This morning I got an early start for San Gerardo de Dota, high in the mountains about two hours south of San Jose. Access to the valley is by a two way 1 1/8 lane road in desperate need of repair. One side of the entire road is a shear cliff drop off. I traversed this road not once, but twice as I had difficulty locating the tiny rustic cabin I had rented for the night. Cell service was right at the margin and my map app was getting royally screwed up. I am glad I persisted. The wildlife shots I posted earlier this week were taken in a nature park where the subjects are essentially captive (albeit in very natural settings). The birds I photographed today are all wild. I spent 5 hours hoping to get a shot of the very elusive Resplendent Quetzal. I had several sightings and a few half decent shots but not the killer image I have been hoping for. That said, I was able to capture several other very beautiful species.

Even though October is the peak of the rainy season in Costa Rica, I have been lucky so far. Yesterday I simply drove to places that were not raining. Today, the morning was perfectly clear affording me a pristine view of the Volcan Poas and Catarata del Toro before the heavens opened. On my last trip here, I took some really great pictures of both these locations only to have them stolen along with my camera gear (see account here). It is said that every cloud has a silver lining. Such was the case today. The weather at Poas was perfect and I was the first to the observation point (arrived at the gate at 6am for a 7am open) giving me wonderful morning light and perfect camera position. At the del Toro waterfalls, vegetation that had partially obscured my original photos has been cut back. Oh yeh; I also have a much newer camera and shot these both as panoramas with more than 200 MPixels of resolution (the ones I post here are significantly downsized, even the larger versions). I could not have been more pleased with the photos I got today. Some of my best were taken with my drone but I forgot the adapter I need to download the images to my computer so these won’t post until next week.

Having visited Costa Rica twice before, I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to go and had prepared a tightly scripted itinerary. Let’s just say that the plan didn’t survive the morning. Picking up my rental car proved to be an exercise in aggravation and delay, my first destination (the Volcan Poas) now requires advanced reservations booked online, and the nature park I had hoped to visit was closed for maintenance. Despite these hurdles which cost me hundreds of fruitless driven miles and nearly half the day, I made the best of the situation and came away with some very nice images.

I am off to Costa Rica for the next week. Nico is playing for the US National Amputee Soccer Team in an international friendly tournament in San Jose later in the week. I will meet up with the squad when they arrive. Until then, I hope to do some photography, weather permitting. October is smack in the middle of the rainy season and it remains to be seen how successful I will be dodging the weather.

This morning I enjoyed a perfect fall day on the soccer pitch. My team managed a 2-1 win in the closing minutes against a Wayland squad that was more physical than talented. After the match I grabbed a quick shower and left to pick up Jeanine at the Amtrack station. We drove into the Seaport district for lunch before she dropped me off at Logan for my flight. It was exciting to hear all about Jeanine’s adventures in NYC and I was grateful for the few hours of overlap we had.

Today I started my road trip in Littleton, NH and followed the Connecticut River from north to south crossing between Vermont and New Hampshire a dozen times and eventually into Massachusetts. The weather could not have been more gorgeous and the foliage was pretty good. By the time I reached Turners Falls I found the town celebrating The Great Falls Festival where I paused for diner and live music. In total I covered 275 miles and feel like I got my last big gulp of autumn in New England.

I had to leave work early to make a 3pm dentist appointment in Lexington. I was expecting to have one restoration done but left the office with a pair. I decided to head west and north with my camping gear so I could get an early start on fall foliage photography. Tomorrow is forecasted to be ideal conditions. Pictured here as the sun was setting is the French King Bridge over the Connecticut River.

Today’s entry is courtesy of Jeanine. She texted me this image with no explanation. Reverse triangulating from the three buildings I recognize (Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and the UN) I am fairly certain she was in Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. Update: Jeanine informs me that she was in Gantry Plaza State Park.

No sooner than she returned from visiting Maya in Seattle, Jeanine is off to NYC for the balance of the week. She will connect with her close friend Monica Frost, from Indianapolis. They are planning to see several broadway hits (Carol King Beautiful, Tina Turner, The Book of Mormon) while sampling the NYC food scene. I dropped her off at the train station on my way into work this morning. When she returns on Sunday, I will pick her up and then drive to the airport where I will embark on a week long visit to Costa Rica. Our work schedules have conspired against us doing a joint vacation this fall.

Followers of this blog are all too familiar with how much I hate my commute. In the Boston area, many companies have Columbus Day off which means that traffic today was extremely light. For this one solitary day I was enjoying life in the fast lane when the reflections of blue flashing lights in my rear view mirror sucked all joy from the moment. The officer who pulled me over said he clocked me at 83mph in a 55mph zone which sounded entirely accurate. I politely provided my license and registration and wondered how much the ticket was going to cost and what it would do to my insurance rates. When the officer returned, he gruffly returned my documents and a warning citation (for 56mph in a 55mph zone as determined by estimation). I will never know exactly what happened, but I got the feeling that there was some type of glitch with the radar gun and he was not able to use the reading. FWIW, at the moment he started chasing me, I was being passed by a car that had to be going 90mph.

Jeanine spent a long weekend visiting Maya in Seattle. The two enjoyed great food, a spa day, and communing with nature. I must admit that I was envious of their time together and wish I had joined Jeanine for the trip. Maya will be coming home for Thanksgiving and I am very much looking forward to seeing her then. She has finalized arrangements for her study abroad program and will spend the balance of the academic year in Amsterdam starting in January after she has completed her internship at Blue Origin.

A perfect day for soccer led to one of my team’s best games of the season. With a 2 goal lead at the 20 minute mark one of our players was red carded for swearing at the referee leaving us a man down for the remaining 70 minutes. The disadvantage forced us to play a much more disciplined and strategic game. We went on to win by a margin of 7-0 and I managed a nice assist. I took further advantage of the beautiful day to venture into western Massachusetts for some fall photography.

Fall foliage this year is as spectacular as any I can remember. I spent the entire day in New Hampshire taking in the glorious scenery and making the best of a mostly cloudy day. Be sure to click on the panoramic view to fully appreciate the beauty of Franconia Notch.

I dropped Jeanine off at the airport early this morning for a flight to Seattle where she will spend several days visiting with Maya. Maya has been interning with Blue Origin for some time now, helping to test sensors used on the outside of their spacecraft. Apparently she has also been doing a little blacksmithing as evidenced by the knife she fashioned from a horse shoe.

Jeanine hosted her book group at the house last night. Invited was Katharine Esty, the author of the book being discussed, Eightysomethings, and a member of her writer’s group. It never ceases to amaze me how good Jeanine is at bringing wonderful people together.