You are the one I never knew I could have. But we are here today. We have a loooong road ahead that we will travel together. Our journey reminds me of that bridge I crossed over six years ago. I still remember the smile on your face from that day and that smile becomes my strength to overcome any fear.

Happy Anniversary, husband! I would never hesitate to cross any of those bridges to be with you…

Enjoy.

Untitled from Nudrat Owens on Vimeo.

I know I told you that my trip to Safeway was not about picking out a v-day card for you, but the fact is, I did stop and look at the cards that were out on the shelves. There wasn’t a single one that could tell the story of the two of us (plus they were all so over-priced!). So I decided to write you a blog post instead! You know, I’m not the kind who looks forward to chocolates on this day. I’m sure you remember the box of chocolate that sat on the counter top for about three years and then you decided not to buy me chocolates ever again (great idea by the way!). I love the flowers you bring me on this day (and every now and then), and I must admit that I love going to movies to watch one of those silly romantic comedies. It’s like a tradition we have, like many others!

Truth be told, I don’t need flowers or gifts to remind me of what we have between us. You have been a gift to me, You made me a better person. I’m thankful that you are there in every step of my life and I wouldn’t share my experiences with anyone else but You. Here’s to the next fifty valentine’s day that we will be spending together …

Yours truly,
Me

Many THANKS to Doug Miranda for capturing these images for us. We will cherish them forever!

Happy Birthday, John.

Enjoy a song I really, really like. I think “Kurt” from “Glee” did an excellent job in his rendition of “I wanna hold your hand”. Loved it!

I made a check list of the things I wanted to do for a long, loooong time. Somewhere down the list was to zip through a line of cables (attached to trees) really fast. I checked that box on Day 3. What an experience!!! Seriously, I never thought I could do it! At the end of ziplining, we did the “tarzan swing”. Basically, it’s a giant rope swing (rope attached to a tree) over the edge of a canyon. IT WAS AWESOME!!! I lost my stomach for a bit, but, it was an amazing feeling at the end. Later in the evening we visited Tabacon hot springs (naturally heated by the volcano). A nice soak in warm water was quite relaxing.

Here’s a picture of me trying to pull myself after getting stuck in the middle of the cable while zip-lining. Picture taken by our fearless zip-line instructor.

We said good bye to Arenal and headed to Manuel Antonio (via San Ramon) next day. It started raining little after we left and continued to rain all the way. The visibility was very low by the time we got to Quepos. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful, scenic drive. We enjoyed breathtaking views of rolling hills, cloud forests and tropical of Costa Rica. Our hotel in Manuel Antonio is unlike any other. It is surrounded by jungle, it has the view of the Pacific, the service here is incredible, food in their restaurant is some of the best I had and the people here are down to earth. The place is called GAIA Hotel and Reserve (if you are in Manuel Antonio, be sure to check this place out).

We visited Parque National in Manuel Antonio on our day 5 (today). We figured that the rain wouldn’t stop and we would be stuck at the hotel. So we put on the raincoats and hats, filled in the bottle of water, packed our stuff and headed out to see some monkeys. We had an awesome guide who showed us the all the animals that we wouldn’t see otherwise. After hearing so much about Sloths in MA I wanted to see them hanging from the tree! And did I not see sloths today!!! They were all over, eating and moving around looking for some sun after a heavy rain fall. We finally tracked down a Howler monkey; they were hard to find. The Squirrel monkeys were the cutest. I had a pleasure of taking pictures with them as well After couple hours of animal watching we arrived Playa Manuel Antonio. We saw a few people surfing during the high tide. It was raining again, and it was beautiful.

I don’t know what we have in store for day 6. More good food, more of Manuel Antonio!

Here’s an image of lush, green roadside of rural Costa Rica.

PS. all the Costa Rican images on my blog are taken with iPhone (except for the zip-line phone). This is my attempt to document the trip with an iPhone.

We took an afternoon hiking trip to the Arenal volcano today. The park was completely empty. Our guide took us to a hike which I never thought I would experience. I was trying to stay calm, but pretty scared at the same time. We were literally at the foot of the volcano, right by the 1968 lava trail. It was raining a bit. We were off the walking trail, climbing the rocks, walking through the tall grass for the most part. Two things could happen during that time – the volcano could start erupting, the guide could leave us in the middle of no where to lose our way back to the car. Neither of them happened. We were back, safely.

After having “typical food” (that’s what the local calls their food) for lunch in La Fortuna, we headed back to our hotel. There was some sort of local fair going on in front of the Church in town. We got to experience Tico dance and music. Later in the evening we drove to “the new bridge” as an attempt to see the lava. There were quite a few tourists waiting for the same thing. After about 45 minutes of no action, we decided to call it a night. I’m sure the show started right after we left. I woke up around 3am to see a cloud of smoke surrounding the crater. There must have been an explosion on the other side of the volcano. Oh well, we have to give to another try tonight.

Arenal volcano.

These little greens grow over the lava rocks.

Pura Vida.

Rain in tropical garden.

It’s been five years…five darn good years. Yes, we fight, we cry and we stop talking for a few hours, we be silly and emotional, but at the end of day we are for each other. He will still have to eat what I call my fake-fusion-cooking, I will still have to endure him playing video games at the most annoying times of the day (in my book there is no good time for playing video games, what’s with video games anyway??). I will still be irritating often times and complaining non-stop about silly things in life, he will still be attempting to have a conversation with me about the art of basketball and his favorite players (who I can care less about). But this is who we are. With our differences and similarities, we are One.

Happy Anniversary, husband.

This amazing piece of gold jewelery can be considered antique by any standards. It was my mom’s wedding jewelery from the mid 60′s. I had the privilege of wearing this on my wedding day.

1. Icing on the Cupcake – My favorite cupcakes now-a-days! If you are local to the area (greater Sacramento area that is) you must try these! Heavenlyyyyyy!!! Their Red velvet cupcakes are my favorites so far, and I don’t even like red velvet cake. Go figure! I suggested a friend of mine to have these on his wife’s surprise birthday party. He went to the store and texted me immediately after trying out the samples. I was on my way back from work, but I had to take a detour and stop by the cup cake store to pick up a couple! Yummmmm!!!

2. The Presidio of San Francisco – I heart SF! One of my favorite cities in the world! There wasn’t a time when I did not enjoy my time there. A weekend ago J and I drove over to Baker beach for Nicole and JP’s engagement session. We drove around the presidio on our way back. Once we entered the park, we had to stop the car and take a picture of this beautiful site! Clouds were moving over, covering the tress! It was like a dream! I could sit there for hours (until I freeze probably) and watch the clouds moving.

3. California State Fair – we were the first timers to the Cal State Fair this year. That only happened because I ended up buying a poppy pack (4 entry tickets, 4 ride tickets, 1 parking pass) that were being sold at work for dimes. So we went to the fair this year with two other friends of us. The brick of potato chips, deep fried cheesecake and a crazy ride made me sick (well almost) but it was fun! I might consider going there again next year.

I’m excited about Ann & Josh’s wedding next weekend. And then I will be traveling to the south for work and photoshoots! It’s going to be a super-busy-next-few-weeks, but that’s a good thing right?