It's Been So Long Since I Last Saw You

Well it just wouldn’t be a month in Mexico without a visit from one of my grandparents. No matter that I spent six uninterrupted weeks with them around the holidays, or that I will likely be spending two weeks with them in April when Mommy and Daddy go on vacation without me (Mommy having declared that taking me on a trip to South America without any grandparents or Aurora is really no vacation at all). Dada just couldn’t wait to see me, and being retired and spending most of his days on the internet, he was able to find a cheap and last minute deal to come see me.

As are typical of Dada’s visits, Mommy and Daddy didn’t feel the need to entertain him much, figuring he would be content to sit and make beaded necklaces with me, take me to the park and help me ride my bike. Still, having him here was a great excuse to explore more of the city, so last Saturday we took him to Coyoacan. This quarter in the southern part of the city has a bohemian feel, with craft markets, musicians and street performers in the plazas. Despite the various types of live entertainment (during our lunch at a sidewalk café our ears were overwhelmed with three different types of musicians competing for tips: a melodic saxophone player on the street corner; the tribal drums accompanying a native-inspired dance performance in the nearby plaza; and an accordion player and his band serenading café patrons), my favorite entertainment was the 10-cent motorized rides reminiscent of those found in U.S. supermarkets in the 1980’s.

We also took Dada back to Chapultepec Park, to find the Castle we were unable to locate during his first visit. The Castle was once the home to emperors and Mexican presidents, but now houses the National Museum of History. I was thrilled just to ride up the hill on the train, walk around the grounds of the Castle, and take in the beautiful views of the city from atop the hill. So Mommy, being the budget-conscious woman she is, decided that we didn’t really need to spend $5.00 a pop to visit the museum on a day I hadn’t had a nap- though we later discovered that seniors (i.e., anyone over the age of 60) and children under 13 would have been free. That made Dada so happy that he didn’t even mind being called a senior citizen!

Of everything we did, though, I think my favorite moments with Dada were those spent sitting around with him and eating cookies or digging in his shirt pocket for Tic-Tacs.