Well, it’s hard to believe it, but we’re actually here, living the dream we’ve been planning for years! Before I dive into what we’re doing, I thought I would go over how we got here!

For those of you who have travelled to Costa Rica from Canada before, you know it is a little bit of a milk run. There certainly are flights that can get you here in a more direct way, but they’ve always been WAY to much for our budget. When Shaun and I were looking for flights, it was all about price for us. It didn’t matter how long it took us to get down here, because we’re going to be here for so long! So, we ended up flying Victoria-Seattle-Chicago-Miami-Liberia. Sounds crazy I know, but out of all the times we’ve been down here, it was actually the best flights we’d ever had! I’m getting ahead of myself though, lets start from the beginning.

My mom picked us up at 5:30 (although we may have still been in bed when she arrived). After pulling together our last minute items, and saying goodbye to the Bear cat, we were off.

The Victoria airport was a riot. I had read the previous night that President Obama was going to be in the Seattle airport right around the time we were set to arrive. This meant that all flights would be grounded until Air Force One took off. As a result, we were expecting delays. We were surprised when we checked in, and everything was fine. I took a deep breath, took one last look around at my home town, and boarded the plane. We both looked out the window and  said goodbye when the Captain came on:

“Ladies and Gentleman, President Obama is in Seattle airport, so they won’t let us leave. It’s going to be at least an hour. We’re going to ask that everyone get off the plane and go back to the terminal”

We had a pretty good giggle about that one! An hour later we were on our way! We had a bit of time in Seattle, and knowing we had a super tight connection in Chicago, picked up some food to eat on the plane.

Chicken Caeser Salad for Shaun, Oatmeal and a Fruit and Veggie Plate for myself. Oh, and my final Peppermint Mocha!! It was delish!

Despite there being a medical emergency on the flight from Seattle to Chicago, the flight actually arrived early. This made our connection a little less tight. Our flight to Miami was uneventful, and we arrived around 11 pm there time. We wandered the Miami airport for ever until we finally tracked down the airport hotel. Since we had an 11 hour layover, I figured booking a room would be a good idea. I feel I have never been so right about anything in my life!  This, is what made this trip so easy. Instead of spending our 11 hours curled up in a corner of the airport, we had a king sized bed and a hot shower in the morning. I’ll never be able to go back to airport sleeping again!

We checked in, and Shaun made a quick trip to Subway for a late night snack, (not that late since it was only 9pm our time) we watched some bad TV and fell asleep. Not that I did much sleeping, I was way to excited!

We got up bright an early, and headed to our gate. Security  was right outside the hotel lobby so getting back in the airport was a breeze.

Breakfast was in order. I rocked a fruit plate with a side of scrambled eggs. This is definite foreshadowing of meals to come! I would like to say that my food pictures will improve, but not likely lol

And with that, we headed to our gate, got on the flight and a short 2.5 hours later, we landed.

The eagle has landed

Getting here was such a surreal, joyful, scary, thought provoking moment for me. I have so much to say about it, but for now, I will have to leave you in suspense.

We’ve had so many adventures already, I can’t wait to share them all with you guys!

How do you tackle long travel days? Gravol and Wine? Let me know!

Pura Vida,

Kate