Posted at 11:03 am by taryngirl, on September 29, 2024
7/6/24
When we woke up today, my husband was not feeling well at all. Apparently he was awake all night with stomach issues. The rest of us felt fine, so I thought maybe he was dehydrated from the day before. The girls and I went to breakfast and then went and got chairs near the beach.
Here you can see the vendors who walk up and down the beach trying to sell their items.
We walked down to the part of the beach where they surfed yesterday. It was not rocky in that area, so we felt safer going out into the waves with no water shoes.
This is looking back at that area. (There is public parking here so it was much busier. This is also the area where alot of the vendors were stationed.)
I found this beautiful starfish!
I also found this guy again on the wall right in front of our chairs:
And this interesting insect appeared on my bag:
I had gone back to the room to check on my husband a few times, and he was not better. He couldn’t get out of bed and didn’t anything to eat or drink.
It started raining again, so we moved into the restaurant to a table for some drinks and cards.
We didn’t really have a plan for dinner tonight. One family wanted sushi, and the rest wanted Italian.
The Italian restaurant was attached to the resort, so it was just a quick walk to get there. This is the kitchen area where they made the pizzas and pastas! It was open air, and right where the very limited seating was.
Here you can see the street and how close it was to the seats.
I had the spaghetti bolognese and it was so good!
This wrapped up our trip to Costa Rica! It was certainly a whirlwind. The next day we had breakfast and then boarded our private transportation to the Liberia airport, which was about 45 minutes away.
(My husband was still very sick. He didn’t go to dinner, but survived the trip home. After we got home, my sister-in-laws family all also weren’t feeling great. We think it was due to the water in Tamarindo (traveler’s diarrhea)! Not everyone drank bottled water. My two girls and I drank bottled water. Everyone was back to normal in about two weeks.)
Posted at 12:18 pm by taryngirl, on September 27, 2024
7/5/24
We woke up to this amazing view! It was so peaceful at 7:00 a.m.
We weren’t quite ready for breakfast yet, so we decided to take a stroll on the beach until the other families were awake. Our sleep schedules were STILL whacked out!
Walking from our room out to the beach:
30 minutes later, the sun was coming out! We hadn’t seen it very much so we were soaking it in.
The view looking from the path towards the resort rooms and pool:
There were so many interesting shells on the beach!
This was low tide. You can see some rocky formations in the water that you can’t see during high tide. This was important to know if swimming!
Looking back from the beach to the resort:
That white wall is what separates the private property of the resort and the public beach.
Looking back at the resort and this is to the left:
These ladies set up on the beach to give 1 hour massages for $35. They were nonstop busy! They must be good because they consistently had patrons!
I spotted a giant iguana!
It was almost 8 a.m. now and we were getting hungry. We decided to head back to the resort to the complimentary breakfast buffet.
This is outdoor seating for either the bar or you could bring your food here. It was right next to the beach.
FRESH MANGO! I couldn’t get enough of it! And of course my rice and beans.
After our delicious breakfast, we went to get some seats for a beach day. You could go horseback riding right on the beach! You could just approach the men with the horses. I’m not sure of cost, as we didn’t do it.
Another funky shell my daughter found!
Such a variety!
The view looking up from my chair:
Here you can see the chairs that were available. We did pull them up closer to the wall. It was very hot and humid!
My girls knew they wanted to take some surf lessons, as Costa Rica is a very popular surfing spot! We didn’t book anything in advance, but there were several vendors right on the beach or on the street right next to the beach. We gathered pricing from a few different places and ultimately decided to go with Iguana Surf. These four participated in a small group. Everyone was given a rash guard to wear and they were matched up to the correct size board. There were lockers to lock things up, showers, changing rooms, and water.
After everyone had their boards, we headed back across the street to the beach. There were 6 total people in the group. Completely by chance, the other two participants were in the cooking class that our family did when we were back in La Fortuna!
This was the area on the beach where the lessons took place:
They had some instruction before they entered the water.
Everyone was able to get up and catch a wave multiple times!
At some point my oldest daughter’s nail got ripped off. So she had to make a visit to the lifeguard station.
The solution was putting bandages and then a rubber glove on top.
In total, the session was about an hour long.
We thought it was fun and well worth the money! There were also stations that would just rent you the surfboard for the day if you didn’t want lessons. The lessons were helpful though.
After surfing, we went back to hang with with the rest of the family on the beach. It started raining again…surprise!
We decided to head for cover at the resort restaurant and grab some lunch.
Tacos:
Grilled Chicken:
Pizza!:
Everything was delicious!
Since it was still raining, we decided to chill here for awhile and eventually started playing cards. It was a lazy afternoon.
We were going out for dinner in the town. This was the view while leaving the resort!
Our group!
Patagonia Argentinian Grill & Restaurant was just a five minute walk from the resort. I did make reservations through Facebook since we were a large group, and they were very easy to work with.
We started with some bread and drinks.
(The restaurant was open air! They did have several fans going though.)
This was SO FUNNY! My father-in-law ordered the Provoleta (grilled provolone cheese), and he doesn’t really like cheese! He thought it was going to be like mozzarella sticks and was pleasantly surprised when this arrived:
It was a HUGE portion and I think everyone got a dip in.
I was ecstatic when I saw empanadas on the menu! Of course I ordered one!
This was SO GOOD!
Here are a a variety of steaks and sauces:
We were celebrating my father-in-laws birthday! The staff at this restaurant was amazing. The food was delicious. And I would highly recommend if you are in the area!
Overall, our day was perfect. A little bit of beach, surfing, hanging with the family, and a yummy dinner. We weren’t going to let the rain ruin our time!
Posted at 7:57 pm by taryngirl, on October 21, 2022
9/24-26/22–Saturday, Sunday, Monday
My cousin, and traveling partner, has a place in Anna Maria Island. A few months ago she asked me if I’d like to go down with her for a girl’s trip. YES, OF COURSE! I love this area. The beach is perfect with white sand and shells, and usually very calm, clear water.
HOWEVER! Right before we were getting ready to go, a “tropical system” was developing. As our husbands were sending us off, one was all…”have a great adventure!” While the other was all…”you guys are nuts!” Haha!
We usually fly from Lehigh Valley Airport on Allegiant. It’s a super small airport, and way better than Philly! It’s less crowded, usually reasonably priced and the flight is quick. I have the Allegiant credit card, so besides priority boarding, I get one free drink of any kind. They have these new, cute little mixers!
At this point the Tropical Storm/Hurricane was supposed to be centered somewhere around Tampa on Wednesday, which is just north of our location.
Our other cousin that lives in Bradenton picked us up from the airport and drove us to the condo. We had to take stock of the grocery situation and hit the store. Already there were signs for limits on water, and it was practically sold out, as well as toilet paper.
We got Publix subs to have for dinner. (If you haven’t had one, I highly recommend!) We did want to check for water somewhere else, and luckily the CVS on the island had some! Here’s a gorgeous sky while crossing the bridge.
This evening was pretty uneventful. We did see that Jim Cantore was going to be in Clearwater Beach which slightly panicked us since we were just south of there.
Our plan for Sunday was a beach day! And it was perfect to say the least…
It truly was the perfect beach day. We stayed until just before dinner time. The beach was actually pretty full of people considering a hurricane was on the way. We didn’t see anyone on the island really preparing their homes or businesses yet.
We went home and showered and headed out to meet our other cousin for dinner at a new-to-us restaurant called Old Hamburg Schnitzelhaus.
This place was SUPER CUTE inside! It was like we were sitting in someone’s kitchen.
Here’s a peek at the menu along with some specials:
I couldn’t pass this goodie up!
There were so many good things on the menu, that I really couldn’t decide…
I finally decided on the Beef Stroganoff! It was DELICIOUS!
Someone else ordered the Italian Schnitzel:
And someone else ordered one of the specials:
There was also a side of the warm German potato salad. It was good!
None of us were still hungry, but we saw a waitress carrying this past our table to another family and couldn’t resist ordering our own. This is the Apfelstrudel and it was AMAZING!
We all really enjoyed this restaurant, and I would definitely eat there again!
Monday we woke up and wanted to have one more beach day before we left. We still had perfect weather!
As we were getting ready to leave, the clouds were rolling in. They were not even from the hurricane yet though! This was just a normal Florida afternoon rainstorm on the way.
The beach was noticeably less crowded. Preparations were underway now on the island. We saw several businesses boarding up with the same supplies that they used for Hurricane Irma. We also saw people getting their sandbags to put at their houses.
Once we were back, we showered, ate dinner, packed up and got ready to head to Orlando. I had booked Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort with my DVC points on Saturday when we arrived. We decided leaving Monday would be better to try and avoid a ton of traffic fleeing Tampa on Tuesday.
Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures 