Weddingbee Blog

Mr. Pencils and I so fully enjoyed our time at Arenas del Mar resort in Costa Rica, and were excited to move to the second half of our honeymoon to the Gaia Hotel and Reserve. While Arenas was on the beach, Gaia sits higher up on the mountain, in the middle of greenery. I will say, though, it was hard to say goodbye to this:

Luckily, we had an amazing room with a view of its own waiting for us!

Um, rooftop bed and wading pool? Yes please! You can see me opening the complimentary bottle of wine and fruit plate they gave us.

Gaia was great because it is adults only. We spent the majority of our final four days in Costa Rica in this exact spot:

Of course, we had to eat more dinner and drink a pitcher of Sangria.

We did leave the confines of our resort a few times, though. We explored the small town of Quepos by foot one evening. It is quite small, and we had looped the town in about twenty minutes, while poking our heads in various touristy shops.

Oh how exciting, a Hertz in Quepos!

We then hiked it to a mountaintop restaurant that touts the best sunset in town. They weren’t kidding. We, of course, took a timed photo of ourselves. Classic.

The next morning, we began the day taking a hike around Gaia. You can see it in the distance in the photo below; we had hiked down one mountain and up another. It was seven AM and more humid than a sauna room. No joke. I cannot begin to explain how it wasn’t overly hot, just humid, and Mr. Pencils and I were SOAKED through in ten minutes (of a sixty minute hike).

After changing clothes (a necessary evil after sweating through our first set of clothes) we hiked around Manuel Antonio National Park. It was gorgeous, to the say the least. We also saw a lot of wildlife, including sloths, birds and monkeys! Below is Mr. P with a monkey in the distance.

Mr. P was king of the monkey photo-taking.

We only had one full day left. I didn’t want to leave this gorgeous country!

We enjoyed one final dinner at Gaia’s restaurant, which had amazing food.

The next morning, we were both sad to leave.

We got another ride on the puddle jumper though!

Finally, after a long, exhausting, delayed-for-four-hours-in-Miami trip, we made it home. It was nice to be home, but boy, did we have some cleaning to do. Presents and wedding memorabilia lined our walls.

But the second best part of our honeymoon week was awaiting me—leftover cake!!!

It was delicious! Thanks Mama Pencils for freezing it for us! While Mr. P unwrapped all of our gifts, I enjoyed the cake. We didn’t get to bed until three AM, but what a great end to an amazing honeymoon.

Well, hive, I have but one adventure left to share with you—and I’m flying to it today! This weekend is our second wedding reception in Idaho, complete with BBQ and family. I promise to take lots of pictures and share it with you all next week!

What are you most excited to return home to after the honeymoon?