Day 1 - I will include the travel to LA on Day 1 even though technically, it's pre-Day1;-). We left for LA Monday the 27th in the afternoon (Happy Birthday Brian!). Our flight went well, getting to our hotel was perfectly easy and not a long walk at all. We hung out in the hotel bar for a bit, had some food, but went to bed pretty early because of our early morning the next day. Again getting to the airport was stress-free and the flight went well. When we got to Costa Rica, we were immediately greeted by our shuttle service and we were on our way to the resort! When we got there, we were a bit uncomfortable that they were trying to sell us on this Secrets Vacation Club breakfast they wanted us to attend, but we just declined politely - I don't care that they were going to give us money towards a tour, I am on vacation and don't want to sit through high pressure sales! Anyway, it didn't take long to get over this feeling! We got to our beautiful room with a gorgeous view and got settled, had a delicious dinner at the Italian place, and all was well:-).
Day 2 - Relaxing at the resort! We took this day to book some tours, get a lay of the land. Even scored a good spot by the pool which was really hard to come by! The food at this resort was so good - we loved the breakfast place that we ate at most days. Lovely view and such good food.
Day 3 - Car rental day! This day turned into a bit of an adventure because we took a "brown" road that really wasn't much of a road. We had a 4x4 but it was so scary. There was a point in our journey where Brian thought the road might cave under the weight of the car because it was so washed out, but we made it! The beach we went to was really nice (Conchal Beach) and I very much enjoyed relaxing on it and not being on that road:-/. We went to Coco Beach as well, which is a small town about 20 minutes from the resort, got a few souvenirs, had a quick bite to eat in the local pub.
Day 4 - Nicaragua tour. We got up super early and got on our bus to take us to Nicaragua for the day. It was a really good day! The tour was well organized and we did a lot of stuff, although it was definitely a long day as we only got back to the resort around 10pm. Crossing the border into Nicaragua was an experience all on it's own - it felt like a circus and took over an hour! We went to this tourist town with a lovely lookout point, got a few souvenirs, and then we were on our way to the active volcano which was pretty cool. We weren't really able to see any lava because of all the gasses unfortunately, but it was still cool. Then we went to Granada to have lunch and walk around a bit. The part that we saw was really nice! The town square was really cool, and we walked a bit away from it as well, pretty nice still. After Granada we went on a boat ride around the small islands close to Granada, saw some rich people's houses and some monkeys on Monkey Island - they were not shy! It was a great day, but as I said, a very long day! We were glad we had no plans the next day.
Day 5 - Cabana day. We decided to laze around the resort this day, and reserved a cabana. It was nice and relaxing, although not the best solution for us because I wanted sun and Brian wanted shade:-/. We made it work though! We went for a little kayak ride that was fun, although it got a bit choppy as the wind picked up. Have I mentioned how amazing the weather was? This day was probably one of the cloudiest and windiest, but it was still really nice. Had a fun dinner at the Japanese place, the guy made our dinner right in front of us which was cool!
Day 6 - Boat tour day. We went for a little hike in the morning (it was short but I will still call it a hike!). We lounged around until it was time to go on our boat tour after lunch. Our shuttle to the boat was a bit unorganized, which was weird because the Nicaragua tour was a well oiled machine. Finally a guy pulled up in his personal car and he was our shuttle apparently! We stopped at this other hotel to pick up another couple, who happened to be from Mukilteo which was a really cool coincidence! We hung out with this couple for most of the tour, they were so much fun:-). Anyway, we get to Coco Beach where our boat is leaving from, and the shuttle dropped us off a ways down from where the boat actually docked, it was all a bit unorganized. However, once we got on the boat, we really enjoyed the ride! The weather was perfect (again) and the views were great! We stopped at this cove for some snorkeling and swimming, and then we got back on the water to watch the gorgeous sunset. We had a great time on the boat, but once we got back to shore, we couldn't find our shuttle! It was really unfortunate because there was this santa parade of some kind in town, so even when the hotel called us a taxi, we couldn't find him right away. All in all a disorienting experience, because we also didn't have enough cash to pay the taxi (since we weren't expecting to have any expenses we didn't take our wallets with us!) so when we got to the resort, we had to tell the driver to wait while we got money. He was not too impressed! Thankfully, the resort shuttle driver who was going to take us to our room took money out of his own wallet to give to the taxi so he wouldn't have to wait so long for us to get money. So amazing of him! All the staff was so friendly, we just really appreciated this gesture (and of course give him a healthy tip for his trouble!). Still all in all a good day!
Day 7 - Last full resort day. We just lounged around on Monday, our last full day of relaxation. We got spots by the pool, played some pool volleyball which was fun. I got a lot of sun, Brian got a lot of shade. We were both happy! There was a lady who pulled her chair in front of us which we thought was a bit inconsiderate, but we just kind of laughed about it. We actually met her in the preferred club lounge that night and she was very friendly, so we were no longer able to make fun of her in good conscience! Funny how personal connections can do that, a bit of a lesson I guess! It was a really nice day, we had a lovely dinner at the Aqua restaurant which was by the spa area, very quiet and the food was great. All our food was great really, far exceeded our expectations for an all-inclusive resort!
Day 8 - Last day! We lounged around our plunge pool this morning since we had to pack and get ready to check out by noon. We got to the airport really early but the shuttle company had to make sure we were there on time so I guess they get you there 3 hours early. Oh well! Our flight to LA was fine, I watched a few movies. When we got to LA, we had an unexpected (by me anyway) visit to the secondary screening room of US Customs. We walked in there and there were about 40 people sitting there waiting to be served. It was 9:45pm and our connection to Seattle left at 11:30pm. I had a very sick feeling for that whole HOUR that we were in there waiting for our passports! They give you no updates, you aren't allowed to use your phone to make any arrangements with your airline or family should you miss you flight, it's a nightmare. We finally got our passports and we ran to the baggage drop - thankfully they accepted our bags! Then we just had to run from terminal 3 to terminal 6 (we were in good shape, no big deal ha!). We got to the gate at 11:12 and there were still a few stragglers boarding, so we just lined up after them. Whew! I can't tell you how much I hate that kind of situation, running for a flight like that, not sure if I dropped something along the way or if our bags would actually make it. I didn't care that much about our bags at the point actually, but it's just such a rushed feeling to run onto a plane like that - it took me forever to relax! I was only able to doze off a little bit on our flight, but once we landed in Seattle everything was as smooth as it could have been. Our bags were two of the first ones off (last on, first off!) and our Lyft was right there, so we were home before 3am (I had calculated that it could be close to 3:30 so this was a good time!). It was great to see the kids again in the morning, I know they had really missed us just as we missed them!
A fantastic week away that we were so grateful to be able to have! It turns out Brian and I can still hang out for a week by ourselves and really enjoy each others company, so that was good to know;-). Now on to Christmas madness!
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