We went to bed extremely late last night. I am ashamed at how late it was. The kids slept until 10am. We eventually made it to the city center of Mérida. It reminded us of the city center of San Miguel de Allende. We were starving and popped into a restaurant adjacent to the middle of the city center.
The food was alright, the kids ate it because they were very hungry.
Afterwards we walked to an art gallery that allegedly sold local artists art work, paintings, sculptures, tapestries. Some works were reprints, I doubt they were originals as were advertised.
We got the kids ice cream because it was in the mid 90s and very humid.
The building the kids are facing from the above photo is the oldest building in Mérida. It was built in 1549.
We then walked to the cathedral of Mérida. Also know as the Cathedral of Yucatan.
The clouds were getting dark very fast, so we quickly did a walking tour done one street with many churches.
The next block was a park that commemorates motherhood. Bonnie took a photo with our kids behind a fountain that said “maternidad” on it.
Across the street was the university.
And some other building, I have no clue what it is, but we all took a selfie with it in the background.
My face reminds me of Lloyd Bridges during the movie airplane when he said “I chose the wrong week to stop sniffing glue”.
There have been times during this six months abroad that I know I’m never going to forget something up to my dying day. If you’re a parent you know the feeling, like when a child is born, when they learn to walk or ride a bike without help, or when your infant daughter projectile poops all over you, leaving a gross silhouette of you against your bedroom wall. There are memories I won’t ever forget.
When Bonnie and I started dating in the mid nineties, we decided to climb on her roof and watch a meteor storm. Not a shower, this was a legit meteor storm, hundreds of meteors visible per hour. It was amazing. The problem was, it was freezing when we did this. So we scrounged around her house looking for gloves and jackets and hats. We didn’t look in the mirror before we climbed onto her roof. We were watching the streaks in the sky flash every couple seconds. We eventually got too cold and tired and decided to go back into her house. Before we collected ourselves, we both turned to look at each other and saw both of us wearing the most ridiculous outfits ever. Mismatched jacket and gloves and mittens, scarves, and knitted hats each. We looked absurd and the next moment we realized it and laughed harder than we had ever laughed before. We still laugh about it to this day.
Well after we took that selfie, it started raining. Usually the clouds give you a warning like a light drizzle first. Not in Mérida. It rained as if a pressure nozzle was being sprayed into your face and body. So we started running to the parking lot we parked our car in. I was kind of annoyed, but our kids were laughing so hard. I look back and our kids have all lost it and were prancing in the rain. So Bonnie and I started laughing. We were laughing so hard those blocks we ran to the parking lot. It must have been an odd site to see if you were from Mérida. There are zero tourists here, and then all of a sudden the whitest people you have ever seen, are running with their even whiter kids prancing in the torrential rain, and all six of them are laughing their asses off.
I’ll never forget that memory as long as I live. We drove home and our kids all stripped down naked and put their swimsuits on and ran to the pool. If we don’t do anything else this trip, I’ll be happy to know that our four children love each other and enjoy each other. Of course a lot of the time they might be trying to kill one another, but today was a good day. I wish I could hit pause today and relive this day for the next 50 years. *
Our Family Adventure 