Greetings from San Jose, Costa Rica. We are down here visiting my father. It's been great to be down here. We try to come back every 2 years so that Marco can see his Grandpa--and we usually stay 7 days. This time we are here for 14 days which is nice. We took my Dad and his wife Julia to the beach this past weekend. We usually go to the same beach every year, but this time we tried a new place. I think we all agree that the old place is better, but it was nice to have a change of scenery--literally. We headed out to Tamarindo far out on the Northwest "arm" that extends out into the Pacific Ocean. It was not far from here that I used to go to the beach with my parents as a kid Marco's age. We often went to Playa Hermosa and we had to cross 52 rivers to get there. Oh, no bridges either.

Many of these rivers were very deep and had strong currents. I remember a few rivers nearly covered our entire car. The water would be at about the window level and we'd be pulling a Mazda van behind our Land Rover. It was truly wild. But it also seemed normal.

Now, there are nice paved roads that go to these beaches and the drive is anywhere between 90 minutes and 6 hours. Costa Rica has always done a poor job when it comes to infrastructure, so compared to Thailand (another tourist, tropical paradise) it has very bad, slow roads. But the roads that are here now are far better than what we had in my childhood.

Jamie always enjoys her time down here, and Marco really loves it as well. SInce he is 1/2 "Tico," (Costa Rican) I'm always thrilled that he feels so comfortable down here and feels like it is one of his homes.

Not many great photos to choose from. I'll post some soon. My Dad says "hi' to all those that ask about him. Of course my Dad was famous for being in the Anderson Trumpet Trio---The Beatles of the Church of God. People still always stop me wherever I go and ask me how my Dad is and if he still plays the trumpet. Yes, he lives down here in Costa Rica and still plays his trumpet--and gives Marco free lessons.