Bittersweet Return

It’s official . . . Ryan and I have returned to American soil. We arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio on Wednesday, November 20 at 1:00 am. It was a bittersweet return. It’s great to be back home, but at the same time, we miss the life we had in Costa Rica for three months. It’s amazing how attached to people and places one can become in such a short time.

I know many of you are wondering why in the world we are back now when our original plan was to return December 18. We’re home for a number of reasons, but more than anything, we accomplished everything we wanted to and decided it didn’t make sense to continue spending money just to kill time. Why not kill time at home with the company of our family and friends?

I am writing this from Winchester, TN where we are spending Thanksgiving with Ryan’s family. We managed to surprise both our parents by returning home early. My parents happend to be at their cabin in TN when we returned to Ohio, so our friend Ashley picked us up in Cincy and drove us back to pick up our car. We drove to Sevierville, TN where we surprised my parents and stayed for a few days. We headed to Winchester this Monday to surprise Ryan’s family. As of now, our plan is to spend most of December in Ohio where most of our belongings are. Shortly after the start of the New Year, we will be moving to Hershey, PA to start our new job. Several people have suggested that we continue our weblog with stories of our new experiences in Hershey living with ten kids. We’re considering it, so who knows. Maybe you all can share in the next wild journey we are about to embark on.

We had an incredible experience while being away and I can say without any hesitation that we have no regrets. We have enhanced our lives in ways I simply cannot put into words. I have no doubt that we are better people because of this experience. We learned a great deal about ourselves as individuals, as well as about our relationship together. Many have asked whether it was hard to be with your spouse all day, every day. No. The experience has only strengthened our relationship and assured us that we are truly lucky in having found our soul mate. Now that we are home I have actually found myself missing him when are apart for a few hours at a time. Call me crazy, but I think I am the luckiest woman in the world.

Ryan and I are both taking some time to decompress and reflect on our wonderful experiences. We thank everyone who traveled along with us. It was comforting to know that family and friends were sharing in our adventures. We will both be making a few more posts to this site, so please check back for more at a later date. See you soon!

The Unseen

Jeanna happened to get sick earlier in the week which forced us to change our plans a bit. The good news is that she is feeling much better and I have managed to avoid the sickness, for now. We are heading out of San Jose and going to a place where internet cafes will be few and far between. You can expect not to see any new posts for a couple of days. If you are my mom or Jeanna’s, that should work out just fine since you are both going to be traveling over the next week or so anyway and access to a computer will also be more difficult for you. We promise we’ll be in touch when you get back home.

Less than one month before we come home.

Relaxing in San Jose

Ryan and I are still in San Jose. We had a great visit with Ashley. The energy she brought and seeing a familiar face was great for our spirits. The time went by too fast and we were sorry to see her go. She emailed and said she made it home safely, but getting off the plane and going through customs much a shock and took a very long time.

After Ashley left, we decided we still weren’t ready to get back on a bus for another five or six hour bus ride. We plan to stay in San Jose for a few days just relaxing and enjoying the city. We have been quite the movie-goers the past two days. We saw Identity last night and Ripley’s Game today. Both were very good, but both are somewhat disturbing.

The strangest thing happened while we were in the food court at the mall today just before our movie was about to start. We were finishing our lunch, when I noticed a familiar face walking up the stairs towards us. It was Crispin and Jo – remember the lovely couple from London we met while in the Orosi Valley? We couldn’t believe it. What were the odds. We weren’t able to talk very long since our movie was about to start (we already had tickets) so we exchanged hotel numbers and we are planning to meet for dinner tonight. We are constantly reminded of what a small world we live and just how much people are connected.

Last Morning in Costa Rica

Well my time as guest poster is about to end. I am leaving for the airport in less than 2 hours. I have had a great week. Jeanna and Ryan are execellent hosts. They were able to compress the best of Costa Rica into one week, which is pretty remarkable given all the great places that they have been. It is very impressive to see how much Spanish they have learned in just a few months, and how many people they’ve gotten to know. It would have been really hard to get around without people who know the country so well. I still need to pack, so I must keep it short. See you on the comments page.

Day & Night Out

The Combo Tour that Jeanna mentioned yesterday was quite eventful. We headed out at 6:15 this morning in a minibus. After picking up other travelers at other hotels (2 Canadians, 2 Bostonians, 1 Frenchman) we headed to the crater of Volcan Poas. The postcards prepared us for a beautiful blue-green crater lake easily viewable from the observation deck. The weather had other plans. We saw nothing but fog and the guardrail in front of us. We would have liked to have seen it but oh well, we’ve seen volcanos before.

We then headed off to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens where we saw loads of butterflies, hummingbirds, and a series of beautiful waterfalls. All in all, it was cool. My favorite part of the tour, however, was our stop at the Doka Coffee Plantation where we learned about the coffee process – from seedling to cup – and tried the different blends that they roast at the Doka Plantation and sell as Three Generations Coffee. My thoughts on the entire tour . . . it was a good day and quite a break from spending time on buses and walking. The downside is that because everything was so easy to see and do, we weren’t able to do any of it alone. We have been spoiled over the past 3 months because it seems every time we spend half a day walking to a place, we are the only one’s there – we’ve often felt like we were the first ones to ever see the place.

Tonight, we decided to take it easy some more and relax in San Jose on Ashley’s final night. After dinner at a local soda, we headed to the cinema to see Intolerable Cruelty, a well directed movie with plenty of laughs and actors/actresses that are easy on the eyes. After a long day, we are looking forward to a good night’s sleep before we have to send Ashley off to the airport tomorrow. Then, we have to decide (again) where we want to go.