Midnight plane to Houston

On our first travel day to Costa Rica, my dad (affectionately known as "Rah Rah") was charged by an alligator.  A REALLY BIG alligator.  Lucky for him it was behind very thick glass.  We  had finally made a visit to The Reptile Zoo to see all the fun deadly creatures that we will be encountering down here in Costa Rica.  The kids had a great time holding snakes, and we all escaped unharmed - except for a possible sore snout suffered by the alligator hitting the glass wall.  It was a great way to spend the last few hours in Washington State,  and I would highly recommend the Reptile Zoo in Monroe, WA.

From the Zoo we headed for Thai food, because I doubt we'll have many opportunities for Thai in the coming months.  Then we all piled into Rah Rah and Nana's hotel room to await our redeye flight to Houston.  Graham fell asleep and had to be awoken at 10:00pm, poor kiddo.   The flight was tiring and uneventful, which is always the best kind of flight to have.

Flying out of Houston we were a little late - but we landed safely in Liberia, Costa Rica where a nice man in Customs saw me standing there flustered and sweaty, traveling alone with two kids and 9 bags and he let us in the "residentes" line where we promptly received our 90 day visa.  After being frightened by many horror stories about customs, I was confused and felt sure that we had somehow missed something.  I kept waiting for security to come nab us!  No one came chasing after us, and the customs agents, at least for today, were nice.

We finally arrived at our hotel for the night, the Lagarta Lodge in Nosara, Costa Rica.  The owners are wonderful and the view is spectacular.  We slept well that night, and awoke in the morning to blue skies and a delicious brunch from a balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Things could definitely be worse.

Welcome to Costa Rica!