Costa Rica {Day 2} – La Fortuna Waterfall & Rio Chollin

Getting ready this morning was such a process. First we had to wake up the kids to eat breakfast, then we headed back to the room to get everyone changed into swimsuits, slathered with sunscreen, slathered with bug spray, and all of our bags packed up and ready to go. Good thing we didn’t have any set schedule today so it wasn’t a big deal. Our priority was just making sure we didn’t miss breakfast, which was only served until 9:30 AM.

Today we had tickets to visit La Fortuna waterfall which was pretty close to our hotel. 

View of La Fortuna before hiking down to the base

There was too much water today so it wasn’t safe to get in the water by the waterfall, but we took some pictures. 

We had to walk down another 50 feet or so to the river down from the waterfall in order to get in the water. We spent some time taking some pictures and playing with our new GoPro.  Drew isn’t a fan of sand on his feet or having sand get stuck in his water shoes so he tried to avoid the water.

The 500 steps down to the waterfall of course felt a little bit more tiresome going back up, but everybody did great and Drew led the pack back up to the car.

Since we were already in our swimsuits we decided to go to a free hot river nearby. There are men along the streets by the river that you pay to watch your car while you’re down at the river. We probably ended up getting a little bit ripped off but felt better knowing that someone was keeping an eye on our vehicle. 

This was as much of the volcano Arenal we saw during our visit

The river really was quite warm and the guide found us a large pool that we had entirely to ourselves.

We ate an early dinner at the Yellow Bark based on recommendations on TripAdvisor. The food was pretty good, although Jason immediately felt sick afterward and ended up throwing up his lunch. So I guess it wasn’t that great after all.

Then we headed back to the hotel pools for the rest of the evening. One of the water slides that we had enjoyed yesterday was closed this evening. Which means there were only two waterslides operating, one ending in cold water and the other in warm water. Two days into this trip and nobody’s tried out the little water slide that goes into the cold water. Why choose cold water when you can enjoy a nice warm pool? There is also an additional water slide that is out of order due to reconstruction. A little disappointing, but not a big deal. 

We tried to get the kids to bed early tonight as we have an early morning of adventuring tomorrow. Abigail and I spent nearly 2 hours trying to get the videos off of the GoPro and onto my iPad so that the GoPro will have enough storage for tomorrow. The Wi-Fi at the hotel is pretty horrendous. We don’t get any Wi-Fi in our rooms so we had to hang out in the hotel lobby to get that done. We get decent international cell service through T-Mobile but it’s not enough for uploading or downloading anything.

Costa Rica {Day 0 & 1} – San Jose Temple to Los Lagos

3500 photos and videos! That’s not even including any photos the girls took on their phones (which I’m pretending don’t exist). Thankfully I’m counting on Abigail to put together another amazing video with all the footage we took – but it will still be a process to get through all the photos, here goes….

First a little background about how our trip to Costa Rica came about.  Again, like Bali it was booked in the middle of Snowmaggedon – February 2019 – the world had seemed to stop in Snoqualmie.  School was cancelled for days and days, streets were impassable, businesses closed, grocery stores emptied.  I had a few friends that were lucky enough to have made plans for travel and I was getting stir crazy that we didn’t have a single trip planned besides a family reunion to Bear Lake in the summer. My parents traveled to Costa Rica when I was younger and I remember they loved it and I added it to my bucket list of destinations I wanted to travel to (no list actually exists, but it should).  My friend Sommer went to Costa Rica a few years ago with her extended family and felt it was one of the best family vacations she’d ever had.  Then last year I had a group of friends interested in planning a couples trip together and Costa Rica was at the top of the list.  I looked into it then and was excited to make it happen, but the trip fell through (we went to Seabrook in June 2019 instead).  Anyhow, the point being… Costa Rica has been on my want to travel list for many years and when I spotted airfare for $415 we decided to make it happen. I ended up booking four of our flights with points and we bought the other three.  United changed our flights three times over the course of the 10 months and it was a pain each time to get us all moved to flights that made sense.  United wanted us to travel home via San Jose – Newark – San Francisco – Seattle or other crazy 20+ hour options.  In the end we ended up with better flights than we purchased, but it wasn’t without significant effort. Sommer pretty much replicated her family’s Costa Rica trip for us which was nice to not have to do a ton of research on our own about what to do.

Abigail finished her finals at Bellevue College on Friday, December 6 and we left on Saturday, December 7. The rest of the kids missed 6 days of school so we could avoid the peak holiday travel times and increase costs. It ended not being a big deal for Jason, Katie and Drew but it’s taken Carly several weeks to make up all of her missed assignments and tests.  Thankfully she’s such a great student.  She says the trip was well worth it.

Day 0 – Travel Day

The night before we left for Costa Rica was my annual girlfriend pajama party down in Auburn. I won't miss this party if at all possible. I knew it would be a late night, but I also knew it would be worth it. I was surprised when I looked at my watch and it was already 1:45 AM when I started heading home. I had eaten so much sugar that I was pretty wired and I knew it would likely take me a long while to fall asleep once back home. I was right. I got to bed around 3 AM and finally fell asleep around 4 AM. It was far too soon when my alarm went off at 5 AM. We had a little bit of last-minute packing to do. I thought Justin and the kids would get more done than they did the night before, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. We were out the door little bit later than I had hoped but on a Saturday morning there’s not much traffic.

I was prepared for the possibility of a little drama at the ticketing counter. We booked basic economy flights on United, which was a great deal.  I knew that the standard policy for basic economy was that passengers would not be allowed any carry-on size baggage. However, United also has a policy that if you are flying on a transatlantic flight you would be allowed a carry-on baggage. Each time United changed our flights I verified that Costa Rica was considered a transatlantic flight and so we packed accordingly. Each of us having a carry-on bag. The lady at the counter in Seattle tried to tell me that that wasn’t the case and we ended up going back-and-forth about it for over 45 minutes. In the end she checked our carry-ons free of charge, but never admitted that I was correct. And I never admitted that she was doing us any favors. It was actually nice not to have to haul around any of our bags onto the flight or during our layover in Houston. We were hopeful that things would work out as well for us going home, preferably without as much drama.

Another drawback to flying basic economy is that you get last selection of seats. We were able to get seats somewhere near each other although we had a few kids that had to sit off on their own. The flights were uneventful. United doesn’t have the best entertainment options, but we made due. I tried to rest the first flight, but I’m not sure I actually fell asleep for more than a couple minutes at a time.

We had a three hour layover in Houston and thanks to the perk of one of my credit cards I have access to lounges and/or dining options in most airports. Houston had a Mexican restaurant that would provide me and my guest a $28 credit for dining. So Justin and I decided to take advantage of that $56 and the kids ate Chick-fil-A. Both dining options were near each other but they were in terminal A, where as our flight arrived and would depart from terminal C. Getting between those two terminals took about 20 minutes of walking and riding on a train. We started to head back to our terminal about 30 minutes before boarding would begin. When we stepped off our train at terminal C I noticed that Justin didn’t have the camera bag with him. The camera bag not only has my good camera in it but it also has our passports. In a panic he jumped back on the train that we just got off of and headed in the opposite direction of our missing bag.  So I had to get on the train going the right direction and run back to the dining area to see if I could see if our backpack was still there or if we were in loads of trouble. I ran like a crazy person and thankfully the bag was still there (20+ minutes unattended).  I was both relieved and incredibly frustrated. That would have been a complete nightmare. We got back to our gate with only a few minutes to spare.

We arrived in San Jose late, around 9:30 PM and the line to get through customs was incredibly long. We waited over a half hour and then a kind customs agent took pity on our large family and let us go over to the nearly empty native passport line versus the visitor passport line. Then it was off to rent our car. This was another area in which I was prepared for a little bit of a fight. Costa Rica has a reputation of making visitors pay for additional insurance when renting a car. I came prepared with a letter from my credit card company of the third-party insurance that they provide as a perk to cardholders. Thankfully we were renting a car from Alamo and they were incredible to work with and didn’t give me any grief. We headed straight to our hotel and got to bed as quickly as possible. 

Day 1 – San Jose to Los Lagos

We originally thought we’d catch church at 9 AM, however since we were not yet adjusted to local time that seemed awfully early. With a quick little internet search we found out that there was a temple within a few miles of our hotel and that there was also a chapel on that same property with sacrament meeting at 11 AM. A much better fit! 

It’s always neat to attend church away from home especially in international locations. Can’t say anyone besides Justin understood much but it was still an experience. The closing hymn was Silent Night which is actually a song that Jason, Katie and Drew learned to sing in Spanish last year during singing time at church. I enjoyed seeing them singing along in Spanish.

Jason thought it was pretty memorable that the parking spots were grass

We had about a 3 hour drive to our first destination near Arenal. However about 2/3 of the way there we came across a large truck and trailer off the side of the road that was getting pulled out of the ditch.  The road was closed for nearly an hour and there wasn’t any alternate route.  

As a result we arrived at our hotel much later than expected. We got a quick bite to eat at the Red Frog in La Fortuna and then enjoyed the hotel pools and waterslides in the dark before getting to bed.

Notable November

Nov 1:  If you would have asked Abigail a few years ago where she wanted to go to college she would have told you she didn’t know. I think she’s the type of girl that once she has it figured something out she’ll let you know but she’s not a big speculator.  If I’m remembering correctly, when she was a sophomore she declared she wanted to go to BYU – NOT BYU-Idaho, only BYU-Provo.  BYU is tough to get into.  You hear horror stories of the kid with perfect grades, impressive ACT scores and lots of extra curricular activities that gets turned away so even with Abigail’s awesome credentials it’s not a sure thing.  Anyhow, early applications were due on November 1st at 4pm – we’ve know this for a long time.  Abigail tends to procrastinate – she proclaims she works well in the eleventh hour and will often create a time crunch so she has to push herself to get it done.  Sounds crazy to someone like me who likes to be prepared, plan ahead, and not take chances.  There were six essays to complete. Abigail had friends getting help on their essays from parents, hiring tutors to help them pick the perfect angle, etc…  We offered to help her brainstorm or proof-read a draft and each offer we gave was sloughed off. She’s fiercely independent – which is great, but certainly some input and feedback would be helpful. Nope.  It was less than an hour from the deadline and I didn’t know what she’d written about in a single essay.  As we were sitting on the couch and she was copy/pasting everything in the BYU system I noticed a post on instagram by Justin’s sister Tami that said “Hallefreakinglujah!  BYU application is submitted (with one hour to spare) and I don’t have to edit any more essays!!”

I replied the following on Tami’s post:  “Abigail wouldn’t even let me read her essays {eye rolling emoji + prayer emoji}”

Tami then sent me a text…

I guess this little back and forth spurred Abigail to tell me I could read them.  I hesitated for a moment cause I wanted her to WANT me to read them – ha! But I quickly realized we were down to only 30 minutes and I needed to get cracking.  I think I only got through three before we were out of time. Obviously, there’s not a whole lot of revising that can happen in that short amount of time, but I did suggest a few changes in word and maybe switching the order of something.  Getting my feedback wasn’t traumatizing or critical so it ended up being a good thing.  I just wish she would have been more open to it earlier. Logically she should be a shoe-in for BYU, but we’ll see come mid-February.

 As backups she’s applied to USU (Utah State University), UVU (Utah Valley University) and BYU-Idaho (which she’s already been accepted to).

Nov 2:  As mentioned Abigail has been trying to support her friends on the volleyball team.  Justin went with her today and took this picture of the “student section”.  Guess they don’t get a huge turnout, especially at an away game.

Tonight Justin and I went on a big group date to see Ryan Hamilton, a really funny comedian that’s a member of the church.  He was hilarious!  We went out to dinner at a Indian restaurant nearby beforehand and it was delicious.  Justin and I ordered two orders of naan bread because it was that good.  We’ll definitely go back again sometime and are excited to learn we both like Indian food.

After the comedy show we walked down to an Asian shaved ice place – very unique and yum!

Nov 5:  I had to take a picture of the package I received today.  Two little eye shadows in this great big box.  I gotta think there could have been a cheaper and more efficient way to package those little guys.

Nov 7: Tonight at book club I caught a glance at the phone of the woman sitting next to me and nearly had a panic attack. I just can’t understand how someone could be on top of things in their life with over 100k unread emails, 12 unread texts, 51 out of date apps, etc…

Nov 8:  Tonight I went down to Auburn to celebrate Tara’s birthday.  We had dessert at the Rock and caught up on all the recent happenings in each other’s lives. I love these ladies and I’m so grateful that our friendships have remained strong even though some of us no longer live close by.

Nov 9: If you recall we had a 4.6 earthquake in July and I was woken up again this morning with by a 3.3 earthquake.  Sign of the times?  I’m not a fan of feeling my house rumble.  We’ve had a few more earthquakes since this as well.

Nov 12:  I try to fit in a little after workout walk when I can.  The fall is so beautiful here.  Pictures just don’t do it justice.

Tonight I attended a presentation with Collin Kartchner.  Apparently he’s a big deal – member of the church from Utah – well known for advocating the dangers of social media and cell phone usage of teenagers.  My friend Laura in Texas had seen that he was coming to speak at a church in the area (not of our faith) and told me I needed to be there. My friend Natalie ended up coming with me, which was fun.  Regulating cell phones is one of the biggest struggles of parenting. Thankfully I’m not dealing with drugs, suicide, etc… so I can see how that statement may seem trite, but my kids aren’t growing up in the same world I did.  I didn’t grow up in the same world as my parents.  The struggles are different, yet no less dangerous.  I can’t imagine having our teenage years plastered for the world to see. Very little is secret or personal now days.  If there’s fun going on without you you’ll know it.  People are cruel online – commenting in ways they would never think to say to your face.  It’s hard stuff.  Anyhow… the event was awesome.  Did we made huge changes at our house?  Not really, although I’m more committed to keeping Jason phone-free for as long as possible cause once someone has a phone it would be an all out war to take it away.  Collin spoke a lot about connecting with our teens.  True connection.  It was fantastic.  I really should go back and listen to some of his videos online as a refreshers.  I really wish I could have brought the girls with me he has a fantastic ability to connect with teens.

Nov 15:  Today was National Bundt Day!  Starting at 11:15am, the first 22 guests in line at Nothing Bundt Cakes would score FREE Bundlets for a year!  All other guests would receive a FREE Confetti Bundtlet. I was determined to be one of the first lucky 22 guests.  Figuring out what time I needed to arrive to make that happen was a wild guess.  

I pulled into the parking lot around 9:30am and parked so that I could stay in my warm, dry car and watch the storefront to see when people started to arrive.  The first guy got in line at 9:34am and I could spot another cake-lover sitting in a car doing the same thing as me.  At 9:40am the 2nd person got in line, 9:42 the 3^rd, 9:48am there were 5, people started coming left and right and suddenly there were 8 people in line at 9:52am and then I made my move and was #14 at 9:53am.  We hit our 22 max at 10:07am.  

The hour and 22 minutes wait actually went by quite quickly.  I loved that they gave us some samples while we waited.

Abigail showed up with some friends shortly before the doors opened and got her free bundt cake.

There was a text thread today between me, Abigail and Carly that I thought demonstrated how serious we take food and free stuff around here.  First some context… Carly and a friend bargained with Abigail for a ride to Issaquah so they could do some shopping and eat at Café Rio. Abigail would drive them, but Carly had to buy Abigail food.  Which leads us to…

Nov 15:  This is the first year that Katie’s teacher has taught and so far we’ve been impressed.  In truth I’ve had very little contact with her but I did appreciate the email she sent me this week.  Always great to hear that your kids are being kind and respectful away from you.

Nov 16:  Tonight was Ladies Night.  Not just any average night out.  My friend Addy is deep in chemotherapy and so we decided to join her tonight wearing wigs of our own.  I originally purchased a purple ombre wig for fun, but it looked horrendous on me. Granted I had zero makeup on and I didn’t even have the wig on properly, but I still felt it was very old lady, witch-like.

So instead I texted a friend who I had worn a wig on Halloween and went blond instead.  Still very, very different, but better than purple. We had a private dining room at the restaurant.  I’ll admit it was a little awkward to walk through the entire restaurant to the back dining room in crazy wigs, but when your friends along side you are doing the same it was fine.  

Some wigs were better than others – yikes!

Nov 19:  Over the years there’s been some back-and-forth with the Fletcher family comparing FICO scores.  I’ve always had exceptional credit but today I reached perfection.  Had to share it with Justin and his Dad.

Tonight was YW in Excellence. Abigail has been the laurel class president for the past year or so and was in charge of the activity.  Carly and I didn’t make it because Carly had a basketball game that night.  Abigail brought home the pictures and blips about each of them.

Nov 25:  I’ve been working on a project to create a Christmas ornament for each year that Justin and I have been married – actually I included one for 1998 because we got engaged that Christmas so there were 22 ornaments to put together. It was fun to look back on pictures from each year. If we sent a Christmas cards that year I used that same photo to represent that years ornament.   I wrapped them all up and had Justin open it on his birthday.  It’s been fun to see them hanging on the tree all season.  I love looking back and remembering my kiddos when they were little.  

Nov 26:  We had our first snowfall of season today.  Just a little skiff, but please, please, please don’t let this be a sign of things to come!

Drew completed his sticker book this month.  He’s been taking it to church most weeks.  It’s a nice quiet activity and he has really enjoyed it.  I had him choose one of his favorite pages to take a picture of before sending it to the recycle bin.

Nov 28:  Thanksgiving came and went.  It was a bit of a sore spot for me as I really wanted to take the family to Maggiano's and have a enjoyable stress free meal, but Justin was dead set against it so we had yet another Thanksgiving dinner at home with his parents. The food was good and we played several games afterward with Grandma & Grandpa Fletcher.  Quiet and simple.

Nov 29:  Justin’s birthday was today and took the entire family out to dinner. Not very often that that happens. We went to Maggiano's which we all LOVE.  They treated Justin to some yummy lemon cookies for a birthday dessert that he thankfully shared.

I nice lady eating nearby asked if she could take a picture of us.  Yes please!

After lunch Justin and I went to a movie and the kids continued on home.