Remember a long time ago when I used to travel with Napkin? How I blogged often about it? The planning, the adventures, the memories, all that mess?

One of the big reasons that I decided to quit my job at the theatre was because the schedule simply DID NOT allow for me to ever take time off to go anywhere. It’s six nights a week, twice a day in the winter, and that’s all there is to it.

HOWEVER! Every January, I get a couple of weeks off from the theatre. The first year (which was 2014) I was so desperate for a sense of normal that I simply left my Murl Beach apartment and went back to our forever home to rest and clean and organize and just sorta BE. We didn’t do anything except for see friends and go out for dinner and watch the sunset and do all of the things that I can’t do during the regular work season.

We also promised each other that we were going to make a trip to Costa Rica happen in 2015. I may have blogged about this before– but when it came time to plan our honeymoon, Costa Rica and Japan were the two choices. Napkin has always been in love with Costa Rica and its biodiversity. It was a life goal of his to see a rainforest.

So despite everything else that was going on in our lives, we decided to do it! We made the plan to go to Costa Rica!

Well, actually, I made Napkin plan our trip to Costa Rica!

I am a PLANNER and I covered every second of our trip to Japan (you’ll recall that there were a few moments on our honeymoon where I broke down and cried because I just needed a break from all of the exploring and doing) so I thought that I would let Napkin take our trip to Costa Rica and make it his own. It was his dream spot, right?

…

…

I have a tendency to forget that my sweet, patient, loving husband ALSO works a full time job and basically takes care of our new addition, Wilbur the Dog, by himself, AND he travels to and from our forever home from this beach condo that we live in for my job AND he maintains the forever home by HIMSELF.

So, our plans stalled.

And stalled some more.

Then around November we started talking about it again. We decided (BEGRUDGINGLY) to hire a travel agent and with their help we made it happen!

We went with CostaRicanVacations.com and they were great!

We made our own package of activities and our travel agents worked within our budget to make sure we got to see and do a little bit of everything– they totally made it happen! (And were also super great about changing our plans while we were already in the country– but more on that in the future posts, tee hee.)

SO!! On January 8th of 2016- we FINALLY made good on our promise to travel every year and started our week long trip to Costa Rica!

And you had better believe that my Boy Scout hubby was going to have me prepared… so on Christmas morning I woke up to these bad boys:

That’s right. That’s your girl in LEGIT trail shoes… in the airport. I wore them on the plane to make room in my luggage for all the nonfunctional clothing I brought!

So!

Off we go!

 

We left twenty degree temperatures on an early January morning… and only a few short hours?

 

I was off the plane, in balmy eighty degree weather. A driver was putting all of my nonfunctional luggage in an air conditioned van equipped with wifi! Somebody  was even handing me ALL THE FRUIT.

LIKE LITERALLY ALL THE FRUIT.

 

 

We were headed on a modest five hour journey from the airport to our first destination in Costa Rica! Everything was going perfectly!

…

Until I learned this hard lesson. Unless it is absolutely necessary? DON’T DRIVE IN COSTA RICA.

And I’ll tell you why in the next post.

 

 

BLECH MORE SOON! ❤