We stomped through two-feet tall weeds to their lot — number 8, right on the cliff overlooking the ocean. The beach was just a short walk away. Much of the land nearby hadn’t been developed yet — their house would be one of the first.

Lauren: As we walked through the grass to the cliff to look at the view, Uncle Greg kept mentioning to watch out for snakes. He said to extra careful since we was in front… he hypothesized that he’d be rousing the snakes and by the time we passed by, they’d be up, fangs ready, poised for attack.

Beth: As we walked around the rest of the development, we heard howler monkeys screech and watched some of the largest crabs I’ve seen (other than King Crabs served on a dish) run into their holes.

Lauren: Back at Casa Azul, Uncle Greg showed us the plans for the house. We oo’d and ah’d at the three story structure, the wrap-around porches, the would-be incredible sea views, and the fabulous guest bedrooms . The plans were still in the works, and Tony, an architect, spent some time helping them think through some of the spacing and knocked down some unneeded doors (on paper).

Beth: After the group left for errand day, Lauren and I lunged for an amazing luxury — a washer and dryer. We had gone months in the past (in Africa) without seeing a washing machine, and while we could get our laundry done at laundry mats in South America, we were never able do to it ourselves. Or do all the laundry we wanted.

So we threw in a load of our absolutely stinkiest clothes (Lauren: that we had separated from the rest of our clothes with plastic bags because of the stench) and sat down to blog.

Tony had stayed behind and shortly joined us. We had a great time talking about politics, our travels and his family. After a while, he left to go lay in the sun and read, and Lauren and I got back to blogging.

To reward ourselves for getting a blog done, we decided to take a dip in the pool… which quickly turned into a decision to get some aerobic exercise. Since I had broken my leg and Lauren had hurt her knee, we had both been sidelined from running. So we decided to swim laps for 15 minutes.

We were pretty pathetic. I was probably more pathetic because I was too out of breath to really tell if Lauren was struggling. But I breast-stroked my way slowly to one end of the pool, checked my watch, and then slowly swam back to the other end. Each lap took the same amount of time — 30 seconds — but I kept checking my watch just to see if time had magically sped up. It hadn’t. I finally made it through the last minute and was shocked to discover I was sweating while swimming.

Lauren: When the group came back, Uncle Greg wanted to take another walk, so we tagged along down to the other end of the beach. We chatted while stopping periodically to watch the thousands of hermit crabs drag themselves and their shells across the sand. When we got to the end of one of the coves we noticed a big bee hive up by the tree line. Uncle Greg thought that it could be a nest of killer bees, something that has become something of a problem in recent years, so we promptly did an “about face” and walked back to the homestead.

We all took a dip in the pool while Channing whipped up some delicious margaritas and home-made salsa, and we watched the sun go down over the ocean. I stayed in the water for a bit longer, chatting with Tony, as Beth went to help collect firewood for our bbq dinner. When I got out, I saw that a roaring fire was blazing and all the men (and Beth) were down grilling chicken over the flames.

We sat down to dinner at a long outdoor table on the patio. We had chicken, salad, and noodles along with some wine. Halfway through dinner a political conversation was sparked, and Beth was center stage discussing international relations. Uncle Greg, Aunt Susan, and I went to clean up and left the rest of the group to contemplate the larger questions of the military industrial complex and world peace. Channing left to take a dip in the pool with Uncle Greg, and I sat in a chair gazing at the moon and the ocean while Beth, Whitney, and Tony finished up the discussion. I was far too much in vacation mode to strain my brain.

The next day, we woke up to a sun filled sky — no clouds in sight. We had some cereal (something we had not had in some time) and sat down to catch up on our budget. Uncle Greg came and recruited us for some boogie boarding, so we suited up and headed down to the beach.

Uncle Greg swam out to catch the big waves further out, and Beth and I stayed in shallower waters to take some of the more manageable waves (and so that Beth could touch the ground). This was only Beth’s second time out, but she rode several waves all the way into shore.

Beth: For lunch, the whole gang piled into the SUV and we drove to a nearby beach to a restaurant called Lola’s, named after an enormous 800lb pig that lived there.

The beach was white and picturesque as we sat down at our table. Lauren and I got ceviche and fries (it went together better than that sounds) — another treat from Uncle Greg and Aunt Susan. We all ate and relaxed. Afterwards, Channing and some of the others went out swimming and boogie-boarding while Lauren and I held down the fort with Aunt Susan and Whitney.

Suddenly, I spotted the most enormous pig I’ve ever seen.

“Oh my god! Oh my god! There it is, there it is, there it is!” I exclaimed, pointing at the pig and probably scaring some nearby patrons of the restaurant.

Lauren and I grabbed the camera and headed off to take some shots. Someone came by and told us she was friendly and we could pet her, and Aunt Susan and Lauren kept pushing me to pet the enormous beast. But I was barefoot and a little intimidated since she outweighed me by several hundred pounds. So this is as close as I got.

Lauren: After heading home and going online, Beth and I decided to give the old knees a try and went for a nice jog on the beach without incident. We came back, took another dip in the pool and got ready for dinner. We all sat down for dinner again at the big outdoor table and had some delicious orange chicken that Channing cooked and some left overs from the night before.

Whitney baked two batches of chocolate chip cookies and brought out some other sugary delights that she had bought earlier in the day. To work off our sugar high, Whitney, Tony, Aunt Susan, Beth and I played speed scrabble, a game I was reluctant to play at first, but ended up enjoying immensely (Mom - you’d love this one!).

 The next day we went out for some more boogie boarding, and this time Beth got some instructions from Uncle Greg. We had Uncle Greg and Aunt Susan pose for one of our “walk-throughs” for the big video project, and Beth and I went on another jog on the beach. Apparently, Tony and Channing saw us while they were down at the hotel and whistled at us, but since Beth and I are so used to ignoring whistling men, we didn’t bother to see who it was.

For sunset, Beth and I were in the pool again. As we were relaxing, Channing came over and asked, “Red, white, tequila, or beer?” Beth and I had red and white wine respectively, and then Whitney asked, “Would you guys like some cheese and cucumber?” Beth and I kept looking at each other in disbelief. Where are we?

After showering, Aunt Susan told us a hilarious, almost unbelievable story about how she had met Chief Justice Warren Burger back in her 20’s in the airport after returning from a trip to Europe. The story grew more and more outlandish and ended with her making a call to my uncle from the Chief Justice’s house after he asked her what she thought of one of his recent opinions. After all our traveling, Beth and I would be hard pressed to come up with any tale that compared.

That night was our last night and we went to dinner in town at a Peruvian restaurant called Cafe Playa Negra. Beth, thinking back to Lima, couldn’t resist the ceviche and I had some delicious fish with wasabi mashed potatoes. The two of us had planned to really put our collective foot down and forcibly pay for ourselves, but once again we were thwarted by the overly generous Uncle Greg and Aunt Susan.

That night was a full moon, and when we got back to Casa Azul we took time to look at the brightly lit beach and the shimmering water. Beth and I also made sure to savor every minute of the air conditioning that we had left while we chatted with Uncle Greg before bed. The next morning we were all driving to Liberia — Channing, Whitney, and Tony to catch flights home, and Beth and I to head over the border and into Nicaragua. After being spoiled for four days, the thought of returning to the road was somewhat daunting, so we put off thinking about it and drifted off to sleep listening to the waves.

Thank you Channing, Whitney, and Tony and a special thanks to Uncle Greg and Aunt Susan, for letting us share your space, food, and appliances. It was a much needed and greatly appreciated break from our trip!