Costa Rica, the Panama Canal and HOME!!

OK, OK... here is my long-awaited post. I'm beginning to wonder if you are all happy I'm home or just want to see me finish my blog?? I think the latter. Anyways, I have to think all the way back to Costa Rica for a sec to make sure I remember all of the fun things we did. As I said before, it was a long 10 days from Hawaii to Costa Rica, which inlcuded finals. So what did Costa Rica mean to everyone??... Celebrate the beginning of summer/ a bittersweet ending to Semester at Sea!! We had only one night in CR and had to spend it wisely, so we had zip lining through the canopy planned for the first day. Zip lining was a lot of fun and the scenery beautiful, but as I speculated, the thrill was not quite the same as jumping out of a plane! AND if you think sky diving is more dangerous than zip lining you are sadly mistaken because I didn't get a scratch sky diving but my arm got burned by the zip line cable.

A majority of the ship took advantage of the cheap hotels and beach home rentals for the last night of being in a port and traveled the one hour to Jaco. This town was a little more tourist-friendly, and had the finer things in life that we had been missing so much, such as Quiznos, Subway, Pizza Hut, you know- the important things! :) Everyone thoroughly enjoyed our one night off of the ship in what seemed like forever. When we went to book a hotel room for the night, we were a little bummed to find the only thing they had left were condos. Since it was rather inexpensive we went ahead and booked it and boy were we pleasantly surprised when we walked into this place! It was gorgeous! Nicer than any rental condo I've stayed in before, even in the U.S. We had a great patio, huge living room, a full kitchen and a pool within 15 feet of our back door. We were all getting a little stir crazy and were thrilled to be on land, if only for 48 hours! The next day, we ate one of the greatest lunches we've had in a long time at Taco Bar, which sold these monstrous fresh fruit smoothies that were phenomenal. After lunch we spent a while laying out by the pool until it was time to head back to Puntarenas to get on the ship.

CR is very under-rated; it is gorgeous and cheap! I highly recommend it for your next family vacation!

Two days after being back at sea we woke up to our entry into the Panama Canal. It was a very neat experience to get to watch us go through and the best part was the BBQ we had on the pool deck. I spent too many hours with the sun beating on my back and got a little fried, which turned very painful very quickly. That put a damper on my plan of sun bathing the last few days on the ship, but that's OK. Keep in mind that finals were over these last four days at sea so you can only imagine how much free time we really had. Jess and I continued our addiction to the TV series 24 and by the end of the voyage we were able to complete 3 full seasons by the time we left. Other than watching 24 we just hung out with our friends and played bored games. Oh we had lots of fun with pictionary... my favorite was having to draw the Virgin Islands.

The last four days seemed to take forever and packing was quite a challenge. What quickly became even more challenging was being responsible for getting myself and about 5 bags into a cab and to the airport. Luckily we didn't have to carry our large suitcases off the ship and they were waiting for us once we got off. Interesting Fact: Michael Bolton's daughter was on SAS and we had no clue until a few days before getting off. Then, as I was standing at the curbside check in at the airport he and his daughter pulled up in their limo and checked in right next to me.

The guy at the counter was quickly very annoyed with all of the stuff I had and kept saying "You know you'll have to pay for all of these bags... they are too heavy... bla bla bla." Luckily only one bag was over weight and after checking in we finally had a few hours before having to board to relax. First thing we did in the airport: located the Chili's and devoured some queso! Oh and it was soooo good, too! My flight left around 6:15 and I arrived at DFW around 8:15. Dad and Girlfriend were waiting for me right outside and it was great to be home! Around 9:50 I dragged Lauren with me to Chipotle, ten minutes before they closed. Lauren explained to the guy that this was my first meal back in the states and it was the number 1 thing I wanted, so the guy making my burrito gave it to me for free! Good thing Lauren was there!

The next night we ate at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Anamias, and I proudly gave the waiter my I.D. when he carded me after ordering my first legal margarita in the States. Ahh, it's good to be back in America, better yet, Texas!!