Vacation! Part 1

Bob, Elsa and I were sooooooo very excited to leave for our trip to Costa Rica. With temperatures in Milwaukee at about 10 below zero, and the house a total disaster due to the ongoing remodeling, we couldn't have picked a better time to get outta town. As usual, we tried to make sure Elsa was prepared for the long plane trip and the rigors of traveling. As a result, by the time we left, she was telling everyone that Costa Rica was "very far away" and that she "had to be quiet on the plane."
And as usual, she was such a trooper. We got off to a good start before we even left Milwaukee, when she seemed positively delighted by the shuttle ride from long-term parking to the airport terminal. I have no idea why that, of all things, was so much fun for her, but my guess is it was the simple fact that she got to ride in a vehicle without being in a carseat. Our flight left at 2:20 p.m., and she was perfect on the plane (Midwest Airlines' chocolate chip cookies helped). We had a layover in Atlanta, where we got the additional excitement of riding on the little train between concourses. As we walked through the international concourse, Elsa spotted an African man in a tiger-striped caftan. "Look, he's dressed like a tiger!" she shrieked and pointed. Fortunately, we don't think he heard her.
Elsa did also carry her own backpack for most of the trip. It was packed with her toy laptop, Dora coloring book and crayons, ample snacks, and of course, Howl and Blackie. The backpack was practically bigger than her, and she got lots of comments about how cute she was as we were walking through the airports. The flight from Atlanta to Costa Rica went just as well as the first leg, even though she didn't nap at all. During this flight, Elsa mostly watched episodes of Dora and Diego on my laptop. We got into San Jose at almost 10 p.m. and headed straight to the Holiday Inn Express, just two minutes away from the airport.

The next morning we woke up and ate breakfast at that exotic Costa Rican mainstay, Denny's. Elsa had pancakes that looked like a space alien (don't ask—I'm guessing they have it at the Denny's here too if you're really interested). For some reason, it took us until almost noon just to eat breakfast, get our rental car, and check out of the hotel—this in spite of the fact that the Denny's and the car rental place were both literally right next door to the hotel. Welcome to the brave new world of traveling with kids, I guess.

That afternoon, our only real task was to drive from San Jose to the La Fortuna/Arenal Volcano area, estimated to be about a 2- to 3-hour drive. So we decided to make a stop at a local butterfly farm first. We had initially hoped to go to the La Paz waterfall and gardens, which also had a butterfly and hummingbird conservatory. Unfortunately, the 6.1-magnitude earthquake that hit Costa Rica just a week and a half earlier destroyed the entire place. So instead, the concierge at the hotel drew us a map to this other butterfly farm.
The map basically consisted of turning left at the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Seriously, that was the extent of the directions we were given. Thankfully, Bob's dad gave us a detailed road map of the entire country shortly before we left, which also had the butterfly farm marked on it ... and I can say with 100% certainty that there is no way we ever would have made it to that butterfly farm on the strength of the hotel's directions alone. It required at least 4 or 5 additional turns that the concierge didn't mention, and none of them were made near the KFC. But thanks to my surprisingly good navigation, we did make it there, with plenty of time to spare.
They gave Elsa some chalk so that she could color the butterfly shapes imprinted into the cement while we waited for our tour to start. Too bad this activity was so enthralling for her that she wasn't really interested in the butterflies when our tour eventually began. She kept telling us that she just wanted to go color some more. Our tour guide was very nice about it and did her best to get Elsa interested by promising a special surprise later, but Elsa just wasn't feeling it—after such a late night the night before, I think she really just needed a nap by then.
But we did get to see lots of cool butterflies. The whole garden was surrounded by and covered over with netting to keep the butterflies contained, so it was amazing to walk through it as huge, colorful butterflies flitted everywhere through the air.
We learned all about the various life stages of butterflies, from egg to full-fledged butterfly.
Elsa got to hold one of the caterpillars and this monarch. As you can see, she was a little unsure about that ...

but she warmed up to it momentarily.

And then we got to the "special surprise" that had been promised: A butterfly costume that Elsa could try on:

But Elsa didn't particularly like the glasses, which I guess were intended to show that butterflies have hundreds of eyes. Oh well, she looked cuter without them.

From there we drove on to Arenal. We didn't get lost once (thanks again to the great map from Bob's dad) and the drive was fine—Elsa napped during most of it. We drove on Highway 1, the Pan-American Highway, for a while before going through some foggy cloud-forest areas. Once we passed La Fortuna, the town closest to the volcano, it was still about 40 minutes to our hotel ... 40 minutes of driving on an extremely bumpy, pothole-filled, unpaved road. This was quite possibly the roughest road we've ever encountered on any of our travels, in any country. It was not pleasant, especially for me! Bob kept joking about the potholes inducing labor, and that was funny for a few minutes, until I started thinking, "Wait ... could that really happen?"
There are probably dozens of hotels located around the base of Arenal, but the lava flow shifts directions from time to time, so right now there are only a handful that can boast "lava views." That's why we had to go down the road to/from hell—to get to the Hotel Linda Vista del Norte, which was way off the beaten track but would theoretically offer lava-viewing from our balcony. And sure enough, we had an amazing view of the volcano ... if only it hadn't been shrouded in fog. We probably had a total of three hours where it was clear enough to see more than halfway to the top, and the picture above was taken during one of those times.

Next: Bob goes zip-lining!