Tom's Big # 30!

30 and looking GOOOOOD!

Kacee and I on the way to Marbella

Alvaro's beach front property complete with shower

(Kacee and ALvaro)

Playa Marbellas

Just a glimpse of the food

Grillin with the homies

Hermana Pina is one bad A

I told Elle to "blend" :)

Tom's birthday is September 28th. This year, that happened to be the day that our passports needed to be renewed, and so we would be exiting the country to Nicaragua. We decided to celebrate the big numero 30 on the 26th. We started the day by heading out for a surf session at Play Marbella, with our friends Kacee and Alvaro. We took the back roads, and got the chance to put our KIA to the test. She didn't pull through for us like we had hoped. The river was pretty deep, and at one point the water rushed as deep as the engine. The good news; we didn't get stuck in the water, but we did get stuck coming out onto the muddy hill on the other side. Just as Alvaro was setting up the tow, so that his actual 4X4 could toe us out, a kind passerby helped us push the car out of the rut just enough that we were finally able to make it up the hill. It was such a picturesque moment...Little burgendy "intercooler" KIA, stuck somewhere she had no business being, saved by old, toothless, shirtless, happy, tico gentleman, who probably sees a scene like that all too often. Once we crossed the river, we passed by several people on bikes and scooters going the direction we had just come. I guess they just pick up their transportation and trudge across chest deep water, probably still more effective than our KIA.

The beach at Marbella was stunning! Black sand and clear skies. We said a prayer before getting in, thanks to Alvaro who is part of the Christian Surfriders Group, and started into the waves. Tom and Alvaro were out in no time, however Kacee and I had no such luck. The waves were the largest and most powerful ones I have been in to date, and after 20 minutes of attempting to get beyond the break, we gave up and laid out. Tom didn't have a very successful session himself, I guess there was a very unusual riptide, which made feel better about my own failed attempt. Alvaro happens to be a professional surfer, and so even the riptide didn't prevent him from cutting through the waves all day long. I really enjoyed spending some girl time with a gringa, and we chatted in English as we soaked up the sun. We topped off the afternoon with a outdoor shower on Alvaro's beach front property. Sooooooo tropical!

Next we headed to the grocery store for Tom's official b-day gift...$$$$ worth of food for the dinner party we planned. We were expecting about 30 mouthes to feed, and we picked up all the goods needed to get the job done. We grilled sausage, pork chops, fillets, and some other kind of beef, in addition to a rotisseri chicken, rice and beans, a 10 avocado quac dip, chips, a 12 tomato bowl of pico de gallo, pineapple, tortillas, all the taco toppings like cabbage, cilantro, lime, and onion, as well as, ranch and cilantro ranch, and a large veggie platter. The food was DEMOLISHED like I have never seen before :) It was awesome. We are grateful for our friends here in Costa, HAPPY B-DAY TOM :)