The start of our Road Trip

Mom and Dad arrived on December 26th, on time with no problems. Ryan and I met them at the airport with the rental car then brought them back to our home. At first I think they were a bit overwhelmed with San Jose (crowded, busy, one-way dirty streets), like most people are when they get here, but at the end of the week they were happy to be in a city with "real" paved streets.

Anyways, the next morning we all got up early and headed out of the city into the ideal, postcard nature scene of Costa Rica. The first stop on the itinerary was Volcano Poas. I was really looking forward to seeing the carter since we had not visited it before. The crater can only be viewed on clear days without any clouds in the sky. We drove through small towns and coffee filled hills on the way up the beautiful mountain

Mom and Ryan on the way to Poas

Bloody Marys in the morning

Beautiful moutain background

Debb and Dad on the way back from Poas

Fortunately, this gave us lots of time to get to Arenal/La Fortuna and sightsee on the way. We stopped in Zarcero to show mom and dad the hedge garden with funny engraved faces and the pseudo stone face plywood painted church.

Zacero Church

Mom's jumping picture....more to come

We made it to Arenal by mid-afternoon, checked into the hotel and headed straight to the thermal heated pool bar where we stayed for a majority of the rest of the night. I won’t get totally into it but let’s just say after a couple tequila shots, continuous wet-n-wild rides down the waterslide, and the heat from the pool only mom remembered eating chicken sandwiches at the pool before bed. And shamed to say I was hugging the toilet later that night.

At the thermal heated pool at the hotel

Debb and Ryan underwater picutre with our new camera

Mom and Dad underwater picture in the pool

Halfway through the night at the pool