Costa Rica!

Scott and I just got back from a brief getaway in Costa Rica. We went his cousin Shawn, and his wife, Julie. We had a great time...the weather was lovely. It was around 90 every day, but without a lot of humidity and usually with a nice breeze, so it was easy to take. The sun was brutal, though, and I managed to burn a little bit despite my 100 SPF sunscreen. I feel like I've been posting too many pictures lately, but I had a hard time narrowing these down...

Activities

We had some fun adventures on the trip. On our first full day, we went horseback riding. The trip was fun - it was about a 2-hour trail ride through the hills. There was some great views...and some heart-racing moments as we went up and down steep trails with big drops off to the side. We saw our first monkeys and iguanas of the trip, which made us feel we were really not in Minnesota anymore!



On our second day, Scott and Shawn chartered a fishing boat and went out for a half-day of deep sea fishing. They caught lots of fish - mostly red snapper and some grouper. Scott also caught a large rooster fish, which they threw back. That night, the fishing guides took us to dinner at a local restaurant, where we were able to eat the fish that the boys caught that morning.



We took two tours arranged through the resort. On one day, we went on a forest walk, which included a number of "hanging bridges" suspended high up in the trees. We didn't see much wildlife on the walk (other than a cool huge orange bug), but we did see lots of pretty trees and plants. It felt good to get out and stretch our legs a bit.

We also took a day-trip to the Palo Verde National Park, where we went on a long boat ride (and saw lots of cool animals - see below). The rest of the time was spent hanging out at our resort....enjoying the beach, pool, naps, open bar, and trays of pineapple and other fresh fruit.

Animals

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the wildlife. At our resort, we saw lots of monkeys. Every day, 10-20 white faced capuchins would come to the beach to look for food. We also saw (and heard) howler monkeys. There were also quite a few iguanas running around. On our Palo Verde boat ride, we saw many crocodiles and lots of interesting birds. Devon was very excited to hear about the monkeys and the crocodiles ("did you pet it?"). He was also hoping we'd see cheetahs (!?), but not surprisingly, we didn't.


Landscape

I wanted to share a few pictures of the trees...it was nice to be around so much green! It was the dry season there, and we were in the dry part of the country, but it was still very lush.



Finally, a big thank you to Grandma Chris and Grandpa Jerry who spent the week with the kids. It was great to have a chance to get away, and we couldn't have done it without them!