Shortly after 10:00 a.m. a sleek black bus pulled up and we loaded our luggage into it and the accompanying black van. The kids were thrilled when entering the bus because it had cool purple lights and little chilled water bottles for everyone. What a fun start to the day!

We made the easy drive to the Kissimmee airport and were even early for our flight. Our bus drove right onto the tarmac and our backs were then loaded directly on the jet that we had seen arrive just moments before. The pilot helped load our bags, as we waited in the waiting area… mildly squirrelly and super excited.

And then, it was time to go!

But, before our feet left the Florida ground our friendly pilot took a picture of us all glowing in excitement before we ascended the steps. We got on the plane and could hardly believe it. This was not the tin can we had flown in from Ontario to Detroit, this was an older, yet still crisp and clean elegant jet. The kids had no problem getting super comfortable for the three hour flight ahead.

Dorian quickly settled in with the pilots and enjoyed most of the journey from up near the cockpit. The rest of the kids watched out the windows (“Goodbye Florida Keys”, “Hello, Cuba”, “Hola, Costa Rica!”) played card games, read their books and just generally enjoyed the journey. Truett was super chill and enjoyed climbing on the couches, while the big kids relaxed together in the back. With the odd friendly check-in with our stewardess, Victoria, we were well supplied with snacks and animated conversation.

From the sky we were so impacted by the lush mountainous GREEN of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Just miles and miles of uninterrupted green! It wasn’t long before we were descending. We thanked the cheerful airplane stewardess and pilots and were immediately ushered into a bus that was waiting for us on the tarmac. They too, served us cool drinks, and we were set.

Upon entering the Costa Rican Airport there was NO one else there! Apparently, there aren’t usually many flights on Wednesdays. This worked out GREAT for us because we could go to the front of the non-existent line and sail through customs! All our bags were scanned as a huge crew of bored “scanner people” watched the process – felt like a bit of a circus, I’ll be honest. From there, we got into our next bus that was waiting right on time for us, and after a short wait, were off to the border. All our bags were stuffed in the back and there were enough seats for us all in the front. We bounced and bumped along, strangely at home in our usual skin, under the same sky, but now just looking at a new backdrop. The kids kept exclaiming about the different fruit trees and animals we saw along our route… you could feel the excitement in the air. 

Late in the afternoon we stopped at the Costa Rican border where Ben had to check us out of Costa Rica, and we all took a bathroom break. We then drove past a huge line of transport trucks waiting to cross the border and pulled to the side of the road and got off the bus.

Our bags were piled on the side of the road while me and the younger children stood out of the way on the grass inspecting some old, defunct bicycles. Our drivers, having compassion on us, helped us carry our bags the 100 meters to the Nica border. At some point, some men with trolleys loaded our bags on their carts and that made the process much smoother. So, there we were, walking right beside giant transport trucks, crossing into a new country by foot. Felt sort of like The Sound of Music… sort of.

It was getting dusky by the time we walked into the Nica Customs. We were the only ones there but it took a LONG time because our guy LOVED paper, and had to write on LOTS of it over and over in the strange process that did not seem to have any rhyme or reason. Our little guys were definitely getting antsy at this point. Another big group of travellers from Canada joined us in line and we made some nice connections there while we waited.

Eventually, we made it through. They did ask Ben to open one bag with a flip phone in it (the oldest, stupidest piece of electronics that we brought with us!). They looked over it for a couple of minutes, then put it back in the bag. I think they were mainly focused on a guy who had gone in front of us who had a new (boxed) set of speakers in his bag. (They don’t like stuff still in its packaging – they think you might try to sell it.) So, the customs officers were making a big fuss about this and our trolly guys were just saying (tired of waiting), “Come on!”, and they basically took our bags off the table before the inspectors thought twice about inspecting anything else! All loaded up, we were now in the dark walking farther down that long road to the place where our next bus was waiting for us, right on time.

This ride was a little different; the whole thing was in the dark, so we couldn’t see our surroundings at all. Horns honking, swerves, pot holes, flashing lights, and chatty drivers became the background music to this leg of the journey. Truett finally fell asleep in my arms. It rained. There were snack crumbs everywhere. Ben was texting family of our arrival, and we were trying to figure out how to distract an exhausted Keats.

Eventually, after the longest, sloshiest, bumpiest part of the trip we turned into the driveway of our magical new abode. We couldn’t see out of the tinted windows, but upon stepping out of the bus, we could see new friends standing in the soft glow of a beautiful palapa waving and welcoming us in.

The children’s eyes grew wide as they took in the nighttime view of the resort all lit up with orange and pink lights under and clear and starry sky. Our luggage was unpacked, and in a dazed sort of way we wandered about the pool and cabanas marvelling and pointing and letting out sporadic shrieks of delight!

We found our way to the restaurant, that was opened just for us that night, and we had our first full, hearty meal of the day to the sound of the crashing waves nearby. We were welcomed with friendly, open arms, our tummies were satiated, and it was time for bed. We pulled back the covers of freshly made beds, and laid our heads down in gratitude for this perfect day.

This is just a quick note to let you know that all is well… in fact, better than we could have imagined! I will write in more detail soon as I don’t want to forget our trip and our earliest impressions of this magical place. But, I did want to post a couple of pictures so you can get a feel for our journey and destination.

Skipping to the present moment: Truett is currently napping happily to the sounds of all sorts of tropical birds, the middle children are swimming in the pool, and the older children are being tutored in how to run the coffee machine and make the smoothies at the restaurant bar (which they are thrilled about). Ben is setting up his office for remote work, and we are prepping additional rooms for other families who will be joining us here soon.

The staff that work here are amazing and so warm… they have created an incredible community, and they are keen to teach the children so much. We are learning Spanish rapidly, the big boys have already been out getting acquainted with the waves (I think they did stand up a bit too on their boards, so technically, surfing), Snowy has already received an invitation to go on a sunset horseback ride, and we have been enjoying discovering all the fruit trees on the property, and eating the delicious food in the restaurant for our meals.

We feel like we’ve landed in heaven… we’ve been meeting neighbours and walking the sandy country roads, slowly getting oriented. We love the birds and iguanas (apparently there are monkeys, but we haven’t seen them yet). There is a little ginger cat who has already adopted the children and follows them everywhere.

Besides still feeling a little tired from the intensity of the last few weeks and the time change, we are feeling so energized and encouraged about following our hearts and enjoying an uncommon adventure at this chapter in our family’s life.

We are calling the resort “Mar Adentro”, (Spanish) which means “the ocean within”… this makes me think of ‘Jesus within’ (streams of living water)… something expansive and impossible to contain, overflowing with life and wholeness. Only a few days here, and we are already feeling the reality of this vision.

I saw her starring, rather smitten with herself, into the mirror at one point today – freshly cut bob, dripping bathing suit, and foggy goggles – feeling pretty satisfied with her new vibe.

It’s been so refreshing to get daily doses of morning sunshine every day at the pool and we have all the books we could possibly need now, with our new library card. We do a couple of outings a week as a family, and Ben and I have enjoyed taking the kids out for individual dates to help them replenish their wardrobes and enjoy a treat together. 

The older children have online Spanish tutors and the younger ones continue to learn with books and CD’s…. I am hoping my subconscious is doing a lot of learning for me, as my conscious mind is quite busy with all the usual stuff of life. Art and baking continue to be big themes right now for a number of the children, as is laundry (that part hasn’t changed at all!).

We are doing lots of daily walks around the pretty lakes in the neighbourhood, and enjoying the bright skies and quick bursts of rain that visit regularly. The rainy season is actually quite lovely.

In some even more exciting news, we have an accepted offer on a property in Nicaragua! 

We have been interested in Nicaragua for a couple of years now, and have been in contact with a number of Canadians who live there, and it has been an enjoyable discovery process. In fact, our real estate agent is a Canadian from Alberta who has lived in Nica for ten years, the selling agent moved down 12 years ago from Victoria, BC, and our financing agent came from Whitby to build a home in Nica. There is a really exciting expat community there, not to mention the nationals who exude so much warmth and friendliness.

A couple of years back, Ben and I were “dreaming big”, thinking about how we’d like to snowbird (live part of the year in some warm, exotic place). Nothing seemed possible about the idea then (before online work), but it did prompt me into research mode. 

After diving in to YouTube videos by “The Nomad Capitalist” we were even more inspired by the many people who live with multiple “footprints” (homes) around the world – enjoying the best of multiple places… and I got excited to imagine where we could land another footprint.

Nicaragua emerged with shining colours as a safe, family friendly, nature-vibrant, adventure-solid setting with un-inflated real estate prices. It is very straightforward to “invest” in a property there and gain residency privileges, which was exciting to us as well. We watched listings for a year, before finding something that ticks every box on our “dream list”. Our agent has been an incredible resource and it feels exciting to be moving to an area where we are already connected with other unschooling, adventurous families through the internet.

***We’ll tell you more about our new home soon, though we are waiting for some final pieces to come together before sharing specifics.***

This happy opportunity is launching us out of Florida sooner than we had anticipated, as the owners were eager for as short a closing as possible. We will be leaving Kissimmee end of October and flying to Nicaragua just in time for the beautiful Tropical November surfing season when the rains stop.

It has been a fun whirlwind season to stretch into the next leg of our adventure. There is still much to sort out and lots of big pieces that need to get lined up, but we are feeling energized and wanted to share with you what is moving forward.

What is perhaps most exciting to us is that our new property has the capacity to host others outside of just our family, so we are absolutely counting on visitors! [We’ll be sending pictures soon, once we can tell you more about the place!]. 

…Lots to get excited about as we watch God clear obstacles and solve problems in such remarkable ways… everything is happening so smoothly and in such beautiful order, we just feel so thankful for this opportunity that has been set before us, and we look forward to being a blessing in a “new” (to us) land where we all can see more of God’s incredible world and experience a greater connection to the simpler rhythms of life for a time.

We look forward to updating you soon… with pictures!

We decided to get there early, around 4:00 PM, to be in between the lunch and supper rushes. We started getting ready at around 3 and got there at around 5, getting there right before the supper crowd. So, the timing wasn’t exactly precise, but, if we pretend we were trying to get there at 6, then we were delightfully early. Or we could just say that we were “fashionably late”. Either way, we did get there eventually.

Upon our arrival, we quickly found out that Nova had forgotten her shoes. Oops. Dad took all of us kids into the restaurant (Nova got a piggyback) and Mom ran into a nearby store to purchase a lovely pair of minnie-mouse flip flops. Lovely might be a little sarcastic in this sentence, but Nova truly loves them, so from her point of view it’s quite true. Then Mom rejoined us.

During our time, nothing too unusual happened. Our waiter tripped over Truett, (who was busy waving at everyone in sight) but made a heroic recovery and no one was hurt! I spilled a full glass of root beer on myself, significantly soaking my pants, which, being Aladdin-style pants, actually hold a surprising amount of liquid! I just wanted to see if root beer is a good all-natural perfume, but I soon realized there are two rather consequential flaws with this idea. The first being the fact that root beer doesn’t really smell after being dumped all over clothing, the second being that root beer is quite far from being all natural, or even partially so. So, my idea really just fell apart there.

Anyway! After supper, all of us feeling quite full, a couple of us feeling quite sick and me in particular feeling quite wet, we climbed into the van and drove to the park! Unfortunately, it was beginning to rain, so we quickly drove away from the park. We decided to go the nearby library for a couple minutes before it closed. As we passed the park, we saw some unique-looking basketball nets, which so impressed us that we spent the next ten minutes singing a song about them. The lyrics were as follows: “You can slide down the back, you can slide down the back, you can slide down the back of the basketball net.” It just went over and over again, getting better and better until it could be no better. Then it got just a little bit better. I think it was sort of Country/Western mixed with Gospel Choir.

We got to the library where Mom and Dad ran in, got a library card, checked out a couple bagfulls of books and ran back out.

Then, the rain having passed, we drove back to the park. It was a really nice park, with lots of climby things, spinny things, slidey things, swingy things and some other things too! We had a lot of fun. After half an hour or so, we packed into the van and drove home. And that, my dear friends, is the glorious chronicle of the Golden Corral. I hope you enjoyed this article and fear not, there are more to come!

What are the chances of getting hit by lightning? Are they higher if you are riding a bike on the sidewalk in the middle of a Florida Thunderstorm?

It’s the rainy season here. Almost daily in the late afternoon, an incredible amount of rain falls from the sky amidst a powerful array of lightning bolts and corresponding thunderclaps. The rainclouds are often quite localized and rarely stay overhead for more than half an hour. In the time they are around they drop an immense amount of water. For good reason too!

It’s mid August and without the natural irrigation, I’m sure lots of local plants and creatures would fry because of the heat. I’m still trying to figure out the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion, but what I do know is that it’s HOT! Because of the heat and humidity, this area is the perfect breeding grounds for big towering clouds, and hence, heavy thunderstorms.

Thank God for air conditioning and swimming pools, or I would doubtless fry as well. I’ve taken to going shirtless almost all the time, wearing my swim shorts so I can jump in the pool at a moments notice.

I enjoy going for solo ‘expeditions.’ Little outings on foot, rollerblades, unicycle, car, or whatever other form of transportation is available and best suits the mission. I treat myself to ice cream, go shopping, explore trails, or anything else that peaks my interest. The object of these expeditions is not always clear at the outset, but I always have some meaningful time spent with myself, along with all kinds of great entertainment.

The other day I rode about five miles of sidewalk on my unicycle to buy a couple items from the nearest shopping centre. The ride there was fairly uneventful, just the usual honks and waves due to my somewhat unique mode of transportation. I found what I wanted at the back of the store, grabbed a cool drink, and checked out.

As I left the store it was starting to rain and customers were gathering under the store awning to avoid getting wet. I assessed the situation and decided that waiting it out wasn’t worth my time. So I took off my shirt and socks and stuffed everything I wanted to stay dry into my waterproof fannypack, a very sound investment by the way.

I took a hefty swig of my bubbly juice drink, and ventured into the downpour. I pictured myself as somewhat of a superhero, being the only one daring enough to face the mighty storm. It took about four seconds for every inch of my to be completely soaked with rainwater, which confirmed that I was as much a victim of the storm as anyone. 

I used the beak of my baseball cap to shield my eyes from the pounding rain. Whenever I saw a flash of lighting I counted seconds. Every five seconds  between lightning and its following thunder equals one mile from the lighting. I was riding about one mile beside a major cell for a while. Then I rode right into one. There were several strikes so close I didn’t have time to start counting. The kind where you can see the distinct shape of the bolt even though it’s in the corner of your eye. And you instinctively yell something inaudible at the top of your lungs.

As I was riding through the pouring rain I began to ponder the question, how much of a chance do I have of being hit by lightning? I didn’t really have any way to figure out the actual answer so I conclude it wasn’t worth worrying about because if it happened I wouldn’t have time to be scared. It would just happen.

If you’ve never been caught in the rain, I highly recommend it. You can decide to make it a very unenjoyable experience, or make it so much fun you don’t want it to end. I had so much fun riding through the downpour, singing and screaming like a crazy man. Hopefully I made some motorists smile as they made their commutes.  It’s really quite an amazing thing to be surrounded by something so powerful and majestic.