After a lovely albeit HOT 5 days on the houseboat, it was time to make tracks up to Milwaukee as we were expecting a few VERY special guests. Some of our best friends from Aus Rachel Paeper and Liam Jones were making the trip down from Minneapolis where they have recently relocated. It has been 2.5 months since I've seen these two, and that is far too long for me. Upon arrival we settled in and caught up over a few local beers. Being that it was the 4th of July...

We awoke in Louisville on Friday June 27 with butterflies and more in our stomach. Not only was today the BIG day hence the butterflies, but the reminance of the previous night's Maker's Mark session was also fluttering about a bit. We dusted ourselves off and headed for a quick gym session to get a sweat on and then grabbed a bagel and coffee and headed out of Louisville. The plan was to stop briefly in Elizabethtown, KY for a few supplies and to grab a SIM c...

At last the long awaited day had come. We boarded an early afternoon flight from San Jose, Costa Rica bound for Chicago via Fort Lauderdale where we were to be picked up by Gina's brother, Bryan, and secretly transported to Kentucky to surprise Gina's folks on the houseboat they had rented with some good family friends to celebrate G's Dad Steve's 60th B-Day. We've been planning the trip for several months and it's been really tough to keep the secret for so lon...

A full day of travel took us to the small town of Quepos, known really only as the gateway to the super popular National Park: Manuel Antonio. We hit the grocery store in town before hailing a cab to take is the last 7 kilometers to our home for 3 nights at Manuel Antonio: Villas de la Selva. We checked in and were given a set of keys that would make any janitor jealous: literally 6 keys on a huge key chain. We were starving so settled straight in to cook dinner...

Our first full day in Manuel Antonio is one for the books. As the previous blog mentioned, we spent the morning hiking through the national park enjoying the incredibly picturesque views, along with the very unique wildlife; monkeys, toucans, and three toed sloths to name a few. After we exhausted all potential hiking options we called it a day and began our journey back up the hill to our hotel, but not before a quick stop to pick up a bottle of chilled white...