Unexpected Vacation

Sunday morning. All is normal, all is routine. The Di Silvestri family goes to 9:30 mass as usual. After mass, everyone expects the regular donut stop on the way home. But something different happens.

Instead of turning on 10th Street West toward Sugary Donuts, Jay heads down Avenue I and gets on the freeway heading South. And South we continued, still in our church clothes, for 3 hours. Unexpectedly, we were on a mission.

Goodbye, California, hello Mexico!

We ended up, completely without planning, in the charming pueblo of Rosarito Beach, just south of Tijuana. And I can't remember when our family had so much fun.

Here are some photos of our wonderful afternoon, one that filled our family tank to the brim.

The main street of town, as viewed from our first official stop: a restaurant, of course! Unfortunately, we had an unofficial stop prior to this. It was on the side of the road at the request of the Mexican police officer who took offense to our driving the wrong way down a one way street. In our experience, it generally costs a person a bit of money to be extracted from such a situation. However, in our absence of planning, we entered the country without any cash (we were looking for an ATM!). The police officer looked in the car, filled with 5 hungry children, and decided that hauling us downtown wasn't worth his time and let us go. But not before offering us his best line: "Five kids? Don't you have a television?" Very funny, in any language.

Our next stop was the local curio shop for, what else, fireworks and a Cuban cigar. When in Rome...or Mexico, as the case may be! Jay went to great lengths to explain that he didn't really want a cigar for himself, that he was only getting one to light the fireworks most effectively. Right.





The kids insisted on trying out the local merchandise. But, funny thing, the boys just happened to wear their Mexican guayabera shirts to mass that morning, so they fit right in. Maybe that is what inspired us to begin with!


The next stop was the beach (unless you count the bakery on the way, where we bought assorted cookies to give Tony something to do besides eat sand, which was only marginally successful in the end).




Julia sat very nicely and got some braids. Here she is during and after.















Meanwhile, the boys set up the fireworks (oh, so that's why they call them bottle rockets!).


And Tony had his own entertainment. "If-I-could-just-reach-a-little-bit-higher..."














And for the finale, a visual representation of just how well the children heeded my "don't get wet because we didn't bring any extra clothes" warnings.



Wet, sandy, tired and happy we piled into the minivan and returned home. We got home at midnight (on a school night!) and dumped the kids, sand and all, into their beds that night with nary a tooth brushed. But, says I with my post-vacation attitude, there are worse things.

We woke them up at 6 this morning to shower before school, and I spent all day washing sheets, sweeping up sand and visiting the carwash. And you know what? It was all worth it.