Costa Rica 2013

My favorite part of the trip----late afternoon surfing at Este.

Our annual trip to Costa Rica was, once again, a HUGE success. It's truly hard to re-adjust to real life.... (I know, you're all feeling so bad...) We had a big group this time around----Baileys, Paynes, Hunters, Andersons, Clarks, Deuchers, Youngs (Chris & Karen) and us. We had tons of fun surfing, eating, playing Five Crowns, swimming in the ocean and the pool and especially playing "Would you rather...". My abs were sore from 9 straight days of laughing. 

Awesome time and awesome friends!

Some of the ladies at Este

yes, even I surfed!

Farmers Market in Jaco

Party on the rooftop

Bringing in the only catch on our first fishing day.

Dave gutting my fish. 

Costa Rica

We got back from Costa Rica earlier this week. Once again we had such a fun time. We are lucky to have friends like the Baileys and the Paynes who are willing to share their condo! More pics to come later...

Costa Rica Part 6-Manuel Antonio

Our last day in Costa Rica we decided to visit Manuel Antonio with the Hellewells. It is a national park about an hour south of where we stayed. It is along the coast so there are lots of white sand beaches. It's also the natural habitat to monkeys, sloths, coatis (a kind of raccoon-like creature) and tons of other animals. We were hoping to see at least some monkeys but no such luck! They have guides you can go with to make sure you see all the wildlife but we just did our own thing.

You follow paths through the jungle to get to the various beaches in the park.

This is Kurt looking so burdened from carrying Zeke. He was such a good baby. He hardly ever cried or made a peep.

Lance and Kurt

One of the beaches

We found this old man right as we came to the first beach just changing out of his swimsuit in the middle of the path. His wife was pretending not to notice I'm sure. They did have bathrooms about 50 feet from where he was standing. I guess that was too far to walk.

As soon as we got back from Manuel Antonio, we packed up the surf boards to head to Este to get in our last surf of the trip. It was the girls' turn this time. The waves at Este are really long and slow so it's easy to catch them. I was even able to get up----with Kurt's help! It was a great way to end the trip.

Goodbye Costa Rica----until next time!

Costa Rica Part 5-Monteverde

Getting all geared up.

We went on an excursion to Monteverde during our stay in Costa Rica. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the condo----which was an adventure. Part of the road to get there is completely rocky and rough and all dirt. Monteverde is well-known because of its rain forests and cloud forests. There are all kinds of nature and wildlife hikes and ziplines throughout the area. We decided to do a zipline tour. It was something we had never done before so I was excited and a bit nervous. I'm not a big fan of heights (memories of Kurt making me bungee jump early in our marriage).

Helmets are not super flattering.

Dave, Shelley, Laura, Alan

The whole gang minus Jenny who couldn't do the zipline with baby Zeke.

Taking the Sky Tram to the top.

Fun times!

Kurt in the cloud forest.

Coming in fast!

There were 9 different ziplines in all during the tour. We definitely got in our fill. The boys starting getting really creative in the end----going backwards and upside down and taking pictures while zipping along.

Costa Rica Part 4-Fishing & Flu bugs

Day 2 started early. We headed out to go fishing. I wasn't going to go but decided what the heck! We went out on two boats--the girls and Dave in one boat and all the rest of the guys in the other. I hadn't fished in years----probably the last time was with Grandpa Peterson in Joe's Valley. We had a great time. I even caught a couple and so did Kurt on the other boat. By the time we were finished about mid-morning, I was not feeling well. I thought it was just because I hadn't eaten very much and didn't have anything to drink the whole time we were out on the water. I quickly realized that was not the case. The whole rest of the day I was nauseous and wiped out. I would just move from the bed to the hammock on the top deck back to the bed depending on how I felt. The sickness would go in waves. When I was feeling okay I would try and be somewhat social for a few minutes.

Luckily, after a good night's sleep, I was feeling back to normal. Unfortunately, before the trip was over, Dave, Alan and Laura all caught the bug. Thank goodness it only lasted about 24 hours or less. Not a fun thing to have on vacation.

Costa Rica Part 3-Day 1

The starfruit again---picked from the tree at the bottom of our street.

Our first day was pretty leisurely. After getting in so late, most everyone slept in. Not me. I woke up at 6 a.m., went for a nice 7 mile run, ate a healthy breakfast and was dressed and showered by 8:30---just kidding. Unfortunately I did wake up at 6 a.m. I just kind of hung out until everyone woke up and got going. Then we headed in to Jaco to go to the farmer's market.

We loaded up on fruit as you can tell. Watermelon, pineapple, mango, bananas, limes---so much good stuff! And we also got some delish homemade granola and peanut butter cookies from the Mennonites.

We stopped for lunch at Laura's favorite place in Jaco, Taco Bar. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and going to the beach. That night we had dinner at a local restaurant in town. It was a pretty great first day!

Costa Rica Part 2-Our arrival

Walking home from the beach on our first day with our freshly picked starfruit.

So getting to Costa Rica via our first class flight was easy. Once we arrived in San Jose, the hard part started. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at about 10:30 p.m. Of course we were about 45 minutes late. Then customs, baggage claim and car rental. We had flown in with Lance and Jenny Hellewell. We were going to both pick up our separate cars and follow each other to the condo. But when we went to pick up the cars, their car was ready and waiting but no car for us. We decided to all cram in to the Hellewells car. And that wouldn't have been a big deal but for the fact that we had 3 extra BIG bags we were bringing in for the Baileys. The car was packed and full with 2 more bags still to fit in! Thanks to the resourcefulness of the car rental guys, we tied the last 2 on top of the car with an extension cord and we were on our way! That only took about an hour.

blurry pic......(Kurt's fault obviously)

By this time it was well past midnight. At this point we had to follow Alan's directions to the condo. Normally the drive takes an hour and a half. But due to the fact that it was dark, the directions were pretty sketchy (not Alan's fault really---it's just how the country is as far as street signs) and we were doing our best to obey the speed limit, I think we got there about 2+ hours later. By the time we got to the condo and in to bed I believe it was close to 3 a.m.! It was one loooonnnng travel day!

Costa Rica Part 1--Our Luxury Accommodations

We were invited to Costa Rica by our friends and neighbors Alan and Laura Bailey. They own some condos in a little town on the beach called Esterillos Oeste. They were VERY nice! It was like staying in a hotel with all the amenities but all the conveniences of a house. The building we stayed in has 3 levels. Each level has 3 private bedrooms and baths plus a kitchen and eating area for those 3 bedrooms. We stayed on the 2nd floor condo which is owned by Dave & Shelley Payne. They are good friends of the Baileys. I had met them once or twice before and Kurt knows Dave pretty well. They were so great! Such fun people.

The family room

Our bathroom

Our bedroom

The top deck, complete with pool and hammock!

The barbecue and sunning area.

Can you believe the view of the ocean from the top deck??!!

Another pool view

The view from the hammock! We spent a lot of time in these babies!