Deb & Jim's winter sanity blog

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Moving to New Mexico

Well, the Williams' Family is moving to New Mexico.... Alaska has been very good to our family but we are ready for a new adventure with warmer winters. For all our friends in Alaska, we will miss you all a lot. You have become part of our family. We hope that since we are moving to a warmer and sunnier (over 300 days of sunshine per year) place that you will come visit. We will be within two hours drive from over 10 downhill ski resorts; within an hour's drive of Santa Fe; and within a day's drive from many beautiful National Parks including the Grand Canyon, the Rocky's etc. We will be living in Los Alamos which is at 7,300 ft above sea level. Jim and I were there last week to find a place to temporarily live until we sell our house in Alaska and can buy something down there. What a beautiful place. I was pleasantly surprised of the southwestern beauty. Los Alamos only has a population of 12,000 so we will be moving to a smaller town. We plan to be able to buy a house within a year and we hope to get many visitors.

View before entering Los Alamos or "The Hill"

Ashley Pond

Downtown Los Alamos

View of Overlook Park in White Rock - Rio Grande River

View from the condo we are temporarily renting...

Friday, January 21, 2011

More cool frog and butterfly pictures...

This was the Poison Dart Frog which is poisonous and the size of a quarter.

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Last day in Costa Rica

We are getting on a plane to fly to the States tomorrow. I am happy because I finally got to see those cool Costa Rican frogs. In fact, one of them jumped on both Emma and I. They are so cool. Ben was excited because he got to hold a snake. All in all and good last day.

This is the frog that jumped on Emma and I. Isn't he so cute?

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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Manuel Antonio National Park

Well this is our last full day of relaxing in Costa Rica before starting our journey northward to Alaska. Today we went to Manuel Antonio National Park. It was a pretty park and the beaches are beautiful. we saw lists of monkeys and raccoons on the beach.

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A day at our bungalow in Quepos...

We had quite a few guests around our bungalow today....
I first was awoken by a howler money at 5 am. He spent about an hour protecting his girlfriends. Other guests included:

Toucans all over the trees...

An iguana in our gutter,

And a White-faced money in the trees. Quite amazing....

We then went into Quepos to do some shopping and sightseeing..

And finished the day with a coconut margarita that had coconut on the rim instead of salt...it was quite tasty.
We have had a wonderful trip and we highly recommend Cost Rica for a break from the cold and snow. We have only one more day until we start traveling back north.

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

We just got here this evening driving from Puerto Viejo. It took us about 8 hours but we had to make a quick stop in downtown San Jose for some souvenir shopping. I am surprise how few souvenirs there are to purchase compare to those in Thailand. Thailand had to be the best shopping experience I have ever had. Even Mexico has more things to buy than Costa Rica. Here are some photos of the view from our cottage in Manuel Antonio. We really enjoyed the jungle house in Puerto Viejo but are glad to have screens again on the windows. I was surprised how hot it was under that mosquito netting. The other thing that is hard to get use to is the humidity. Wow, there is nothing like being hot and sweaty all the time. I can't complain because I hear it is colder than 20 below in Fairbanks. We have to enjoy our last week of warmth...