On Saturday my sister Roxy and her boyfriend Sean arrived. They booked tickets to come visit me in December so we've all been looking forward to this for a long time. It's been so much fun to prepare for them coming- I've been making lists of the things we can do since the first night I got here. San Miguel is so much fun to walk around in; the streets are filled with interesting things and if it weren't for the ever-present danger of stepping in a huge hole in the sidewalk I would never look down while walking. Right after the house tour when they arrived "Really?? This is where you live?" we headed out to grab some lunch (Lebanese food down the street- delicious baklava) and mosey around for a while. Seeing Roxy and Sean walk around in awe reminded me of what a great place this is.

The colonial style buildings add an interesting spin to seeing the sights- the streets are all lined with walls that have various sized doors and windows and so you have to stare straight in the door right as you walk by to see what's inside. This is made much more difficult by the previously mentioned gaping holes in the sidewalks. A door, when open, might lead to a huge courtyard filled with little shops and cafes or it might lead into a tiny pharmacy- you never know until you catch it at the right time. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to when businesses here will be open. Team R&S will agree with me on that one. A lot of shops don't have signs permanently posted outside either, a lot of the time they just hang a sign up on the opened door. All this gives the town a feeling that things are ever-shifting. Streets are different every time you walk past. It reminds me a lot of Harry Potter with the magical shops that you can only see if you are tuned in enough.

Although I have a good handle on where things are in the town, I've become REALLY aware that I don't actually know where anything is specifically. I can lead Rox and Sean somewhere but if I have to give directions it goes something like this: "Turn right on Relox and go a few blocks... the tortilla shop is going to be on your left somewhere along the way. You'll hear the whirring of the machine when you go past the door. There are always three men inside and a lot of tortillas. If you hit Calzada de le Luz you've gone to far." No joke. But it's because that's how I find things too. There are very few permanent landmarks you can use. To find the movie theater we're going to tonight (something I've been to three times already and walk past at least twice a day) I just have to see if there's an open door on my left while walking up Hernandez Macias before I hit Umaran. Nothing more tangible than that. If you don't see the inside of the theater somewhere along that block it means it isn't open. Come back later. No, there are not posted hours. No sign outside either. Nice try.

We went home and played a round of Acquire, the current family obsession before the tired travelers went to bed. Acquire has really taken the Dunbar/Raab/Reids by storm this winter. The fact that both Team Mama-Grandma and Team Rox-Sean lugged the game to Mexico tells you how we feel about it.


The next morning we ran into a little trouble trying to find a place that was open for breakfast. We followed our noses to a delightful pastry shop that I have always admired when I walk by but somehow have never gone into. I think I knew it would be trouble. We ordered three scones and two slices of cake. Cake for breakfast is something along the lines of a family tradition for us. This cafe (the Petite Four for anyone looking for the recommendation) is one of those really rare pastry shops that makes beautiful AND delicious sweets. I can tend to be a snob about sweets and I get really annoyed with pastries that look pretty but don't taste good. We have returned to the Petite Four multiple times since that morning. Our cake of choice was the heart-shaped raspberry one on the bottom shelf:


Yes, that is lined with white chocolate. It was good. Really good.

For dinner our second night we went to the spectacular Dila's restaurant, which is famous for it's huge margaritas and blow-your-mind delicious food and center of my mother's reasons for starting a "return to San Miguel" fund.


After slurping the last of our margaritas and repeatedly thanking the restaurant staff for such a wonderful experience, we followed the noise of loud music to the Jardin, the town center, where there was a concert going on. Maybe it was in honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day, or maybe they set up the concert because Sanmiguelenses (and I think Mexicans in general) love to dance. The crowd was huge but we easily wiggled our way to a good spot. We arrived in between songs so I was pleasantly surprised when the music started again to see the sea of people start moving in waves of dance. Partners made up of fathers and daughters, grandmothers and grandsons, and couples of all ages danced and sang along to the music. The performers brought up a bunch of people from the audience for a dance contest. A woman who was probably in her late 70s won. All this was happening beneath the San Miguel Parroquia (read: big, beautiful church) lit up against the night sky above us.


Walking home we passed the street vendors in the Jardin that sell these 4-foot long blow up crayon-shaped things filled with air. I've never seen them before coming here and I really, really wish they were around when I was a kid. Since first seeing them I always jealously watch kids play with them from afar. They're made of really thin mylar (like the big silver birthday balloons but more delicate) so they don't have much weight to them. One end is slightly rounded and the other is tapered, so you can bounce the rounded end on the ground and it shoots up unexpectedly high in the air then floats down. They seem to defy gravity and when you add in wind they turn out to be worth their lifespan in fun. It's a shame they don't last longer, but what can you expect from something that has a tendency to float into oncoming traffic. As the three of us were leaving the concert we passed a bunch of families that had kids playing with the mylar rockets. Sean did a really good job of knowing that even though I was saying that I didn't really want one that I actually did, so he talked me into getting Roxy (the only one with change) to fork out the 2 dollars we needed. I was really excited about it.


It's very possible that the reason these haven't (as far as I know) been imported into the US is because they basically wreak havoc on any family foolish enough to buy them for their children. We saw a mom, holding an infant, who was patiently walking away from her son as he whopped her on the head with the rocket/sword. Sean and I played like kids with our new toy until it finally deflated enough that it didn't really work anymore. One of us would go upwind and throw or bounce it into the air for the other who would have to run around to catch it. That's really all there was to the game, but it entertained us for probably a half hour. We were a total spectacle. It was a good community bonding experience, too. We sent our toy sailing into lots of groups of people, including some passing police, who laughed at me more than my joke when I tried to tell them in Spanish that they got the points for that round.