Our friend Charlie Hughes stayed and visited us for the entire month
Charlie's girlfriend Victoria made her first visit to our wonderful country. We now think that this could be the first of many visits here for Victoria
Bob and Carol finally made their annual trip to visit us. On this visit, we got to celebrate Bob's birthday with him.
And, we all took a short vacation to the Pacific Beaches in the Guanacaste Region.
I dedicated several posts to all the events for this period. To make it easier for you to follow - I reversed the order of the posts from the way blogs normally do - Please enjoy the posts below.
