Day 13 – 8 April 2011

This was it. The day we return back home is now here. Two weeks of new places, new people, and new adventures in Costa Rica are finally coming to an end. We had some finalizing to do with packing, but went down to get breakfast first. Alexis absolutely loved her scrambled eggs again along with the usual fruit. The buffet was pretty much the same as the day before, but was a good last breakfast in Costa Rica. We finished our last minute packing and starting moving the bags down to the lobby. By the time we got there and started checking out, our transportation was already here. We were ready to just get these bags checked and begin the trip home.

We got to the airport almost four hours before our departure time to give us enough time to pay the airport departure tax and get checked in. Unfortunately, the ticketing counter wasn't even open, yet. There was already a sporting team of some kind in line, but again by having Alexis we were escorted to the front of the line. Keeping her occupied until the counter opened was our task for the next half hour or so. We had a few juice boxes left over from the week and so I got one out for her. At first I squeezed it into her mouth so she could drink some, but after a few sips she would actually close her lips and drink out of the straw herself. This is the first successful straw usage! We checked in and everything went smoothly with the bags. We were left with just the carry-ons and continued on to security. Security was actually very similar to the United States, except they didn't care about the liquids (specifically the bottles of milk we were bringing on for Alexis). The gate area was empty so Alexis was able to crawl around and explore all kinds of things. We scoped out a place to grab some food before getting on the plane but didn't want to get it quite yet. We passed the time by pushing Alexis in the stroller and then got some food from Burger King and Alexis ate some fries.

About to board the plane, they started setting up some folding tables around the jet way and we were wondering what they were setting them up for. Since we were "travelling with an infant and needed extra time boarding the plane", we got go be the first ones. We then noticed what the tables were for as this is where they checked your liquids, searched your bags by hand, and gave a pat-down to all passengers. This was a bit unlike what we were used to and I think tripled the time it took to board the plane. One teenage girl was not happy about this as she got her lotion taken away and it cost $8.00 (We won't mention the exact words she used, but everyone within a 10-row radius knew the whole story).

This first leg was on a plane where we had a third seat next to us at the window. We first met the guy when he was putting his luggage in the overhead bin and managed to drop various things out of his bag onto my head and shoulder. Throughout the flight he successfully spilled water on Nicole, coffee on himself and the tray, and was virtually a walking klutz. We were happy to make it out alive. This plane has personal screens on each seat where each passenger could pick what they wanted to watch from live satellite television, to current television show episodes and recently released movies. Alexis actually fell asleep near takeoff in my arms and that allowed Nicole to watch the majority of a movie she wanted to see while things were quiet. I would have been able to, as well, but I denied getting headphones at the beginning of the flight because I didn't really expect to be able to need them. I did learn about halfway through that we got ESPN on satellite and watched a fair bit of the Masters golf tournament. The beverage cart was coming through the aisles with her still asleep and the flight attendant commented how cute she was sleeping. She then felt it necessary to slam the drawers on the cart, clank all kinds of things together and scoop the ice as loud as possible which of course woke up sleeping beauty – not so cute anymore now that she's screaming. That was the end of that, but good while it lasted. We were able to occupy her with various books, toys, snacks, etc. but eventually everything becomes old and she just wants to move around. She had her fussy moments but we made it through and it was a pretty decent flight.

We knew in Atlanta that we were going to have to go through Customs, get our checked bags from baggage claim, go through immigration, and then somehow get our bags checked again to get to Milwaukee. We weren't quite sure of all the specifics, but we had just less than two hours to complete that and get to our gate to depart for Milwaukee. Since we're back in the US, we didn't get special treatment of going to the front of the line anymore. The customs line moved fairly quickly with no problems. We got three of our bags and the other two took a little longer to arrive, which had us worried for a bit. Luckily they had free carts there for people to use so we were able to push all of the luggage to immigration. Immigration was easy to go through and they told us which belt to put the bags on to go to Milwaukee. After dropping those off, we headed for the gate. We made it with still a bit of time to spare and Nicole grabbed a bite to eat while we let family know that we're back in Atlanta.

The second flight was just the two seats to ourselves, so we didn't have to worry about Alexis climbing on other people. She was extremely tired at this point, but didn't want to fall asleep. It was a little tougher to keep her occupied and attempting to get to fall asleep wasn't working. Then, finally with only fifteen minutes left in the flight, she finally falls asleep without us even trying; figures. We landed and let everyone else off the plane before us to let her at least sleep a little before we had to move her. We then went to baggage claim to get all the luggage. Nicole kept an eye on those while I took Alexis with me on the shuttle to get the van. I drove back to pick them up and loaded everything in. The drive back to Madison concluded with us needing to get some milk for Alexis because she was either going to need it in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning when she wakes up. The first grocery stores we tried were already closed and finally found a gas station that was open (rather than having to drive an extra 15 minutes to get to Wal-Mart) and just picked up half gallon for now. After leaving the hotel about 17 hours ago, we finally get home and do the bare minimum to get luggage in the house and lay down for bed. So concludes the wonderful adventure of my first (half) sabbatical with Epic.

Day 12 – 7 April 2011

Alexis slept well and we got some good rest as well. Breakfast was included at this hotel so we didn't have to worry about what or where to eat. After getting showers and straightening things up around the room, we went down to the restaurant. There was quite a bit of selection at the buffet, including some fruits that Alexis loves (watermelon and pineapple) and others that she couldn't eat (papaya). No pancakes, so she was disappointed with that. We did, however, get her to try scrambled eggs (as we have been for all of the last two weeks) and now she decides she loves them! She can't get enough and continues to shovel them in her mouth faster than we can put them on her tray.

We really only had plans today to go to the wood factory located in a San Jose suburb. We were thinking about going downtown and walking the streets around the shops, but heard that they were mostly filled with junk and there were cases of theft on the streets. Rather than risking anything, we decided to take it easy and play it safer by having specific, concrete plans. Rearranging the suitcases and repacking was also necessary so we made sure nothing got broken and the bag weights were under their allowances. Alexis seemed tired so we wanted to get her a quick nap in before we went to help her be in a better mood. She was so close to falling asleep in the stroller, but never quite did. Rather than waiting around to see if she would be able to fall asleep or not, we decided to schedule the tour and just go with whatever happens. We paid a little bit extra for transportation than we probably should have, but that guaranteed us the driver to stay around while we toured and shopped. Then we wouldn't have to wait and wonder who our taxi driver would be on the way back and we could leave the car seat in the van.

We packed up our stuff and headed out to the factory and the proclaimed "best souvenir shop in Costa Rica". The ride was only fifteen minutes from the hotel, which was a main selling point for us to go there rather than some other choices; we'd had enough of long car rides by this point. Luckily this ride was more like we're used to back home – normal paved roads. The driver spoke English fairly well, so we mostly spoke in English. He, however, did compliment me on my Spanish speaking and pronunciation and said that I spoke really well. It's amazing what you can remember from a few years of high school learning (which was over 10 years ago). We got there and were given a guide to tour us around the factory. We started where they store the raw wood, before it's even cut at all. After three years of drying, it's cut into smaller size pieces and dried for another ten years. For even tree that's cut down, the government requires that three more be planted. The Guanacaste tree is their national tree and takes quite a bit of approval to actually cut one of those down. After drying, the wood can actually be cut into usable shapes and sizes. There's a set of items that are normally made and so they know what is in demand for each type of wood. There's only seven types of wood grown in Costa Rica, and those are the woods they used for making items. The next few steps are where we see why 100 of the 150 employees are women. The pieces are quality controlled for any rejects, and then any holes are drilled and small detail work is done. The ready-to-assemble pieces are then run through a pair of sanding and finishing drums which just spin the pieces to sand and polish them. The final stage is and stringing or gluing that needs to be done to put it all together. It was quite fascinating to see such a tiny operation produce such a high volume of work. They are very environmentally conscious as they even sweep up and collect the sawdust to be reused in some jewelry and decorations.

The souvenir shop was by far the biggest one we'd seen in all of our two weeks. If we knew we would have been here on the last day of our trip, we would have saved buying everything until now. We were still able to pick up quite a few more things we needed/wanted. I did want to get a piece to bring back to Epic, as we were starting a display of art that employees bring back from their sabbatical. We also needed to make sure we got something for Alexis to have for herself because she won't remember that she was actually here. We went out to the restaurant on site, which was pretty small, and just got some ice cream and a drink. Alexis went to watch the birds on the pond and then we hunted down our driver to return to the hotel. She had fallen asleep on the way, as one would expect. We let her sleep in the stroller in the lobby as we finished up some packing and relaxing.

When she woke up, we starting thinking about where to go for dinner and knew there were a few Italian places within site distance from the hotel and that there was a shopping mall virtually right across the street from the hotel. We had no idea what was at the mall, so we decided to go there first. The walk was ten minutes or saw and actually walked into the mall at the food court: Subway, Burger King, Quiznos, Church's Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Spoon (not sure where this one came from). Felt like we were right back home in our own shopping mall. The layout was much of the same with a few department stores at the ends and a majority of the stores selling shoes or clothes of some kind. They even had a movie theater on the third floor, where a normal show costs around $4.00 US Dollars to see – what a difference. There were a few restaurants around on the outside of the mall and one of them was another Italian place that looked appetizing, so we went there.

This was the first place where the menu did not have English translations, so a few things were difficult. We ordered Caprese Foccacia, a calzone, and a trio of ravioli (three different fillings with three different sauces). The food really was amazing and we splurged a bit on this meal, but we had a good night. The sun was setting so we turned back to get to the hotel before darkness. The rest of the night consisted of playing with Alexis in the hotel lobby as she became an attraction for both hotel employees and other hotel guests. She loved going up the stairs and climbing down them (the wrong way). The stairs were not very tall so she could actually just crawl down them, but I was trying to teach her to go down feet first. I traded some smaller denominations of my Colones for a 5000 Colones bill because I thought it was pretty and fun to have. I had a few bills and some of each of the coins to keep as remembrance of our trip. When she was ready for bed, we took her up to the crib and weren't too far behind her in our bed.

Day 11 – 6 April 2011

The night went about as perfectly as planned. We couldn't go to the hot springs until 10:00, we only had a bit left to pack, and breakfast was coming at 8:00. Alexis got up around 7:00 and slowly stirred, then stood up in her crib and was babbling a little. She was only about ten feet from where Nicole was sleeping on the bed, so I'm sure she was sending vibes to tell her it was time to get up. I rolled out of bed and started walking to the crib. Alexis got all jumpy when I was getting closer and was so happy to see us. I passed her to Nicole on the bed and she got her ear-to-ear giggly grin.

The next few hours consisted solely of getting ready, feeding everyone, and packing a majority of our luggage so we could go to the hot springs one last time before checkout. We knew that in San Jose we would need to repack to go home; making sure luggage weights were okay and we had everything we wanted to have in our carry-ons.

Now was the good time for taking pictures because there weren't many people there yet, and so we did. It felt great to get in again and my shoulders really do feel a hundred times better after having carried Alexis in the backpack for over ten hours in the last few days. Our time in the hot springs have come to an end, but hopefully just for now. It would be great to come back again when we can both go in and not worry so much about watching Alexis. It's so great to see her having so much fun, but it would also be nice to just watch her have fun…from a few hundred feet away.

Our driver to San Jose showed up around the same time that we went down to check out, so that worked out pretty well. This driver did not speak much English, either. The drive was way worse than Google maps described it. I expected less than two hours and mostly straight paved roads. Unfortunately, it was almost two and a half hours and 80% was winding roads that made Nicole and I nauseous. Alexis slept for a good bit of this one, which really helped, and then ate snacks for pretty much the rest of the way. Thank goodness that was the last road travel (the drive to the airport on Friday is less than fifteen minutes)!

The hotel staff spoke perfect English and even talked to us in English more than Spanish. We made our way to the room, and again, went down to the restaurant for lunch. This lunch was much more our style and we both actually ordered cheeseburgers. We spent much of the afternoon just hanging around the hotel and got some information on what to do tomorrow in San Jose, as well as what was around the hotel within walking distance. Alexis loved to crawl around the hotel lobby and was even caught on camera by the paparazzi (other foreign hotel guests that felt like they needed to take her picture smiling and clapping). She wandered over with me to see the turtles, Pinky, Shrek, Fiona, and Igor.

We wandered up the side street along our hotel and went in to get some smoothies. We now noticed that places around here don't take US dollars, but only colones. I have a few left over from change that I've gotten from previous purchases, but might need to exchange more at the hotel because I wanted to bring some back with us. We stopped in to the Fresh Market which was like an upscale grocery store that compared a lot like Whole Foods back home. They had all kinds of good stuff that would be good if we didn't already have breakfast buffet included with our hotel stay. We also saw a pizza place and a sit-down Italian restaurant that we'll keep in mind for tomorrow, if necessary. It was getting pretty dark by now and Alexis needed a bath. She laughed and splashed, as usual, and loved being in the water again. She was very tired, so went down pretty easily. We relaxed, read a little, and caught up on my blog before also going to bed before 21:00.

Day 10 – 5 April 2011

Uh-oh. Alexis crying at 1:00 again. I let her go for a minute but then got up. Just as I turn the light on, she sits up again and looks at me. That's when I thought I shouldn't have even turned the light on. Luckily, me laying her back down and covering her with the blanket helped her right back to sleep and that was the end of that. So then the power goes out at 2:30 and we have no fan and no air conditioning for two hours. It was over 78 degrees in our room, but I seemed to be the only one bothered by this. Finally it kicked back on, but I was able to fall back asleep before that. The next time anyone woke up is when the alarm went off at 6:45. We had breakfast getting delivered to the room at 7:00 and we were departing for our daily activities at 8:30. That was pretty much eleven hours of sleep for everyone and it was a much better start to the day. Breakfast was good and consisted of waffles, assorted breads, fruit, yogurt, assorted cheeses, juice, coffee, tea, and probably something else I'm missing. It was perfect for the two of us to split and Alexis ate a few bites as well.

We got our taxi at 8:30 to go to the Arenal Volcano National Park. This basically had trails that led up slightly onto the base of the volcano and a great close-up view of the volcano. And of course it's foggy, misty, and cloudy as we're heading to the park. We weren't really sure what we were doing when we got there, but there were a few common trails that everyone went on so we started there. The first one went up to the old lava flow of 1992 when there was a big eruption. That was 1.5 km and was still raining slightly by the time we got to the lava. Alexis had fallen asleep halfway on this trail and didn't even bother to wake up as we were hiking up and down the steep rocks or hardened lava. There were signs everywhere that said this was an area of high volcanic activity and to enter at your own risk. Would you believe that the volcano starts erupting right there?! Well, you shouldn't. There hasn't been any activity for months, so no worries there.

The second trail led around an intriguing type of tree called the Ceibo. We're not really sure what this means because we didn't hire a guide to stop and tell us about all kinds of stuff, but we for sure saw the tree. It looks like its roots are above-ground and aren't just tubular, but they look like giant walls. As we wrapped up this trail, we encountered wild turkeys and were able to get pretty close to them. They don't look exactly like the turkeys we're used to, but they did sound like turkeys. This trail and the retrace of the lava trail was another 2 km. By this time it was getting hotter as the sun was coming out and we could actually start to see the outline of the volcano across the sky.

With an hour to go before our taxi driver was going to come back and pick us up, we traversed the shorter trail which led up to a lookout point to get a good view of the volcano. As we were walking up it got bigger and bigger and was becoming clearer in the fog and the clouds. By the time we got there, it was a decent view, but quickly got covered again. A few short minutes later it got clearer again and 75% of the volcano was visible. From the entire time we were in and around Arenal, we never got to see the top of the volcano. I took quite a few pictures of the volcano while we could see as much as we could. Our driver was a few minutes late, but having him come back and pick us up worked out really well.

We went back to the room for a bit and regrouped before heading into the nearby town of La Fortuna for some shopping and eating lunch. Putting Alexis in the stroller and walking a few blocks to a well recommended Mexican restaurant named Las Brasitas, she fell asleep again. That actually worked out perfectly for us because she slept for our entire lunch while we sat outside and it was very peaceful and nice for us to relax, talk to each other, and eat. We walked around town and shopped a bit, got a little wet, and then called for a taxi to come back and get us.

It was starting to get dark and we needed to keep Alexis awake longer so we went to the hot springs again. We took the camera with us this time because we wanted to make sure we got some before we left. The sun was setting so it was pretty dark around the resort. They had some dim lighting across the bridges to help people see a little bit but the water was definitely dark. Lesson Learned: Pictures in the dark with steam rising and fogging up the lens is NOT a good combination. So, we put it away and just got in some more. Again, we only stayed a short time and Alexis was tired.

We were back at the room and getting her ready for bed while I went down and ordered us each a sandwich. Nicole picked a sandwich that's no longer on the menu (only the out-of-date one in our room), so I gave her the list which included one that wasn't on the menu we had. After ordering and watching him make four drinks from the order before mine, and then having to come back over to me and re-ask what I wanted, I waited around for about forty minutes to get our sandwiches. Then I get back to the room and Alexis is already asleep, which didn't surprise me, and I realize he didn't give us any silverware for the cole slaw (which was more like potato salad, but really good). So, I walked back down to get the silverware and he looked at me like "Who is this guy and why is he asking me for silverware", but then I think he figured it out. Finally back up to the room and we sit down to eat. I tell Nicole that I hope he got everything right because I wasn't too sure about this. She opened her box and…no cole slaw – one thing after another. So, we shared my cole slaw. Soon after finishing dinner and looking into what to do in San Jose (our next stop), we also went to bed.

Day 9 – 4 April 2011

We figured we'd pay for it letting her go to bed that early and we sure did. She was up a good part of the early morning hours and was remembrance of nights at the Riu. The funny part from that night was when we tried to put her back down, we push the foot of her teddy bear, Violet. That plays "bedtime" music for varying numbers of minutes depending on how many times you push it. Well, if you push another arm or foot, it plays other songs and Alexis seemed to figure it out in the middle of the night. She pushed the arm and it starting singing, "If you're happy and you know it…", and within seconds of the song starting we could hear her clapping her hands in anticipation of the rest of the song. We couldn't see anything, but just hearing her clapping to the song was extremely adorable. It was about this night when I started to realize what was going on with her sleeping (or not sleeping) at night. The days she got up in the middle of the night, or early in the morning, were days that she took long naps or went to bed really early (pretty much every day at the Riu). I think she just wasn't tired enough to sleep the whole night. She slept well on days that she didn't take many naps and was really tired at bed time. We got to morning and Nicole was not feeling well. She had body aches and nausea, which wasn't ideal for heading to the luxurious Tabacon Hot Springs Resort. After getting everything just about packed, Alexis had gone down for a nap and then our driver arrived a few minutes early. We lugged everything down to the van and checked out of the hotel. Off we go to Arenal.

This was well-known to be the worst car ride we would encounter. It was approximately three and a half hours long, where the first half was extremely bumpy and the second half was extremely curvy. The view was phenomenal and it was fascinating to see the Arenal Volcano get bigger and bigger as we got closer and closer. We stopped for a few pictures, but neither of us were in much shape to be looking out the window as even I was nauseous on this ride. Nicole already being sick before even leaving made it even harder for her to enjoy the ride at all. Alexis did pretty good on this one because she was able to sleep for the entire bumpy part. Her screaming didn't make the winding roads any easier for us.

Finally, we got to roads that were paved, semi-flat, and much straighter. The last few kilometers were much more tolerable and we finally arrived. The put all of our bags on a luggage cart and by this point, it barely all even fits on one. We found out that check-in time wasn't until 16:00 so we still had two hours. We decided that lunch was first on the agenda and we'd go from there. They stored our luggage for us while we were waiting for the room.

At lunch, the menu was a bit upscale for our tastes, as we really just wanted something simple. We kind of expected something like this from a five star hotel and resort, but were hoping for something a little more low-key. We heard many other guests mentioning the same thing to one another throughout our entire stay and many chose to eat elsewhere around the town. Lunch was served with smoked salmon wrapped gouda, breads, sorbet, and our entrée.

After lunch, Nicole still wasn't feeling well so she laid down and I took Alexis down to the hot springs to check things out down there and take some pictures. As soon as we get to the reception desk at the springs, she's flocked with admirers again (Should have given them an "Alexis was here" picture). I left the stroller in the lobby and carried her around as I took a few pictures and toured the grounds. Everything was spectacular and just as I imagined. It was a bit steamier than I expected, but I guess you'll have that with boiling hot springs. I pictured it being more flat and just pools of springs, but this was more like flowing rapids that got hotter as you went closer to the top.

I headed back toward Nicole since the skies weren't looking so friendly (how dare it rain in the rain forest two days in a row??). It was just light rain again and Nicole was getting a snooze in by the pool. Our room still wasn't ready at 15:15, but we didn't really have a whole lot to do. We could have gone and changed clothes to go in the springs or the pool, but we didn't pack very well to be able to just grab and go – when you have 13 pieces of luggage, things sometimes tend to get lost in some random bag. We walked a little bit, but mostly Nicole relaxed in the lobby and I chased Alexis out of trouble until 15:58 (Meanwhile I saw at least a dozen other guests check in immediately and were able to go directly to their rooms).

The wait was over and we entered the gorgeous room. I never get to take pictures before we pile the 300 pounds of luggage into the room, but trust me – it was beautiful. We wanted to unpack a few things but mostly get some time down in the hot springs before Alexis was ready to crash for the night. She gets antsy very easily when we're not paying attention to her or directly interacting with her, so we had to take turns getting everything set to go down.

We took the shuttle down this time (it's only a ten minute walk, but a two minute shuttle ride and Alexis gets heavy). When we got to reception again, they recognized Alexis immediately and she got many "Hola Alexis". We left the camera behind this time and just went to get in with Alexis. They were for sure hot springs and I wasn't sure how Alexis would react. Obviously, they weren't too hot for her because she was smiling and splashing like it was bath time. It felt really, really, really, (okay, you get the point) good to get in after all the walking, hiking, carrying, and just doing stuff that we've done. Alexis wasn't too much a fan of the waterfalls and rapids, but loved to be in the water and climb the steps. We didn't want to stay too long because of Nicole's pregnancy and Alexis being so young, so we went back as it was getting dark.

We entertained her for a bit more in the room so we didn't make the same mistake as last night. I think this is where we confirmed that if she's tired enough she sleeps through the night. It's only when she's had enough sleep that she doesn't want to go back down in her crib at night. Neither of us were too hungry so we tried to look for some room service or the snack menu. We were able to find a sandwich on the snack menu and Nicole ordered one which I went to get and bring back to the room. As Nicole was finishing, the NCAA basketball championship was just coming on, so we watched that as we put Alexis down for the night. She went to bed extremely easily and we didn't even have to turn the television off. I set the sleep timer for thirty minutes because we were both exhausted and laying down ourselves. Neither of us made it past the next ten minutes.

Day 8 – 3 April 2011

It was 515 before anyone got up at all. The sun was rising and I was already awake (only fifteen minutes before our alarm was to go off). I got up and soon after my stirring woke the others. After showering and getting everyone ready, we walked to the restaurant for breakfast. We already fed Alexis some watermelon and brought the rest with us. We ate an omelet and some pancakes with orange juice and coffee. Breakfast was much more reasonably priced than lunch and dinner. The food was also good and the pancakes tasted like they use brown sugar instead of white sugar.

We were scheduled to catch the shuttle to Selvatura Park, which is where we would take the hanging bridges tour, butterfly garden, hummingbird garden, and eat lunch. The shuttle was a little late and ended up being an extremely tight fit, but we managed. The roads were again bumpy beyond belief and Alexis managed to fall asleep for the last ten minutes of the twenty-five minute ride.

We wanted to let her sleep as much as she could, so we decided to just carry her in the car seat to see the hummingbird garden. Alexis woke up on the way to see the hummingbirds, so we took her out of the car seat and transferred her to the backpack and switched gears to do the hanging bridges first. This was a trail through the clouded rain forest which crossed over 8 bridges. As we were walking, it started to mist and rain lightly. So, our first full day in the rain forest, we got wet…imagine that. Alexis had her rain jacket on, but it wasn't enough to warrant us putting any extra clothes on. The cool mist actually felt nice while walking the lengthy trail. After almost a few hours of walking and talking pictures, we were pretty tired and took the few minutes we had before the next tour of the butterflies started to rest a little. This allowed Alexis to get out of the backpack and move around a bit, as well.

Off we went to see the butterfly garden, which was led by a guide that actually spoke English very well. Our group size only consisted of seven people, which turned out to be a very good thing (the group behind us had at least twenty as we saw when we were leaving). The guide pointed out many of the different species of butterflies in Costa Rica, some of which are only found in Costa Rica. We were able to take some spectacular pictures in the garden here as butterflies were all around us.

It was now just after 11:00 and we had worked up an appetite. We knew there was a shuttle bus heading back to the hotel around 13:00 so we had two hours for lunch and the hummingbirds. We were hesitant to go in for lunch because it seemed quite early, but opted for that before seeing the hummingbirds (how heavy Alexis was getting for us to carry her factored into the decision as well). They had an excellent lunch set up for tourists that got lunch in their package, as we did. We got a glass of mango or blackberry juice, a make your own salad and fresh fruit, a plate of rice, vegetables, fish, and steak or chicken, and some caramels and chocolates for dessert. So far I think some of the best food we've had were at the parks that we visited (both here and at Palo Verde).

We then walked our way down to see the hummingbird garden. This was much like the setup we saw yesterday with just an open area that had numerous feeders around. The birds were in abundance and were not afraid to buzz right around you and virtually fly right into you. We got in the line of fire a few times and were almost taken out by the speedy fliers.

We spent some time in the gift shop waiting for the shuttle and all eyes were on Alexis, as usual. It was about this time that I realized we should have printed a stack of pictures of her and wrote "Alexis was here" so we could post them as we made our way around the country. The shuttle took us back to the hotel and Alexis napped again.

We wanted to head into the nearby town of Santa Elena and sightsee, shop, go to the supermarket, and eat some dinner. The town was really only about one block in size and was shaped like a triangle. It took us a little longer to walk around because it was raining for quite a bit of it. Dinner was pretty good at Morphos (named after the Blue Morphos – a butterfly only found in Costa Rica). We at pretty early, so it wasn't very crowded either. That's always a nice thing for us because we don't feel like we bother anyone around us when Alexis is fussy.

When we finished shopping, we got a taxi from the depot in town. It's fairly easy to get taxis in most places around Costa Rica, but they sure do get expensive pretty quick. After getting back to the hotel and hopping on the internet, we retired to the room as Alexis was falling asleep. We put her down in the crib and weren't sure what to do for the night. It was only 18:00, but she was exhausted. We let her sleep and we, too, soon went to bed.

Day 7 – 2 April 2011

Alexis woke up middle of night but fell back asleep pretty easily. We got some much needed rest that as, as she slept again until about 6:00. Nicole needed more sleep so we walked around for an hour and a half. As I was just about done with the walk and heading back to the room, I saw Rob & Christina on their balcony and told them we'd see them one last time at breakfast. We got Nicole up, showered, and I took down the clothes that were still wet to finish drying on the chairs by the pool. The warm sun would help finish those drying before we had to leave.

We ate our last breakfast and Alexis said all her goodbyes to her 75 new friends at the Riu. They all enjoyed seeing her every time she came in and the wait staff was always kind and helpful to us during every meal. We're going to miss seeing them, as well.

We finished packing in the last hour we had, and got a call from our transfer driver that he was here an hour early. When I went to get them from the pool to let Nicole finish the packing in peace, Alexis fell asleep and our clothes were dry for the most part. We were scrambling to get all the bags ready because leaving early wasn't a bad thing. Luckily, I found a luggage cart in the lobby and brought it back into the room. We piled all the bags on the cart (and still had to carry a few), went to push it out the door and the bags were too wide on the cart to fit out the door…figures. We unloaded the cart, pushed it outside the door, and reloaded – let's try this again. Checkout was a snap as we turned in our room key and towel cards. We went to ask where our driver was and he was actually standing next to us.

He went to get the van and we stuffed it full of luggage and passengers – "Vamanos!" He informed us that it would be a four hour drive, as we were already informed from what we've ready read and heard. I sat in the front with Nicole and Alexis in the middle row of seats. The driver and I would strike up conversation here and there about various topics. Most conversations consisted of him speaking his semi-bad English and me talking in my semi-bad Spanish. After getting out of the bumpy roads leaving the hotel, the roads were very good and there were no problems…for the first half. The second half of the trip was heading up into the mountains on winding, rocky, dirt roads. The view got more and more extraordinary as we got higher up the mountains, but the roads bumps and turns were becoming too much for Nicole. We took a few minute break on the side of the road and she got some water. The driver took the turns a little more gracefully after that. Alexis was still struggling to get to sleep, but wanted to and needed to really bad. Nicole was trying to lay down on the seat to relieve her nauseous feeling. We came up over a ridge and were able to see Arenal Volcano in the distance – what a beautiful view. The rest of the ride was uneventful, despite the roads continually being bumpy. Alexis was able to fall asleep as her entire body was bouncing up and down in the car seat; we have no idea how she did it but it made the ride much more enjoyable for everyone. The only downside was that there was less than an hour left in the trip.

When arriving at the hotel, it was like being in an old rustic cabin setting. The air was much cooler (by about twenty degrees), and less humid. Everything seemed built from wood and it was tucked back in the forest. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we headed down to lunch to get some food while the hotel staff would take our bags to our room. We had some sandwich/pasta dishes that were pretty good, but nothing that was too spectacular for the price we were paying…oh, well. Alexis made friends immediately again, even though she was fussing from being stuck in her high chair. We got to the room and we didn't have our own cabin like I was picturing. Instead, it was a building that had a few rooms in it. We went inside ours and it was beautiful. The room overlooks the forest, has hard wooden floors and a sun room. This room is much better for Alexis because we don't have to turn the air conditioning on and there is plenty of space for her to move around on the floor and pull herself up on furniture.

After settling in a bit, we planned to go to the hummingbird garden near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We chose the cheapest form of transportation, which was to walk. The walk was less than two miles and we confirmed it was only about a twenty minute walk. About halfway there, we realized maybe this wasn't the best idea, as almost the entire walk was uphill. This was a good workout from sitting in the car all day, but maybe a bit too much. Admission was free and contained an array of feeders that attracted many hummingbirds to come eat. It was spectacular seeing the birds, so we were both glad we went. Alexis even enjoyed looking at them and waving to them. The walk back was downhill and very much easier.

There was an hour and a half before we were scheduled to go on a night hike through the trees which was in and around the forest right near our hotel. For lack of a better time, I got a taxi and went into town to the supermarket. Alexis needed milk and we needed to get her some food that she would eat because she's been very picky on eating since the first few days in Costa Rica. I was able to get the milk, half a watermelon, can of mandarin oranges, bunch of bananas, and a box of pineapple bran bars (I had no idea how these would work out). Lesson Learned: In Costa Rica, you are supposed to weigh your own produce and tag it with a label before bringing it to the register.

We strapped Alexis in the backpack and headed down for the night hike. The guide was very knowledgeable, but there wasn't too much out at night for us to see. There were a few spiders, and other insects, but no mammals. Most birds were too hard to see with just the flashlight or were too far away. We did learn a few fun facts about Costa Rica and the wildlife there. Alexis feel asleep in the backpack during the beginning, but that didn't last very long. She was fairly restless and fussy for the remainder of the hike. This was probably one of the very few low points of the entire trip.

After getting back around 1930, we were all very tired and tried to get food from the restaurant to bring back up to our room. The waitress and I carried it back to the room as we got ready for bed. After dinner, we tried to put Alexis in her crib and she went down very easily. She must have been extremely tired, but already this crib is working out ten times better than the crib we had all of next week. Now, let's see how long she lasts so we can get some sleep, too.