Mexico, Part I

I'll call this Mexico, Part I...in the belief there will be more Mexico posts to come. No promises, there...but Part I is a start at least.

So, we went to Mexico from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 - a quick trip to celebrate the wedding of (hold on to your hat) the sister of my best friend's wife. Mariana married Fernando in Valle de Bravo, a lake town about two hours to the southwest of Mexico City.

To be more specific, they got married in a 400-plus-year-old hacienda, with enormous thick stone walls, pillars, horses, guard towers at the corners, moisture, odors and dubious electricity. Charming and rustic would be the polite way to describe the accommodations (we stayed at the hacienda as part of the extended-extended "family"). We actually loved staying there -- merely 100 yards from the tequila-soaked reception and dance-fest! Others in our group of family...not so much. There were tears and night terrors and general whining -- and not by Lindsay, but by the other end of the age spectrum.

We considered not going, due to the expense, the challenges of traveling with Lindsay, etc. But I'm so glad we went -- what a fascinating location and what friendly, fun people we got to hang out with.

The travel...well, it was challenging -- from the red eye to Houston to the cozy plane down to Toluca (Mexico's industrial capital!!) to the near-miss of our plane coming home. The Mexican president chose our departure day to visit the same airport...and that, compounded by our late arrival to the airport, resulted in a very, very close call.















Lindsay dozing at the Houston airport, around 6:00 a.m. after the redeye.
















The hacienda's main courtyard, being prepared for a wedding feast for 350!















Our room (left) and the open terrace leading to our room. These show the hacienda with the power on, which wasn't a sure thing for a while. We were all especially grateful the power came on in light of the ghost stories our Mexican friends were telling us -- apparently, the hacienda was used as a prison at some point, and the spirits remain restless!





















Young child, old wall.

More photos to come....