Tuesday, May 18, 2004
becoming visited
Bret, Tracy, Jamie and Dan at a Tijuana marketplace.
The house seems so quiet now. Bret's two daughters and son-in-law have been visiting us for the past week, and they left yesterday morning. I spent the rest of the day cleaning house, so was too busy to notice how quiet it is now. Today, I'm noticing!
Last week was the definitely most fun we've had since our honeymoon. We took the kids to the beach twice, to Casa de Pico and to Tijuana. I was extremely relieved that both Jamie and Tracy seemed to genuinely like me, and we all got along great. I had been quite nervous about meeting them, and what they would think of me. They both said how glad they were that their dad has someone who loves him and takes such good care of him. That made me feel much better!
Tracy would have gone to the beach every day if she could have. And she managed to accomplish something I haven't been able to: She got Bret into the ocean! Not just his feet, either — he actually went out into the waves and rode the boogie board Tracy had bought for him. Only a few times, but I was quite impressed, knowing how he feels about water. It took a lot out of him, though — once he came out, he refused to go back in, no matter how much Tracy begged.
The night we all went to Casa de Pico (Juli joined us), I got violently sick (NOT from the food!). Juli was already under the weather. Dan, Tracy and Bret all got stinking drunk on Mucho Grande Margaritas, but thankfully, Jamie remained both sober and well. She "mommed" us all, even running for cold water while I deposited my dinner in a wastecan. Somehow, we all made it back to the car, and Jamie drove us home. The big thrill of the evening was that, on the way home, we got into TWO races! People always underestimate Dan's car, and we left both challengers eating our dust. It was quite exciting.
Bret and I have been to Tijuana together twice before, but this time was by far the most fun. As usual, we rode the MexiCoach bus across the border. We shopped our way down one side of Avenida de la Revolucion, and back up the other side. Dan is fluent in Spanish, and had a great time bargaining with the local merchants. Bret fell in love with a huge, gorgeous blown-glass scorpion, so Dan attempted to haggle the price down to $15. He wasn't successful, but I played Senora Turista, and had better luck. We got the scorpion for $20. My big purchase was a cute, brightly-painted pottery cat that I got for $5. I bought Juli (who had to work) a blue version of my sombrero ashtray, as she had requested. Tracy chose a T-shirt, and a lovely enameled silver bracelet. Jamie and Dan were the big spenders, bringing home both a ceramic Aztec wall calendaria and a set of blown-glass pitcher and glasses in a wrought-iron stand. We wound up our visit with tacos and Coronas at our favorite taco stand, inside the MexiCoach terminal. Juan even made a special vegetarian version for Jamie. Unfortunately, we got stuck waiting in the bus for an hour to pass through inspection at the border, but that was the only sour note in an otherwise marvelous day!
