Pura Vida! Back from Vacation

I'm baaaaack! Last Wednesday, I hopped on a jet plane with three amazing girlfriends and flew from Baltimore to Miami to Costa Rica! We started this "girls trip" tradition six years ago in the Bahamas, a year out of college, single and ready to mingle! We spent the following years (each March) visiting Puerto Rico, San Fancisco, Maryland's eastern shore and New Orleans. We've grown a lot over the years...instead of nights on the town, we're now saving up money for houses, grad school classes, babies and weddings (boy how things change!). The memories we've created though are truly priceless.

Here we are in Costa Rica in front of the Arenal Volcano.

I learned that Costa Ricans say Pura Vida a lot, which literally means "pure life." They use the phrase to express a philosophy of strong community, perseverance, resilience in overcoming difficulties with good spirits, enjoying life, and celebrating good fortune of magnitudes small and large alike. It totally made me think about the 3-day. I love it!

Although I didn't go on any training walks while I was touring this beautiful country, I did get lots of exercise zip lining, hiking and rappelling. Talk about living life!

Zip lining sporting my pink!

We met an older couple who are retired and spend a lot of time traveling the world. We talked to them about their adventures and I thought they were really inspiring. Their advice was to go big or go home. And it’s so true. You only get so many opportunities, so live big, be bold and take the path less traveled—you never know what you might find.