All-American day

Our good morning view.

Today we paid a visit to the US Embassy in San Jose in order to sign refinance documents for a property we own.  The closing documents had to be signed on "US soil" with a US notary, so the embassy was our only option.  This made for a long day of driving, about 7.5 hours round trip.  Nik and I both had to go and sign, therefore the kids all had to go too, which meant that Madeleine and Henry missed their last exams of the week.  They were not too sad.  In spite of the early departure (6:30), long drive and long wait at the embassy, it was an interesting and pretty fun day.  We just about exhausted our blue ink pens with the endless signatures and paid the embassy notary quite well for her services on this ridiculously long document, ouch.  

Our 7 am view of Volcan Arenal, on our way out to San Jose

One more of Arenal…

US Consulate.  The Embassy building next door was more impressively official looking.

Nik had the brilliant idea that we should complete the United States experience with a trip to McDonald's just down the street.  Normally you would not find us in a McD's, especially in a foreign country, but this was a special day, plus we had to find out if the Costa Rican McDonald's were any different from the US variety.  This was a pretty new and nice looking McD's, complete with a PlayLand that our kids refused to enter.  And the food... just about exactly as we remember it.  It is possible that the Quarter Pounders were made with local beef, but we did not ask.  I think it is safe to say that the fish sandwich was not fresh and local. Anyway, it hit the spot, and everyone was happy.

We skipped the Auto-Mac (drive thru) in order to fully experience this Costa Rican McDonalds.

Some kids were pretty thrilled to eat at McD's, complete with soda and sundaes (all for research purposes!)

We took a different route home, along a new-looking toll road (27) that took us to the coast of the Gulf of Nicoya near Puntarenas.  We stopped to test the waters and admire the boats, including a cruise ship that was just leaving port.  From there we headed north on Highway 1 (PanAmerican Hwy) to Cañas, then east toward home.  The temperature as we drove along Highway 1 peaked at 36C (97F), but it cooled off nicely as we neared Lake Arenal.

We could not just drive by this beach without a quick stop!

Cruise ship just before departure.

Our kids do not have school next week, for Semana Santa (Easter), so it turns out that Portland's spring break coincides with ours.  Nik is heading to Portland tomorrow to work for two weeks.  It will be strange to be here without him, and we will miss him.  I will need to take on his role as tutor to help Madeleine and Henry study for their science exams that they will have to make up when they go back after Easter.  We will only be on our own for a week though, as my mom is arriving on Easter to stay for two weeks.  We are very eager to see her and show her our slice of Costa Rica.

Henry and his classmates on Thursday, post math exam!