From +35 degrees to -35 degrees in a matter of hours. Our world is a crazy place isn't it? Our week in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica was hot, sunny and world's away from cold Ontario. Our days were planned around the sunset, and included a lot of reading, swimming, sweating, applying sunscreen, napping, and of course eating and drinking. To be fair, my dad's days were a bit more complex, as he was glued to his binoculars looking for wildlife (it paid off, as he finally spotted a Toucan on our last day). The other creatures we came face-to-face with included white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, crabs, sloths, spiders, a snake, iguanas and lizards, frogs, the list goes on. I was terrified, my family loved it. We swam in the ocean, shopped in the beach markets, laughed with the many friendly locals and enjoyed a whole lot of sunny nothing. It was a wonderful break.

I don't know about you, but after almost every trip, I am always reminded how lucky we are to call Canada home--bitter cold and all, we really are fortunate to live in this beautiful, free country.