Ah, the joys of traveling using GPS in a foreign country! After this particular day’s adventure and a conversation with a local person, we now understand the struggle and harships we encountered! We traveled from Manuel Antonio to La Fortuna for the second part of our trip. We used the app Maps.me, a map system that uses your phone satellite location instead of wifi to travel since we did not want to pay international fees. At the car rental, we were encouraged to use Waze instead of Google but from what I understood, all apps would have probably ended up with the same detours. We departed from Quepos before 9…

Just like on  our past trip to Costa Rica, we only visited beaches on the Pacific side of the country on this trip too. We actually stopped exactly where we had last year on our way to Quepos and the only new beach to us was the one in Manuel Antonio National Park. I love the beaches in Costa Rica as they seem wild with their grey sand, rocks and wild vegetation. On our way to Quepos The drive to our resort from the airport was about 3h30 so we made a couple stops for pictures with the children. One was a scenic picture overlooking the tourist town of Jaco.…

One of the main reason I wanted to take the boys on a trip to Costa Rica was because of the wonderful wildlife. We knew from staying in Tulemar Resort last year, that there would be opportunity to see animals on the property and in the trees and from the ride there, that there would be animals to see from the road too. We’ve always enjoyed visiting zoo but seeing animals free, in the wild in their own environment is just amazing. On the way south to Quepos and the Manuel Antonio National Park (where these pictures are from), we saw some crocodiles, many macaws and hermit crabs. On the…

One of our favorite ways to relax on this past vacation to Costa Rica was to take advantage of the beautiful pools where we stayed. Our favorite by far was the family pool at Tulemar Resort and we spent at least 2 to 3 hours daily enjoying it the two full days we spent there. Tulemar Resort The resort boasts 4 pools including a pretty infinity pool by the restaurant (it was being worked on while we were there), a jungle pool (hubby and I used that one last year as it was by our room), a family and an adult pool. We did not use the adult pool, but…

A couple of weekends, ago, we were invited to a birthday party at the Dekalb Peachtree Aiport in Atlanta. I use to meet up with friends there when I lived in Stone Mountain, but it had been years since I had been. I took the 2 youngest as I knew they would enjoy the birthday party (for a 5 year old) and the location. I wasn’t sure whether there would be a few or many planes since it was a Sunday afternoon and boy, were we surprised and impressed by the number and variety of airplanes landing and taking off. This little airport is a great location for a party…

Lavender! Sunflowers! Those are two of my favorites and this year as I searched for a local blueberry farm, I came across a local lavender farm! I was excited and told the boys, we would have a little field trip one morning. Thankfully the weather was agreeable and we planned to arrive to beat the crowds and the heat. I was very impressed with the property: the lavender was plentiful, the area picturesque and the owners very friendly. The family  bought the property this winter, and this was their first year hosting an event. The lavender was part of the property when they bought it so this was their first…

One of our favorite vacation days was the day we rented a pontoon and spent half a day on Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee. We packed some snacks, wore our bathing suits and made sure we had our sunscreen on. It had been quite a few years since we had been on a lake and probably 17 years or more since we actually rented a pontoon ourselves (we typically visit my husband’s uncle who has a lake house in Alabama). At first the boys were not sure their dad could drive a boat, but they soon realized they were safe. We also rented a tube and my oldest had a blast…