Day 2- ATVing, beaching, tapas

We woke up on our own however realizing what time it was, only 05:30.  So we hung out in bed and the. The balcony as the sun rose. I tried calling an ATV company for tour, however they weren't open that early. Not much we could do yet as breakfast would be open until 07:00. I finally got in touch with Fourtraxadventures and set up for them to pick us up from our hotel at 07:05. We rushed to pack for the day and head to breakfast early to have some made to order chao before the days plans.

An ATV tour lasting about 3 hours and culminated with lunch. The was another couple from LA and a guy from New Orleans.  We had perfect weather, beautiful scenery, and an awesome time. One of the best things was when we got off of the ATV and hiked about 2 km to a waterfall and took some amazing pictures.

The tour culminated with a typical breakfast of eggs, rice and beans, fried plantains, and hot dog with sauté onions and tomatoes.

A taxi took us back to our hotel where most of the transport was spent with me sleeping. After returning back to the hotel, we unloaded some of our gear and headed to the beach where we were told was within walking distance. Of course was walked significant steep gradient climbs and descents. My garmin was showing peak of 30%+ up and down. The beach was nice and quiet, however the shoreline was very rocky and difficult to walk. Back to the hotel for our siesta and woke up to plan the next few days adventures and figure out dinner. We we set up a horseback canopy tour for Wednesday and a water rafting trip for thursday. Tomorrow, we will head to Manuel Antonio national park and enjoy monkeys, birds, trails, and beaches.

Dinner was decided- A tapas bar that we had past a few times going to/from our hotel. The hotel pleasantly provided transport for us.

Yummy dishes as we started with 2 tapas- white fish in a cilantro lime sauce and sashimi tuna with main courses of shrimp quesadilla and chicken chalupa. What a wonderful little restaurant that overlooks the Pacific. The had 2 wonderful dogs that roamed freely thru the restaurant and was well behaved. We decided to walk back. I had reservations of doings so because of how dark it was and how steep and windy the roads were. However we made it home safely and are just relaxing before lights out and night night.

Sleeping in is on the docket and breakfast in the AM before Le Parque.


More pictures Click!

Day 1- land ho!

We woke up in the AM to start our journey south towards the equator- Costa Rica. Breakfast was just around the corner and 1 floor down from our room and we checked in with our flight Jet Blue from Orlando to San Jose.

The flight seemed to go by pretty quickly as they showed movies however we didn't have any headphones to actually hear it. That's probably a good thing as I would  have annoyed the other passengers for laughing too much watch 'the hangover 2!'.

We arrived in San Jose around 11:30 and cleared customs and as we exited the airport to look for our driver, it was like a greetin parade with people holding signs of names. We finally found our driver and we set for about a 3 hour drive to our hotel- La Mansion Inn. Our driver stopped at a bridge for us to take pictures of the infamous crocodiles. You thought Florida's crocs were big, these guys were huge!  We made a detour stop on the way at a beautiful quaint restaurant for lunch. A delicious meal! The rest of the way to the hotel, I was pretty much incapacitated. I slept most of the way but Desiree made sure we made it to the hotel safely.

Once we arrived, we were greater with a friendly staff that took us on a tour of the hotel and had welcome cocktails waiting for us- mango/guava daiquiris.

After settling into our room, it was desirees turn to see the back of her eye lids. We decided to have dinner at the hotel's restaurant- the Jacques Cousteau.

We attempted to call different places to plan out day, however it was too late on a Sunday night that anything would still be open.

So to bed then an early morning to call for plans for the next day's adventures.

Buenos Noches!

More pictures Click!

the knot... its tied! We did it! YAY!

What an amazing time we had yesterday at out wedding.

It all began with a 2 hour ride early in the AM with Benjamin. We lucked out the the weather faired well for most of our ride, however it did rain for about 20 mins of it. We then hung around the house including my brother, Chuckie, and Holly- benjamin's girlfriend. One of our photographers came by around 11:30 to capture us hanging out and getting ready. When Chuckie got here, he handed me a card and a small box from Desiree. She got me cuff links- a chain shimano dura ace chain link. What an awesome gift! And I definitely rocked them with my tux.

The wedding ceremony at the church was beautiful. This was an intimate and sacred moment for us to publicly announce our commitment and love to each other in front of God.  As I stood at the front of the alter, I couldn't wait to see my wife to be. I held it together as best as possible, however once I saw how beautiful she was in her wedding dress, the flood gates open and I cried (the first of many other tears of joy).  I was pleasantly surprised after the procession when we waited in the vestry as Kevin, the church's media director, recorded our wedding complimentary for us!

Pictures before the reception which included the formalities at the church, and the beautiful grounds at Rollins College.

The on the way to the reception!  Party time that appropriately commenced with LMFAO's party rock Anthem. Everything was perfect, from food to decor, music to family and love. Desiree surprised me with large banners that we the perfect scale hanging vertically behind our cake stating "Anh yêu em" and a second banner "Em yéu Anh". Contextually stating "I love you" in Vietnamese. I got the opportunity to surprise her with a piano performance with songs- "the way you look, tonight" and "easy like Sunday morning". We had such a great time sharing the whole day and experience with our family and friends.

After the reception, we checked into our hotel- hyatt at the airport. What an amazing view of the runway. There were special treats waiting for us in our room compliments of The Teskes- chocolate covered strawberries and champagne!  Our room was perfect. Located on the top floor and right around Thr corner.

Now we are about to board our plane and head to Costa Rica for a week!!!

Stay tune for daily adventures of our honeymoon!

'twas the nightg before...

the wedding and all throughout the house,
we have anh vu, holly, and benjamin- not a mouse.
the tuxes on the closet door, hug with care,
In hopes that tomorrow would come, beware.

Finally, a night to relax.  The night before my wedding.  Perfect as every night for nearly the past month have been late nights working on wedding details.

Tomorrow commences the journey of my life together with Desiree.  We can run away and grow old together.  not actually run away, however the latter holds true.

I can't wait to marry you!

You are my love, my life, my everything.

Anh yeu em!

Tri-athlete?

It's official. I caught the Clermint bug. I am Nguyen Vu Dinh- USA triathlete # 2095803950. After living where I do, haven lived with the people that I have, and trained with the people who I have trained with, the real questions is 'what took so long?!"

Silvia...gone but never forgotten

This AM I finally sold Silvia. Not the name of a female, however a female name of my car. As you may recall I took ownership of her on new years eve and brought her to life at the end of February. Sine I've had her, she has only seen about 1000 miles. That not alot of time for over 10 months. However, today she sent to a new home, all accessories and extra parts included. Now the garage has more space and life goes on. Silvia... Gone but never forgotten. Now less than 2 weeks till the wedding.

and the verdict is... now legal!

This morning both Desiree and I was not able to exercise due to time constraints. I had to take her to court. We headed down to Orlando Court house to apply for our marriage license. We are now official and are legally able to be married. Interesting that you have to apply to be married. We were the first ones for the day and they didn't really have much going on in that area of the court house contrary to the child support area was a different story- lots of traffic over there However as we waited for the people in the marriage office to verify our paperwork, we saw a little plastic wedding arch with face vines weaving thru. This was well complimented with the "grandmas flora bathroom" wall paper. Desiree said to me "this is pretty crappy if you were to elope here at the courthouse!" we left our phones in the car, however we would have taken prom poses and other glamour shot pictures. Good thing we paid slot of money to slot of different vendors or else eloping there might have been quite the highlight. 16 more days!!!

1 step, 2 step... Left, left, left, left, left, right, left

Congrats to Desiree and Kristi for their hard work and finish at the Disney Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon. They both exceeded their goals. Desiree with her goal to break 2 hours finishing 1hr 58mins with a 9:02 mile pace. Kristi had a goal of 10-11min/mile avg and ended up with a total time of 2hr 8mins with a pace of 9:43/mile. After I met up with Desiree and we waited for Kristi, she saw us and said "Take that cancer!"