the ocean

As threatened, here are some photos from our journey to Mexico City. Travel with me now, though of course not literally.

This is the Palace of Fine Arts. For whatever reason, there was a veritable mob scene surrounding it, including dozens of people selling what looked like very delicious corn and a group literally doing folk dances. This photo does not capture that, except perhaps in my hair.

The interior of the Palace of Fine Arts is an art deco dream. Assuming one dreams about that sort of thing, I don't know.

I love a good ceiling picture. 

The grillwork around the doors was quite intricate. Not sure that style would work in our house, though.

This is a monument to the Mexican revolution, which we happened upon at sunset in a photographically convenient twist.

There's a great glass elevator that goes up to the top of the monument. We did not go up, which I regret. Many of my regrets in life are about not going up in things.

We spent a long weekend in Mexico City this past week. I had never been, and it was pretty great. I will admit that I'd read a New Yorker article about a bunch of students who were abducted and murdered in Mexico immediately prior to the trip, which did not set a great tone. But I resolved to not be like my friend who once refused to attend a wedding in Cancun because she thought she'd be beheaded by narcos, and bravely proceeded to my five-star hotel in the gorgeous city center. 

There was culture! We went to a modern art museum and a contemporary art museum (different things, although they both may involve elderly people saying "my kid could do that") and the anthropological museum, which in addition to being difficult to pronounce had an amazing collection of early American artifacts. We also visited the incredibly stunning castle and checked a lot of boxes on our Instagram list. (Yes, photos will be forthcoming.) And then we made the trek out to Teotihuacan, which was no less fascinating for having been subject to a series of prohibitions on climbing ruins ever since COVID. As someone who once became terrified after reaching the top of Chichen Itza and nearly had to be retrieved by rescue personnel, I believe temple scaling to be highly overrated.

We also got religion, with a stop at the Our Lady of Guadalupe site. As a Catholic with more than eight years of Public School Religion classes under my belt, it was nice to put a location with the low-quality animated short that relayed to us the story of this particular miracle. There are approximately ten thousand chapels of various vintages there, as well as the main church with the famous image, which is now installed behind a series of moving walkways so nobody can hog all the time with the Virgin. Unfortunately, no churro stand that I could find, but I'm sure that's coming.

Speaking of which, food! I was very much tempted, but ultimately too fearful, to eat any of the delicious-looking elote or tacos that blanketed many public areas in the city. But we did have some great traditional meals, as well as a contemporary culinary journey at a restaurant that someone (I don't remember who) has ranked #47 in the world. My understanding is that Chili's did not even make this list.

Anyway, I'm back, and will torture you with further discussion as the weeks go by. Something to look forward to!

I have traveled to London and back and lived to tell the tale. Barely. I could not sleep on my flight out and therefore spent my first day wandering around in a haze thinking about whether I could maybe curl up and nap on a bench in St. Paul's. Also I did not get to shower for that first day, which is very important for you to remember as you analyze my hair in photos. Oh, and United served me alleged "cheese blintzes" which were covered in a sugary, syrupy mess that nearly brought the earlier "pesto pasta" back up. 

Anyway, it was a pretty good trip. I got some light tourism in, such as climbing up the dome of St. Paul's. 

They also have a crypt, but not nearly as many big names as Westminster Abbey. Here's William Blake, whose memorial could frankly use a bit of a glow up.

The scale is not readily apparent here, but this thing is like four stories tall. Reasonably badass. 

There is, obviously, more to tell, but I'm going to draw it out so I don't have to think of other content. Consider yourselves warned.