Judy, Jeff and I rolled onto the beach around 10 AM to join the others already surfing and boogie boarding. All did not go well today but, spoiler alert, it all ended up OK after all.

The beach and waves were, again, perfect. The sun was warm, even in the early morning hours but the breeze and warmish but refreshing water made for a pleasant day.

Then, just when things were looking fine, Esme came from the water with her surfboard, crying. I found her first and was soon joined by two surfing instructors and her mom, Rebecca. Blood was streaming from her right eye. Quickly, Rebecca determined that there were two cuts, one above and one below her eye but that the eye itself was OK. Turns out, a rouge series of waves bounced Esme’s board into her face, causing the damage.

After cleaning Esme up a bit and giving her a chance to recover from the emotional shock, Rebecca took her to a nearby clinic for treatment. Seven stitches later, four above and three below her eye, she was back in action. But obviously water activity for her on this trip was over. She took it in stride and with great maturity. We were all proud of her, for sure.

I didn’t exactly distinguish myself boogie boarding. I was out with Carter but a combination of offshore wind and water current took me out over my head. I started paddling toward shore, but my progress was slow. A trio of lifeguards on boards came to my rescue. One pulled me for 10 or 20 yards until I could touch the bottom and make my own way.

Griffin, the football guy, challenged us to a football competition: who can throw the ball the furthest? Big guys like Jeff and Carter would seem to have the edge, girls and the old guys not so much. But you guessed it, Griffin won by a comfortable margin, scoring extra points for directional accuracy and the quality of his spiral.

We all had a great beach-side lunch at what had become our favorite spot. We even scored a great photo of the eight of us.

Trouble comes in threes and this morning was no exception. The ladies in our group took one golf cart back to the house to change and go shopping. They arrived without a key to the house. Meanwhile, Carter, Griffin and I had decided to go for ice cream. Jeff wanted to stay and take a nap in the lounge chairs. I hadn’t originally planned on going home but when the SOS call came from the house, I said, “No problem, I’ve got a key.” But guess what, I didn’t so I had to return to the beach, at which point Jeff and I took all remaining gear home, ending our beach day.

Back at the house finally, we all enjoyed pool time outside and pool time inside. I wouldn’t have guessed it, but this turned into a pretty competitive group. In the swimming pool the contest was to see who could push off and glide the length of the pool. Carter was the winner in this contest. Then, at the indoor pool table everyone had a go at cue stick and ball competition. No clear winner here, but Jeff’s hard to beat.

Finally, lobster tails and steak for the fish types and chicken quesadillas for the others, prepared by Claudia and her assistant. Griffin balked at the tuna tartar (actually, quite delicious). There was a minor halt to the proceedings: Mom insisted Griffin take a bite, he vehemently resisted until I showed him the time-honored technique of taking a big gulp of water to wash down the required bite.

Here are the pictures from this day. Keep reading afterward for the next day, Saturday.

We’d all been giving our high points and low points for the trip. Esme’s injury was the universal low point. Time at the beach was the high point, closely followed by the zip lining expedition. But today, for me, there was a new low point: Rebecca, Esme and Griffin headed home, being picked up at noon. They, thankfully, made it home without incident but I missed them almost immediately.

Before they left, we headed down to the Ocho Beach for breakfast and a photo op on the beach. The strong sunlight made for a few squints, but we got the job done with the help of a volunteer from a nearby group of tourists.

After the Longos left, the remaining five of us decided on an afternoon nap, since this was New Year’s Eve and we planned on watching midnight fireworks from our rooftop lounge.

Then, around four, Jeff, Reagan, Carter and I headed back to Ocho Beach for a final round of body surfing. It was great fun and we, as now seemed natural, started a game of seeing who could body surf a wave the furthest. Hard to declare a winner, but, let’s say, I didn’t contend.

Claudia had made reservations at La Boca, a restaurant at the end of our road. It specializes in a pig roast. We had two servings of it, a serving of a beef rib roast, two risottos and a pasta dish. The roasted pork was delicious. However, Carter hates anything associated with a pig. He had his moment when Dad insisted that he try a bite. He followed Griffin’s technique. A great New Year’s Eve dinner, nonetheless.

More pool table contests and cards while we waited for midnight. And indeed, at the bewitching hour we could see fireworks, at a distance and partially obscured by trees, competing with a bright moon, at virtually every point of the compass as the beach communities vied for the honor of entertaining tourists and filling them with beer.

Next morning it was all business: finish packing, English muffins for breakfast, van to the airport, burgers for an early lunch, three-hour flight to Miami and, for Jeff and his crew, a two-hour plane change and three more hours to Boston. All went well.

Judy and I retrieved our car and drove from Miami to Naples where our Minnesota friend, Linda Cummings and her friend, John, hosted us for a great salmon dinner. We stayed overnight with Linda. She is a fine artist and, in addition to painting, she creates beautiful jewelry. After a nice fruit and blueberry muffin breakfast, Judy relieved her of a significant portion of her inventory. We drove on north, stopping for lunch and a pass through our favorite grocery store, Detwiler’s to load up with vegetables, fish and meat.

So, our fiftieth anniversary celebration is now officially at an end. It’s been a great year but the last event, with our whole family, was by far the best of the best. One of the kids asked us if we ever anticipated what our children and grandchildren would be like, fifty years ago, when we started this journey. Of course, we had no idea, and couldn’t have dreamed of things developing as well as they have. We are truly blessed.

And for those who want more zip line pictures, here are a few of the 412 pictures taken by a kid I paid $45 to photo our adventure. Oh wel.

Remember how I chatted up the lady at the bar the first day we arrived in Tamarindo? Judy, claiming ancient knees, hips and arm joints, got even by sliding down zip lines in the arms of 30- and 40-something attendants who were more than willing to assist her in her time of need. It all ended on a happy note when they started calling Judy their Mama, and indeed one guy was a year older than her own son Jeff.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I sat too near the sangria pitcher last night and last night we didn’t get back from dinner in town before 9 PM so all I could do was sort through the 400-odd pictures from the last two days before falling asleep.

Day before yesterday, which seems a long time ago, was Sunset Sailing and Snorkeling Day, as it turned out. Griffin wanted to go fishing but we couldn’t find a kid-friendly fishing expedition, so we settled on an afternoon trip on a 66-foot catamaran along with 60-ish other tourists. The trip turned out to be a lot of fun and even Griffin approved.  The fellow sailors were a friendly lot and the bar was open. (“Even though we offer an open bar, this is not a booze cruise,” the web site cautioned.)

The trip didn’t leave until 1:30 PM so I cooked up a batch of crepes (cheese and Nutella versions) and we lazed around the pool until it was time to load up the carts and head off.

We set sail from the Ocho beach, right at the foot of the hill that leads to our house. We had to board tender boats in the crashing surf to reach the catamaran moored maybe a quarter mile offshore. We did so without incident, Nana’s bum hip notwithstanding. We sailed for a bit over an hour with all sails set and the ship’s twin screws doing most of the propulsion duty – the sails were just to make us feel like we were sailing.

Upon reaching a somewhat protected cove the crew lowered the anchor and dispensed mask, snorkels and fins for all who wanted them. All eight of us did and we set off to explore. Frankly there wasn’t much to see until we reached submerged rocks a few hundred meters away where fish could be seen. The sunfish population at the Onawa dock has a more colorful and plentiful display if you don’t mind them nibbling at your toes all the time. But everyone had fun experimenting with the gear and enjoying the water, which is very comfortable – refreshing but not too cold.

Then back on board for a barbequed chicken (good), refried beans (good) and rice (dry and bland). We ate like we’d never be fed again, even though Claudia was on tap to feed us dinner four hours later. But hey, we’re on vacation, so eat, drink and eat some more, right?

We arrived back at Ocho beach in time for sunset as advertised. By the time we were ashore it was dark, and we had to find the light switch on the golf carts to make it back up the hill to home.

Here are pictures from our sailing adventure, but keep reading after for the zip line adventure:

One of many good decisions we’ve made on this trip was to engage Claudia to cook three dinners for us. The last thing any of us wanted to do was to find a restaurant and spend countless hours fighting traffic, waiting for a table, waiting for food and so on. And the meals she’s prepared have been really great. As she did Monday night, she prepared two meals, one for the seafood lovers (paella tonight) and traditional rice and beans Costa Rica style for the others. Everyone was pleased and we greatly enjoyed the relaxed at-home meal.

Griffin beat us all at Skyjo again before we hit the hay around 9 PM.

The only event we reserved before leaving home was zip lining through the jungle canopy. The catch was the departure time: 8 AM Thursday morning, a somewhat painful hour for a few of our number. But everyone was on deck with a pickup breakfast and ready to roll for the van that didn’t arrive until almost 9 AM.

The drive to the zip lining facility took an hour and a bit, traveling back toward Liberia before heading off into the hills. No real mountains here but rolling hills, mostly densely covered with trees and underbrush. The facility we visited was El Roble, which means oak tree so I’m guessing many of the trees we saw were some sort of oaks. If we were in Florida, I’d call them live oaks because the Costa Rican variety had that characteristic shape.

The zip line adventure comprised nine runs of varying lengths, some long, some fast, some slow and all passing just above the trees and undergrowth. Beautiful views on each run.

Griffin and Nana weren’t too sure about zip lining. Griffin’s uncertainty came quite logically, I believe, from a lack of knowledge and experience. Everyone else had done zip lining before. His hesitancy stemmed from lack of knowledge.

Nana had never zip lined before and does, indeed, suffer from ailments that, we hope, will be fixed when she gets her new hip joint on January 10. But as I reported earlier, she, with the help of the friendly and competent guides, did just fine. She actually traversed two lines all by herself and she and I went together on another line. And Griffin? He did great, doing several with a guide, one with Mom, one with Carter and a couple by himself.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Back home, we had the afternoon open. Everyone was a bit tired from the early morning revelry call and the adventure, so we kicked back while Rebecca went down the hill to get sandwiches for lunch. Then, around 4 PM, most of us headed for the Ocho beach and some body surfing. We just spread our towels on the sand – no hired chairs nor umbrellas, just sand and surf. Griffin brought his football and played catch with Carter and Uncle Jeff. The kid can really heave the ball and has a mean spiral. Great fun, except that I dozed off towards the end only to be awoken by a wave that crashed and flowed over half of me and my blanket.

We were on our own for dinner and so we headed out to town hoping to find an Italian restaurant. It was dark, the traffic unbelievably heavy but after a couple of false starts, found a really nice place with outside seating in a grove of trees. Very pleasant setting and even though the whole production took two and a half hours, it worked out just fine. There were hammocks and swings and lemonade to occupy the kids while we waited.

Now it’s Friday morning and Rebecca led a group of kids to the beach so as to beat the crowds. Those of us too lazy stayed home, which gives me time to complete this message. Today is Beach Day so we won’t miss out entirely!

Finally, things are going pretty much according to plan. All eight of us made it to MIA in two vehicles, our Kia and an Uber, got through security precisely per plan. We Ricks have a thing about schedules, sometimes, and it’s nice when all the cells in the spreadsheet get checked off in an orderly fashion.

The flight to Liberia, Costa Rica was smooth, no delays and our luggage made it. Costa Rican customs involves not only presenting one’s passport but providing proof that lodging has been reserved and that a return flight has been booked. Coming to Costa Rica and living on the beach for an indeterminate period of time is frowned upon, I guess.

Our limo ride was at the curb waiting for us. The driver was helpful, friendly, courteous and a safe driver too. A little more than an hour was required to get to our house in Tamarindo. The countryside through which we drove was rural, and it was fun to watch Griffin react to his first exposure to a foreign country. Many of the houses and schools were modest and far different from those in Massachusetts that is his normal stomping grounds.

Our house – Casa Crusero Verde (it shows up on Google maps, if you’re interested) – has four bedrooms, a large kitchen with a bar that seats 10, a large family/living room complete with a pool table and a nice open air sitting area on the top deck. And, of course, the swimming pool. We all fit, although Carter and Reagan, taking one for the team, are time sharing one bedroom, with each spending half time on a living room couch. Rebecca, Esme and Griffin have one upstairs bedroom, Jeff the basement bedroom and Judy and I the other upstairs bedroom.

One interesting feature is that all four bedrooms have baths that are totally outdoors. Private, yes and fully equipped, but Griffin found a frog in his bathroom sink this morning. We were told to lock the bathroom door since an intruder could, in theory, gain access to the house through a bathroom. The house is in a gated community so intrusion is not likely but nonetheless, it’s a bit disconcerting to have to wrestle with a lock and key in the middle of the night.

Shortly after we arrived our two golf carts showed up. I signed our lives away and now we have two vehicles to carry us to and from town, a half mile or more to most spots. Walkable, yes, but the roads are dusty and the temperatures in the high 80s.

Getting acquainted with a new town is always the first order of business, no matter where you travel. Tamarindo was no different. Sure, we’ve all driven golf carts a bunch, but driving in heavy, albeit slow traffic is different. Finding our way to a place for lunch another challenge. Parking is not abundant in this the high season. But we were successful and even managed a grocery store stop to stock the larder before returning home. Lunch was at an outdoor bar and burger joint on the beach and while the service was slow the food was adequate and we could finally relax that most of this trip’s unknowns were behind us.

Our hostess, Claudia, cooked dinner for us, according to plan. She and her assistant prepared a nice mahi-mahi dinner for the four fish lovers in our group and beef tacos for Rebecca, Carter, Esme and Griffin who don’t like to get even close to an unopened can of tuna fish. It was nice to kick back, have a margarita or two and relax from the stress of the trip.

We all turned in at eight, believe it or not.

I’ve been brushing up on my Spanish, which needs a lot of brushing, believe you me. But interestingly, three of the first three people we’ve been in contact with speak French as their first language. Claudia is originally from Montreal. The golf cart guy spoke English with a strong French accent. And then there was the lady I chatted with at the bar at lunch time. She was French-speaking Canadian too.

Now before you get the wrong idea, it was not my plan to ditch Judy after 50 years and take up with some random woman at a Tamarindo bar. What happened was that the bar TV was showing football highlights. Griffin ponied up to the bar, got himself a glass of water, and watched the show while everyone else in our family sat at a table across the way. I, the caring grandfather that I am, sacrificed and joined him at the bar for an Imperial beer, the national drink of Costa Rica.

The lady at the next bar stool gave me her life story. She’s an English teacher at a college in Sudbury, Ontario and was adopted into a French-speaking family. This is her 34^th trip to Costa Rica, “My credit card has a huge balance but Costa Rica is the place I love.” She met and befriended a couple in her Sudbury neighborhood. The man, she learned three years later, is her uncle, her deceased father’s brother. I could go on, but you get the drift of our conversation.

So now it’s Tuesday and time for a beach day.

We started with breakfast, mostly consisting of pastries and smoothies that Rebecca, Griffin, Esme and I procured in an early morning run into town. Then, we sat around the pool and opened Christmas presents and the usual array of calendars, thereby completing this year’s calendar exercise, the 22^nd year by the way. We did 35 unique calendars with pictures of family and friends taken over the past year and printed a total of 78 calendars.

Then, we hopped on the golf carts and headed into town and the beach. Main Street Tamarindo fronts the beach and it’s a beach town just like you find in Maine, Florida and probably everywhere that one of the seven seas hits land. But it’s clean, the people so far are quite friendly and the vibe is good.

At the beach we found one guy who rented us a tent-like sun shade and eight lounge chairs. Another guy rented us two surf boards and two boogie boards. A third guy brought us drinks and ran a tab all day long. They don’t give this stuff away and at lunch time Carter, Griffin and I made a run home to get more cash. Lunch, at another surf-side restaurant, took credit cards, thank goodness.

So we had a beach day. Esme and Reagan surfed, Carter, Griffin, Rebecca, Jeff and I did the boogie boarded the waves while Nana held down the fort. We were in and out of the water until 4 PM or so. The waves were good sized, the temperature was in the upper 80s and there was a nice breeze blowing so it wasn’t oppressively hot.

We loaded up the carts and headed home with one crew stopping for more groceries. Jeff whipped up some dip for the chips and made us some great margaritas/lemonade. Some of us took a dip in the pool. Dinner was pizza delivered by a local pizza shop recommended by Claudia.

Dishes were done and a final game of cards played (Griffin won for a second night in a row) by 9 PM.