Last but not least: Manuel Antonio

The last stop on our trip was Manuel Antonio, a city located on the ocean. We splurged this time around and booked rooms at a nice hotel called The Falls. Worth every penny.
Most of our time here was spent just playing and relaxing at the beautiful beaches.

We also saw a ton of the wildlife that Manuel Antonio is famous for. On the drive from Monteverde we pulled over to see these crocodiles hanging out under a bridge:

And this sloth was just chillin in a tree outside of our hotel:
Although I wouldn't consider myself much of an animal person, I went completely ape shiz (pun intended) over the monkeys. I seriously wanted to bring one home with me.

You can hear me spazzing out over them in these videos:

There was a restaurant across from our hotel that was built around an old military plane (for you history buffs, it is the twin of the one involved in the Iran-Contra Crisis). Delicious food and it had an incredible view of the ocean.

And even though we were in a foreign country, we still caught a bit of the NBA playoffs:

Our last day ended up being overcast and a bit stormy, which was kind of a bummer since that is the day Josh rented a surfboard. The boys attempted surfing on the crazy choppy waves, but Heather and I were content to just relax on the beach.

Since our flight left at 6 in the morning, we decided to be adventurous and, instead of booking a hotel for that night in San Jose, just left Manuel Antonio in the early evening. Despite a few stops (we checked out the city of Jaco, and I got my last dose of Costa Rican food in the form of some rice, beans, and amazingly delicious fresh fish), we still rolled into San Jose before midnight. So we killed a few hours at Denny's and then ended up trying to sleep on the floor of the airport. Kind of miserable but all part of the traveling experience, right? The 6-hour flight home was one of those hellish ordeals where you are so tired but can't sleep. I felt like a cranky toddler and by the time we landed I was about ready to pull my hair out.

But the nice part about the flight home sucking is that it makes you forget that you're coming back from a beautiful place where you got to just hang out with your husband and friends all day with no real-life worries to speak of. Instead you just focus on how awesome it's going to be to get home and collapse onto your bed. Of course, that feeling died pretty quickly and now I'm ready for another vacation. India next spring, Butch?