Costa Rica

It was a glorious week. Even the two solid days of travel felt relaxing, with no kids to wrangle.

Monday: Airport. Got through security with NO YELLING. Sat there and drank an entire cup of coffee with NO INTERRUPTIONS. Ahhh. Eventually arrived in Costa Rica and took a 4-hour car ride to the Arenal volcano area. Ate dinner at the hotel and collapsed.

Tuesday: Hiked to the volcano, spotting some cool plants and birds along the way. Climbed up rocks. And the whole time, NO WHINING. In the afternoon, we did the most vacation-like thing I have ever done in my life: lounged for hours in volcano-heated hot springs, tropical drinks in hand, watching monkeys play in the surrounding palm trees while butterflies flitted by. In the evening, we did more lounging by the hot spring back at the hotel, looking up at the stars and holding hands.

Wednesday: Half-day of travel by van, boat, and another van. Spent the afternoon exploring grounds of hotel and surrounding town. At night, we went on a guided hike with flashlights. JW spotted a kinkajou. The one other English-speaking couple turned out to be sort of a younger version of us. We had dinner with them after the hike.

Thursday: Selvatura. First, the zipline canopy tour: I was scared at the beginning, but it turned out to be fun. Next, hummingbird garden. There were so many and they were so fast that it sounded like buzzsaws when they whipped past your ear.  Then my favorite part, the hanging bridges that literally suspend you in the middle of the rainforest. Nothing to hear but the rustling of leaves and the sound of water trickling down the forest floor. Finally, the butterfly garden (with a bonus trip to the insect museum, I guess the guide liked us). On the way back to the hotel, we bought our anniversary art at the Monteverde Art House. (Each year, instead of buying each other anniversary presents, we buy a piece of art together.)  After recuperating and failing to Skype with the kids, we met up with our new friends at happy hour and then went out to a local restaurant.

Friday: Back in the car, back on a plane, back on another plane, and eventually stumbled home at 1 a.m. Back to reality.


It was the first real break I've had since maternity leave. I've been happy at work for the last few months and have been turning down all sorts of recruiting calls. I'm not sure what it says that each time I get a substantial break, I come back thinking that this is craziness and I need to get a 9-5 job. I guess the solution is to... never take a break from working, so my lack of perspective continues undisturbed?