2. The Adventure Begins

Friday May 28, 2021 at approximately 9:45 am Taryn (Ramie’s sister) dropped us off at the MSP airport for our last trip out of MN for probably quite a while. There were a few tears before we parted (as there had been many times during the last week or so when we saw our friends and family before we departed for our big adventure). Ramie and I, along with 6 checked bags, 4 carry-ons, and Breeze in her large crate walked into the airport to check in. The next 30 hours or so would be tedious, but there was a big reward at the end. Due to Covid, Alaska Air is the only airline flying large dogs, so our route took us from Minneapolis to Portland, OR. We had an overnight there, and then the next day we would fly to LA, then finally to Costa Rica. Poor Breeze would be stuck in her kennel by herself for nearly 13 hours for the trip from Portland to San Jose, Costa Rica.






The trip from MSP to Portland was about 5 hours. It went very smoothly. We were pleasantly surprised that they did not make us take our checked bags with us during our overnight in Portland, so that was one headache averted. We got our shuttle to the hotel, relaxed at the hotel for the evening and gave Breeze lots of extra cuddles after her first flight. She seemed to be happy and unaffected by the flight experience.







Saturday morning 5/29 it was back to the Portland airport for our next round of flights and a very long day ahead of us. We brought Breeze back to where she would be “checked” with the luggage (trust me- we did ask and try to buy her own seat so she could fly in the cabin with us, but they only allow small dogs and service dogs in the cabin) and then we waited. It wasn’t a long flight from Portland to LA, maybe 2 hours, we had a short, about 1 hour, layover in LA, and then actually boarded the same plane at the same gate to finish our journey to Costa Rica. This was it, the last time on US soil for a while too. Does it feel real yet? Nope! Not for me—feels kind of like another vacation. This flight was long! Or at least it felt really long. With multiple time zone changes over the last few days, I don’t have a clue how long the flights actually were, but this one just seemed to last forever. It was around 8pm local time when we finally landed in San Jose. We waited in line to go through customs for about a half hour. When we got to the customs agent, we had no problems getting 90 days on our passports (that’s the maximum you can get. You can stay beyond that, but you are technically only “legal” and legal to drive with a US passport for 90 days). All of our bags made it (we weren’t confident that they would due to not needing to pick them up in Portland). Breeze made it! We made it!! Our new home in Costa Rica!!




We hired a porter to load up Breeze (who couldn’t come out of her kennel yet) and all of our bags. We went through customs without much of a hitch. They only searched 1 bag, the one with Ramie’s tools in it, and didn’t question anything. They took the paperwork for Breeze, did what they needed to do, no questions asked. We got to the door of the airport and our shuttle driver stood there holding a sign with our name on it (YAY for pre-arranged airport shuttles!!), so we loaded everything into the van, let Breeze out of her kennel for a potty break (she had held it for 13 hours, no accidents!) and then on to our hotel for the next few days.

We made it to the hotel sometime around 9:30, got all our bags and Breeze to our room, and felt a weight lifted off of us. The past 30 or so hours was a whirlwind. Stressful, exciting, scary, exhausting… so many emotions I can’t even explain, but we are here. Our new home.

But now, time to get some dinner because we hadn’t eaten much of anything but a few airplane snacks since taking off from Portland this morning!! Good thing our hotel has a little restaurant able to get our food order in just 10 minutes before closing!! We ordered nachos, and DANG those nachos tasted fantastic!!


Another good thing- tomorrow is Sunday. That means that a lot of places are closed and there won’t be much to do other than relax. That’s exactly what we need!