We started our trip with an overnight in South San Francisco at a cute boutique hotel called the Inn at Oyster Point. It was a darling and very accommodating hotel that had a sweet room with a fireplace and fantastic view of the Oyster Point Harbor, the bay and across to the East Bay and Mount Diablo beyond. We had a great dinner in the hotel that night and then headed up to get some rest for the day of travel ahead. Eva had her own bed set up on the desk/workstation. It was like her own special bunkbed. We all slept well and were rested. We woke up and had our nice breakfast delivered to our room where Eva and I sat in the cute chairs looking out the window and watching the sunrise as we ate. From our room David noticed a boat named "Pura Vida" in the harbor. a nice reminder of our Costa Rican adventures to come. After breakfast we got all ready and then took a nice walk down to the harbor to check out the boats and the view. We then went back to the hotel where a nice shuttle driver took us and our gear to the airport where we met up with Margo. We met her boyfriend, Francisco and thanked him for letting us borrow Margo. He said, "Just for 10 days!"

After a fairly easy trip through the check in and security, we got on the plane and while all of us chewed gum, we took off! The first flight, to Houston, was about 3.5 hours and Eva did great. We landed in Houston and had to high tail it to our connecting flight! We made it on the plane by running through the airport and got on our next flight and then took off again, next stop Costa Rica! This leg of the trip was fine too, although we were all getting a little antsy to get off the plane and into the tropical air. We had dinner on the plane. We all had hamburgers, Margo had noodle salad. The descent of the trip was a little bumpy, but we landed safely and exited onto the tarmac and into the tropical, breezy night air of Liberia, Costa Rica.

We went through immigation, then got all our bags, went through customs and then met up with our shuttle driver. He took us in a big Mercedes van the @45 minute drive to Playa Grande. When he made his first pass past a few cars in front us, David leaned over to me and said, "We're not in the US anymore." True that. It was interesting getting into Costa Rica in the night in that you couldn't see anything; only feel the air and smell the smells. Eva tried her best to stay awake for the drive, but ultimately succummed to sleepiness. I held her head up to keep it from hitting the window during the bumpy ride. We finally made it to our house, Playas Costa Grande. We were greeted by Freda and her son Jackson. They helped us to our house, gave us the basics about the house, she showed us the food that she was so nice to stock us up with, and then said goodnight. More about the house and the set-up around here in my next entry.