Friends of ours asked us to house-sit for them while they returned to the States to be with family for Christmas. While it would have been really nice to also get to be with family, house-sitting was a close second and we had a great time!
We packed the truck with half a ton of sugar and flour to bring our holiday cheer to our new little home.
And even Izze couldn’t believe we were going to fit everything in the truck!
We arrived just in time to discover we didn’t have electricity. In honor of our friends in the Midwest enduring ice storms, we decided it was appropriate to go without for a few hours, so we cooked dinner in the dark with a semi-treacherous combination of candles and propane.
The next morning, we decided to head into “town” and check out the surf. It is one of the best places in the country to surf and we all had a good time on the beach.
When we came home, though, we discovered we still didn’t have electricity.
Sometimes people get mad when they don’t have lights. But mostly we were really thankful to be out of the city and breathing clean air!
So, we had another dinner in the dark. And though we exhausted our contacts, due to the fact that it was Christmas week, and we’re just in a place that has a different time schedule, we didn’t have electricity working properly the whole time we were there. In fact, at one point, someone thought they had fixed the wiring/shocking electricity problems we were having and Joel told me, “OK, we think we have hot water now, so you can get a shower. But, just in case, here — wear your flip flops because they have rubber soles.” But that gave Joel a lot of time to work on the 5 papers for his master’s studies that are due this week. So, armed with bug spray and a notebook (the kind with paper, that is, since the laptop proved inoperable, as well!), he buried himself in a few good books.
But don’t feel too sorry for him. There was enough time for some more surfing and even a good mobile-making session. (Joel carefully measured all of our beach treasures so they would hang evenly in the wind. Mobiles are stressful business, you know!)
One of my favorite times was taking a walk near the property and seeing the beautiful landscape. I didn’t do anything to the colors in this photo — it really looks like this! The ground is so fertile here that home-owners just put sticks in the ground for fences and they actually take root and start growing into a new line of trees. We found these on the walk and they were so perfectly lined that I had to take a picture.
But then I saw how out of perspective they seemed in the first shot and you might not have realized they are actually just little seedlings! So, here’s me pretending to be a cheeseball scientist and explaining how this little phenomenon works.
We took a drive one day to find the pumas, sloths and exotic birds we’d heard about, but the only exciting thing that happened was that this scary monkey jumped on top of our truck!
But it turned out that we had toucans in our own yard!
Things worked out great, even with the occasional shock from an appliance or a light bulb exploding. We got to make our traditional Christmas cookies and share Christmas with Travis and Kristen.
Of course, travel wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the mechanic’s. And though we find many things slightly more inconvenient here, we were surprised how many options we had to get the truck tires repaired on Christmas day … and all for $4.00!
(We shared our freshly baked Christmas cookies with the man who worked so hard to get us back on the road before it turned dark while we were crossing the mountain.)
Everyone was thankful for a chance to get out of the car and stretch a little bit, although not quite everyone took advantage of the green grass.
(…to be continued)