Costa Rica

Matt and I just returned from a wonderful, almost perfect holiday in Costa Rica.  It was so much fun to just be a couple and not be parents, although we missed the kids and talked about them a lot (and greatly appreciate all the grandparents for watching them!), and reminisce about all the good times we've had over the last 10 years.  We have always loved to travel together and this trip was quite an adventure.

The not-so-perfect part came just a few hours after we left the airport in Liberia.  I'd been warned on several occasions that the roads would be bad, street signs few and far between, and many areas pretty remote.  I was not expecting to come down a winding mountain road almost half an hour from any intersection and find its bridge missing.  But such was the case around midnight on our way to our first hotel.  The road was blocked but there was otherwise no warning and no detour.  Thank goodness we'd gotten the GPS and we backtracked to the closest town and tried the only other roads on the map.  Turns out they weren't even really roads but dirt tracks through a farm.  It all worked out with a 90-minute detour, a little four-wheel drive action, and my brave husband who would go check out the road when the puddles looked too deep to attempt.  Welcome to Costa Rica!

Our second day dawned much better.  We went to La Fortuna to spend a couple of days exploring around the base of Arenal volcano and the view was amazing.  It's been very active for several decades but everyone said it's been quiet now for the past year, so my hope of glowing lava was dashed.

 

This was our lovely little house with a great view.

 

Our first adventure was a white-water rafting trip and on the way we saw that our unexpected detour wasn't so bad when compared to this one!

 

A bus took us to the Rio Balsa for our rafting trip and this was the only picture I got because it was pouring rain and I didn't want to get my camera wet.  We were very fortunate with the weather because it was the rainy season and this was the only time we got soaked.  The rest of the time we saw rain it was either a drizzle or overnight.  The rafting was lots of fun and afterward we went to the outfitter's restaurant for a great local meal.

 Afterward, we soaked our tired muscles in the thermal springs at our hotel.  There are all kinds of hot springs all over town but we chose the easy route and relaxed at the one just past our doorstep with a great view.

We watched the steam come out of the crater at night...pretty cool.

Our second morning we ended up on a nature tour looking for birds, frogs, and other wildlife with a great guide.  I'm saving all the wildlife pictures for another post because there are so many.  This was the guide's frog sanctuary where he also led night tours...after seeing so many critters during the day there is no way I'd be out there at night!

I have to share the red-eyed tree frog because he's one of the unofficial mascots of Costa Rica and amazingly beautiful.  When he closes his eyes and tucks in his toes, you'd never see him on the leaves.

We did lots of bird spotting as well and saw an amazing variety.

Our two days at La Fortuna went by quickly and it was time to pack up and head towards the beach.  We drove several hours through mountains and cute little towns like this on our way to Puntarenas.

 

In Puntarenas, we queued up for the afternoon ferry, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed across the bay to the Nicoya peninsula on the Pacific side of the country.

It was a really nice ride and took over an hour.

Once we reached Paquera, we drove several miles on paved roads, then another hour on unpaved dirt roads to Santa Teresa, a charming little surf town on the outer edge of the peninsula.  Our home sweet home for the rest of the week was this casita nestled up with two others and a shared pool and restaurant on the beach.  We spent many hours enjoying the hammocks and couches on the porch while relaxing with books and soaking up the sun and waves.

 

The inside was nice as well....

...and my favorite part was the outdoor shower.  Pretty cool to hear the ocean from the shower.

 

Our view was wonderful...trees full of birds, iguanas, and squirrels.  Grass with crabs, lizards, a snake (eek!), and a myriad of interesting insects.  The beach was just beyond the thatched-roof restaurant.

View from the beach looking back toward the casitas and the hills beyond.

The beaches were gorgeous.  They are almost completely undisturbed and no high-rise developments have come anywhere close to this corner of the world.  As much as the kids would have loved this beach, I was so happy they weren't there because the surf was huge and would have been too dangerous for them in many places.

I was happy to share my walk with this lovely yellow flycatcher one morning.

Driving through Santa Teresa was a lot of fun.  Just one dirt road going through town lined with little cafes, tiny stores, and a few quiet hotels and surf camps.  Transportation is by foot, bike, horse, ATV, motorbike, or car.  All are equally acceptable.  Swimsuits and bare feet are the norm.  (lucky for me!  I took a vacation from makeup, shoes, and even my hairbrush!)

 

Bridges, on the other hand, were not so fun.  This was a typical one-lane bridge, which is basically just a big drainpipe over a river with no guardrails.  Thank goodness we never had to find out what happened if one of these collapsed.

 

 Our trusty car wasn't much to look at but it sure got us around. 

One morning we explored through some hills and a nature reserve and ended up in Montezuma to check out a waterfall we'd been told about.  We paid an old man $2 to park our car on his property and then followed his grandson up some muddy riverbanks to a beautiful waterfall inside a little canyon.  It was about 70 feet tall and we watched with our jaws dropped as some guy jumped over almost the entire length.  And he lived!

 The scenery was beautiful, the weather was perfect, the wildlife was amazing.  It was so much fun to explore and so refreshing to relax with no schedule, no email, no little people to worry about.

We ate at the restaurant on site every night because the food was great and the location couldn't have been any more convenient.  I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate our first decade or better company to share it with me. 

Disney World

Matt had to go to Orlando for a conference and since school was about over, we decided that the kids and I should jump at the chance to share his hotel and enjoy Disney World.  We never said a word about visiting Disney to the kids and they were so surprised!  Not jumping up and down surprised, but shocked and excited.  On the way in I broke the big news to them.

We arrived at Magic Kingdom before opening on the first day and watched the welcome show.  I was tearing up the whole time watching how excited the kids were to see Mickey and go visit the park.  It brought back wonderful memories of going as a kid with my family.  Alex waved to Mickey the entire time.

 

This really is the most magical place on earth!  Let's make some memories!

 

I'd done my homework on lines and wait times and we hit all the attractions at just the right time to avoid standing in line and see everything we wanted to do.  Alex's favorite was the tea cups.  Several times.  Ben's favorite was his misting fan.  It's in nearly every picture but was the perfect entertainment while we were in line and sweating.

 

 

 

Dumbo is always a must-ride.  I had to get in one picture to prove that I was really there!

 

And a stranger took this one for us.  I carefully packed all kinds of things and still somehow managed to leave my camera at home (on the kitchen floor...I think it fell out of my backpack at 5am when we left the house) so I didn't want to pass my phone around to complete strangers.

 

The kids loved exploring the park but were not into stopping for photo ops!

 

We caught one of the afternoon parades and waved to all the characters.  Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to cool off, nap, and swim.

 

Later in the evening, we headed back to the park to see more of the rides.  Buzz Lightyear was great fun again, but not quite as cool as Hong Kong's.

 

Afterward, it was time to go meet the big mouse.  The kids were in awe!

 

They couldn't believe it was really Mickey and Minnie and asked a million questions. 

 

Totally speechless!  This is such a magical age to experience Disney.

 

My little navigator studied the park map and did pretty well figuring out where we needed to go.

We caught one of the shows on the castle steps.  Can you tell we were a little hot at this point?  We actually lucked out with the weather because a tropical storm passed through the day we arrived but had blown over before we got to the park.

We had a very busy first day and packed in all kinds of rides, even Splash Mountain.  I was surprised that Ben really loved it and wanted to ride again but Alex was scared of the drops in the dark and refused to go any more.  He didn't mind the big drop at the end and held his arms in the air like a champ!  At the end of the day we found a great place to watch the light parade and I was so thankful I threw a tube of light sticks in my backpack on a whim.  Perfect entertainment while we waited and much better than buying $20 light toys :)

The electrical parade was just as cool as I remembered as a kid and one of our favorite events.

Alex was thrilled to watch the fireworks because he's been obsessed with them for years....

....but it turns out they were louder than he wanted.  Like mother, like son.  I have an almost identical picture when I was 2!  We called it a night and headed home.  Exhausted but happy.

 

Day two we headed back first thing and saw a few new things and rode our favorite rides again.  The 3D philharmagic show was lots of fun.  Love their yellow shirts?  I matched them both days so I could keep up with both kids.  Even wrote my phone number on their tummies in permanent marker just in case we got separated.  It was hard sometimes being the only parent and making sure we all stayed together!

The carousel was lots of fun, too, and great to hop on every time we walked by because there was no line!

Ben's favorite activity was exploring Tom Sawyer's island.  It was lots of fun with a cave, rope bridges, a playground, and even a fort.

Shooting from the top of the fort was definitely a good time.

Toward the end of our second day, I could tell Alex was wearing down.  Little trooper walked everywhere and never complained until the very end that his legs were getting tired.

Our last ride was the jungle cruise and Ben asked about every 30 seconds if the sights were pretend.

Last stop - the gift shop on Main Street to pick up some buddies to take home.  The kids talked to their new friends all the way to the car.

Back at the hotel, it was time for some rest!

Then we enjoyed our next favorite activity again.  The pools were amazing at the hotel.  Ours was a big resort-style spread.

 

Next door, the partner hotel had a lazy river with little pools all the way around.  We'd do loops around the river and stop to play in the different pools.  It was really cool.  So fun, in fact, that after a few hours of playing at Disney World, Ben asked if we could go back to the hotel pool.  Kids are so funny.

The boys had an absolute blast and played their little hearts out.  It was such a fun trip!

The only drawback was that Matt was working the entire time and we rarely saw him and he didn't get to join in our fun.  We did get a babysitter the last night so he and I could enjoy the closing dinner together and I could meet some of his colleagues, but then we were on separate flights coming back so we didn't meet up again until we were all home on Friday.  It was a lot of work doing Disney by myself but so worth it for the fun and the memories!