Getting to Costa Rica

I am here!  And so happy to see my family.

The journey down here was long and exhausting.  It started on 5/18, with Ron picking me up from the house at 945 AM.  Loaded my 10 suitcases, 1 backpack, 1 camera bag, and purse into his truck and got to the Delta part of the airport.  Unloaded the suitcases.  Went to the counter to check in outside and was told that I had to go to another part of the airport and check in at Special Services because of the cat.  Begged the guy to help me, and he put my luggage onto a cart and took me to where I needed to go.  Waited in line there a bit.  The lady started checking me in, but then told me I could not leave the US one way without proving I had a return ticket. What the heck.  Now the US is trying to force us to come back when they tell us to?  Bought a ticket back to Atlanta for around the time of Ron and Erika's wedding in case I end up doing that.  Checked all my bags, paid for Lucie's airfare (an additional $125 to mine) and finally, headed to the security line.  Once there, they wanted me to take Lucie out of the bag and put her bag through security.  I asked if there was any other way as she was really nervous and I was concerned she would run away and be scared.  So, they let me go in this office type room and they searched her carrier in there.  Thank God.  Got done there, and we headed for our gate.  We were pretty early even after all the waits, so I settled in.  Mel's son, Drew, works at the airport now and he came to chat with me for a while, so that was nice.  Flight boarded on time and we were off to Atlanta.  Lucie was good on the flight, she only meowed a couple times.  Landed, and Lucie and I realized we had to walk a LONG way to our connecting flight.   We were in A and had to be in E.  So, we grabbed the tram and headed over.  Got there and had a wait, but this flight boarded on time as well.  Lucie did good in the second flight as well.  Slept most of it, and meowed some at the end, but I don't think anyone even noticed.

Landed in Costa Rica and went quickly through step one of customs.  Went to get luggage and hired a guy to help me with that.  Headed to the next step, where the luggage goes through a detector and they looked at Lucie's papers.  That went fine.  Then, they chose me to search my luggage.  Guy started looking at the bags & stopped after three. I think he got sick of sifting through bikinis and sundresses HAHA.  Next, headed outside where I was going to look for Kurt, but he was already looking for me.  Yay.  Hugged him and headed to the car were my bags BARELY fit, LOL.  Drove to Jaco in about 1.15.  Got there and I was starving after not eating much the entire day, so Kurt took me to a 24 hour place called Jaco Taco.  Had an amazing mahi burrito and then headed home.  The pugs seemed realllllly confused to see me, LOL.  But happy.  Went to bed right away before unpacking as I was zonked.  Had to sleep on this horrible air mattress that Kurt did not have pumped up enough.  First thing on my agenda, a MATTRESS. 

Anyway, what a journey.  I am very thankful that I made it here so easily and did not have many headaches.  It was pretty stressful for me travelling with a pet, always worrying how she was doing and having the extra stuff to carry around.  Glad I don't have to do that again. 

More on what I have been doing since we have been here in my next post........