Skipping Town

We spent the past six days in Puerto Morales, a town about half an hour south of Cancun. Out of the country! Using our passports! The kids had two weeks off for Spring Break, and we were determined to do SOMETHING this year. We’d initially planned a spring break vacation in Florida, but for various reasons decided to change our plan. Instead, we spent a long weekend in Jacksonville at the start of spring break, hung out at home for a few days, then flew to Cancun for most of the second week. The plan came together quickly, as big plans tend to for us, and we booked last-minute, but still managed to get a nice double room in the all-inclusive resort we stayed at in 2018--the last time we were in Cancun. Surprisingly, we even got a direct flight from Pittsburgh. Traveling again felt just as amazing as I’d expected. We hadn’t flown internationally since our trip to Japan in November 2019. An easy flight took us from cold weather to sunny, warm Mexico--we got our bags, pushed our way throu...

Tuesday 4/10 Tuesday morning Andrew went for a swim in the lap pool, and then I went to a poolside yoga class. The instructor was a weather-beaten, long-haired, crystal-wearing type who advised us, in what seemed like purposefully broken English, to do deliberate breathing at sunrise, on either side of noon, and at sunset, and as a result we’d be able to see new things, even new colors. I’m in. We ordered room-service breakfast, which was arriving just as I got back to the room. The waiter set up our big dining table as though we were in a restaurant. Then we headed to the pool for a long morning of swimming, popsicles, and lunch. We had pool chairs right next to the pool, which was great. L&G and I took a sun break at 10:30 to do some pottery painting, which was much more expensive than I’d anticipated but which we all loved. There were two big tables of unpainted pieces which had been prepared with black painted outlines, so it was like painting a 3D coloring book. ...

Saturday 4/7 We left NJ for Cancun early early Saturday morning. The airport was not fun (Greta lost the headband her American Girl doll was wearing; tears etc; I tried to go back out beyond security and was refused) and neither was the plane (Lucia threw up, as per usual, on the bumpy landing). But then we were there, and it was WARM, and that alone was amazing. Our driver greeted us outside the airport with chilled towels and waters before ushering us to the resort in a luxury vehicle of some kind. Note: This is not our usual type of vacation. Our usual type of vacation involves excavating mouse carcasses from hundred-year-old umbrella stands and the kids getting stung by wasps in their beds. Anyway, also amazing is our suite at the resort in Riviera Maya, which is basically two suites connected by a foyer, tons more space than we actually need, with three Murphy beds in our suite and one in the other, as well as couches and the actual beds. It’s about 1800 square feet....

Thursday 4/12 Another excellent day. The kids and Andrew slept in and I read on the balcony. We went to the breakfast buffet for the last time (sob). The pastries are so delicious I've been condoning a "pastry breakfast" for the girls, and for myself. Then off to the pool, another gorgeous sunny day with a light breeze but no crazy wind. We had perfect poolside chairs. We drank pina coladas, played Bingo, ate lunch, played in the pool, jumped in the ocean, searched for treasures washing up when the tide started changing. We stayed out all day, until 5pm. We had dinner at the Mexican restaurant again, our favorite of the resort's restaurants, and it did not disappoint. Andrew and I had margaritas, lobster, a cheese platter, ceviche, and pinto bean soup. Delicious, all of it. We ate so much. L&G were nearly comatose with exhaustion, but they insisted they still wanted to go swimming at night one last time, so we did. They love this nighttime dip. Turndown se...

We got home from Mexico City yesterday, after a surprisingly smooth journey. We left our apartment around 10:00am, to much protesting from Lucia--after so much lamenting for home, on the day of departure she decided she wanted to stay in Mexico. Both girls were wonderful on the flight. Greta slept, played with stickers, and looked at the iPad over Lucia's shoulder; Lucia watched episodes of Sofia the First . She doesn't quite get the concept of earphones--whenever she would say something, she would shout it at top volume because she couldn't really hear herself; occasionally a loud little-girl voice would echo through the plane: "MORE PUFFS." "DADDY, I WANT TO WATCH ANOTHER SOFIA." "CAN I HAVE SOME WATER?" No one threw up. There was only minimal crying. Greta got fussy while we were waiting for our baggage, but by that point I was pretty fussy too. Both girls devoured their dinner, had a bath, and slept straight through the night. So it's...

Here are just a few more pictures from our trip--mostly of Lincoln Park and the sculpture garden. Our neighborhood really was lovely. In our building's parking garage: Our grocery store: Across from our apartment building:

Greta woke up at 2:30am last night. We moved her crib to our room since she was crying, gave her some water, and she promptly went back to sleep until 8:30am. Not bad, comparatively. For our last day in Mexico City, we set out in the morning for Bosque de Chapultepec, to absorb the vibrant Sunday life in the park and visit the Castillo de Chapultepec. The park was absolutely packed today--vendors lined every pathway, shouting endorsements of their wares. Chips of all kinds, toys, hats, shoes, glassware, belts, candy, soda/water, beef jerky crusted in chile powder, balloons, inflatable toys, cotton candy, stuffed animals, elaborate face painting, temporary tattoos, wigs, cinturons de securidad (security belts, i.e. leashes for kids)--it was an overwhelming assortment. Families were all out together, and though young kids and babies were everywhere, I was struck once again by how few strollers and baby carriers we saw. People carry even the smallest babies in their arms, a blanket slun...