Shaunna Lee 6/10/19 Shaunna Lee 6/10/19

Costa Rica - Pura Vida!

I was fortunate enough to spend a week in beautiful Playa Aranilla Costa Rica at the Secrets Papagayo Resort to celebrate my dear friend, Alicia’s 40th birthday. We have been talking about this trip and planning for a year now, so it was a little surreal to have the time finally arrive. Admittedly, we wasted most of our opportunity to explore this country and spend most of our time at the resort and in the pool. I felt a tad bit guilty about not seeing a volcano, zip lining through the rain forest or hiking to the hot springs, but if I’m honest, hiking is not my thing. I did manage to paddle board for the first time and I didn’t fall!

Having someone else cook, clean my room and bring me drinks IS a vacation from my real life. Indulging in food that is not on my eating plan and getting to work out if I wanted to was just what I needed. I managed to read a teeny tiny bit, meet some new friends and my skin got a little bit closer to a golden brown. Not getting sunburn, soaking in the pool until my fingers are toes were prunes was about all the energy I could muster and more fun than I expected.

My one “excursion” was to venture over to the gym one day to workout and to the Spa to get an amazing massage. It even rained during the massage, which was more relaxing than the sound of rain as white noise.

Our nightly dinners were amazing. We tried everything on each of the menus from Hibachi Grill and sushi to steaks, and Italian food. Each restaurant at this resort was delicious. The waitstaff was amazingly patient, as well.

Most of our days by and in the pool were spent planning our next vacation and coming up with our hashtags - some published and some only shared in our group chat on WhatsApp. If you’re curious, check out #costa40rica. In the end, though, we had a blast and came home with stronger friendships and excited about our next trip together - Turks and Caicos here we come in 2020!

Shaunna Lee 4/30/16 Shaunna Lee 4/30/16

Italy has my heart - Florence especially!

My second daughter studied abroad her Sophomore year of college and it was an incredible experience for her. Part of the reason we settled on the University of Evansville was because of this program to study for a semester at their sister campus in Harlaxton, just north of London by about an hour. Honestly, the details are a bit fuzzy and I didn’t get a chance to visit her there, but it sounded amazing and the photos were damn impressive! It was like she was studying at Hogwarts and living in a castle.

While I may not have had the typical college experience, I certainly did my best to provide that for my girls. One perk for me being the mom who paid for it is that I joined her for a week in Italy at the end of her semester! For that, I consider myself blessed. I flew into Heathrow airport and she met me there. I have never been so excited to see my girl after a long break away as I was that day, bleary eyed in a new country I had never been to. Laying eyes on this baby girl of mine after sending her across the pond on this adventure 4 months prior was The Best Thing Ever!!

From there, we traveled to Rome, then Florence and then to Venice. She waited and kept Italy for me. You’ll have to read the other posts about Rome and Venice, but this one is only about Florence. This part of the world has my heart. I cannot wait to go back and have nothing but great things to say about it.

We shopped, we rain in the rain, we drank wine at the cutest little cafe ever. We ate pizza every day, had wine and espresso at every meal, and attempted to speak Italian as best we could. One afternoon, in particular, we popped into a small cafe where this one man was a one man show. He only spoke Italian and Japanese, I only spoke English and some Spanish. Together, we could barely communicate, but he spoke the language of free wine! I wish I would have made note of where it was because this is a place I would return to again and again. I only remember Da Fiaschino. He was so busy while we were there, so he kept coming by to fill our wine glasses and apologizing. After the third glass, we no longer cared how long it would take us to order. Over that complimentary wine, the meat and cheese board and our attempted Italian, my daughter and I really connected as adults for the first time. It was one of those traveling moments where the location somewhat matters, but why you’re there and what was said is what really stands out. I will never forget that afternoon in that tiny little cafe long after the memories of the laughing pictures in the rain fade.

There were also museums and wine tastings and buying some pretty damn cute shoes, but mostly I remember those treasured memories with my baby girl in Firenze.

View from our AirBNB … complete with my wine glass, of course!

View of where our AirBNB was across the Arno River - it rained most our our time there.

How much we cared about the rain after all that free wine …

Gelato AND some famous statue outside of a museum - we didn’t remember the name of either. Oh, and my daughter looks a little bit like me, too.