18.5.13



Xochimilco is one of those places in Mexico City that everyone tells us we need to visit - it is best known for its canals  - leftovers from the extensive lake and canal system that were part of pre-hispanic Mexico City.

We finally made it down last month with a group of friends; it's a bit a tourist trap (ok, fine it's pretty much exclusively a tourist trap), but it traps Mexican tourists too, which makes it seem like more of an agreeable trap to me.

My favorite part of the trip?  The fact that there was a mini gondola version of pretty much every mexican street stand imaginable.  The stand that sells corn on the cob on a stick smeared with mayonnaise and chili power?  there in gondola form.  The stand that sells every imaginable mexican candy and loose cigarettes?  there in gondola form.  The taco stand?  there in gondola form.  the wandering flower salesman trying to get boyfriends to buy their lover a rose?  there in gondola form!

My least favorite part?  having to haggle our way back down to a lower price with our boatman after we realized that we had been tricked into paying three times the government -established rate for the gondola.   (live and learn, baby.  live and learn)








14.5.13

We were out for lunch in our neighborhood this week with Jim and Ginny (Joshua's parents);  as we drank our coffees, we watched the city go by - moms holding their children's hands on the way home from school, men on basketed bicycles delivering groceries to mexican housewives, a woman with a box in her arms - selling gum and cigarettes to passers by, a man and his cello pausing in front of the restaurant - exchanging his music for the diner's tips.

This made me think about how much eating is done outdoors in Mexico City.  It makes sense, really -  Mexico City has beautiful weather all year round,  who wouldn't want to eat outside as often as possible?  As if the weather perk wasn't enough,  it's almost guaranteed that if we choose a table on the sidewalk, we'll run into someone we know and get a little chat out of it.  (we live a good life, I tell you; God is good to us!)


11.5.13

My amazing picture taking sisters  (and sisters-in-law) post pictures of their kids - their kids picking strawberries, their kids in the garden, their kids at the lake house, their kids in the snow, their kids at the  24 hour bike race that their father participated in . . .

and then there is me,
and I'm like:
here's another picture of my kids in the city.
(I've got to find myself an apple orchard or something;  does anyone know of an apple orchard in Mexico City?)


10.5.13
























hello!  We are busy welcoming the Grandparents:  showing them off to the neighborhood and taking them all over town - - forcing them to eat all of our favorite mexican dishes and to see all of our favorite city sights.

Malachai has been into cutting letters and taping them to the wall to spell out winsome messages (like: "happy birthday Joshua" or "welcome home grandparents");  I think this is nothing short of awesome.