We only had one week and we were determined to make the most of it. But now we found ourselves lost in the mountains of Costa Rica and wondering if we’d made a really bad decision. Darkness had set in as we drove higher and higher on a road that had deteriorated to a Jeep trail. Our bodies jarred with every rock as we crept higher, crawling in four-wheel drive, a thousand foot drop on one side and a cliff on the other. The wind howled. We had a highway map but this was no highway.…

Three weeks earlier, flush with frequent-flyer miles and Bridget’s looming spring break, we thought it would be easy to find a flight to some warm destination for a week of relaxation, sightseeing and some photography. Evidently many others had the same idea. San Diego? Nope; no seats available. Okay, how about Mexico? Every single Northwest Airlines destination was booked solid. I kept looking south. San Jose, Costa Rica was not available and Ecuador was just too far south. Then I checked Northwest’s website; seems they also flew to a town in Costa Rica called Liberia. Amazingly, there were frequent flyer seats available and it was a direct flight from Minneapolis. We’d leave three feet of snow and below zero temps and five hours later be in tropical Central America!

Read the rest of the Sparky's column in our June issue...