Alajuela Day Trip

On the spur of the moment, we decided to go to Alajuela for the day!  We woke to cloudy skies, but by the time we were on the other side of San José, the blue was fighting its way through! 

We got to our old stomping grounds in Alajuela, and walked to Norman's restaurant, "Jalapeño's," in time for a late lunch and a nice chat.  Then we wandered down the street, looking for the place where Rick had some shoes made a few years ago - unfortunately, it was no longer in business.  We are still trying to wean ourselves off "needing" things from the states, and so my latest mission is to find a way to either repair my shoes or have some made.  We had given up on that idea for this trip, and were walking towards a park, when we spied another shoemaker!  We walked in, talked a bit about what I wanted, agreed on a price (c38,000), and left one of my shoes there for him to use as a pattern.  No, I didn't limp around the rest of the day with just one shoe - I had brought my old pair along :-).

We made it to our park, and then went on to visit a couple other friends - because it was a last-minute decision to come, we didn't call ahead.  But no one seemed to mind :-).

As we were walking around, at first we were sooo relieved that it was warmer and sunnier than at our house, but we *very* quickly warmed up, and remembered that that was the main reason we had decided Alajuela wasn't for us - the tiniest bit too warm.  Funny how picky you can get...

Oh, but we thoroughly enjoyed the bright sky, the brisk breeze, the blooming trees, and the soooo very friendly folks of Alajuela.  It had definitely been too long since our last visit!