This past weekend my parents and Bekah came to town and brought Andrew and Allie with them so we could all go to the Tijuana Temple open house together. We decided to make a day of it, so we all piled in our minivan and left the babes behind.
it only took us about 45 mins to get to the temple grounds and it was so beautiful. There was a gorgeous courtyard out front and the tour was perfect.
After stopping to see this Catholic church with the huge Jesus statue that is off the freeway in Tijuana, we headed to Rosarito where Craig had lunch all planned out. We ate at Tacos "Manuel"...find address
here.
While driving south from the taco shop through Rosarito, we saw mini pony rides and they had camels. The kids were SO excited about the camels so Craig flipped around and they all got to ride.
From the camels, we continued south, through the beach town of Rosarito about 3-4 miles to a tiny little fishing village called Papotla. (The turn off is on the right side of the road, just after the old FOx Studios where they filmed Titanic. You drive through these 2 old cement arches and follow the dirt road.) We drove down through all the little restaurants and shops and came out right on the beach. It was so crazy to drive right on the sand. We drove all the way to the end and it was so nice to have our car with all of our towels, snacks and beach stuff RIGHT there. No need to unload.
After boogie boarding and catching crabs for an hour we went exploring in all the tide pools and rocks and the kids got some of the coolest shells we've ever found.
As the sun started setting, we went to explore the tiny village. It wasn't really a tourist town (in fact- we were the only tourist i saw there the whole day). There were a ton of locals that lookied like they came to eat out on a Saturday night and get their fish for the week. It was their version of Pike's Fish market. :) They did have a few stands selling trinkets and our FAVORITE by far was this glass sculptor. He would take a rod of glass and make anything you wanted out of in in a few minutes. I got a glass elephant for Winston. All of the kids ended up getting things made....a scorpion, dragon, pony, etc. They were a few dollars each but watching him make them was the best.
a tamale stand guy asked if I wanted to come cook with them. YES!! I learned how they fold the husk around the corn meal mixture ( all with different meats, etc added in). then we put them upright in these huge steamer pots with lids on to steam them. DElish.
Not delicious was the raw sea urchin that craig and parker ate.
Goodbye Mexico. You treated us well.
(Right up to that 3 hour line of cars to get out on a Saturday night;)
