We planned this trip in February, a few months before we even decided to get married. We got engaged in Paris in May, and later decided that we would get married in November. And we did: a simple ceremony at the Sacramento County clerk’s office on Thursday, November 10. Our friends Greg & Robert were our witnesses, and we went to The Kitchen to celebrate after. So although we didn’t plan this trip as a Honeymoon, the timing of it makes it calling that easy.

We flew out of San Francisco on Saturday, November 19 around 7:30am.

A nice shot of the Pacific as the plane initially headed south along the peninsula.

It was about a 4-hour flight to Houston. Ash had snagged first class tickets using miles on United, all legs both ways, so it was a comfortable trip that came with decent food. This was my breakfast: a wonderful oatmal with cooked apples, dried cranberries and several kinds of seeds.

Ash had a frittata which he didn’t like as much. But the fruit was nice and fresh at least!

By the time we landed in Houston our plane had been delayed, so what was supposed to be a 1.5-hour layover was more like 3 hours. Our first-class tickets got us access to the lounge so at least we were comfortable. Ash went for a long walk at one point, but I stayed back to be lazy. It’s pretty rare I have a couple of hours to just do nothing.

We had lunch/dinner on the next leg. I had a vegetarian chili with polenta that was very tasty. The lighting is weird because it was dark already and the cabin was dimly lit.

Ash had a chicken and orzo dish. That dessert was like a warm chocolate chip pie, surprisingly good.

We got to Costa Rica about 8pm local time. We eased through immigration, I’m sure Ash’s Spanish helped there (he’s pretty good). This was supposed to be where our bags came out but these folks had been waiting a long time for their bags from Cancun and eventually we found out that our carousel had changed. The bags were right out and we were on our way.

As travel days go, this was an easy one. We stayed last night at a Marriott Courtyard about a mile from the airport. Just one night, we got our car this morning and that will be part of the next entry.

We are here through Friday, flying back to San Francisco that afternoon and spending the weekend there before heading back to Sacramento. In between we have 2-3 nights each at two different resorts: first in the rainforest, and then closer to the water (Pacific side). Neither of us have been to Costa Rica before so we wanted to spend time in at least 2 different areas because there are so many microclimates here.

We both know LOTS of people who have been here and have never heard a bad thing about it so are excited to have this adventure unfold. As always, we’re excited that you’re coming along, too! See you later at the first destination…

PS: Since our last trip I had some work done on the design of the website. Not sure it will look much different from the single post point of view, but if you get a chance to poke around, I’m interested to hear what you think. And be sure to subscribe please if you haven’t!