Vacationing Whales

There is a ship's bell at the entrance of Las Olas ("The Waves") restaurant which looks over the beach and pounding surf in front of our hotel. It is rung when the whales (greys and blues, among others) or "las ballenas," which migrate down the coast, swim near to shore and are spotted breaching or blowing along the way. They are most abundant from January to March. This morning as we eat breakfast, the bell is ringing near constantly. Every couple of minutes, we, along with other guests, stop eating and look out toward the horizon to see the mist from their breaths and the blackness of their backs. Ava, who complains near constantly that everything is either too hot or cold, worries that the whales will get too cold swimming out there. I assure her that the whales don't complain too much about the relatively warm waters in Mexico. "They are going to places where the water's much colder than here. They have tough skin with lots of fat under it," "Oh," she understands, "even whales go on vacation to Mexico!"

Kids on Vacation

Ava is now very adept at ordering strawberry daiquiris from the pool-side bar. She scoots herself hand-over-hand from the shallow-end to the first submerged bar stool, then hops from one stool to the next until she's in front of the bartender. Then she says, "Un strawberry daiquiri, por favor," then scoots herself and her drink back to the hot tub. She does this a dozen or so times a day, retrieving drinks for Bettina as well. It's really very cute! Our room couldn't be better placed. From our balcony, we look directly onto the hot tub and wading pool, which is where the girls spend 80% of their time. Next to it are the poolside bar and snack-shack, so, when they're not in the pool, they are likely eating the very yummy kid-friendly food. From our balcony, we can keep track of them; especially handy when Alessandro's napping or trying to spot and catch up with the gang afterwards.

Bettina has been an absolute shadow of Megan, following her around like a little puppy. When the waiter comes to ask what we'd like to drink, Bettina answers, "I'll have whatever Megan's having." She absolutely fawns over her. Our second night at dinner, Bettina demonstrates her resolute loyalty by gently petting and covering Megan with the linen napkins in an effort to comfort Megan as she quietly suffered from a sunburn.

Alessandro is now in the habit of looking for iguanas each and every time we pass a hollowed out place in the wall near the restaurant. They are like clockwork; each morning, two of the reptiles park and sun themselves (at least until we stare them down too long). Then they scurry out and hide again inside their wall. It never ceases to fascinate the Little Man.

Money Well-Spent

It gets windy in Los Cabos at about 10:30 in the morning, so the best money we've spent so far is the $50 we paid a couple of local women on the beach to braid the girls' hair Bo Derrick-style. It sure beats hearing them whine, cry and complain about getting their wet and wind-blown hair brushed out each time they get out the pool or go to eat. Beaming, Bettina said that she feels like a princess having her hair done. It took about half and hour and, I swear, they never sat that still for that long for any of my hairstyling! They look like little Malatos, especially now that their skin is getting all browned from their now third day in the sun.

Spring Break 2010

" I don't want to go to Mexico," Ava says, showing a bit of apprehension.
"Why not?" I ask.

"Grandpa says that they only speak Spanish there. How am I going to make any friends when I don't know how to speak Spanish?"

"Friends will come easy enough," I assure her, "and, a lot of them can speak both English and Spanish. And then there will be Kylee and Megan - they will be there too."

"Excitement his both Ava and Tina's eyes. They quickly claim one for each other and when we do meet us with tme in LAX, they quickly run and clasp hands with them. Getting to LAX, however, was a feat to begin with. Five-weeks in advance, we sent in Alessandro and Paul's passport application/renewal forms and they assured us they would be ready in enough time for our departure. Alesandro's came with more than a week to spare. Paul's, however, arrived a mere 19-hours before our scheduled flight, which left us biting our fingernails. Alessandro and I also nearly missed our flights as we were held up for nearly and hour over a ticketing issue with Alessandro. he was flying internationally as a lap-child and there was confusion within the three entities (Expedia, Alaska and American) as to whether or not we had paid the taxes for his "fare" on the e-ticket (even though he was "free" as a lap-child). He and I literally made it to the gate just as they were closing the door. My belt and necklace were still in-hand from the security checkpoint and our shoes and carry-ons stashed in Alessandro's stroller, used more like a race car than a stroller, in order to get there in time.

The flights were seamless and, although Alessandro didn't sleep, very easy. We arrived at our hotel to mimosas and a welcoming breeze. The all-inclusive resort took on immediate value as we quickly found the margaritas and walked around to get our bearings. Ah! Mexico!