December 20th-28th, 2014
My North American family decided to try and get together to
celebrate Christmas. The last time we
were all together was back in 2007 in Fairmont, BC. After a lot of challenging planning to decide
upon whether to go to an all-inclusive resort or a cruise followed by a
location that would suit four different families with children ranging in ages
from 6 to 18 while keeping the costs down as much as possible, a new Dreams
resort in Costa Rica was chosen (Dreams has many resorts throughout the
Caribbean). All of this planning and
debating occurred while I was still stuck in India so I was unable to commit to
the vacation until months after the rest had already booked and I was unable to
simply join in on my sister Julie’s reservation as we had been told by the
travel agent earlier. Thankfully my
sister Sarah found an available room from the 20th to the 26th
(probably from a cancellation) and we figured once I was there that perhaps I
could extend my stay.
In true backpacker style, I arrived at the fancy resort on
the collectivo, the local bus. As I
checked in I remarked to the young lady behind the desk how I got there and she
commented that she didn’t know of any other guests who came to the hotel on a
chicken bus…well, there’s always got to be a trendsetter. My sister Sarah came to the check-in as she
had made the reservation under her AAA credit card which had provided a
discount. The resort looked gorgeous and
I knew we were in for a fun Christmas vacation.
We walked out to the pool where I caught up with her husband Brad and
their daughter Brenna. We had a drink
(hey, it’s all inclusive, there’s no sense in wasting time!) then Sarah, Brenna
and I headed up to check out my room. We
opened the door and immediately we could tell that someone was still occupying
the place. The bed was unmade, there
were toiletries all around the sink, a suitcase over by the window. Whoops.
Thankfully we didn’t walk in on someone but what a mistake by the
hotel. We returned to the front desk and
while we waited for the problem to be corrected, my stepsister Corinne, her
husband Glenn and their kids Paige and Dylan came running over (okay, well just
the kids came running over, but you get what I mean). All of the problems that the family
encountered in deciding on a place and booking quickly disappeared as we headed
out to the pool after I dropped my stuff off in my room.
My fancy schmancy room:
Dylan modelling my bathroom:
The main grounds:
The day after my sister Julie and her family arrived. The next handful of days would consist of a pleasant cycle of breakfast or brunch followed by pool time with cocktails, and perhaps some volleyball in the pool or water polo. There was a nice swim up bar which our family took over from time to time. Often we played some beach volleyball before sunset. Then it was out for dinner, which unfortunately was never a quick affair. Sarah joked that she was going to write in her TripAdvisor review “It’s a great place, if you don’t want to eat.” The problem was that we had a large group, maxing out at 19 people once everyone arrived, and the restaurants claimed that they wouldn’t take reservations but we later learned that not to be true. We also discovered that the best way to not spend the whole evening waiting for supper was to go early or go late. The resort did provide a number of different restaurants along with the main buffet (which I actually thought was quite good). There was a Japanese/Chinese restaurant, a fancy one which didn't allow children called Portofino, another named El Patio and a Seaside Grill. To head out to dinner we often met up at the appropriately name “Rendezvous”, a piano bar lounge. A few evenings that we hung out there, some guests would get up and play the piano and it was amazing the number of great pianists there were, often in their late teens. My hypothesis was that there were many affluent families staying at the resort and many kids from rich families are expected to go through piano lessons when they’re young.
The St. Croixs arrive:
The mustachios:
At the pool bar:
The kids on the pool wall...being photobombed by Brad:
Matt and Glenn soaking it up:
Cousins, Rachel and Brenna:
Paige with her mom Corinne:
Rachel and Paige:
The girls gettin' down in the disco:
Me taking on Matt in a big game of chess:
Brenna on the bungy trampoline:
My nieces Rachel and Emma:
Dylan going for a dunk with Uncle Brad watching:
Colourful Brenna:
The many pools of the resort:
The "Dylan Flop":
And the "Brenna Flip":
Brayden's Flip:
Our fancy dinner in Portofino
Sophisticated Emma:
Paigey, Rachel and Brenna with my sisters in the background:
Chicken fight!
Rachel in net for water polo:
Water volleyball:
Dylan, Joel, Brayden and Jaxon ready to catch a football:
On Christmas Eve there was a buffet dinner with a bit of a
show with dancers on the main lawn. They
performed traditional dances from various Central and South American countries
but it was the same 4 or 5 dancers who kept quickly switching up their
costumes. It was entertaining
nonetheless.
Snowflaked Brenna:
Corinne and her daughter Paige (who seems to be in so many pics!):
The whole family was together for Christmas brunch at the
buffet, a photo session around sunset and Christmas dinner at the Seaside Grill. Good times.
We finished the evening at the Rendezvous lounge where we had a toast to
my dearly departed dad with “boatgas” (what my father called brandy). It was the first time I had been with my
sisters, stepsisters and stepmom since he had died and it was quite emotional…but
good.
Christmas brunch:
All the boys having a girly Cosmopolitan drink outside the Rendezvous:
Chillin'...
Sweet Brenna waiting in the Preferred Lounge with a dangerous red drink:
The Glenns:
Me and my stepmom Nola:
The St. Croixs:
Nola with her daughters:
Nola with all of her grandkids:
Paige and Rachel...again!
Emma and Paige:
Nola, Michelle, Dave and their boys:
Uncle Dave with all his nieces and nephews...I called for a "stick your tongue out" pic:
Rachel, Matt and Emma:
You know who...
But they got surprised by a big wave!
Pura vida!
Brenna with her mum...maybe a few years earlier than Sarah expected to have her daughter join her at a bar:
Pretty good pic by the bartender:
At Christmas dinner:
Brenna is the queen of selfies:
My sisters Julie and Sarah:
As my dad would say "Hallelujah, pass the brandy."
I ended up moving into Julie and Brad’s room for three more
nights after my room reservation ran out.
It felt too soon to leave with everyone there, especially as my stepmom
Nola and stepsister Michelle and her family had arrived just three days before. One day everyone headed out on a day
excursion, but I’ll save that for the next blog entry.
Brenna loved her underwater camera:
Yes, we did have a bit of rain:
My little peeps: Jaxon, Dylan, Joel and Brenna:
My little mermaid:
I borrowed Brenna's camera to do a flip into the pool...and this is the shot I got!
Go Matt, go Matt!
Six year old Brenna took this great picture of her Nana:
Joel and Jaxon enjoying the beach:
Brayden playing some beach volleyball:
Crazy Joelsie:
On my last day I decided to hang around for most of the
afternoon even though technically checkout was at 12pm. I didn’t actually have to check out since I
was in Ju’s room and since I was planning to walk and hopefully catch the local
bus to a kite surfing place 7 kilometres away where I had booked a room I
figured I’d leave around 3:15. Around 2pm
some of the event coordinators came by our group and asked if we wanted to play
bingo. Our family had played the other
day and Corinne had won a bottle of Tequila for her efforts. So who would win today? Well me of course, the guy who was trying to
lay low since I technically should have left the resort at that point. I gave my spoils (a different kind of
Tequila) to Julie for her to take back to the States.
Three thirty rolled around and a game of water polo was
happening and I decided, screw it, I’ll catch the later bus at 6:30 so I hopped
into the pool and into the action for my last game followed by some cocktails
at the swim up bar.
I bid everyone adieu and walked out of the resort into the
darkness of the early evening. I left at
6:15 but as I made my way along the gravel road I started to doubt about the
bus passing by and sure enough, it never appeared. I reached the T intersection for the main
road where there’s a sign for Dreams which said 4.7km. So I knew I was more than half way. A kilometre later a taxi drove by and I
flagged him down and he took me the last couple of kilometres to Cometa Copal,
the kite surfing farm close to the beach.
I was welcomed by Stein, a Norwegian kite surfing instructor who showed
me my room and gave me lots of information.
He seemed like quite the character and I could tell that I was going to
enjoy my stay here.
What a great Christmas vacation with my family!
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