Between the $35 Bloody Mary and the knowledge that we had successfully checked our bags and made it through security with all pets (and small children) in tact, my anxiety had decreased enormously. Now, we just had to board the plane and manage a 4 hour flight without making too many enemies.

Once again my spending habits came in handy! As a Platinum AA member, we boarded in group 3. (This post was not sponsored by American Airlines, I swear.) We easily made it to our seats without bumping too many already seated passengers and had ample overhead space, important because only one of us didn’t lose their under the seat storage space to a pet.

Nothing we do is ever without a bit of drama and since it had gone so smoothly thus far, I was not surprised when the flight attendant got on the PA system to inform us they had to temporarily suspend the boarding process due to a power outage in the airport. After about 20 minutes, boarding resumed…..until the airport power went out again. Seriously don’t they have generators? (We were still in Charlotte for heavens sake.) Eventually, all passengers made it on board our VERY full flight to Liberia, Costa Rica and we were off.

The flight itself was exactly how I like them….uneventful. I slept on and off, the girls played with their electronic devices, Charlotte and I played a mean game of hangman, Jeff disappeared for a while which was confusing as we were on a plane…where could he go? I had taken Charlotte to the lavatory so I knew he wasn’t there. Turns out he found some extra seats in the emergency aisle and took a breather from the family. Can’t say I blame him but a little warning would have been nice. Evie made the most of his vanishing but I watch way too much Dateline for someone to just disappear on me like that. Let’s just say I was already rehearsing my interview with Keith Morrison.

The pets were doing great, read they were quiet. They had all been drugged. There’s a good chance we gave Lucy (the feral cat) a little too much Trazodone as she is tiny and we didn’t really adjust for that. Oooops. Once they were all settled into their under seat spaces, they just chilled. I can’t say for certain that they slept but we didn’t hear from any of them until our descent. The woman, who had the misfortune of sitting in our row, didn’t even realize we had pets until Edith regaled the plane with the song of her people as we landed.

Once on the ground, the Hlavas stayed put until the last passenger deplaned. Just seemed easier. Because we landed late, we did not get a gate with a walkway straight into the terminal. Instead, we had to walk down stairs. This would not have been a big deal but for the fact that 3 adults were negotiating the stairs while also trying to manage 2 Bits, 4 pets, and all of our carryons. It was not pretty, but no one died or fell in the process. And to the best of my knowledge there is no video documenting just how ridiculous we looked.

Next stop, immigration. After a bit of a hike, we made it to the extremely long tourist immigration line. As if we had her practice and right on cue, Evie once again fell to the floor, refused to move and she too regaled the airport with the song of her people. Just as I was about to lose my fricking mind because COME ON we were in the home stretch….we discovered that in Costa Rica, they accommodate special needs kids. We were moved to a very short special needs line with the wheelchair folks and the other kids pitching fits. There were only 3 families in front of us. It was Ah-mazing.

The immigration woman was very efficient. She asked us where we were staying, typed some stuff somewhere and the next thing I knew we were collecting our 16 pieces of luggage. There were two guys unloading luggage and fortunately they were willing to help us. We got everything loaded onto carts and then pushed our way to the xray machine. The folks behind us were none-too-pleased to see our 16 pieces of luggage being unloaded put through the xray and then reloaded. But Pura Vida baby. The customs agent handling the xray machine asked us about our pets and took our paperwork and sent us on our merry way.

Next stop…..each bin meticulously inspected by another customs agent. There was a bit of a fight about our ziploc bag of dry dog food. The inspector was not pleased that the xrayer didn’t flag it. The xrayer came over and they had a passionate discussion about whether or not the dog food counted as agriculture and could be admitted. The xrayer won and Daisy had dinner that night.

I had just purchased an instapot/airfryer specifically to bring to Costa Rica. Much like the dog food, it was not well received by the inspector. Not quite sure why. I had removed it from the packaging to pretend like it wasn’t new but I guess he figured it out. Jeff had to fill something out, but we got to keep the instapot and we were finally on our way!

Of course the guys that helped us load our bags on the carts couldn ‘t exit the airport and the security said we couldn’t go back and forth to move the carts. But folks in Costa Rica are super nice and security found someone to help us get everything to the van pick up location. After a 10 minute wait, 3 guys loaded up a large van to the tippy top. Jeff made his way to pick up our rental a car while the rest of us were packed in with all the luggage. I highly recommend bringing lots of $5, $10 and $20 dollar bills if you ever make a move like this. We did a lot of tipping and it was worth every penny.

Only one more hurdle, the 1 hour drive to the rental house. The driver was hilarious and very friendly. At one point he asked me if I liked “Music of country.” which I interpreted to mean music of the country i.e. Costa Rican music. He actually meant country music. We sang along to Shaboozy, Dolly Parton and Morgan Wallen while watching the stunning Costa Rican scenery roll past. It was a twisty, bumpy ride and both Kylie and Evie looked like they were going to throw up at any second but they both managed to keep their lunch down.

When we arrived at the house, Mike, our very nice Canadian landlord, was waiting for us with a very cheerful “Welcome Home.”

Home, indeed.