After the excitement of Costa Rica, followed by the dizzying stimuli of Las Vegas, our next trip this year was a bit more subdued: a weekend road trip through Iowa and Missouri.
Still, the trip included some highlights neither the girls nor I had experienced, like visiting the town where Chris grew up:
Boy Wunder's boyhood home
Where our future hero had his first job
and eating at one of his favorite restaurants, The Machine Shed:
Pork. It's what's for breakfast.
Hi Cow Pig. I ate you.
Although Iowa is always a popular mid-winter vacation destination, the purpose of our trip was our annual trek to Kansas City for a Super Bowl party. Over the years, this party has morphed from a group of 20-somethings watching the game in the big home theatre, to scattered groups of 30-somethings chasing children and watching about 5 minutes of actual football. The beer and wine consumption, though, is relatively unchanged.
Haha, oh Mom. You won't be able to watch a sporting event in its entirety again for another 18 years.
"Can you believe how quickly Oreo responded to the blackout?" "I know! I wonder if any other brands will try to do the exact same thing over the next two months?"
So, I'm trailing about 8 months behind on posts. But it's hard to keep up when our little family is constantly on the move. So far 2013 has brought us to quite a few places in the States — some new destinations for the girls, and some revisited.
The year began with us in the air, returning from Costa Rica. And although we probably needed to keep our feet on the ground for a good, long stretch, we only stayed put for about three weeks. Then it was off to the most logical, mid-January family destination: Las Vegas.
My girls are high rollers.
The truth is, the stars aligned in such a way that we just had to visit LV. I was traveling there for work (i.e. free flight) the very same week Chris' dad was traveling there for work. Add in dad's ability to get us a free room, and my inability to ever say no to Vegas, and there you have it: Six Wunders in the middle of the desert.
This was actually Maya's second trip to the Sin City. She went once with Chris (again, to meet up with family) when she was about a year and a half old. On that trip, the spirit of the city most have gotten to her because she had the most Vegas of experiences: public nudity.
(Apparently, her diaper fell off while she was wearing a dress. So, she lifted up her dress and ran around showing everyone what had happened.)
On this second trip, we all managed to keep our clothes on in public. We spent most of our time there at an off-strip hotel that included, among other amenities, a movie theater, an arcade, a bowling alley, and lots and lots of unhealthy food options. So, we made sure to let the girls indulge in (almost) all the gluttony that is Las Vegas:
Dude, no embarrassing photos, please.
If you can't drink while bowling, have a donut.
Mmrrrrawww, I totally won't regret this tomorrow!
She was too hopped up on donut to realize we never put in any quarters.
Costa Rica is a small country, bordered by the Gulf Coast on one side, the Pacific Coast on the other, and rainforests in the middle. Then there are lakes, rivers, estuaries, swamps, and more running through it. For such a small country, it sure is watery.
Why use a bridge when we can just run through the water?
So naturally, our trip included water-based activities on an almost-daily basis. First and foremost was the pool at our rental, which we used every day. It wasn't heated, but after a day in the sun, that didn't matter.
One them asked for a beer right after this picture was taken. I'm not saying who.
We spent our first week in Costa Rica in the beach community Playa Grande. So naturally, we also spent a lot of time at the beach, including Christmas Day. Feliz Navidad, indeed.
Forgot to bring the Santa swimsuit.
The day before, on Christmas Eve, we did a tour of the estuary between Playa Grande and the nearest "city," Tamarindo. On the tour, we got to spot lots of sleepy monkeys, different types of birds, and although I didn't personally see it, the one and only scorpion we encountered on our trip.
Monkey see.
Riding in style.
Tamarindo itself is a touristy beach town, full of t-shirt shops, ice cream stands and Spring Break-style bars. It wasn't our favorite destination overall, although we did get a pretty view of the Pacific.
Just add tequila.
The day after Christmas, we did our hike at Rincon de la Vieja, which included a look at our first waterfall of the trip. Because we were there during this region's dry season, the waterfall was more of a trickle, but it was impressive nonetheless.
It's higher than it looks
See?
The following day was Chris' birthday. We had planned to spend that whole day at the beach, but Maya was starting to develop a nasty cold and running a low temperature. So instead, we hung out at the house and the pool, drank rum and/or juice, and snacked on some of the area's good eats:
What is this strange fruit?
It kinda looks like an orange.
Yes, definitely an orange. Yum.
We did eventually make it the beach that day to see the sunset. I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful one.
Happy birthday, Dad.
Probably one of my all-time favorite pictures.
Three lucky girls.
Sigh.
The next day, we left the beach and headed for the hills. On the drive, we watched the clear, sunny skies of the dry region morph into overcast and clouds of the highlands.
Not to be confused with Loch Ness.
Those clouds, and their rain, remained with us for the next three days. But seeing as we were in a rainforest, we weren't surprised or disappointed.
Squish.
Our hotel here also had quite an interesting bathroom, which was supposed to simulate a waterfall, I think. Water came out of both the enclosed shower area, as well as from the top of the rocks in the corner. You could choose one or the other, or both. Either way, the bathroom flooded every time.
Um, OK.
On our second day in the Arenal region, we headed down to the main city closest to us, La Fortuna de Arenal. Our water encounters continued there.
Chris gets creative with my iPhone.
Soaked.
That afternoon, we did a hike at Arenal. To say we got rained on would be an understatement. As Forrest Gump once said, "We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."
In other words, we got soaked.
The ponchos do nothing.
His shoes still aren't dry.
The hike included our second waterfall. This one was quite a bit more than the trickle we'd experienced at Rincon:
On our last full day in Costa Rica, we hung out at the hotel pool, which was heated. Rain came and went throughout the day, but it didn't really matter.
Play areas for Maya.
And a swim-up bar for Mom and Dad.
I read in some parenting book once that when children are unhappy, just put them in water. In the case of Costa Rica, this was definitely true. Although this was certainly not a tear-free vacation (oh, the meltdowns...), most tears could be dried with a dip in the pool or a splash in a puddle.
Maya is one of those kids who can't keep clean. Sure, all little kids are messy. But Maya's the type who, at any given time, and despite my best efforts, has ketchup on her cheek, peanut butter in her hair and dried yogurt all over the front of her shirt.
So far, Jane doesn't seem to share this trait with her older sis. In face, I often forget to use a bib when feeding her because she so rarely needs one. And if you've met Jane, you might be wondering, "If she's so neat, why is all of her clothing stained?" Because they're all hand-me-downs from Maya.
So, a vacation to an outdoors-y, rugged place like Costa Rica is pretty much perfect for Maya. As for Jane, if she wants to keep up with her sister, she'll just have to embrace getting dirty.
And embrace it, they did. Mud, sand, dirt, juice, beans, rice, you name it. They were in it.
Three months later, I'm still finding sand on her head.
Best Christmas Day ever.
One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to Rincon de la Vieja, one of the country's many volcanos. We did a hike through the national forest there, and got to see a different kind of mud — the hot, bubbling volcanic variety.
Sign translation: Don't touch.
One creator of hot, stinky gas meets another.
Smoke monster.
The hike at Rincon ended with a visit to the area's hot springs, where the no-longer-bubbling volcanic mud is slathered on your skin, before taking a dip in the naturally heated springs.
At first we weren't sure if our 3-year-old would enjoy or appreciate this spa-like experience. Then we remembered that it was, at its core, mud and water. It might as well have been Goldfish and grape juice.
You missed a spot.
I really needed this.
And speaking of water, there's sort of a lot of it in Costa Rica. Who knew? I'll tackle all things H2O in my next post.
Leading up to our big trip to Costa Rica, we studied up on all the sights and activities and amazing things we'd likely see. We got Maya excited with books and puzzles about rain forest animals -- jaguars, sloths, red-eyed tree frogs, macaws, and the like. We figured we probably wouldn't see most of these creatures, but we thought educating our 3-year-old about them couldn't hurt. (And as a result, she's still obsessed with sloths.)
So we were all excited, and everything was good. And then I made the mistake I've made too many times to count: I kept researching — in books and regrettably, online. And then I freaked out.
Did you know that in some areas of Costa Rica, mosquitoes carry malaria? And dengue fever? Did you know that there are poisonous scorpions in the beach areas? Did you know there are sharks in the ocean? We're all gonna die!
Recognizing that I was probably overreacting, I hit up a few regular CR travelers for intel. They all told me I was overreacting.
Still, I packed up loads of bug spray for the trip, and I was sure to shake out every piece of clothing, and every sheet, towel and pillow before allowing the girls to touch them.
And in exchange for my efforts, I never saw a scorpion. Not one.
As for the mosquitoes, no amount of bug spry prevented us from getting bit. All of us were covered in bites when we got home (side note: having itchy mosquito bites in January in Chicago is very odd). But thankfully, no malaria or dengue fever to speak of.
Fortunately, our encounters with wildlife wasn't limited to mosquitoes. In fact, we saw all kinds of creatures big and small.
We started our trip to Costa Rica with a week in Playa Grande, a somewhat remote beach community on the Pacific side of the country. We rented a two-bedroom casa within a small six-casa development, about a 15-minute walk to beach access, and a 5 to 10-minute walk to a tiny grocer and a handful of restaurants. In other words, total paradise.
Our casa, guarded by topiary.
Sign translation: Do not feed this girl after midnight.
On our first night there, I was walking back from dinner holding Jane and chatting with another American couple staying in the casa next to ours. As I was walking along this bumpy, gravel road, guided primarily by moonlight, one of my new American neighbors yelled, "Watch out!" I swerved, still holding Jane, and looked down to see that I came within inches of stepping on a boa constrictor.
A few minutes later, a huge tarantula walked by.
They're more scared of you then you are of them, right?
That was day one. Over the next 6 days, we saw more lizards than we could count,
I can see you.
Lizard yoga.
I can see you, too.
monkeys everywhere,
We'll call you George.
You can be Marcel.
birds of every color,
This is getting to be like Where's Waldo.
and these little guys:
After our week on the beach, we headed for the rain forest and stayed at a hotel in the mountains near Arenal, the country's most-famous — and still active — volcano.
Here, there was no shortage of the lizards, monkeys and birds like we'd seen on the beach. In fact, there was even a macaw that was a regular on the hotel property, but I never managed to catch it on camera.
Because we were in the rainforest, we also got to meet different types of animals, like the famous red-eyed tree frog,
Arm hair makes for easier climbing.
and another friendly frog who took up residence in our bathroom.
Who smelled it dealt it.
We also observed some species that are less-exotic but still fun to see for a few Midwesterners in late-December, like these industrious ants:
and this slug that threatened to swallow Janie:
Roly poly x 2.
Next up, we explore just how muddy we'll let our children get.
