Costa Rica - Inland Next!

After our time at the beach, we drove inland to the town of La Fortuna, which is where Arenal Volcano is located!

It was a long and twisty road around Lake Arenal to get there, but we took a pit stop at a restaurant where we met some new friends!

The house we rented was awesome - mostly because we had our own pool!

We started our first adventure day with a rainforest hike with our tour guide!

We went across several hanging bridge and found cool things in nature like a hollow tree and a trail of ants!

And a waterfall!  We saw some people getting ready to repel down it - maybe next trip we'll try that!

After our hike, we got all of our gear on and took a tram way up above the trees!

It was a clear day and we could see the top of Arenal Volcano!

There was a giant hand at the top for a photo op with Lake Arenal!

Then it was time for zip lining!  I was a little nervous but didn't hesitate at all.  We did get to do a practice run so that helped me get more comfortable!

Owen was nervous too, but once we got going, it was hard not to have fun sailing over the trees!

I had a guide go with me on all of the zip lines because I wasn't heavy enough, but Owen was able to go by himself on a couple!

Whew, a busy day of adventure at the volcano!

We did a little souvenir shopping - couldn't quite fit what we wanted in our suitcase!

Adventure calls for a giant milkshake and our favorite meal - the "casado".  Chicken, rice and beans (plus salad and plantains that we didn't eat) - Owen found he liked to mix it up all together!

Sandia is even better in Costa Rica!

Our next adventure was a rafting trip on the San Carlos River!

It was pretty calm overall, but there were a handful of exciting (but super small) rapids!

We saw all sorts of creatures - crocodiles, lizards, howler monkeys, iguanas, and bats!

Can you tell someone was relaxed?

Our last adventure day was a visit to La Fortuna Waterfall!  Here we are at the top and the bottom - only 500+ steps down (and back up)!

The waterfall was a little too powerful (and cold) to swim at the base so we went downstream a ways for some swimming!

The house manager where we were staying cooked us dinner one night and then breakfast on our way to the airport.  We preferred the pancakes to Pinto Gallos for breakfast!

Our parting view of Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna on the way to the airport to head home!

After our rafting trip, we stopped for a local snack and there was a "friendly" goose!

Our favorite game in the pool was "jail"!  The waterfall made an excellent jail!

Here's one of my zip line runs!

And here's one of Owen's runs!

Costa Rica - Beach First!

For Spring Break, we got back to traveling and went outside of the country for the first time!  To Costa Rica we went!  

We might look relaxed but it was stressful getting to the gate after a much longer than expected security line!  There may or may not have been some running to get there...

Thanks to Covid - masks on in the airplane!

The food at our first lunch was terrible, but the drinks were delicious!

The first half of our trip was spent at the beach in a small town called Samara!

Not a bad view from our treehouse (hotel) room!

It didn't take us long to find the pool!

The first day, Owen and Dad attempted surfing!  Owen had a bit more success than Dad!

While they did their surf lesson, Mom and I hung out on the beach!

And I caught a few waves myself on the boogie board!

The next day we had another first - riding horses!  And we got to start on the beach!

We rode the horses to the top of a cliff where we could see the ocean and the beach!

Hammock relaxing was needed after our horseback ride!

Another day we took a short hike to the Belen waterfall!  We weren't quite brave enough to swim at the bottom of the falls so we hung out in the pools at the top!

More beach and ocean time!

The waves were awesome for jumping and boogie boarding!

I had a fun time using the beach to practice gymnastics!

We did find some good Costa Rican food in Samara!  Lots of rice and beans!

Breakfast under our treehouse room was always good!

Our treehouse hotel room was fun except that we all had to cram into one room at nighttime because that's the only place there was air conditioning! Quality family time!

We didn't waste any time getting into the waves when we arrived!  Our first time in the Pacific Ocean!

Here's one of my cartwheel roundoffs on the beach!

Happy Birthday Jessie!

 For Jessie's first birthday, we had to make it a big deal!  So we made her a cake!

It had all human ingredients so we gave it a try, but it was missing a key ingredient for a cake we would like - sugar!

It turned out pretty good and I think Jessie was impressed!

Here we are with the birthday girl!

Later, Jessie got to have a playdate with her friend Izzie!

Of course we had to sing Jessie "Happy Birthday"!  She waited like a good girl for the song to be over before eating her cake!

School Plants!

Clara and I both did a project at school where we planted plants and brought them home.  When we went on vacation, we left them with Grandma B and Grandpa Mark to take care of them for us!

My class planted grass seeds!  Grandpa found a spot for it in their garden!

Clara's class planted green beans!

When we got back from our trip, we checked on our plants.  They had grown quite a bit!  My grass had even had a haircut!

Two months later and they were still growing!

Clara's beans were out of control!  We even ate some when we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner!