Jaco & Manuel Antonio

We finished our first week of remotely schooling/working, so it was time for some adventures on the weekend. We headed 40 minutes northwest to Jaco for an afternoon and enjoyed the bustle of a more touristy town. On the way there, we pulled over for this great overlook. When we ventured down to the rocks below, we saw HUNDREDS of crabs swarming the rocks, so we didn't stay too long haha.

Jaco is way more bustling that our spot in Bejuco. We had originally gone back and forth between Jaco and Bejuco as our home base. I think if we had only been here for a few days, Jaco would have been a good place to land, but since we are here for longer, the quiet of Bejuco is more appealing. The plethora of restaurants and a much bigger grocery store definitely have their draws though! After walking the strip, we landed at my favorite restaurant so far from this trip: Killer Fish Tacos. It's a super tasty spot located in a nicer area called Jaco Walk.

The next day, we started off the day super early and headed to Manuel Antonio National Park. There's a lot of mixed reviews online about Manuel Antonio, but we just loved our time there. We hiked for a bit and then ended at a beautiful beach nestled in a cove. Along the way, we saw capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, a toucan, a sloth, some deer, and some four-legged animals we couldn't identify. Super fun to see so much! We did this without a guide. You can definitely see more if you hire a guide.

Looking back, this was probably one of the first days that it felt like we pushed Lainey a little too much. We had her stroller, but she still seemed a little out of sorts, likely due to the combination of heat and several days of adventuring. The trails were totally accessible with her stroller, except for a sandy section between the two beaches at the end. 

After getting refreshed with an ice cold coconut at the end of the hike, we stopped for lunch afterwards at El Avion. Literally it's an old plane resting on the edge of the mountain, with a restaurant built around it. It overlooks the ocean with some amazing views!

On Sunday, we headed up to Crocodile Man Tours to take a boat ride through a river that has a bunch of crocs in it. We saw several crocs; a few of them were monsters. The birdwatching was plentiful too.

Dominoing from the day before, some of Lainey's anxieties started making themselves known through some obsessive behaviors. The croc tour itself was totally accessible for her, but I think all of the newness and out-of-routine things were too much today. 

We ended the day back in Jaco at Killer Fish Tacos. You know a restaurant is good if you hit it up two times in three days!

After the next morning spent on the beach with my Mom, Dad, and brother Tim, we had a farewell lunch with them today. It sure was a gift to have all of the McDonoughs here for a visit!

Cool Pool School

 After a few days of exploring the mountains and rainforests, we arrived at our home for the next few weeks in Bejuco. It's a small, sleepy beach town that is exactly what we were looking for. 

The whole idea for this experimental adventure stemmed from neutralizing housing and airfare costs and then living our regular daily routines in a different locale. 

We succeeded in neutralizing our airfare costs by working Southwest Airlines' point system. Our flights were next to nothing (explained here: Free Flights). We were hoping to get our house listed on AirBnB, but just didn't get around to that, so we didn't quite neutralize those costs. Next time (there will definitely be a next time). A cost that I hadn't factored in was the price in renting a vehicle for a month. It was way more than I was expecting. We had contemplated using public transportation or hiring a driver when we needed to go somewhere, but ultimately landed on needing a vehicle of our own to get around. Thankfully, we were able to rent a big van from a friend here, so it has made traveling more comfortable with all of our stuff.

My amazing wife Sara heads up the schooling responsibilities for our kiddos. It's awe-inspiring watching her do her thing. As a former Montessori educator, she is uniquely gifted at meeting all of our kids where they are at and helping them grow their minds. She's been doing it for years now and just continues to wow me at the curriculum she develops. Our kids are so lucky!!

When we dropped anchor in Bejuco, we got into our school/work routines the next day. We want to make sure to experience our adventure here, but we also have school/work responsibilities. We've tried to find the middle ground of those two ends of the spectrum by committing to schooling/working from 8am to 1pm each day for four days each week. Our AirBnB has a pool, so the kids affectionally call their schooling, Cool Pool School. Sara works with one while the other two swim, and they just rotate in and out of the pool all morning. They're loving it. :)

We intentionally chose an AirBnB with a pool, because our oldest LOVES swimming. With her getting out of her normal routine, we thought that having a pool would help any anxieties that might develop. Her autism causes a need for routine, and disrupting that can lead to other challenges. Oddly, she hasn't loved swimming in the pool as much as she usually does. Though she is loving her time at the beach! Special shout-out to our friends at Logan Center for setting up some virtual therapy that she has been so excitedly engaged in!

I was nervous leaving my business for so long, but my ability to do most of my responsibilities remotely has proved to be an easier transition than I was expecting. I've got an amazing team that is carrying on our day-to-day activities to serve our customers with the same level of service as normal. THANK YOU LUCIE, SAM, ASHLEY, AND NOAH!

Once 1:00 hits though, we are done working/schooling for the day and return to exploring this beautiful country. We've got several beaches within a few minutes of us and have spent every afternoon thus far exploring them. So far, we've explored Playa Bejuco, Playa Esterillos Oeste, Playa Esterillos Centro, and Playa Esterillos Este.

We said farewell to our first visitors this week. What an absolute joy it was to have my brother Samuel and sister Mary join in on the adventure! My mom, dad, and brother Tim are here for a few more days!

We scheduled surfing lessons for myself and my son Owen for next week. Pretty nervous about that! Heading into the weekend, we are heading north to Jaco for an afternoon and south to Manuel Antonio National Park for a day. Pura vida!

A Few Days in La Fortuna (Mistico, Arenal, Baldi, Bogarin)

After spending a day in Alajuela, close to the airport, we headed up the mountains to the cloud-forest town of La Fortuna. Steep inclines and declines were paired with a multitude of tight turns to make the drive very interesting. 

Along the drive, we saw a sign for bungee jumping and made a spur of the moment decision to pull over and do it! The place was called Eco Bungee. We harnessed up and then climbed the tower that led us to a very lengthy hanging bridge. It took us a long time just to walk slowly across it to the jumping platform (the tiny green area on the right in the picture below). It was so scary walking across that thing! I was the last of our group to jump, and boy did it take me a minute to get my toes to the edge of that platform haha. It was amazing though. Highly recommend!

The next day, we started the morning with a hike through Mistico Hanging Bridges. The trail took us across numerous hanging bridges through the cloud-forest. Arenal Volcano was in our viewpoints for most of the hike, and we were fortunate to have clear skies to grab some killer views of the volcano. 

After some hesitation, we opted to do the whole hike with Lainey in her special needs stroller. They had told us it would be manageable for the hike. Manageable is a questionable descriptor here. It was a steep hike with square pavers lining the trail for most of it. The inclines were just as challenging as the declines, and the gaps in the pavers made for some challenging terrain. That being said, Lainey wouldn't have been able to have walked the whole trail, so I'm glad we opted for bringing the stroller. Despite the difficulty with the stroller, the amazingness of Mistico was worth the challenges of having the stroller with us.

We capped off the hike with several hours at Baldi Hot Springs.

OK, this place is AWESOME. After reading some reviews of it, I was afraid it would have a water park feel to it, but the few slides were only a very small part of the experience. You basically move from giant ornate pools to more pools, with the temperature of each getting hotter as you get closer to the source of the hot springs. Most pools had swim up bars in them, with water falls along the edges. There's a small waterpark area for younger kids, but our kids were in the big pools most of the time. Allow several hours here for sure. We went Saturday afternoon, and it didn't feel even close to busy in most of the pools. There were plenty of people there for sure, but it's such a massive space that there is plenty of room to spread out. Our whole crew raved about Baldi!

If you do any research about traveling in Costa Rica, theft from vehicles is often mentioned as something to be cautious about. Parking at Baldi was probably the first time I felt concerned about that. Most of the parking is in an unmarked section across from a busy highway. I definitely wouldn't leave any bags or anything in your vehicle here. There's lockers inside that you can use!

We started the next day with a hike through Bogarin Trail. Bogarin is known for sloth sightings, and we were able to see several! We were too cheap to pay for the guides, but thankfully we could see where the guides stopped and pointed lol. There's no way we would have seen the sloths without the guides' help though, so if you want to see sloths in the wild, you should definitely pay for the guides here. We saw a few unique birds here, and my mom even found some tiny Strawberry Poison Dart frogs! Seeing sloths in the wild was on several of our hopeful lists, so it was pretty neat to see several here!

After a tasty lunch stop, our group split up and some went ziplining at Go Adventure Park. There were seven runs here with some rappelling at the end. All the zippers loved their time here!

We wrapped up our time in La Fortuna the next morning with a quick jump in the river at El Salto. This is a local favorite spot with a rope swing that swings into the river. It was a refreshing jump. The terrain was a little challenging for our four-year old, though. 

Next up, the beach!

Poas Volcano, La Paz Waterfalls, and Hacienda Alsacia

After a full day of travel, we woke up yesterday in Costa Rica! We had one day in Alajuela before we would head to La Fortuna, so we hit the ground running. Poas Volcano, La Paz Waterfalls, and Hacienda Alsacia were the travel destinations for the day.

Seeing a volcano was one of the things I've been most excited about, and Poas Volcano lived up to the hype. After a short hike up, we peered into the crater of a volcano!

Because of its high elevation, Poas is often cloudy. We were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day.

We use a special needs stroller periodically. We opted to not use it for this hike. While the trail up was paved, it would have been challenging because of the incline. 

After getting some treats at the cafe at the bottom of Poas, we headed on to La Paz Waterfalls. I've been using Verizon's international plan with great service, but we had zero service atop Poas. Thankfully, we had downloaded the map for the area offline. I highly recommend this if you're traveling international. On Google Maps, just click on your profile picture in the top right and then click "Offline maps".

The driving has been... interesting. With the added challenge of driving a stick shift van for the first time, the curvy hills and the intense inclines/declines have been an adventure. Add in some thick fog that comes out of nowhere, some traffic laws that are loosely followed, and scooters zipping around you in the city, and I can see why people have commented on driving in Costa Rica so much. Totally manageable, but just very different.

We had hesitated doing La Paz Waterfalls because it's pricey, but boy was it worth it. None of us were expecting the lush landscape or the plentiful animals, let alone the bigness of the waterfalls. Highly recommend. 

Sloths are native to Costa Rica and have been high on our list of things to see. We were able to cross them off our list in La Paz. They lived up to their cuteness, and it was mesmerizing watching their painfully slow movements.

We meandered through the other animal areas and enjoyed a nice lunch buffet, before heading to the waterfalls. WOW! Alongside a nice trek, there were five absolutely stunning waterfalls!

We opted to take our stroller this time, and it wasn't as accessible as we thought it would be. We were glad we had it, though. Travel tiredness started kicking in, so it was a nice way to give Lainey some rest. There were too many stairs at the waterfall part, but there was a place to drop off our stroller, and they brought it back to the front for us. I'm not sure if it was the sounds of the waterfalls or the heights of the stairs, but Lainey was visibly uncomfortable and anxious during the waterfalls. Just something to think about if you visit with somebody on the autism spectrum.

We were all pretty wiped at this point, so we almost skipped Hacienda Alsacia. I'm so glad we didn't! Hacienda Alsacia is Starbucks' only coffee farm in the world. They use it primarily as a Research and Development facility to then aid the multitude of farms they source from around the world. Because we were tired, we opted out of the coffee tour, and instead rested in the cafe overlooking the coffee farm. It's just stunning and was the perfect way to round out the day. I worked at Starbucks through my college years, and Sara and I have many special memories associated with Starbucks, so the visit was extra meaningful.

After a days' worth of travel delays, my brother Samuel is joining the fun. On to La Fortuna today for a few days! 

Mapping It Out

Costa Rica (the red country on the map below) is about the size of West Virginia and is positioned between Nicaragua and Panama, with much of the country having coastlines along the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Numerous volcanoes, rain forests, cloud forests, and coffee/spice farms populate the terrain. 

There are two main airports to fly into in Costa Rica: Liberia and San Jose. Both offer a wealth of activities and sights to see within a couple of hours. We ultimately chose to fly into San Jose (#1 on the map below), because that's where a personal contact lives that is going to assist us with renting a vehicle. Once we figured out which airport, it was then easier to put together our itinerary.

We are spending the first few days of the adventure by being tourists with the whole McD clan. My siblings and parents will be joining us in Houston for our connecting flight into San Jose!

We've got a couple days in Alajuela to explore Poas Volcano (2) and a waterfall. Then we will head to La Fortuna for a few days to check out Arenal Volcano (3) and so many other fun things in that area.

Then we hope to settle in a little bit into our work/school routine at our main base in Bejuco (4). Bejuco is right on the beach, nestled between the popular destinations of Jaco and Manuel Antonio. 

Because this is a longer trip, we had to structure in time to work and school. We are hoping to stick to a schedule of doing that 8am-1pm each weekday. That will hopefully leave further adventures for the late afternoons and weekends.

Our bags are mostly packed and we are getting some final trip prep items checked off the list!

Adventure is out there. And it's also right here.

We've read the books, jumped on several consulting calls with locals, watched other people's YouTube v-logs, and followed the gobs of posts within Costa Rica social media posts. It's been a year and a half of planning and thinking through all the details to make this month-long experiment a success.

Here we are days out from our departure. We should be all set then, right?

Eeeeee.
Eeee.
No.

Excitement has turned to fear and questions.
So many questions...

Will our kids get homesick? They like their home and routine; will they like this adventure?

Will our kiddo on the Spectrum be ok with the two plane rides down and the two back? Will we escape public meltdowns? Will the people sitting behind us be understanding? Will she ok be in the tiny bathroom on the plane?

Will we be able to fit everything in our luggage for a month? Will our first flight leave on time so that we don't miss our connecting flight? Will all of our bags arrive? Will they all fit into our rental van? 

Will we all make the month without getting sick? Are we just asking to get covid? Will the travel exhaustion lower the seizure-threshold of our oldest? What if she has a seizure? What if it's a bad seizure? 

Will our fair skins be ok for that long in the sun, that close to the equator?

What if somebody steals Lainey's iPad that she uses to communicate with us? Can we get a replacement iPad shipped to us quickly?

What if it's foggy on the days that we are supposed to visit the volcanos? What if we don't see any sloths? What if a monkey steals our flip flops? What if a scorpion finds it way into our beds?

What if I can't get up on the surfboard and look like a fool? Will our wi-fi be sufficient to work and school remotely? What if everything costs more than what we are thinking? What if all my employees quit?

Is this REALLY a good idea?

Slowly thinking through logistics is what got me to eventually realize that we could still adventure, even with three kiddos and one of them having some extra challenges.

At some point though, the logistics and planning can get in the way of the adventure and WHO you're adventuring with. One of my favorite Pixar movies is Up. I cry every time during the opening scene of Ellie and Carl falling in love and growing old together. Though timid at first, they follow the motto of one of their heroes: "Adventure is out there!" They live life and pursue adventures as they come. After Ellie dies, Carl reflects: "You will always be my greatest adventure."

So, yes, this adventure may all be a disastrous experiment (though I suspect and hope it won't be). Our plans may alter. We may miss things due to weather, sickness, or things outside of our control. Fears of logistical failures still very much exist. 

The whole point of this adventure, though, isn't where we are going or what we are doing.

It's who we are doing it with.

It's for Sara.
Lainey.
Owen.
Chloe.
Me.

(And the very special added bonus of sharing parts of our adventure alongside Mom and Dad McD, Samuel, Tim, Mary, Mom and Dad Spit, Scotty, Jeffie, and Lincoln.)

Adventure is out there.
And it's also right here.

Airport Security 'FastPass' - TSA PreCheck

I hate standing in lines. Hate it. My kids usually end up uttering some sort of complaint when we are standing in line for something too. I try and say something dad-like, "Hey, this is a really fun thing. Don't let a poor attitude about waiting ruin the fun thing."

But the truth is, I'm right there with my kids and often find myself thinking:

"What's holding this line up?"

"Surely, there's a more efficient way to get us through here than what we are doing."

"Come on already."

While I hate having my time wasted, having a kiddo on the autism spectrum amplifies my need to find ways to not stand in lines. Fun experiences can quickly morph into sweaty wrangling if lines are too long. I'll spend hours ahead of a trip researching how to stand in line less, and there are usually a few hacks we adopt. 

Because of their security lines, airports have long been a barrier for my family when traveling. What used to be a fun beginning of an adventure has turned into a major stressor. On a recent trip, we were able to make use of a special-needs stroller, and all of a sudden airports and their security lines became accessible for us.

I'm thus a little embarrassed that it took me this long to realize the line-skipping techniques at the airport. For $16/year, you can dodge the airport security lines and jump into the TSA PreCheck line. It's $78 per person, but it's good for five years, AND all kids under 12 can skip the lines with you. When I realized that my credit card then also reimbursed this fee, I felt silly for not jumping on this sooner.

In addition to having a shorter line, you also don't have to take your laptops out of your bag or take off your belt and shoes. 

It's a quick two-step process. Sign-up online and then register for a five-minute fingerprinting.

Do yourself a favor if you haven't done this already. Wait in line less and sign up for TSA PreCheck here: tsa.gov/precheck