Monster Jam? No.

Those of you with more forethought than I have may have already suspected that we would not be attending Monster Jam today after all. I, knowing next-to-nothing about monster trucks, did not realize it was such a big, big deal and that we would not even be able to get general admission tickets because absolutely everything was sold out. Crap. Crap crap crap. And we found this out only after driving to the stadium, paying $10 for parking ($10! What is this, San Francisco? New York City?), walking to the box office and being told everything was long since sold out. We did, however, pick up a bootleg t-shirt for our son, who, at 3, took the whole thing in stride. I offered to take him to INBio Parque (which was not far down the street) or to see Kung Fu Panda instead; he chose the park, so that's what we did.

We just so happened to visit the park on a day when they were having a Dutch festival. We tried Dutch cheese, liquors, beer, and crepes. The crepes were so delicious, I could have eaten a dozen. And they were a fargin' bargin at 200 colones (about 40 cents) each, filled with Dutch applesauce, cinnamon, and two kinds of sugar. Yum. I also saw that the guy had real licorice, which I love and can never find here, so he was kind enough to offer me several pieces of that. I also picked up some little necklaces made by a couple of girls, the purchase of which benefited the burn unit at the children's hospital. One of the little girls had what looked like third degree burns over most of her body, and I tell you, she was so positive and outgoing and sweet, that I thought to myself, I have nothing to complain about. Not lines at Banco Crapional, not Tico Time, nothing. Our son picked out two necklaces for his girl friends (shhh, don't tell them!), and though I thought he got the black one for I. who loves to wear black, he actually wanted it for himself. ;-)

Aside from the wonderful food and drink tasting, there was the fun of the park itself. If you live here and have never been, it's one of my favorite places to spend the day. You can go through a rain forest, visit a butterfly garden, walk underneath a freshwater lake, and visit a typical Tico finca. Our son just loves it there, and one thing that I think is great about him is that he never lacks for enthusiasm. "Come on! Come on, you guys! Look at this! It's a crocodile! Wow! There's an iguana! Hurry up! Over here!" and so on.

I pet a little pig and a couple of bunnies, which made me miss my bunnies so much more than I already do. The pig was so cute. It ran over to the fence, grunting little pig noises all the way, and put his head right up to my hand. The whole thing reminded me of the quote by Franz Kafka: "Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you anymore." I don't really know how you could get to know a pig or a chicken and continue to eat them; I guess people do, though. I still miss my chickens.

Well, anyway. I took some photos but haven't downloaded them to the computer yet. I'll have a few to show you tomorrow. Good night, all.