Today we packed up from the house we were at the last two nights and drove into downtown Mérida again. We wanted to see some sites we missed the day before because of the rain storm.

We ate food at a not great place. Then we drove to a park called the “Park of the Americas” it was a park that celebrates every country in North and South America. There was a huge amphitheater and statues that spelled out the names of every country in north and South America. Fun fact, I was not aware of a country named Suriname.

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After visiting this park, we decided to drive to Chelem. It’s a town on the beach in the Gulf of Mexico. We drove into a town called Progresso to buy groceries. Bonnie went in to shop for an hour and then I went in to shop for an hour. All the while we had the minivan idling with the air conditioning on blast. When I finally came outside with the groceries, the minivan had shut off. We killed the battery. Luckily, an ambulance was willing to give us a jump. We then drove about 20 minutes down the coast to the house we are renting for 12 days.

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I’ll blog more about the house we are renting tomorrow. We just ate some take out and it was amazing. We ate ribs, fish and chips, club sandwiches, and fried pickles. Midway through the meal the kids were devouring every bite, Bonnie realized why they were eating so well. This is the first American type food they’ve had since January 15. 😂😂😀

I am so excited about the next 12 days, it isn’t often that you get to relax when you vacation with Bonnie. But that’s exactly what I’ll be trying to do (with four kids).

After taking a bunch of photographs of the kids near cathedrals and churches today in Mérida. I decided to post every photo I’ve taken of churches since we came to Mexico. Churches here are preserved, and revered. It’s beautiful to behold a church built in the 16th century that is still standing and being used. I tried to only post photos of the four kids posing in front of a church. But there are some exceptions.

There is a couple photos of inside a church and inside a private alter. Regardless if you are a believer or not, you’ve got to respect the faith and fortitude in building these churches. Especially the cathedral in Mexico City. It took over 100 years to build it. The people who began the work to build it knew they would die before it would be completed.

I will eventually get the names of all of the in names churches and say when they were built. Until then. Good night.

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.

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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. *

Happy Father’s Day to my father and all of my close friends and family who are fathers. Today I woke up to one of my children twisting a balloon around to spell “DAD”. The noise was ear piercing, but after listening to that for 20 minutes, he left my bedroom and our youngest screamed at someone for no apparent reason. I kept my eyes closed the entire time and actually fell back asleep for half an hour. This is the one day I can sleep in as long as I want without any resentment from my bride.

Since we didn’t do that much yesterday, today we wanted to top the day before and we flew to the Yucatan to spend the next two weeks. We planned the trip before I flew home in early June.

While at the airport in the town we have been living in, we decided to eat lunch before going through security. I said something to my daughter and she gave me this look that her mom gives me a few dozen times a day. The look can be translated to mean “really??!?”

We wanted to go to the Yucatan the entire time we’ve been in Mexico. We decided the best thing to do is rent a house from Airbnb and just hang out in the house the entire time. We aren’t going to leave except to go to the grocery store.

The airport and every airline is very strict. You need to have a mask on at all times except when you are eating or drinking. We took two flights today. One to Monterey and the next to Mérida. The second flight had perfect air conditioning. The outside was so warm and the inside of the airplane was so cold as you boarded, that you could see the vapor from from the air conditioning unit throughout the entire plane.

The flights were fine, and the kids were very well behaved. We stay in a house in Mérida for the next two days, then we drive to a beach house and stay there until July 4.

We are now at the first house and are about to get an Uber eats delivery of a LOT of tacos. It’s gonna be a good two weeks. *😀

Today we said goodbye to our minivan. We bought a Toyota Avanza within three weeks of moving here. We told the dealer we were going to sell it back in less than six months. They gave us an alright buy back, it still makes good financial sense to have done it this way. Especially with the pandemic, our mindset was to just take the bus everywhere, but I pushed a little hard for buying it. Had we just rented a minivan from a rental car agency, it would have been nearly twice as expensive when you factor in insurance.

I am not entirely sure our minivan was insured anyways. I emailed my insurance agent the day before we drove to San Miguel de Allende, and she made it seem like it wasn’t insured. We could not register this vehicle in Mexico because we are not citizens, and we did not register it in the states. We never got license plates on the vehicle, the dealership promised it wouldn’t be a problem to get plates, and the Mexican equivalent of the dmv here said otherwise. So we never had plates and probably not insurance either, thank God for not getting into an accident here. So we said goodbye to the car, the kids were a little emotional but they quickly moved on.

Today we woke up at 8am, got the kids out of the house by 9am. Went to the city center to buy some really nice journals for the kids, the store was closed so we drove back to our area to get a piñata and candy. We also bought a cake and attempted to pick up furniture that was being fixed. They are still working on it. We had a zoom birthday party for our oldest son and one of his classmates and his classmates sibling joined us.

We then drove to a party venue for kids parties and Bonnie drove the minivan to the dealership (which was a ten minute walk from the party venue).

We stayed at the venue between 1-6pm. The owners of the home made us what they think is pizza and the oldest child pulled a fast one on me. The host asked me what drinks to serve the children and my daughter quickly said a bunch of things in Spanish. I thought I hear “naranja” and “Fanta”. She said it very fast and I didn’t realize what their conversation was about until the refreshments were served. I turned to our oldest and said “you literally ordered this in front of me and spoke fast on purpose didn’t you?” Of course she turned red and then started giggling. 😐

Of course today wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the hospital. Our third child fell at this place and needed a stitch in his lip. Bonnie took him to the hospital while the other three played in the playground until 6pm.

We played duck duck goose for a while and I nearly killed myself sliding down that metal slide.

At 6pm I walked child 1,2, and 4 down the street to Applebee’s. 🤢

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While at Applebee’s 🤢, the tv had espn on. They were broadcasting a cornhole tournament. 😕 I have never really been embarrassed to be Caucasian, until that moment the server saw me watching and positioned the tv so I could see it better. I imagine he judged me for watching. I judged myself as well.

Around that same time my third child was getting a stitch in his lip (not his first stitch, not the first time on his lips either 😀). Bonnie said he grimaced a little bit didn’t cry. He is the child who will play soccer or baseball and break his nose during play, and get angry if the coach takes him out. He’ll just set it himself and keep playing.

After “dinner”, we all crammed into an Uber and went home. We of course forgot the birthday cake we put in Applebee’s refrigerator, so I took an Uber back to get it. Tomorrow late afternoon we fly to Mérida. Maybe we can rest some time during the next two weeks.

What a day. We decided to take a day trip to a town called San Miguel de Allende. It’s a beautiful colonial town, and a Mecca for ex patriots. I saw more white English speaking people there than in our home town.

We walked all around the City center. Because of the pandemic, all the parks were closed. We stumbled upon a tour guide, and we decided to let him give us a tour because his shirt had the number 1979 written on it, the year of our birth.

Our tour guide took us all over the town. One of the places he took us is a street that is the most photographed. I guess tv shows and movies in Mexico use the backdrop in the photo below frequently.

We walked to a lot of churches. I’m going to post the photos in a gallery below. Every church was much older than our country. It’s hard to fathom how young our country actually is.

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We also took a photo with the oldest gas station in the city. It is non working FYI.

We had lunch close to the church in the first photo. We ate outside in a covered patio. During lunchtime, the center had a lot of homeless women and children asking for money. When children 5 years and younger walked up to our table, and asked for money, my oldest son looked at them and was shocked beyond belief.

After his shock wore off, he was so sad, he kept talking about how when he gets older, he’s going to be a scientist and save all homeless people from starvation. The site of the homeless children also had an affect on the other kids, but not as much as it did on our oldest son.

On day 155, one of the main purposes of this trip has been fulfilled, with one of our kids at least. We wanted our children to be profoundly affected by experiencing another culture. Today almost 50% were.

Before we left the city center, we bought candy to pass out to the homeless children, and by the time we got back to the center, all of the children were gone. We ended up sharing some candy with some tourists and their mom wanted to take photos of her daughters with our kids. We eventually did give the candy to a homeless woman and also gave her some money as well.

We headed to a place called Chorro a few miles away. This is tranquil area with a cultural center one year older than our house in Alameda.

We walked around there and came across a church built in the mid 16th century.

After that we walked back down the hill and walked to a park. The park was closed, but we walked around it and that was relaxing.

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After we walked around the park, we came back to a small square enclosed area with what looked to be wash basins. A very old man with a guitar walked over to us and turned on the faucet that started filling the basin up. The kids loved it.

While getting the kids into the car, I noticed some very loud birds high up in the trees close by. I think they were egrets. Well, all of a sudden I saw a couple objects fall from the tree and give a loud smacking noise as it hit the ground. I walked over to the objects and saw it was two fish. They were eating dinner. 😀

We finally decided to head home. On the way back, we stopped at a street vendor selling tamales. The kids devoured them, I’m very impressed with how open they’ve been with the food here. The food here in Mexico is unlike any Mexican food in the states. I have no clue how we are going to find food like this back home unless it is home cooked.

The drive home was kind of nerve wracking but the sun gave a great show for us.

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We had to make a pit stop before we got home.

On a separate note, today marks our 16th year being married. It feels like it was yesterday. I’m a very blessed man, and grateful to God for my bride. I found some photos of posted on Facebook and some I didn’t but wanted to. Happy 16th anniversary Bonnie to 60 more years with you minimum. *

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Today we took the car to the dealership to see what they’d be willing to pay for it. They gave us a surprisingly good offer, and we accepted. We turn the car in Saturday.

This Sunday we fly to the Yucatan, we rented a house right on the beach. All public beaches are closed, but ours is private so we probably won’t see anyone and we also have a swimming pool so the kids are going to be in heaven.

While waiting for the car to be inspected by the dealership, we walked next door to Applebee’s and had lunch. The menu was paired down quite a bit. The kids playground was closed and the kids were not happy about that. They survived though. We wear out masks everywhere we go, we have antibacterial gel and squirt it in the kids hands every few minutes. When we walked into Applebee’s, the hostess took out temperatures with the touch less scanner and squirted antibacterial helps into our hands and had us wash the bottoms of our shoes in a small container before we walked in.

I know plenty of people in the States who are terrified that we are going to get sick here. We are very careful, and where we live, they are not messing around. You can’t even walk into the airport without a mask, they won’t let you in, and the airlines makes wearing a mask at all times on a flight mandatory.

We are planning a busy Saturday I’m not really looking forward to. We have to pick up furniture in the morning that it getting repaired. Our oldest son is turning 9 next month but we are having a zoom party at noon. Then we drive to a party place for the kids to play around in and only our kids. We reserved it for the day. While at the party place, Bonnie will take the car to get turned in, and then come back to the party place. Then afterwards we will walk to Pollo Feliz, the kids favorite restaurant, for dinner.

The next morning we fly to the Yucatan. We really do live our lives without any margins. Hopefully we can relax during our stay at the Yucatan. We plan to just stay in and enjoy the view and the beach.

Bonnie made dinner tonight. I made garlic bread and potatoes. Our youngest helped as well.

Since we’ve been here, we have both tried to get photos of the same thing. People on motorcycles with children. It’s the craziest thing to us. Bonnie got one today of two parents with an infant. And below I got this one from outside our home. *

Today we found a third scorpion in our house. The state we are living in is one of the top 5 states in Mexico for scorpions. I swept it outside and he was pretty upset. They move very fast, and that’s a fact I wish I didn’t know.

After we got the kids dressed, we left to go to a mine museum. The mine was really cool, the kids got to walk down a long set of stairs to 25 meters below the ground to see the mine.

We had a tour guide show us a place where people leave keys and money attached the the ceiling for a saint that will help get their family members out of prison.

Here is a photo of the inside of the mining tower.

It’s 250 feet up. I once rappelled into an air shaft in the ground about 250 feet. Probably one of the dumbest things I have ever done. 😀

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On the way to a restaurant for lunch we drove to a castle. The castle is a hotel and their restaurant isn’t open. Below are some photos from our driving in and driving out.

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We ended going to a restaurant that took a long time to get our food. But we got our food at differing times. 😀

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I was dropped off at home to appear in court by video, and Bonnie took the kids to a playground. **

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Today I worked a little and Bonnie did a work out with our daughter. They dance to a video on YouTube called Just Dance. It’s a video game that plays different songs and you have to dance to them a certain way in order to get a high score.

My son is eating his breakfast in this photo. Cup of noodles, shrimp habanero. 😳 After I did some work, we all got ready and drove into town. We were told a museum would be open and it was not. Travel agents are liars. So we went out to eat at a restaurant in the center. Below is a photo of the menu.

I had shrimp tacos. They were great. The kids had enchiladas and flautas, Bonnie had nachos. While eating, our youngest got his finger stuck in a napkin dispenser and it was hilarious only to me.

Meanwhile some guys walked their donkey through the area we were eating.

While eating, I got a text from chase fraud asking me to verify a purchase from Longhorn Steakhouse in Georgia. So my atm card is useless. 😃 I quickly ordered a new one but I am praying I can get it delivered before this Sunday when we fly to the Yucatan.

I took a cab home while Bonnie stayed with the kids to finish desert. I had a zoom meeting I had to be at. After the zoom meeting, she asked me to let the water out of the pool in the garage and I did just that. Below is the aftermath, hindsight being 20-20, I probably should have taken a phot of the pool before I let the water out.

Our oldest got a letter from her beet friend, who also loves next door. It was post marked March 30. I’d post the photo but it had my daughters name and our address. Just take my word for it, it was cute and her reaction to getting it was priceless. She was ecstatic.

Bonnie took the kids to get the car detailed and then to the dealership in order to start the process to sell it back. She then brought the kids home and we took showers and started a movie called Journey 2 The Mysterious Island. We shut it off at 730 and the kids were in bed by 8.

We had a lazy day today. I was exhausted from the red eye flight and slept until 11am. We had breakfast and I worked a little. Bonnie hung out with the kids.

We are planning a big trip to the Yucatán. Instead of using hotels, which most are closed, we went through AirBnb. We found a couple beachfront properties we might rent for a week. The beach is 20 feet from each house. We want to find a place with a swimming pool as well, the kids have been wanting to swim since we got here. I am NOT going to let them swim in the ocean. We had take out from a taqueria for dinner, the kids went to bed way too late. We now have less than a month of this adventure. **