What are we doing in Costa Rica?

We brought a few items that have proved so useful this summer that I think they deserve some recognition. We highly recommend the following for a trip like this: 

Bungee cord. Our only gripe with this is that we only brought one. It’s excellent for Macguyver-style baby-proofing, securing groceries or a pizza box on your bike, and more. 

Swiss army knife. Whether we needed tweezers for splinter removal or a knife for slicing my flat-and-wound-up-in-my-bike-spokes tire free, this was an excellent and compact tool. 

Inflatable bedrail. Instantly transforms any regular bed into a safe place for Dean to sleep. 

Travel booster seat. This little thing was impressively sturdy and kept Dean well contained at home and in restaurants. 

First aid kit. Probably a no-brainer, but I was amazed at how often I turned to my trusty kit. I learned never to leave the house without it!

GPS device. Intuition is great when there are no road signs telling you which windy road to take, but knowing which direction your traveling — and maybe even having a map — is even better. 

What didn’t we need? A billion diapers. Every grocery store I’ve entered in this country has had them for sale. Other than that, I think we packed pretty admirably.

As I write this, departure is 11 hours and 41 minutes away. We’ve been planning this trip for nine months. When something is nine months away, you think you have all the time you need. I meant to be organized, well-prepared. But things have a way of taking longer than you think. And life has a way of “happening” while you’re making your plans.

Here’s the list of things that did not get done. I meant well, honest:

1. watch all 52 episodes of “Destinos” (I’m on #18)
2. get my routine blood tests and follow-up with my physician
3. write a User Guide to our house for Ashley
4. get a safety deposit box for all our most important documents
5. have our lawyer draft a medical power of attorney and advance directive
6. weigh less than 180 pounds (I lost ten, but fell short of my goal by five)
7. pick up all the poop in our yard
8. finish the five books I’m reading
9. renew my driver’s license
10. cook all the food in our fridge

I suppose it’s not too bad. There’s a lot more I did get done. I am now convinced that if you’re planning a trip longer than, say, three weeks, it will rapidly approach the quantum of effort required to move there.

Yesterday morning I was driving our stuff to the storage unit and got rear-ended. It wasn’t a bad accident — the car is fine, and while I’ve had some soreness, my chiropractor saw me right away and helped me a lot. But still, it wasn’t ideal timing! Then we noticed Frida the dog was limping. A visit to the vet this morning revealed a torn ligament in her leg (basically nothing is holding her bones together!), which requires surgery. The “cheap” surgery is $800 and there’s a waiting list for the doggie specialist surgeon who flies in to perform it. We are lucky to have a house sitter who is willing to perform the nursing duties if the procedure is performed this summer.

On the plus side, we are ready to go and fairly un-frantic.

And what’s the good argument for taking small children on a journey like this? Well, they’re very cute and funny and charming, yes, but they also wear diapers (Dean full time and Graham overnight). Diapers, I have discovered, are the ultimate packing tool. They fill in awkward gaps, protect fragile items, and they’re small enough to squeeze into all manner of crevasses. We have about 150 in our various suitcases, so I’m glad they’re good for something!

Only 12 more hours until we’re in the air. Hasta la vista!

Today I devoted myself to the Herculean task of packing our bags for the trip, and I think I am very close to being done.

The challenge is two-fold. Not only must I figure out how to pack 12 weeks of clothes/toys/gear/etc. into a quantity of luggage that Zach and I can manage along with two rowdy boys in a variety of airports, I also have to figure out what, exactly, we need in those 12 weeks. I mean, this is a town without a gas station — it’s not like we can just pick up anything we forget or didn’t think of at the local Target.

However, I embrace the challenge:

Doing this trip with children obviously changes the rules a bit. For example, I would never stash snacks throughout my luggage if it were just me — but knowing that I can ply the boys with a cereal bar in a mid-flight meltdown is worth the inconvenience.

In case you’re interested, it looks like we’ll be bringing the following luggage:

• Eagle Creek Orv Trunk
• Eagle Creek Explorer LT (Women’s Fit)
• An older Eagle Creek suitcase
• Eagle Creek Toy Chest 90
• LL Bean Adventure Duffel

We, um, like Eagle Creek. I’m also using some compression bags (the kind where you roll the air out) and some Rick Steves packing cubes, which are sort of flimsy but serve the purpose of keeping stuff together. Very useful

13 items left on my to-do list… and just a few days to do them in.

Every couple of days, in the middle of endless preparations, one of us will look over and say, “Remind me again why we’re doing this?”

Without a doubt, it is easier not to take the trip. It’s easier to stay home. We could wait until the kids are older, or we have more money, or we’re retired, etc. etc. We’re going now because we can, and because we’re treating this as only the first of potentially many more “outings” like this.

I’m not all that interested in adventure. Though this is probably adventurous on some level, it’s not the adventure it would have been, say, fifty years ago. I hope we will learn a lot and become better citizens of planet earth. I hope my children will grow up comfortable with all kinds of people and different cultures, and this is just one small step in the grand scheme of things.

And now we have just 25 days left to get the 34 things I just put on my To-Do list accomplished, not to mention stuff like teaching the boys to swim, throwing Graham a birthday party, attending a birth, celebrating Mother’s Day with our families, teaching a series of childbirth education classes, keeping the house from falling down or Dean from scaling the bookshelves, eating, sleeping, and exercising…

To say that I feel overwhelmed would be putting it mildly. But that’s ok, because I’m extremely excited about our upcoming adventure. I also have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that all the crucial stuff is taken care of — we have lodging in Costa Rica. We have a house sitter. We have passports and tickets. Things are coming together.

Today I (hopefully) booked our hotel in the San Jose area for our first two nights in the country. The Hotel Bougainvillea looks pleasant and has some awesome gardens, including frog ponds. I await confirmation from their reservation system eagerly.

When we decided to make this trip, we didn’t realize how much work we were going to have to do to get ready.

Usually, you can take a trip like this:

• buy some plane tickets
• book your accommodations
• pack your bags

If you have pets, you also have to arrange to board them.

Here, in no particular order, is a sampling of preparations we have to make for this trip:

• passports for the boys
• find a house sitter who will not kill our pets or burn the place down
• figure out how to get our mail abroad
• figure out how my clients can pay me while we’re gone
• buy some more luggage (not larger than 62 linear inches!)
• update our wills
• get a bank safety deposit box for our important documents
• get mini-storage for our junk that doesn’t belong in the house
• give away or sell a lot of other junk that we will never need again
• learn Spanish (thanks, Destinos!)
• get swimming lessons for the boys
• figure out how to get to the airport (12 weeks in the parking lot? I don’t think so!)
• try to put certain bills to sleep (cell phones, Netflix, auto insurance)
• get a Skype account and SkypeIn number so we can stay in touch while we’re gone
• start this blog!

That’s not a complete list by any means. All this is challenging, but fun too. That’s the whole idea.

We just got sooo lucky. Our hosts at Loco Natural recently finished building a beautiful new house, and we got to switch our booking to it! Take a gander at the Bird House.

In just 45 days, 1 hour, and 2 minutes we’ll be touching down in San José. Not that I’m counting or anything.