The Trip Home

We had an interesting time going to the USA. Our trip home from Costa Rica was the opposite of “pura vida”.  (Pura vida is a Costa Rican saying for "great life") At the airport we had to wait and wait for one extra day to take off.  Before we took off, I was a little worried. When we were taking off, I was glued back in my seat.

We flew 2 long hours to get into Florida. I felt overjoyed when I could see the land below me. I watched the ground until we landed in Florida and when I was in the plane I saw 5 baseball stadiums, 2 tennis courts, and 1 beautiful sunset.

In Florida, we literally needed to run to the gate. For the second time, the plane took off. We flew another 2 hours, and we landed in Detroit.

When we arrived, I felt really tired. I thought Joel was lucky because he fell right asleep. Mom and Joel stayed with the luggage and the rest of us went down the elevator into the parking to try to find our mini-van. My dad looked at the text that said where the van was.  Because he was so tired, he thought it said “A1” and it really just said “A”.

We asked security people if we were in the North Terminal and I wanted to speak Spanish to any brown person I saw.  We went one more row over and I saw a car that I thought was ours, but it wasn’t, it just looked exactly like the car we had in Costa Rica for two months. Finally dad saw a little hitch and said, “Maybe that’s out car.” Then we went dashing down the parking lot.  Kyle said, “There is only one way to find out if it is ours.” He went to the passenger side window and looked in. He saw his Humphry book and said, “It is!” After we loaded up the van, we decided to get some fast food for the first meal in Michigan. There weren’t any other options at 1:00 am. I ate all my fries and then fell fast asleep with a hamburger in my hand.

Even though it was a rough time coming back from Costa Rica, we were never becalmed.

-Seth Wilson

Leaving Costa Rica with a Bang

I was sad to leave Costa Rica. It was an unhappy ride to the airport. When we got there, we waited and read the book, Carry on, Mr. Bowditch while we waited for the line to check baggage to open. When it did, we quickly checked in our baggage and walked to the family security line. It was a lot shorter than the regular line. Soon, we were at the food court.

We got to the food court, at about lunchtime. We were hungry, and we decided that we would eat a little bit now and a little bit in Ft. Lauderdale later that day. It turned out that the prices were outrageous! We had about a half a sandwich each, and then we walked to our gate. We met a really nice college student there. We sat there for about a half hour past the scheduled departure time, and then we had to change gates. Our next gate was in the basement!


After sitting there for another 3 hours, the attendant said our flight was canceled. We would have to say in a hotel overnight. We got our baggage, and then we waited for a shuttle. And waited. Finally, there was one to pick us up. We stayed at CityExpress and they had great dinner of rice, chicken and salad.



The next day, we had to check in all over again. We went through a gate change again that put us in a basement gate again. We boarded at departure time. Finally we were on the plane!
 
Since our plane was delayed, we had a very short layover in Ft. Lauderdale. We ran all the way to our gate except for when we were in security and customs. We made it with only a minute to spare!


It was almost midnight when we finally felt the brisk air of Detroit and we were ready to get our baggage and go. But then this announcement came on the intercom. It said, “Due to an overcrowding of baggage on carousel 2, the baggage from the flight from Ft. Lauderdale will be on in about 3 minutes. Since we couldn’t leave without our baggage, we went to look for our car. Our grandparents had dropped it off in some part of the airport’s parking structure, and they told us the general area. It took about 30 minutes of looking to find it. When we got back, our bags were ready to go. And go we did, at about 1 o’clock in the morning.


-Kyle Wilson

Journey to Colorado Springs

We made it! After two weeks of bittersweet goodbyes and packing in Michigan we arrived on Monday, March 28th. (our new contact information is on the sidebar)


To answer the question several of you have asked, "Well, do you like the house?" The answer is Yes! We all love the location, the views of the mountains, and the access to both things the city has to offer (shopping, events etc.) and also trails and open space parks for biking, hiking, and exploring. It doesn't quite feel like "our place" yet, but every day that sense is growing.

View of Pikes Peak from our front porch

We are not quite as overwhelmed with boxes and unpacking as we were 2 weeks ago, but the task of settling in is still a pretty daunting one. We've decided to make a "Stepping Stones" list of all the little discoveries and accomplishments that are helping us "cross" from living in Michigan/Costa Rica to Colorado. Getting library cards and meeting a neighbor are just a few of the things on our list!

We've had warm enough weather to bike in shorts and tee-shirts and also have had a big snow storm! Well, of course, for Michiganders "big" is relative :) The kids were thrilled to have snow to play in for the first time this year. I was a little less thrilled since that meant finding the boxes with all the winter gear!

Our first family bike ride

First Colorado snow storm