A lie is a lie... unless your friends and family are in on it. Then it's a "commonly held belief."

Yo missed mi babino! Como estas? We had such a fantastic time in Costa Rica. I was trying to wrap up a lot of stuff before I left and I didn't really have time to set any expectations for our vaca. Also, I ended up with an awful stomach bug, which made packing painful and the flight down on Friday not so mucho fun. I tried to be a trooper and when Andy wanted to drink on the plane, I suffered through. 24-hour bug translates en espanol to 72 horas. Don't worry I managed to give it to Roo. Who ya know was forced to stay in the fetal position all day on Sat. Near muerte. I have to get schlep around a foreign airport nauseated out of mi cabeza. Come se dice mucho Pepto!

The house where we were staying was in Hacienda Panilla. We didn’t stay at the resort, we were at the owner’s private home. Roo's step dad knew the owner of the 5000+ acre estate. Dude lives in Decatur and Costa Rica, random I know. The resort/estate area was exclusive - as in didn't see a soul on a mile plus on the beach for an entire day. The house was gorgeous on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. It came with a lovely chef/house mom- Gabby, and a gardener. Gabby was younger than I and spoke un poco engles, which meant I was pulling out every ounce of Spanish I kind of remembered from school. I progressively got better throughout the trip and managed to surprise myself when I was able to recall how to say things like 'how much' when shopping or 'we need to be picked up at xyzm.'

The casa was surrounded by wildlife - monkeys, iguanas, exotic birds, etc. They'd come right up to you. It was 95 or so each day and at night it probably dipped to the high 70s. The sun set at 6PM and rose about 6AM. No daylight savings here. Not having air conditioning was a fun adjustment. Andy would leave our door open at night to let in the breeze and I would wake up in the middle of the night to shut it, afraid I'd be waking up with a fat iguana in my face. No gracias. When the howler monkeys were startling close one night I kept thinking Congo.

We rode horses through the resort and on the beach. A day after my stomach bug and riding a horse, not so much. Zip lining was a blast. The locals where having a time with me, making me go first on the course and seeing how fast they could fling me.

One of my favorite parts was going into town, Tamarindo. Great beach and bars. I was surprised to see how many Patrick Swayze Point Break gringos lived in town. Surfing is as huge on the coast as the waves.

Each day on the beach the tide was different. Some days you could walk along the hundreds of rocks scattered along the coastline, others the waves covered the rocks and would crash right up to the shoreline.

We also ventured to the JW Marriott mecca one night. It was gorgeous and gigantic. Guess that's where all the cocaine dealers vaca - I kid.

I will miss staying in my bathing suit all day and having hair that would make Tina Turner blush. Not having TVs or Blueberrys was perfect. My rapid heartbeat somewhat subsided.

Our trip home bit the big one. We got up at 3 to head to the airport, only to learn our flight departure was bumped from 6 to 7AM. Followed by backing out of the gate and having the captain come on and say there was a maintenance issue. Followed by him coming back on 20 min later saying it was a 5 min fix. Yea, right? But the mechanic lived 30 min in town. Boo.

And if you must know I reached a new tanning plateau, I was darker than Andy, NEVER has that happened kids. Now that I am back in the real world I look like some high school spring breaker/oompa loompa.

Now it’s back to reality when all I have heard on the Detroit news is something I actually want to hear – Stafford coming to the Lions. Don’t think I haven’t e-mailed around to make sure when he comes up here he knows where to go. Calvin Johnson does live nearby…. 

Mikey Likes It – Break me off a piece of that Jes-Us-Bar. 

Eat my stamps. I had a feeling Mikey would likey The Simpsons Stamps.