Costa Rica Trip: Day 1
Sunday, Aug. 3 Hello Simpson soccer families, friends, and fans. Our trip to Costa Rica has finally arrived. Our first day of this journey is already behind us and it was a rather uneventful day of travel.
The majority of our travel party jumped in vans and left from Simpson College at 7:30AM yesterday. We made the 3 hour drive to Kansas City before jumping on our flight and officially beginning this adventure together. We had a brief layover in Dallas-Fort Worth, followed by a 4 hour flight into San Jose. In all, it was a relatively smooth day of traveling.
Upon arriving in Costa Rica, we were greeted by the wonderful staff from Costa Rica Soccer Tours. We took a short bus ride from the airport to our hotel where we enjoyed an entertaining presentation over dinner. The presentation outlined our 9 day trip and certainly got the boys fired up for what’s to come. Our dinner was also very good. The boys dined on rice, chicken, pork, rolls, and an impressive selection of fruit. It was a traditional Costa Rican meal and not one of us left with an empty stomach.
In short, this place is beautiful, the people have been very accommodating, and we expect the next 8 days to provide us with a very memorable experience.
Following dinner, we had a short team meeting before exploring the Crowne Plaza hotel. The boys were restricted to the hotel on night #1, but they managed to have fun spending time between the pool, casino, and restaurant/bar. Our hotel is impressive, featuring 1st class amenities in addition to luxuries such as a casino, spa, and remarkable views of San Jose. It was an early night though as the amount of travel made for some tired young men.
The team is looking forward to day #2. Highlights of our first full day in Costa Rica will include a training session in the AM, a match or “friendly” in the afternoon, and an authentic dinner on the town. Our players are looking forward to competing against international competition and playing in one of Costa Rica’s world class stadiums.
We’ll check in again tonight when you can expect to hear from one of our players. If you’re interested in following us during our time in Costa Rica, we’ll be blogging each day to share our experiences with you.
Roll Storm!
Coach Isaacson