I'm Nikki, a creative old soul who loves tea time, tip-toeing through gardens, mounds of books, swaying to records, watercolors, sunset walks with our three yorkies, and star-gazing with Paul. This blog carries snippets of my life with just us two (five with Rusty, Lucy, & Ethel) - I hope it brings you happiness as you snuggle in with something warm and delicious and begin reading. Enjoy, friends!

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Adventures in Costa Rica | Celebrating 7 Years Together

Hello hello friends! Start with some music? Why yes, let’s.

It’s a crisp fall day on my side of the screen. Rusty’s curled up next to me while I sit and sip tea at the dining room table. The sky is just about crystal clear, the leaves keep swaying down outside the living room windows, there’s a delicious candle lit (called Pumpkin Pinecone, a mix of fall and Christmas – HomeGoods find), meat is thawing for pasta dinner tonight, and Downton Abbey is playing in the background – SPOILER ALERT!! Poor Sybll has just left us. :( :( :(.

Today’s post is going to be one of adventure, friends. Paul and I just got back from one of our most treasured vacations together, Costa Rica.

Each year we take turns picking the vacation spot – I typically choose more tourist-like spots (Walt Disney World, California, Alaska, next up is Charleston…) and Paul typically chooses more laid-back, take-your-drink-with-you-while-you-swim-in-the-ocean locations (Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica…). He chose Costa Rica back in March and we’d been looking forward to these lazy days for a very, very long time.

I was doubtful that I could love a place more than Jamaica, after all, that’s where we celebrated our honeymoon and 5-year anniversary. Jamaica is incredibly laid-back, the water is crystal blue, the sand is like powdered sugar, and the food is always delicious.

But, we couldn’t have enjoyed our trip more. Everything was wonderful, exciting, relaxing, fun, entertaining, delicious, carefree, etc. Costa Rica looks nothing like Jamaica; it really does look like you’re walking through Jurassic Park. On occasion when driving through the area, Paul and I would look at each other, point out the window, and say, “There it is…” (If you haven’t seen the movies, that sounds odd I’m sure.)

The beaches of Costa Rica are nothing like Jamaica. They’re black. At first I thought it was just muddy, and then someone told us it’s from the volcanic ash. Volcanoes!! So thrilling! The landscape from the beach was not the typical straight horizontal line of ocean. Instead it was filled with rolling hills topped with rough trees and hanging vines. The tide came in each day, carrying with it mounds of broken coral and seashells. On one particularly rainy day, Paul and I spent much of it in the ocean getting swept in from the tide and waves. It was like a mini roller-coaster and we loved it.

We went zip-lining through the rainforest, something I’ve always wanted to do since making my bucket list when I was 17. One of the six lines we went on is the longest line in Costa Rica. They call it the ‘Superman’ line because you lay down like Superman, arms out. face first, plunging across the trees at 70mph for one whole mile. It was surreal and something we’d love to do again and again. At the end, we walked across a rope bridge that hovered over sun-bathing crocodiles, then dropped 30ft onto a plush mat. Exhilarating, friends. Paul wants me to go skydiving now…(he went over 10 years ago…I think I’m too old now.)

We learned how coffee and real chocolate is made. We saw a young man make it in front of us, showing us the varying stages of the bean’s lives, and then we even got to make our own chocolate. Surrounded by a botanical garden with banana trees, we sat in rocking chairs in a replica of a 100-year-old home, and sipped our fresh coffee and ate our tiny tins of homemade chocolate.

Enough talking, time to enjoy the photos! I took my big camera, but because of the rain I only brought it out one day. The rest are taken with our cell phones. I hope you enjoy seeing snippets of this beautiful place, Secrets Papagayo!! Happy Wednesday, friends!! xoxo

The view from our room. Let’s start the day with some sunshine, shall we? (It rained every single day, but we didn’t care. We loved it anyways.)

That’s our room on the top right. The resort is set up in sections. Most people had to take a shuttle to get to the main area, but we got lucky and only had one hill to walk up and down.

We liked to frequent the adorable cafe daily, sometimes twice a day. Their mochas were wonderful.

The view from the top of our hill.

Tide is still out, time to gather seashells.

The coffee shop.

See the black? Not mud, just volcanic ash. :) :)

It’s time for an adventure so we must go back up the hill to the main lobby…

Take in the view – you might not make it back here after this day’s adventure.

On the road, humming Jurassic Park to ourselves…

Before the mighty journey…

To calm the nerves we visited the animal sanctuary during jaguar feeding time.

This was our “warm-up” line…

I will not cry. I will not cry…

Good-bye, dear friends!!

The other lines are like baby lines now. Piece of cake.

They thought it would kind to feed us after that rush of excitement. Our view from the luncheon.

Enough adventuring. Let’s go back to the resort – the sun is peeking through!

Time for a stiff drink.

Tide’s all the way in – if you want to get to the spa, you’ll have to take the shuttle. The path from the beach is underwater!

Magical.

It’s raining all day on our last day. Should we just sit here? No! We must swim in the ocean all day!! And that’s what we did.

Our last dinner – I tried sushi and I loved it!

And that’s it, friends!! Happy Wednesday and happy early weekend!! :) :) xoxo

  1. Nana says:

    Thanks for sharing it with us. I truly enjoyed every picture, I felt like I was right there with you,you always make it so exciting..Love you more..Come out and visit us we miss you.Nana ???

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