Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

My folks took us to Costa Rica this past winter! It was my family, my sister’s family, and my parents. I posted a video from our day trip in the jungle, but that was it. But here are the photos from the trip:

Henry with a drink as we check-in to the resort!

Resort views: pools in the middle and the ocean in the distance.

A late pasta lunch because we were all starving.

Pool time! Me, Charlie, Dave, and Ian.

Mom and Dad!

Charlie doing trick shots.

An evening pina colada.

Dessert bar!

Mojitos on our walk back to our room.

Monkeys high in the trees on a morning walk along the beach.

Henry on a rock.

Worked our way to a little cave.

Daredevil Charlie.

Beach time.

Heading to the resort’s water park.

Charlie down a slide.

Henry going fast!

This cutie.

Charlie and Mom!

Tiny crab.

The next day was our big excursion. We hired a driver and a tour guide to take us through the rainforest. He first pulled over to a roadside stand and picked us up some treats, including this huge “elephant ear” (much like what my mom makes, but I think this was fried instead of baked, and it was HUGE):

I shared, don’t worry.

At a waterfall!

My sister and her kids.

The grandkids.

The kids down the stream from the waterfall.

Prepping at another stop - chatting with the parrots...

...near the base of a volcano.

A sloth!

A tree frog.

And a poison dart frog!

Fresh watermelon after that outing.

And a goodbye from the parrot.

Our next stop was deeper into the rainforest. We were going to climb across some private suspension bridges. We started on some heavily wooded trails:

Crossing above the trees!...

...and heading down to a waterfall!

Our whole gang. Mom and Dad stayed back, and so did Dave.

Looking up at the waterfall, you can see the bridge we crossed HIGH above it!

Selfie on the bridge on the way back.

Tour guide Manny leading the way!

At a smaller waterfall.

Henry up there!

All of us boys!

Our next stop was a natural hot spring, sauna, and mud bath!
Here we are getting all mudded up!

A few natural steam vents behind us.
(Think “Yellowstone” on a much smaller scale.)

My sister’s fam.

Walking among the steam vents as our mud dried.

Sis and my wife.

Three of the kids before washing off the mud.

Charlie was already rinsed and in the COLDEST of the 3 tubs.

The showers were inappropriate.

INAPPROPRIATE!

This lady STOOD in the tub we got our mud out of for at least 20 minutes!
She was entertaining us from a distance. And grossing us out.

In the hottest hot tub. Naturally heated from the volcano. So nice!

All of us!

Driving past the volcano again.

At an amazing little outdoor supper as our last stop.

SO GOOD.

A quiet ride back.

Again, here's a 1 minute video with highlights from our jungle excursion! That was a full and fun day!

Extra dessert at our resort.

On a walk to spot more monkeys in the morning.

A Fanta with breakfast. Why not?

This cutie.

Pina coladas.

Charlie needed a haircut, so we booked one at the in-house spa. It was good!

Family photos before a family meal!

My fam.

My sister’s fam.

Mom and Dad with the kids.

At our nice meal.

Doesn’t Charlie’s new cut look good?

Morning walk finding iguanas.

Four kinds of eggs and 4 kind of carbs for breakfast.

More monkeys!

An anteater in the tree on the edge of the jungle!!

View from where I was sitting with Henry as he did some homework.

The next morning we headed just down the road to go zip-lining! We stayed in one of 2 Riu resorts that were side-by-side, and here at the zip-lining place, you could see ours to the left in the distance (more white) and the other one to the right (more off-white):