Costa Rica!!!

We just got back from Costa Rica and it ranks in the top of our Favorite Trips Ever!!! It was amazing. We fell in love with the country (except for the scary and unsafe roads!). After arriving in San Jose, we spent the night in a charming hotel with a hot tub and garden on the roof. We loaded up on books to read (by the way - have your read Glass Castles??? New favorite book!) and recovered from our red eye flight (which I slept very well through and Chris enjoyed watching me sleep for 5 hours).

The next morning we left for our 2 day rafting trip and spent the night in the most amazing Tree House! It really looked like something out of a movie - and since there was no electricity it was lit by candles. We shared our raft with another family from Denver (small world) and did class III and IV rapids. Chris fell in and said afterwards he had no idea that there were so many rocks under the rapids. He has a lovely bruise to prove it. We LOVED the rafting trip!!!! Rafting through the river in the rain forest was unbelievable - so beautiful! And we were able to do a zip line/canopy tour through the canopy (top) of the rain forest - some of the platforms were 150 feet off the ground!

That night we drove to Playa Jaco (the beach) and checked into a Villa in an amazing jungle hotel on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. We are convinced that the owner of the hotel (a retired architect) is some crazy King Ludwig type person that is obsessed with creating a European walled city in the rain forest. He has created a truly spectacular, intimate hotel with beautiful rock walls creating little nooks and crannies all around.


There was a charming amphitheater to watch the sunset and we spent the next day by the infinity pool reading (and Chris got a massage for his rafting injuries).

The next day we took a truck down to the hotel's private beach and had the whole beach to ourselves! We relaxed in hammocks and read and explored the coast. Then we went to see the palace the architect just completed - it was like something you would see in Vegas. Over the top and mouth dropping beautiful decor.


We finished our beach time surfing - another favorite of the trip! We took a little class which consisted of "when you see a wave, stand up as soon as possible". And then we were let loose. I LOVED it!!!! The water was SO warm and when it worked (and I actually made it on top of the board), it felt like you were flying!!! We surfed until sunset. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

And finally, we spent our last day visiting waterfalls. It was our only rainy day.

So many fun things - the perfect mix of adventure and relaxing! And a wonderful way to remind us why we fell in love and married 10 years ago! I am so thankful for our marriage.

And then home to our kids and oh-so fabulous nanny, Trixie. We would have not been able to make the trip if she had not been brave enough to watch the 3 little ones for the week. They were VERY GOOD for her all week (not an easy task) and she took wonderful care of them!!