My dad is here visiting for a week and today was his first full day in Costa Rica. This morning I woke up excited to show him around and spend time with him. I think my favorite part of the morning would be going into his room and just lying in bed talking with him. I miss having those moments.
After we talked for a while, we started to get ready for church. My dad was excited to experience church in Costa Rica. We started walking to church at 10:18am to go to a service that "started" at 10:30am. His first words when I told him what time we would be leaving the house was, "Why are we leaving then? Won't we be late for the service"? "No, we won't be late," I assured him. Last week, I showed up to the service at exactly 10:30am and hardly anyone was there. Surely enough, we showed up at around 10:42am and people were still filtering in (this would continue until at least 11:00am). Welcome to Latin America daddy.
He loved the church service and then afterwards I had somethings I had to do so we went to one of the outlet malls for lunch. We ate at a Mexican restaurant called Antojitos. He loved it and now wants to go back before he leaves. After lunch, I had to go to a store to get a present for a friend and my dad waited outside people watching (this is one of the many things we have in common, we both love to people watch). I love that my dad is so laid-back and easygoing.
Within his first almost two days, my dad has done more than I did my first week in Costa Rica. He has been in 3 buses and 3 taxis, all of which he loved. He has been taking in every experience and trying to process everything he is seeing. I loved watching his face as we walked around downtown San Jose, I could tell he was having a great time. Today we didn't get to walk around the way I wanted to, because it is Sunday and it was raining. I wanted to show him all of my favorite things about downtown San Jose, but hopefully tomorrow. We are going to hang out there for most of the afternoon and evening so that hopefully he can see a few of my favorite people to watch (the painter and the musician) and a few of my favorite places. There is a coffee shop that I heard about last week from a friend that I would like to take him to, and of course to all the touristy places. We might try to see if we can get a tour of the national theater (my dad is a history buff). Although today, we did get to walk around quite a bit in downtown San Jose and he did go to Pops, the famous Costa Rican ice cream shop. They have really good ice cream and cappuccinos.
Today was such a great day. I wish I could slow down time. Today went by too fast and I know the days are just going to keep going by faster. My dad loves the fact that we don't have an agenda and that we can just do whatever we want, and that time feels like it moves slower here, but since his arrival I feel like it has been going by faster. Time needs to slow down just a bit. As we walked home today, my dad said, "Today was awesome"! I just smiled. I wanted to cry because I wish every day could be like this, but I am thankful for the time that I have with him. Today was a great day.
