Ok. So maybe it was a tad more than 24 hours. It sounds better than 27 or whatever it was. I'm on my way back home now and wanted to share what was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time.

While my heart is always in traveling the world and being introduced to new places and way of life, I also enjoy nostalgia. Growing up, our vacations usually consisted of the beach and Disney. I have so many fond memories. So a few weeks ago when I found out I had a work event down in Orlando on a Saturday, I decided to take my 4 year old daughter along. We did Disney late last year as a family. Since then, she has become obsessed with princesses. I've become more relaxed with life. And, oh yeah, she likes to take selfless.

The old me would freak out at the thought of planning a Disney trip in under 3 weeks. New me, booked flights. Quickly found the cheapest Disney resort (All Star) so we could get Fastpass and started booking.

I've never paid to stay on property. While the rooms weren't anything nicer than an old holiday inn, at $100/night it was perfect for us. Easy to get around. Free parking at all the parks. Our magic bands were sent to us before we left. While our top fast pass choices weren't available when I first booked, I eventually got them my checking back on the app.

TIP: All of our restaurant reservations and highly coveted fast passes were obtained by checking back on the MDE app. When I saw them pop up I grabbed them. This honestly made the trip so easy. I'm sure it was a low crowd day but the longest we waited for anything was maybe 10 minutes?

SATURDAY
3pm
We checked into the All Stars Movies (actually a bit earlier) and got our bands activated. They were super nice and showed us how to peel the backing off my daughters so it fit smaller. We then made our way up to the bellhop desk outside where our stroller from Kingdom Strollers was already dropped off and waiting. We rented the Baby Jogger Citi Elite. I can't say enough good things about this stroller. It was so easy to push. My daughter could relax in it. With one whip up I could close it. I took it on the bus by myself and had no problems. Thank goodness I rented this!

3:30pm
We decided to test out the "loud" pool and learned that means lots of kids activities with cast members announcing the progress via a PA system. My little fishie got some swimming in and even played a game of musical hoops before we headed to get cleaned up for dinner.

4:45pm
I stumbled into a dinner reservation at 1900 at the Grand Floridian. I actually had no clue there was a Cinderella dinner. Since we did the princess breakfast at Cinderellas Royal Table last trip, I thought this would be a good new option. Wow. While, I'm not blown away by any Disney food, the character interactions were quite great. Unlike CRT, no one rushed us. We actually left before seeing the last stepsister because she was taking too long. We met Prince Charming, Cinderella, Lady Tremaine and the two stepsisters. Lady Tremaine was pretty funny. Telling my daughter she was much more a princess with a tiara than Cinderelka and her headband. With tax and tip our dinner for 2 was $70. Much cheaper than the castle.

SUNDAY
6:45am
I'd say the only stressful part of the day was when I was trying to decide how best to get to the park. I really don't like being trapped by transportation so I chose to drive. When we arrived at the transportation center at 7:15, we were the fourth car. Yes fourth. The ferries and monorail weren't running yet so we jumped on the bus and were quickly at the front gate. 

The Day

I  had gotten us an early breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace again. The reason mainly being that we can get into the park early. I was worried that I didn't get an early enough one but it was perfect. When they let us in we took our time and most people headed directly to breakfast. We had the front of the castle all to ourselves. 

The best thing I did was be relentless with those fast passes. I had the new 7 Dwarves ride, meet and greet with Anna and Elsa and Peter Pan. All were over an hour wait all day. None of the other rides had waits more than 10 minutes. So in addition to those three we met Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty, Winnie the Pooh, Enchanted Tales with Belle, met Ariel, it's a small world, jungle cruise, Thunder Road, Splash Mountain, Monsters Inc and Haunted Mansion. It's possible we did more.

The other good planning move was that I got a FP for lunch at Be Our Guest. You get a reservation separate and can preorder your food. I really think that place is a great lunch option. I was surprised with the healthy options, reasonable price and ease. If you want to eat in the castle (very cool) but not spend a month's wages on dinner, this is a great idea. 

The park was closing at 7 that night and I must say we accomplished way more than I expected in 11 hours. We had a blast and it was wonderful to have that girl time. 

The turtle watching/nesting/hatching never worked out. I'm not sure if we were getting a tour company run around or not. The first story was that they normally wanted 6 people and if it was just us they'd charge the kids. Ok with us. Then they started telling us the weather wasn't good enough even though it was. Then something with the tides. We gave up and took advantage to go to bed early so we could get up early, I mean normal time, for our last full day.

Everyone was started to get restless on the last day so we decided to move everyone out as soon as we woke up and go exploring. I heard that Playa Barrigona was one of the prettiest and undeveloped beaches in the country. That was our goal for the day. To reach it and then explore others between us and Nosara.

Nothing was open yet in town for breakfast. I found a few maps online the night before that were a huge help, we wouldn't have gotten to any of these beaches otherwise. Our first stop was Buena Vista right north of Samara.

As we left town we saw that the local bakery was open and stocked up on pastries and some of the mixed fruit nectar drinks the kids got hooked on. So much cheaper! The pastries were delicious. Absolutely no clue what they were. Monkis (or Monkeys) was the name. Wish we had found it Day 1 there,

Feeling better we headed over to Playa Buena Vista. We didn't go out to the water due to the alarming signs about crocodiles in the estuary. The view from the car will be just fine. On to the next beach Barrigona.

Strangely we couldn't find it it directions on any map or in my limited google search. My map said it was 2 km north of Buena Vista. We headed up the beach road until we found a road leading off towards the beach and a local hotel. We were hopeful for about one minute until we hit the river crossing. No way we were making it. We turned around and headed back the way we came to try and go up and around and hit the beach from the other side - the North.

We made it back to our beach road and realized we (thought) were almost back to where we had turned around. I recognized the name of the Barco Quebrado as the beach right North of Barrigona. I had seen pictures of it and read that it was accessible too. Not sure how. I also read that somehow one house was built on it back in the 1940's and a couple still lives there. We took a guess on a dirt road and started driving. A long ways in the jungle. We had no clue where this was leading and then we emerged on a deserted beach - with the exception of a house in front of us. It was one of the coolest places we have discovered in our travels. I was tempted to walk up and put a note on the door offering to buy it.

We weren't sure if anyone was home and we wanted to be respectful. We walked around a but on the beach and climbed in the rocks for pictures. I had read they get a sick surfing wave off of the beach but absolutely no one was out there.

We headed back out still in search of Barrigona. I figured that the best landmark would be the monstrous estate. Mel Gibson owns 500 acres of jungle and estate above the beach. I also read that the public access was either on his property or directly adjacent. If we found his place it would have to be possible. We wondered how we would see it.

Let's see. Shack. Shack. Cattle farm. Shack. What in the world.... A monstrous property emerged with a crazy fence, immaculate grounds and staff working all around the gates. The Christies real estate sign really gave it away though. He is selling the $30M estate.

There is a dirt road on each side of the property. We took the southern one first and made it to the beach but I don't think it was right. It didn't look crystal blue and white sand like the pics. Also there was water between us and the beach and more croc signs. A local surfer we had seen the day before was arriving right then to jump on the break that looked pretty sweet if you didn't get chomped on the way out.

We figured we had one more chance with the northern dirt road. We got pretty close and the water piling up on the road became too much to pass. We think that was probably the right road. Stupid heavy rains the night before. Oh well.

We gave up on Barrigona and headed up the coast towards Nosara. We passed through Garza, a small fishing town literally on the ocean. I saw zero tourism there. It was surprising to have it sandwiched between two bustling surf towns.

We kept driving up the infinite dirt roads. There had to be better roads but we didn't find them. We made our way into Nosara and managed to get list through the winding roads down to the beach. All the development is kept if the beach in this more commercial surf town. We saw tons of folks hiking it down the road that leads to the beach.

We stumbled upon Beachdog Cafe and the name and sign sold us. We were seated next two local women and a boy about our son's age. Soon I heard some oohs and aahs and looked over to see a baby red squirrel. Or are they chipmunks? We had seen the adults in the wild a lot. One of the women works for the refuge and was tasked with taking care of it until it was old enough to be at the center. I never thought feeding a baby animal out of a medicine dropper of letting a wild rodent climb my child would be part of our excursion today. You just never know.

The kids gobbled up their pancakes with hunks of fresh bananas throughout and we headed for the beach. I was interested to check out Nosara since it was a true beach town. While the surfers there were definitely pretty amazing and he waves were almost turbular at times, I don't think it would have been a good family choice. We didn't like how the vendors jped on us as soon as we entered the beach and one of the shop owners shouted "look with your eyes not with your hands" behind my son was even fully through the door. At Samara half the town knew my kids before we left and tried to keep them there. Cool to see Nosara but not really our scene at this stage.

We let the kids play in the water a bit. I guess the car ride had gotten to then because they went crazy and started dancing and making up their own song about how much fun the beach and Costa Rica was. We looked crazy. But it was fun. We had to practically pull them off the beach but lured then with a surprise. Josh and u had spotted the coconut lady in a truck at the parking lot. For a dollar a piece she took a machete to a coconut and delivered it fresh with a straw. My daughter thought it was disgusting and handed it over after getting her photo. My son downed about 2/3 of it. I had bought some fresh bottles coconut water at Samara Organics and was enjoying it this trip.

We all piled back into the car and the kids were asleep before we made it too far our of town. We felt an obligation to take a look at the other Nosara beach Playa Pelada. Not much there except some fishermen. We didn't even get out.

On the way back we figured we would go by good ole Mel's house another few times and see if security was thinking we were staking out the house. No, we decided to take the beach road back, we had pretty much done it from both sides. Couldn't be any worse than that horrible connector road.

It could. We got just about to where we had turned around coming from Samara and look. There is a river across the road. If we were in one of my cars we would have gone through no questions asked. Our rental car was a 4x4 Montero something. It wasn't super high and didn't have great traction on the tires. We just couldn't risk it. The kids slept most of the detour and we finally made it back home. Not until we got by the cows first. Because doesn't every cattle farmer herd his cows through the street? The video was one of my favorites. The kids were sound asleep and I was sure some horns were coming through the windows.

We headed straight down to the beach to find Pablo and surf. Well the three of them did. I hit up Sub Express to try and grab a cheap sandwich. I was the only one at the counter and the sandwich was $10 for a 12". Is it me or is that insane? That's insane for US prices. What has happened here? The lady running the shoe appeared to be American and she told me she made all the bread and the oil and vinegar dressing. Do you make that special? It was fine. Just not worth that crazy price.

No joined the family and they told me Pablo wasn't ready yet. I wasn't totally sure Pablo really wanted to surf again... After half an hour Josh and my son went up to his spot and returned with a board. We would surf ! For the next hour we took turns surfing. We had quite the system, Josh would push the child. I would catch them or fish them up and get them back over to Josh. I was also on kid #2 duty who was sitting on the edge of the water digging.

We were all exhausted by the end and headed in with our board. We said our goodbyes to Pablo where we watched videos of his son riding road and mountain bikes to try and convince our son to take off his training wheels. Then Pablo tried to convince our daughter to stay in Costa Rica with their family until November. Sounded like a sweet deal. He would give her a place to stay, food. And all the surfing she wanted. She giggled and said she would miss her mommy. My sweet girl. My son, on the other hand, was all in. We said our goodbyes to Pablo for real and promised to see us in November. He likes June to visit but thinks November is his favorite month. End of rainy season so it's super lush and almost no people. Hey family - Thanksgiving?

We got back to the villa and stopped to talk to Diego about checking out. We planned to leave super early in the morning and needed to pay tonight. The kids were going nuts while we talked. I had just turned around to stop my son from running when WHAM! He ran full force straight into the parking gate. Those arms that raise up and down. He managed to drive his nose straight into the end. He did it with such force his little body slammed into the driveway whipping his head back. In true dad fashion Josh says (without seeing anything) "he's ok", I'm now screaming frantically as I see he has split his nose and I'm imagining a trip to an unknown beach hospital. Josh was still talking to Diego! Stop talking to Diego! He's lying in the ground bleeding!

My son was ok. Thankfully he missed his eye by about half an inch. I cringe to think what if. I luckily force us to travel with a rather large first aid kit so we had plenty of stuff to clean him up with. I also think that pillow on his head saved him a concussion. I can't imagine if it had been his braided head that had taken that hit. Ugh. We did do many crazy and extreme things and the way he gets injured 13 hours before leaving is running into a parking gate. Of course.

After I calmed down and we iced him up and let him rest we headed out got our last dinner. Josh wanted to get our son a souvenir so we headed to a jewelry store in the far end of town. Of course the cool necklace we were all drawn to was a metal pendant that had been made from some spray paint machine part. Cool but it had no meaning whatsoever and looked like it could be dangerous. With a lot of work we convinced him to get a shark tooth necklace to remind him of surfing. Of course he wanted the prehistoric one not the one that actually can't from near that beach....

For the last dinner we tried Locanda also near us. For some reason I wasn't hungry at all. Maybe it was my son almost losing an eye. I ordered a mango shake. They gave me pineapple. We ordered chicken quesadillas for the kids. They brought them beef. I told my daughter to behave. She threw a fork at my head. I called it a night and we were ready for bed before the boys were even back.

We packed everything up and were ready to say goodbye.

Today was nothing but travel. I will be honest. It was miserable it involved a 4 hr drive from Samara to San Jose which had us leaving at 6am. The kids were pretty horrible in the car. Smile.

I won't repeat the horrid experience at the airport. I had it typed out and then realized some things are better left untold.

Get me on the plane.

FINAL THOUGHTS

1. Ten days with your family is a long time. Don't let this blog fool you. We had moments where I was pretty sure we wouldn't make it and all four of us had our meltdowns. But getting to spend that much time with my family is something we have never done before and I wouldn't give any of it back. Ok maybe a few "special" parts.

2. While I spent a lot of time planning all the best stuff - places to stay, activities, restaurants, etc most of our best memories will probably be the people we got to know and the unplanned moments.

3. One of the most surprising observations for me was the reaction to my son and his perception of it. He got almost no attention when he had his braids in. My daughter got it all. As soon as his hair was back we had locals wanting to take pictures with him, talking to him, etc. He has cool hair, I get it. But it was a bit shocking for me to observe.

4. My daughter became very observant with the animals and their babies. Which animals have eggs and which don't was a new game. By the last day that turned into the dreaded question of "how do babies (people) get out of their mommy's tummy". My answer of "with the doctors help" only held her over for 30 minutes. If anyone would like to take that one for me...

5. If you can't tell by my blog, La Carolina is my absolute favorite place in CR. It's a short drive from the Liberia airport. We are talking about a plan to get the kids down there annually and to watch flight prices. The beaches are pretty but to us Pura Vida is about the land, animals and people.

6. If asked to compare traveling with the kids to just the two of us - different. Better in many ways but much more exhausting. We didn't lounge and sip wine at night. We slept! I don't think we sacrificed one ounce of fun and we still put our own adventurous spin on it.