Anniversary Trip to Costa Rica

10 years!

Of wedded bliss!

With no ups and downs!

Just love!

Just kidding but we decided to celebrate anyway despite the absense of perfection.

And with that we were off to Costa Rica.

The tickets were bought, the hotel reservations made, the nanny reserved, and the bags packed.

I went to sleep Sunday night dreaming of sun and poolside drinks.

I was awaken by my phone ringing in the middle of the night.

I stumbled out of bed to answer it, but not in time. 

Instead I received some message saying our flight was cancelled.

Still half asleep, I checked my email to see if I had a messge there.

I didn't see a cancellation notice but I did see a new flight reservation from Jet Blue.

Apparently Yosh and I were flying to Fort Lauderdale that afternoon?

I was definitely confused but my anxious nerves were easily settled when I looked at Florida's weather to see it would be a sunshiny 82 that week. Although the details were still a mystery to me, I was content. Sun in my life was the only requisite I had for the week.

Just then another phone rang. Probably Yosh's. Right about then, he started to stir. I answered the phone and it was confirmed that, yes, our flight had been cancelled due to ice in Dallas. Yosh asked for the phone and finished the arrangements he had been working on until 4 am. Turns out, he had received the call a little after midnight where it was announced that someone was trying to infringe on our 10 year anni celebration. But that's what I like abut Yosh- these things don't discourage him-- he finds a way. Where there's a will, there's a way, that what my Yoshie say. And there was a will.

So his time was spent confirming a different flight on a different airline that would get us to Fort Lauderdale with enough time- aka 3 hours- to jump in a taxi for the hour ride to Miami's airport where we would be able to take our original airline the rest of the way to Costa Rica, losing only 8 hours of our trip instead of 2 days.

Side note: isn't it always completely mind-blowing idea when the airlines suggest that they put you on the next available flight….2 days later? Look, I know there's logistics and such on their side but I'm not interested in them as the consumer. I want to go NOW. Like I paid for. Or at least within the same day.

So, anyway, the remedy required meticulous timing coupled with a healthy dose of luck. So you can imagine Yosh's pacing as our flight to Fort Lauderdale was delayed by 15 minutes. And then 30 minutes. And finally 45 minutes. We just didn't have a lot of time to spare to piece this messy puzzle together. When we landed in Fort Lauderdale, we grabbed our suitcases (carry-ons only!) and ran to the taxi hut to get on the road to Miami. We probably had our poor taxi driver on pins and needles as our intense eyes kept going from the spedometer to the road to the time maps on our phone to him. We needed A game driving skillz! We made it to the airport less than an hour before our international flight was to take off. We checked in outside, were overly polite to the sky cap boy (in the language of 20 bucks and no bags), and somehow found ourselves at the front of the security line. I don't know if it was the $20 or the fact that we were flying first class, but I also wasn't asking questions. We got through security and were at our gate as they were announcing  the final boarding call. Perfect timing! That is when the vacation really began.

We made it to Costa Rica and drove 2 hours in the complete dark and probably in crappy roads to arrive at our hotel. For two nights we were staying up in the mountains by Volcano Arenal. The next morning, we were greeted with a beautiful scene. Although our hopes of seeing the volcano erupt had been destroyed the night before when we learned the volcano hadn't been active for over 2 years.

We ate breakfast at the hotel (where I was reminded of my love of Gallo Pinto- the rice, beans, egg, and ketchup breakfast dish) before we headed to hike down to a waterfall. The waterfalla area was breath taking. 

We were wimpy and didn't get in the water.

After that, we stopped on the side of the road for a local lunch.

One of our goals while we were there was to eat a lot of local food at hole-in-the-wall places.

Proud to report we were successful at that.

We saw all these things filling the road and were at first ecstatic as we thought we'd be able to report back to Porter about all the monkies we saw. Turns out they were some type of raccoon and, therefore, not near as exotic!

We went to the Hanging Bridges National park with high hopes of experiencing the wild and seeing native jungle life.

Those hopes were dashed.

We saw nothing.

At all. 

The next morning we headed to the Four Seasons at Peninsula Papagayo.

Upon arrival, we wasted no time getting to our poolside loungers.

Quicker than you can say Por Favor, we had Coca Lights and Lobster Nachos at our little table.

We were already in full force beach mode.

And what better way to celebrate Yosh's birthday!

We finished the night eating at the hotel at some Brazilian place.

Is that a Happy Birthday or what?!! 

One day we golfed.

Yosh even let me drive the cart.

Infact, I think that's why I got invited!

That was first time golfing (does just driving the cart count as golfing?) and surprisingly it was fun!

I don't know if I'll even get invited back (I may have been somewhat distracting or annoying….) but it was fun while it lasted! Was fun to be with my baby while he did his golf thing! 

PS The course was gorgeous.

Aaaaaaaaad….

we saw a monkey.

Game over, our vacation was complete with this siting.

We then channeled the inner Peterson's in us and went exploring to a local beach.

I believe we ended up at Playa Cocoa.

But I think we only had lunch and then bailed as the beach wasn't anything to brag about.

We went to another beach and it passed the test,

but I can't seem to remember what it was called.

Yosh?? a little bit of help?

And there you have it! That was our vacation and I loved it!

I love reconnecting with Yosh and being reminded that we get along, that we have fun together, and that we are more than just co-parents to these four kids of ours!