It's been two weeks since my 3rd son was born into this world. That means I'm taking the two older boys to Mexico for the weekend. There are things we have to do. This includes eating at our regular spots. Some we'll have to drive to the neighboring state for Sonora to eat tortas and have raspados, others we can walk to the town plaza to find tacos and what they (not me) call in L.A. street dogs (Mexican hotdogs).
Day One: Driving to Mexico
We have to drive from L.A. to Mexico via The 10 fwy mosty. We take a couple of pit stops at grandpa's house in Palm Springs and a restroom break at the one truck stop in Cochella off interstate 111. From then on straight to Calexico. It's about 4 hrs into our trip and about 45 more minutes to go from Mexicali to El Ejido Hermosillo.
We get to Grandma's house and just hang for a couple of hours, or at least till the tummy starts rumbling. We head over to the plaza where the hotdog venders and other kiosk are. We order 4 dogs. Two are just wrapped in bacon in a bun. The other two, which I'm going to eat, have diced tomato and onion, mayo, mustard and jalapeño. It wasn't the best, actually it was ok at best. It did come with a side of fries, which I thought were the best part of the experience. My oldest wanted a raspado (shaved ice) from the kiosk next door. We got a small red (strawberry) flavored one. It was pretty good. Cost 10 pesos, that's like $0.75.
Day Two: Hanging
That's all we do. We had breakfast that consists of eggs, potato, chorizo and corn tortillas. We watch tv till about noon and head out to San Luis RC. San Luis is just over the other side of El Rio Colorado. The river is tried out on this side of the border. We pay a toll to cross state lines from Baja to Sonora. It's an hour ahead in time. We drive around for a bit, stop by a Calimax for some random stuff. We get Nesquik cereal, Apple Jumex, a lime Tang and an orange flavored Peñafiel. I choose the Peñafiel. It's a mineral water in Mexico. Back home it's just a soda pop. We have lunch at KFC, and before I get any comments that it's the least Mexican thing it better here then in the U.S. They give you jalapeño sauce and strawberry jam for your biscuit.
We drove back to El Ejido and stopped by a juice bar en El Centro. My oldest had the lime ice cream, the next oldest had bubblegum flavor. I had an Agua Fresca, the mixed fruit one. It was creamy with a hint of Apple. For dinner we went to a local "Italian" Restaurant, Its actualy a pizza place. There were a few things that made this experience memorable. First the bad ones. We waited a long time for two pizzas and salad, I mean a long time. I forget exactly how long but it sucked. and to make matters worse.....the little one pooped and peed his diaper and I forgot to bring the diaper bag. but the Food was good. the salad was fresh and crisp. The pizza was home style. Not New York or Chicago, I dont know if they knew those styles exist, but it was good. As soon as we were done we made a B line to grandmas house to unstink the baby and called it a night.
Day Three: More time with the family
This is when we felt the heat. I'm not sure how hot it actually was but it was hot. We went to my aunts house where my oldest played in the dirt while I hosed him down. the little one didn't want to get wet so he looked at us form the dining room window. He did come out once we took a bin type container and filled it with water so they could play in it. It was reminiscent of the times my grandmother would fill those old metal containers where people would hand wash clothes in, I forget what they are called, but we would "swim" in it and play. my aunt made us stake and quesadillas for lunch. for some reason I wasn't too hungry, but it was good ether way. by the end of our stay with my aunt's family my youngest was asleep and my aunt took the oldest to my grandmas walking. It's about a mile away, if that. We took it easy the rest of the night. went to the plaza to get raspados and try a different hot dog stand. The hot dogs were a little better then the one we had already tried.
Day Four: Driving to California
We woke up and got ready for our trip back to Los Angeles. We drove to Mexicali, which was about a half hour drive. I'm very familiar with the route so getting lost wasn't on my mind as it had been so many times in the past. We did stop by La Ley, a market a lot like Calimax. We had stop there to use the restroom before getting in line to cross the Mexican American border. We also had to pick up a few liters for Mexican Coca-cola. That was a request from my wife.....(its called an addiction). I didnt have many Pesos left, we only had enough for the Coke. I only exchanged $60 to Pesos when we first got to Mexico. The line to cross was as I expected. It took about an hour and a half in line to cross to Calexico. As we do, we stopped by Walmark to get random stuff like snack drinks and a t-shirt for me since the one I was wearing was a button down and i felt restricted. The rest of the drive was with out incident. about four hours drive.
The drip was a blast. If I could I would make the drip more often. maybe one day if I ever move somewhere closer to Mexico.
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