San Jose on Thursday

We left for San Jose around 8:45 on Thursday morning. We did most of our packing that morning, and since we already packed light for this trip to Costa Rica, packing for our family from our luggage here was quick and easy: "Kids, get your swimsuit, flip-flops, 2 underwear, 2 shirts, one short." Plus diapers for Lily. Done. Corey and I pack, we load up 3 loaves of bread and pb&j, oranges, apples, some dried fruit and nuts and we're good to go. We had one stop for gas after about 2 1/2 hours, then drove another hour and a half. Our first stop was Denny's -

We all enjoyed food from home - pancakes, sausage, eggs, french fries, and macaroni & cheese. Good stuff. We also had lots of heads turn as people saw and then seemed to be counting how many kids were walking in a line to our table. This Denny's is right across the street from the Holiday Inn Express at the airport where Corey, Ethan, Hyrum, and Wesley stayed for two nights after they arrived in Costa Rica in September. Room # 147, oh the memories! Ethan felt like he traveled back in time going back there - Only been 2 months, but seems like a lifetime ago!

We took a tour of the rest of the Inn, then got ourselves locked outside by the pool with no key. A security guard came over and we told him we weren't currently staying at the Hotel, but Corey had stayed there a few weeks ago and was just showing his family where he stayed. I think he trusted us, but he wouldn't let us back into the motel and we were shown the back exit...


See the big arrow in the background? Gotta follow where that leads.

Corey and I laughed and he said "I'm glad they take such pride in their work. Cause there's no sense being a security guard if you're not going to take your job seriously. Plus, there are all sorts of crazy couples with lots of kids trying to break into motels these days!"

"We've been ratted out, boys" Get those hands in the air! We've learned our lesson. No more sneaking around motels without a room key.

Back into the car, then off a little further to find the Marriott. A bit of advice - do not listen to directions from the cashier guy at Denny's. He told us not to take the freeway. We probably spent an hour driving around lost - we went toward San Jose and drove lost around Heredia, then back tracked our steps and stopped three times to ask people on the street and restaurant owners if they knew the way.

Finally we found it, and it was worth the wait. Thank you so much, Wayne and JeNeal, it was a beautiful place to stay. A beautiful view from our 6th story window. Of course, for a good chunk of the time, instead of enjoying the grounds we and the kids were taking a break and found ourselves doing this:

The hotel architecture was beautiful - the tile hallways were open to the outside, so there was a beautiful breeze as you walked around in the building.

The view from our other small balcony

There was hardly anyone there, we had all three pools to ourselves during most all of our stay. It was just beautiful. We wished all of you could have been teleported to be there with us. :)