10Apr
After another little jaunt on a series of small toy planes, Chris and I arrived at our last destination on Day Six of our trip. Welcome to Quepos, Costa Rica!
Quepos took us back to the coast again, but this time we were in the southern part of Costa Rica. This beach area was very different than Tamarindo. It wasn’t as touristy. And the water was a lot rougher, so the surf wasn’t people like me taking surf lessons. There were rough rocks and rip tides and only really skillful surfers were out there. Everything about Quepos just felt very real. Like that’s what it would REALLY be like to live in Costa Rica.
Well, what it would really be like to live in a five-star resort in Costa Rica.
In Quepos, we stayed at the Arenas Del Mar Beachfront and Rainforest Resort. It was a beautiful five-star hotel situated in the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Seriously. It was as beautiful as it sounds. Within 15 minutes of arriving, Chris and I booked a couples massage at the resort spa that overlooked the beach. It was an hour of heaven, especially after that tense and bumpy plane ride.
The spa and resort were fantastic. This is the view from the hotel lobby, which is open-air, by the way. It looks out over a gorgeous pool, which looks out over the side of the cliff out into the ocean. Not too shabby. And see those little cafe tables with people eating? That’s where the continental breakfast was served. Fo’ real. I mean, who wouldn’t want to start their day like that????
The hotel was actually several different buildings all nestled in the cliffside. You could either walk up these steep, curvy hills to each area, or you could call for a hotel golf cart. Needless to say, I rode in a LOT of golf carts. My calves were on vacation, too.
Our hotel room was smaller here than in the other hotels, but honestly we hardly noticed. It was gorgeous, comfortable, and luxurious in really awesome ways. Like, all international calls were free! Which meant that after a week of traveling, we could finally call home to the babies! Another perk of a luxury hotel? The mini bar was free! And – bonus – it was filled with all local treats and snacks. Even though it was the smallest in size, this hotel was at the top of my list.
It had this great balcony where Chris and I sat one morning to have breakfast. In the rainforest out a bit, I pointed out this little spider monkey that was climbing from tree to tree.
“Look!” I laughed. “He’s coming closer!”
But, he never stopped. That little monkey was booking it from tree to tree, headed straight for our balcony. Right before he jumped onto our balcony and tried to take our food, we ran inside and hid! Those monkeys can be mean!
That one psychotic monkey aside, there were all kinds of wildlife and animals for us to see in Quepos. Around the hotel property, there were packs (?) of different kinds of monkeys, tons of iguanas, and those raccoon thingys.
But we saw most of the wildlife on our walking hike of Manuel Antonio State Park. Though this is the smallest national park in Costa Rica, it is the most visited. And with so much to see, it didn’t surprise me at all. We saw some really different things, like this African Killer Bee hive! It’s hard to see, but it’s at the top of this tree trunk…
We also got the best view of a sloth! I didn’t know they were so cute!
And we saw giant monkeys, too! This one even stuck his tongue out at us!
The hike through this forest took us along a beach where a lot of locals bring their families to play because the water is better. It’s protected by a little cove, so there aren’t any rip tides, which are really common in Quepos. We stopped for half an hour on our hike to sit by the beach and relax. It was a great way to spend a morning after a long hike.
We got back to our hotel around lunch time and ate out by the beach, drinking more fruity, frozen drinks and talking about how much we were missing the kids after a whole week away. After lunch, we walked about half an hour down the beach to the little town of Manuel Antonio to do a little souvenir shopping. The town had a lot more people than our resort area, but it was still very quaint and full of more locals than tourists. We grabbed a beer at a beach side cafe and shopped around until sunset.
The walk back was gorgeous and the perfect way to end our last full day in Costa Rica.
For our last night in Costa Rica, we got all dressed up and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was delicious! I had this amazing traditional meal of rice and beans, but it was INSANELY delicious. We drank and ate and laughed and talked about how much we had enjoyed spending time together on our trip.
(Sorry for the poor pictures. I didn’t want to haul my big camera to a nice dinner, so these are from my iPhone.)
The next morning we had a four hour drive by car to the international airport in the capital, San Jose. It was a beautiful drive through the country side, and it was over before we knew it. We found ourselves suddenly standing in the airport check in line with our baggage, and two bags full of souvenirs.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a more relaxing vacation. It was a perfect time for me and Chris to reconnect and spend some time together after the past few years of crazy transitions and changes. Maybe the best part of the trip for me was finding that even after twelve years together and even after all these changes in our relationship and family, Chris and I still really enjoy spending time together. We still LIKE each other. We still have things to say to each other. We still laugh at each other.
Within 24 hours of coming home, the kids were sick again, work was hectic again, bills were due again, and life went on. It has been hard to keep that same excitement for each other alive here in the real world that we had in Costa Rica, but at the end of the day, our lives were very happy in Costa Rica, but they are still happier here. I guess sometimes you have to travel pretty far to realize how lucky you are right there in your own home.
09Apr
It took me the entire 20 minute taxi ride from the La Fortuna airstrip to our hotel to recover from the terror of our tiny puddle jumper of a plane. But the minute I stepped out of that taxi at our hotel and took one look around at where we were, I didn’t even remember the plane. It was one of the most beautiful places I’d ever been.
We arrived around lunch time, dropped our bags in our room, and headed down to the poolside restaurant for lunch. And this, my friends, was the view:
The Arenal Kioro Hotel is located at the base of the Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. It is absolutely beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful. And the hotel itself is equally as beautiful.
My favorite part of the hotel is that it had these hot springs that you could actually sit in and relax after a long day. Amazing! I’m trying to figure out how to rig something like this up in our backyard. So far, Chris isn’t optimistic.
I took a little video tour of the hotel for you all. But then I freaked out some of the guests, so it stops really abruptly. But at least you can see where we were…
Our room was really, really nice, too. Each room at the resort had its own hot tub in the room, a full view of the volcano, and top of the line eco-friendly features. My favorite was that the only way to turn power on in your room was to insert your room key into this little holder by the front door. So, when you are ready to leave, you take your key out of the holder and the power in your room goes out to make sure they are saving power when no one is in the room. It was such a cool, easy to use, practical feature. I have also tried talking Chris into installing one in our house, but, again, he’s not optimistic.
We spent the first day relaxing by the pool, and then had a very luxurious dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was spectacular. So spectacular that I didn’t even pause to take pictures. Sorry, kids.
It was the second day in La Fortuna that was my favorite, though. We got up really early and were picked up by a car and a tour guide. They drove us about 15 minutes down the road from our hotel to the Arenal Hanging Bridges. If I had to pick my favorite excursion on our trip, this would probably be it. It was awesome! We hiked through the rainforest and crossed over eight large, suspension hanging bridges that gave incredible views of the rainforest.
It was a beautiful four hour hike through the rainforest. We saw all kinds of animals and wildlife, thanks to our awesome guide. This is poisonous frog (I can’t remember the name!). He was super loud, but when we finally found him, he was tiny! Reminded me of Bean, actually.
We also saw lots of monkeys, a few sloths, lots of humming birds, and these little raccoon-like things that our guide told us the name of 15,000 times, but I could never understand what she was saying.
Oh, and did I mention the snakes? Yeah. We saw two viper snakes as we hiked.
Now, I have always been taught to leave snakes the heck alone. But, apparently, our guide had not been taught the same lesson. She grabbed our cameras and crawled up within a couple feet of each viper and started snapping away. She never touched them (duh!) or seemed to bother them, but she got close enough to take a great picture. It was crazy!
(Speaking of our guide, if you ever find yourself in La Fortuna on a hanging bridge tour, do yourself a favor and request Indira as your guide. Best guide I’ve ever had for any kind of anything. She was so darn smart!)
I am notoriously afraid of heights. Don’t like ‘em. Don’t do ‘em. No way, no how. I keep my feet on the ground. But this was too good to miss. So before each hanging bridge, I’d get myself all psyched up to walk out on these incredibly high, wobbly bridges. I found the Rocky theme song to be particularly inspiring…
I also found talking in a British accent to be oddly soothing…
But as scared as I was to walk out on those bridges, it was totally worth it for the views!
Can you see the bridge in the center of this picture? That’s the “lower bridge.”
Now, do you see that bridge at the tip top of this picture? That’s the “high bridge.” I thought I was going to pass out when our guide showed it to us.
But it was views like this spectacular waterfall that made me keep going…
By the time our rainforest hike ended, it was lunch time. Chris and I came back to the hotel and had lunch at that same pool restaurant and then spent the afternoon being completely lazy. It was cloudy out and so we sat in the room and read for a couple hours, then headed down to the spa for volcanic mud facials. I had to really convince Chris to do it, but he loved it! It was awesome! When we finished at the spa, the weather had cleared up a bit and so we spent sunset sitting in one of the hot springs pools, drinking pina coladas and talking about how lucky we were, how happy we were, how relaxed we were, and how much we missed the kids.
It was maybe the best day of the entire trip.
Well…until that one day in our next stop, Quepos, where we upgraded from facials to Swedish massages next to the Pacific and stayed in the nicest hotel yet. I’ll show you that one tomorrow!
08Apr
Two weeks ago, Chris and I took the trip of a lifetime to Costa Rica. We were so graciously given the trip as part of Costa Rica’s “Gift of Happiness” program, which has awarded one million dollars in trips to Costa Rica over the past year in an effort to promote happiness in people’s lives.
Mission accomplished.
On our trip, we visited three different cities in three very different parts of the country and, I swear, it just got better with each stop. We left the Tuesday after Gracie’s first birthday and flew into Liberia, Costa Rica. From Liberia, we had to drive about an hour to the coastal surf town of Tamarindo. To be honest with you, Chris and I hadn’t looked at our itinerary until we were sitting in the airport in Atlanta waiting to board to Costa Rica. So, when we finally got there, we pretty much didn’t know anything about our trip. We knew where we were (sometimes), but didn’t have much of an idea where we were going next. Turns out, that’s such a fun way to travel! We just woke up every day and were surprised by our day! It was awesome!
Here’s a little video Chris took on the drive from the Liberia airport to Tamarindo. As you can see, I know next to nothing about our trip…
During our trip, we stayed at four and five leaf hotels, which means they were the highest rated in sustainability. You really would have no idea you were staying in a completely sustainable hotel, except that the staff at each hotel were so proud of their leaf status (which is apparently very, very hard to achieve). They made sure you knew that not only were you staying in a sustainable and eco-friendly hotel, but you were now part of that accomplishment, too. And it wasn’t just the hotels and resorts that were proud of their positive footprint on the environment. Everyone from the taxi drivers to the restaurant waiters to the guys sitting on the beach with their surf boards would gladly tell you about how much Costa Rica values the environment. It was an unexpected part of the trip that I found really inspiring.
A really great example of this would be the monkeys at our first hotel. Hotel Capitan Suizo had three monkeys that they were rescuing and rehabilitating. These monkeys had been rescued for some reason or another (mostly because of losing their natural habitats to urban development), and now they were living in the lush, natural gardens at the hotel where they were being taught to find food and survive on their own. These monkeys were always around! They never came close enough for you to touch and you weren’t supposed to feed them or anything. But they seemed to enjoy their life on the hotel grounds. And why not? It was BEAUTIFUL at the hotel!
When we arrived at the hotel on the first day, it was about 2:00 local time. Too late for lunch, Chris and I grabbed a beachside table in the bar and, over a beer, laughed about what the heck we were doing in Costa Rica! It was so surreal!
Our hotel room was gorgeous. Simple, immaculately clean, comfortable, and roomy. Everything you need to relax in style!
Our room was actually two stories, and it had these gorgeous windows that let natural light stream in (reducing the need for electric lights during the day, by the way…).
We had a great little balcony, too, that overlooked the natural gardens of the hotel. Just looking at this picture makes me feel relaxed again!
That first night, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. You know, right on the beach.
We watched a gorgeous sunset from table. It was breathtaking and a perfect end to our first day.
The next morning after a leisurely breakfast which included having to defend my food from a rather insistent iguana who kept climbing up on our table (didn’t get a picture of that one because I was hold my plate fiercely against my chest…), Chris and I didn’t know what to do with ourselves. It was too early to be out by the pool or beach, and we didn’t have anything on our itinerary until late in the afternoon. I hate the admit this, but we hadn’t had a truly FREE period of time to ourselves in YEARS. If we get free time at home, like when the kids are at my parents or something, but we usually use that time to work on the house or work stuff or something productive. When left to our own devices for complete relaxation, we just didn’t know what to do with ourselves! So, we decided to hang out in a hammock on the beach until an idea came to us…
And what we came up with was sitting on the beach. Because apparently when we’re on vacation, there is no appropriate time for the beach. So, at 9:30am, we sat our happy behinds on beach chairs and didn’t move until the bar opened at 11:00. That, my friends, is how you vacation.
We laid by the pool later that afternoon, choosing to drink our lunch instead of eating (a decision we made just about every day on our trip). As the afternoon wore on and the heat began to kick up, we were joined on our pool loungers by this friendly, enormous iguana. She seemed to really like Chris. She walked across the entire pool area, then crawled up on a big rock next to his pool chair, and sat there sunning and staring at him for almost half an hour. She had a crush.
Later that afternoon, we walked down the beach to the town of Tamardindo. It’s a small little beach town with great food, really nice people, and lots of souvenir shopping. We spent the afternoon walking around and checking out the shops that had local artists artwork and crafts. I almost bought the kids their first souvenir, but Chris talked me out of it. Party pooper.
Before we started the 20 minute beach walk back to the hotel, we stopped and had ourselves a nice little cocktail. Now, I joke about drinking and I have some pretty funny stories about it, too, but I’m actually not that big of a drinker. But in Costa Rica? Man, their drinks were the best! You’d order a fruity, frozen drink and they’d take a whole, fresh pineapple or something, cut it up and throw that into a blender. It was fresher than fresh, and it was delicious!!!!
We had to be back at the hotel by 4:00 for our first excursion…surf lessons! Originally, I had planned not to surf. Even though I am from Florida and grew up on the beach, I am not a fan of swimming in the ocean. Bottom line: Sharks scare me. I can’t help it! They just do! And so, I had intended for Chris to do the lesson and I would take the pictures. But being in Costa Rica, sitting on the beach, watching seemed a little ridiculous. How could I pass this up? People pay thousands of dollars to come surf in Costa Rica and here I was on a FREE trip with a (incredibly good looking) surf instructor. So, I suited up and hit the waves, dude!
Or, rather, they hit me. Hard. And often.
I got up a lot, actually. And I rode the waves all the way in to the beach a couple times, too. But in between the actual surfing, I was basically getting thrown around with a giant surf board tied to my leg. I kept thinking, maybe when I actually catch a wave, it’ll be better. You know, reward for all the work or whatever. But when I actually caught a wave…well…let’s just say I enjoyed my pineapple drinks better than a nose full of saltwater.
Chris, though? He was a natural. He’d surfed a few times growing up, but he seemed to pick it up really quickly this time.
After an hour, I had had enough and I headed in to get our camera. I spent the next hour sitting on the beach, thinking about what I was going to wear to dinner that night, and occasionally waving to Chris as he cruised by on a surfboard.
That night we decided to go into town for dinner to a place that our surf instructor recommended called Coconuts. He said it was the best place to get the most traditional Costa Rican food.
The food did not disappoint. It was amazing! Chris had this whole lobster that was stuffed with this fresh mango and pineapple chutney, and I had grilled mahi mahi (caught that day!) with calamari rings, all bathed in butter and fresh herbs. Lip smackin’ good!
The next day, we had to be up and going pretty early because we were flying to our next resort. On the itinerary, it said that we were taking a “local flight” to La Fortuna. Had I known what “local flights” were in Costa Rica, I don’t think I would have left the first resort.
Our driver was taking us to the airport, when all of a sudden, he turned down this tiny dirt road. He kept driving and driving, further and further away from civilization. By the time I realized that this wasn’t a detour, but was instead where the actual airport was (if you can call it an airport), I started to panic. Here…let me show you how I reacted:
Seriously. This “airport” was incredibly small. The plane was so small that not only did we have to weigh our carry ons, but WE had to get on the scales to be weighed, too!
Here’s the airstrip…
And here’s the place where you buy drinks or snacks for the plane…
Oh, and here comes our plane…
I was terrified. TERRIFIED. I don’t even like flying all that much in REAL planes, let alone this toy plane in the middle of some cow field! But, from somewhere deep inside, close to the place that made me get on a surfboard in the Pacific Ocean, I found the courage to get on the darn plane. And somehow, I found the restraint to keep from screaming out whenever the plane hit turbulence that made me feel like we were free falling back towards Earth. And somehow, I found the bladder control to not even wet my pants.
Sometimes, I really impress myself.
We landed that afternoon in La Fortuna and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so La Fortunate to be alive!
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you all about our stay in La Fortuna near the Arenal Volcano. One of the most breathtakingly beautiful places I’ve ever been. Don’t miss it!
18Mar
This post is more of a scheduling pep talk for myself than anything else. In the next week, there are so many major events happening that I can hardly keep myself straight. I get tired whenever I think about it, and then I just want to take a nap until April. But I can’t because I have too much to do. So, I thought I’d make peace with the next couple days by blogging about it to help calm my nerves. Plus, if I’m blogging then I don’t have to deal with the other things. It’s a win-win!
1. On Tuesday I have my formal evaluation at school, which means my principal and vice principal will be in my classroom for an entire period evaluation my teaching. I’ve got a great lesson planned and I feel good about it, but the lesson requires a lot of prep work (including a sample of an art project that I have to make – oy!). And besides the prep work, it’s just very nerve-wracking to know you’re being observed, no matter how prepared you are. I have my pre-conference with my principal and vice principal tomorrow, so cross your fingers that that goes well.
2. On Saturday, my agent is coming to town from New York. She’s here as a guest lecturer at the University of Florida for a couple of days, and so I am going up to meet her for drinks on Saturday. It’ll be nice to see her, but the real reason for the visit is so that I can hand deliver her my final draft of my book proposal. I haven’t blogged about my book in over a year, and, to be honest, I doubt I’ll be blogging about it very much in the next few months. But know that I am working so very, very hard on it. I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard on anything professionally in my whole life. I am in the third year of the process and am, hopefully, in the homestretch now. In the next few months, my agent will be sending my book proposal out to publishers to see if we can get a book deal. I try not to think about how much I want that, so that I don’t get disappointed if it doesn’t happen. But I really want this. I’ll be light on the blogging this week as I finish my draft up in the evenings, so bear with me and think happy thoughts for me while I’m gone.
3. GRACIE TURNS ONE NEXT SUNDAY! I can’t believe it is finally here! Gracie Girl is turning the big O-N-E next weekend, and we’re having a small family get-together to celebrate. My mom came down this weekend and we went shopping for decorations and menu items, so I feel much more prepared for her party than I did last week, but there’s still so much to do! I have Friday off of school, so I’m hoping to finish up her party plans then. We’re having her party on Sunday afternoon, which should be fun for me because my book proposal will be done and delivered, so I will definitely feel like celebrating. Sometime before now and then, I have to get her birthday video together, too. I made one for each of Bean’s birthdays so far and I’ve already started compiling Gracie’s. I’ll post it on the blog on Friday. I can’t wait for you all to see it!
4. Chris and I leave for Costa Rica the Monday after Gracie’s birthday. We are both looking forward to some time away, but neither of us have had a chance to really get anything ready. I’m hoping Sunday night after the party we’ll be able to pack…which is about 9 hours before our flight. Nothing like a little last minute suitcase stuffing! I’m hoping to be able to blog from Costa Rica, so definitely check in next week for blog posts about what we’re up to. I know there will be zip lining, surfing, and hanging bridges on the menu. (What, pray tell, does one wear while crossing a hanging bridge over a ravine in the rainforest????) I’ll be posting to Twitter and Instagram (my user name is MarriageConfessions) all week from my phone, so be sure you’re following along! Costa Rica is going to be so wonderful for us! Our travel coordinator sent us our itinerary and we were just blown away! It will truly be a Gift of Happiness. On that note, I have been contacted by two different blog readers in the past month or so who said they also won a trip! How exciting! And what a fun thing for the country of Costa Rica to be doing!
5. While Chris and I are both so excited about our vacation, we are both a little anxious about leaving the wee ones for so long. Chris’s mom will be keeping them half of the week and my parents will have them the last part. We’re trying to keep it as routine as possible for the kids, so they’ll be in daycare all week. Hopefully, that will help them adjust to us not being there a little easier. I’m actually alright about being gone. I know I’ll miss them, but I’m really looking forward to some alone time with Chris. This will be like a second honeymoon for us! And it’s free! But Chris is a different story. Two or three times he has said to me out of the blue, “Maybe we should just stay home…” or “This isn’t a great time for us to be away. Maybe we should cancel.” Each time I told him if he wanted to stay home, that’d be fine but Sarah and I would be going instead. (How’s that for sympathetic?) The closer we get to leaving, though, the more I think about not being with the kids. I know they’ll be fine, but we’re just going to miss the little goobers!
So, there you have it. The next week for us is going to be chaotic, but so exciting! It’s been a long time since we had so many GOOD things happen to us at once!!! I’m trying to enjoy them all one at a time and to appreciate how important each adventure really is, but sitting here on Sunday afternoon looking at the week laid out before me, all I can think is, “How will we ever make it to April?!?!”
Get updates via Facebook |
Become a fan of Marriage Confessions
Categories
Weddings
blogging
Around the House
Changes
Childhood
Husbands
Jobs and Careers
Laundry
Lucy
Marriage
Molly
Money
Moving
New Haven
pregnancy
Random
Suburbia
The Dog Pound
travel
Vacation
Yale
Friendship
health
holidays
photography
Book
Communication
Etsy Day
Fights
Flashbacks
Florida
In the Kitchen
Letters to Chris
Operation BWYP
Reader of the Month
Southern Weddings
Stalking the Pioneer Woman
Understanding Chris
Understanding Katie
Videos
Giveaways
Out and About
Dads
FamilyBellycasts
Depression
Faith
Parenting
Just for Fun
Fun Things
31 Gifts
Reviews
Running
