Costa Rica, Take 2!

Longtime readers (actually, given how long I've been blogging, it's really like midterm readers?) will remember that we went to Costa Rica in 2018.It was one of our first big international trips with the kids where we rented a car and local house and drove around, cooked our food, ate at local places, and just truly explored the country (we'd done Jamaica and Mexico to date, but had stayed on a resort or in an all-inclusive house). It was Thanksgiving week and the kids were 11, 8, and 5 and we had the BEST time.

(All my posts from that trip can be found here: Costa Rica 2018. They're long and detailed and I can't believe I actually used to find time to write like that. I'm so thankful for my archives, reading them brings me so much joy, and I googled my own blog so many times on our trip to remember restaurants and other places we'd loved. But man, now that my anxiety is controlled and I can sleep at night, and my kids have activities that mean we eat at 8 and our nights are so short, and I have this job that follows me I go, I fear the blogging has been hardest hit. Well, not as hard as my exercising regimin and general fitness... Anyway! All the posts are there! And while I am biased as the author, they are a delight- my travel pack was so tiny and their cheeks were so rounded.)

Usually I plan trips a year+ in advance, but I'd kept this Spring Break open in case we needed to travel for Landon's college selection process (still ongoing! He was fielding recruiting calls left and right from Costa Rica, including from some Top 5 swim schools and it's crazy and exciting and so fun but he graduates in less than 2 months and I would really like to know where he's going so I can party prep for his graduation party! #priorities).

Then I thought we'd ski, but the snow has been terrible this year and my parents were off in India and Nepal so we wouldn't be able to do our usual grandparent visit combo ski trip. In January I decided maybe we just needed a beach with some adventure and wildlife. We loved Costa Rica so much and Cora barely remembered it. I brought it up at dinner and everyone enthusiastically supported my motion.

I thought a lot about exploring some new areas, like Arenal and La Fortuna with the volcanoes and lush rainforest (which we still want to do!), but we had loved the Southern Pacific/Dominical area and while we had never before vacationed in the same place, something about it just drew us back. Also the fact that I'd be planning this trip myself and we'd be leaving in 2 months. So I hopped on VRBO, bookmarked a few houses, and had everyone agree on one during dinner the next day and we were set! I connected with the house management company to help book some tours and we were good to go.

I tried to balance our love of adventure (and our particular love of jumping off rocks into water) with our teenagers' increasing delight in sleeping in and having recharge time on vacation.

We've always been huge fans of traveling and vacationing with our kids (obviously), but as they get older it really has become so much more precious. They are so busy - we are all so busy - and they go to three different schools in three very spread out locations with three very different schedules. We still eat dinner together very night, but it's not until 8:15 pm and even then 1 person is sometimes missing. Vacation is the one time we are all on the same time table, without distractions, without activities or girlfriends or errands or chores or any of the things that fill our days at home. And our week in Costa Rica was just as precious and wonderful as I wanted it to be.

Our itinerary:

Day 1/Mon: Fly Dallas - San Jose (10:35 am - 2:30 pm), stop immediately for delicious Costa Rican food that James has missed so much, drive 4 hours to our rental house in Dominical.

Day 2/Tues: Zipline tour in Uvita in the morning with a bonus visit to the Uvita Waterfall, house lounge time in the afternoon, and a night hike through the rain forest after dark!

Day 3/Wed: Day trip to Corcovado National Park and a private chef dinner at the house that night.