SPELLING BEE Time

I think that the Mexico trip had so many good and interesting things happening that maybe my brain just tucked memories away so I could recall and enjoy them at a later date.

Emma’s grandparents are just what you would want for grandparents -kind, generous and love life. The day before we left we got to visit both Emma’s grandparents and father’s window glass businesses. Grandpa was the first one in the city to start a window glass business and has trained many people to start their own. Emma’s dad started working in the shop at a young age and later started his own window glass business.

The grandparents surprised us with gifts of chocolate, the molinillo spoon that is used to whisk the chocolate drinks, pumpkin seeds, the very special painted bowls made from gourds to us for the native corn drink, and a handmade towel from a nearby market. They would have known which small family businesses to buy these things from. We were so glad that we decided to buy grandma flowers on our market shopping trip before she gave us the presents. The large, beautiful arrangement was picked out flower by flower and I think it came to a grand total of $4.00 American. The same arrangement here probably would have been at least $60.00 American.

Grandpa is a keeper of strong traditions so he was very interesting to talk to. (Arre and Emma being the interpreters). I showed grandpa pictures of my orange Mustang and he fell in love with it. He asked that when he comes to Minnesota, will I pick him up at the airport? He will be wearing an orange outfit and have an orange carry-on. Did you know Vroooom Vroooom is spoken in lots of languages?

It was at Emma’s Dad’s home I got to see up close real bananas, avocados and other fruits we only see in the grocery store, growing on trees in his yard. This was the second big surprise of the day as I did not realize that behind all those fences, people had houses and yards. (That turned out to be the common practice the whole trip). The next morning I had the avocado I was gifted for breakfast. It had a somewhat different shape but it was excellent eating.

In addition to the fruit, I could have lived just on the breads that were available. They ranged from bite size to bread loaves as big as a half bushel baskets. A number of them came with chocolate or other fillings. Some were extra good when dipped in hot chocolate. Arre said most were baked just a few hours ago.

The shopping scene is totally unbelievable. The saying, “you can get it on this street or just around the corner” was proven true so many times. Shelly got her glasses fixed around the corner for just a $1.00. There seemed to be at least 2 dentists on every block and chocolate shops everywhere. (Majordomo is a big chocolate chain). Bug spray, tacos, wine, t-shirts, and tissues were just down the street.

In addition to having a large family in the area, Emma has lots of friends in the city and one of his college friends owns a restaurant that we visited for lunch. It was called “Santa Hierba”. I had a great sandwich on a very good croissant with Spanish ham and Danielle had what she called one the best burgers she ever had and it was meatless. We had fried beet chips instead of potato chips. The food presentation was outstanding and to top off things, Arre and Emma ordered four wonderful desserts that looked so picture perfect it could have been hard to eat. Don’t worry; we overcame that problem after one bite and totally enjoyed it!

I am officially calling this story to an end. After all, I might need another adventure to plan for. Memories will continue.