These are all the pictures from the trip. [View Full Entry]

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Departure day...but not before we try to fit in another couple of hours of fun & sun. Our flight isn't until 2:45, and the airport looks like something out of a third-world country. No air conditioning, and only a couple of flights per day. (Trivia courtesy of Rafael: Daniel Odubar, the airport's namesake who donated the land, was so revered that part of his heart is buried on the airport grounds, while the rest of him is in Liberia.) The good news is that we don't need to plan on getting there more than an hour or so ahead of time. [View Full Entry]

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Friday is usually my most favorite and least favorite day of our vacations. Since I am the resident over-planner, we've usually spent all of our money, gone on lots of adventures and started thinking about the trip home by then. That's why MY tradition (which has become the de facto family tradition) is to leave Friday as a wide-open day. We can chill, do something we've missed or forgotten or repeat a truly remarkable experience, depending on the weather and our mood. This trip was no exception. After everyone crashed and burned on Thursday night, we were all up fairly early. [View Full Entry]

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Our last formal excursion was billed as "An all-day adventure of zip-lining, horseback riding and tubing down the river, followed by a soothing soak in mud and mineral springs." Only, and I mean ONLY, the last item was anything that resembled relaxing. Nowhere in the description were any of the other "adventures" billed as near-death experiences. As I told Mike when we stumbled in at 5:30 pm, I'll never view water the same way again. Freddy picked us up at 6:30 am for another teeth-rattling ride to the Rincon de la Vieja canyons--about an hour and 20 minute jaunt. The upside [View Full Entry]

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I'm a couple of days behind on updating...Wednesday was "Mike's Choice." He wanted to go fishing and we were lucky enough to find a boat that would take us out for a half-day of fishing AND snorkeling, which usually don't go together. I've never been trolling, and it was really nice. The boat was fairly small (26 feet?) but very nicely maintained. Neither the captain nor the first mate spoke much English, but they knew what they were doing with fishing. Within the first hour, we caught five dorado/mahi and the big prize: a tuna! I was very proud of both [View Full Entry]

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Most of what you hear about as a "must see" in Costa Rica is the rainforests (after the monkeys, of course). Well, Tuesday was rainforest day for the girls. Mike wisely decided to stay behind, even though we were promised that the tour company would make it easy for him to enjoy. WRONG...there was not one part of the trip (other than the lunch, possibly) that the girls and I figured he would have enjoyed. But, we were completely overwhelmed by the scenery and rainforest. It even made an hour and forty-five minute bus trip over really rickety (purple?) roads worth [View Full Entry]

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So after reading about all the crazy animals, reptiles and birds that are down here, I had two major goals for sightings: monkeys and a Jesus Christ lizard (so-named because it walks on water). Success on both counts--on our official river cruise and also back here at the house. The river trip was very tame, but in a way it was very relaxing. After an hour and a half tour bus ride (air conditioned, thank God), we were delivered into the capable hands of Walter, our keen-eyed captain, we started down the river. One of the first things he/we spotted was [View Full Entry]

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Our first day in Costa Rica! So, the sun comes up at about 5:30, and being an hour behind Chicago time, I'm up at 6 am. But, it reminds me that this is my favorite time of vacation...sitting on the porch, drinking my coffee (pre-programmed the night before), and figuring out (a) how much we've spent so far and (b) what our travel budget is. Rafael from the tour company came by last night, and we've got the majority of our week planned. Today is surfing for the girls in Playa Grande (arranged in advance), but he's sold us on three [View Full Entry]

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We have survived the usual 9 hours of travel, all still speaking to each other, and are settled into the house. Picking up the rental car at the airport was quite an experience...no bus, just the rental car guy in the parking lot with Mike trying to communicate that we needed to use his cell phone to call the people at our rental house agency. I finally pulled Kate out of the car to try to use her Spanish to explain that NO, we didn't want his cell phone, we just needed to make a call. It worked. After making sure [View Full Entry]

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The Adventure Begins It's 4:30 am, and I'm having my coffee. This is a good thing, though it follows the usual "night before" of going to bed late and waking up every 30 minutes to be sure I didn't oversleep. The limo arrives at 5:45 and thus our vacation will officially start. Every family has their traditions for vacations. Ours usually involve angst of some sort...when will Kate actually begin packing? (She was early this time because she started yesterday afternoon--before she went downtown and hanging out with her friends and came home at 10:04 pm.) Who will get into th [View Full Entry]

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