I considered having my wedding at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Palm House on some Friday afternoon in April. It would’ve been beautiful. However, my husband and I ended up eloping on April Fool’s Day. Instead of wedding pictures, I have many photos of our kids playing at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Garden. I still love visiting there and now I bring the kids.
Once you’ve moved abroad it makes sense to see as much of your host country as possible. It’s cheaper to drive (and we have for many of our explorations) than to fly from the Midwestern United States. Even flights within Mexico have the advantage of being shorter and cheaper. When you are paying for four fares, cost definitely matters. Even so, I want to see all the awesome places in Mexico. Yes, we travel around Mexico with kids!
Do you want to travel with kids to Mexico? There are so many awesome places to travel in Mexico. Here are 15 awesome places in Mexico I really want to visit while I’m living here.
“It feels like I’ve woken up from a 7 month long dream,” I said, as we cruised through the cold, quiet streets of my Ohio hometown, heading towards my sister’s house. “I thought I’d feel weird.”
Yesterday we’d been driving through our town in Mexico around the same time in the evening. That also felt normal. Somehow, that now felt so far away. Do we really live in Mexico? Is that really our life? On the brightly lit salt covered roads, it felt like it was a lifetime away, instead of a mere 10 hours.
Do you suffer from decision fatigue while family trip planning? I certainly do. In fact, I have a full on case of it right now! A lot of it is caused by having to plan a great trip for four different people, with different personalities. That’s right, it’s time to plan a family trip! Spring break, to be specific. During one of the most expensive times of the year, I need to plan a family friendly vacation. I can’t decide where to go on vacation!
I always want to do all of the “swim with marine creatures” activities that are available. Swimming with dolphins has long been on my wish list. Swimming with dolphins, turtles, or stingrays sound so alluring. Are they good for the creatures in question? Here is how to have ethical animal encounters in the Caribbean AND my handy-dandy guide to some of the most popular attractions.
I’m forgetful. I’m also a bit unorganized (maybe more than a bit). Even making lists doesn’t always save me from forgetting something crucial on my travels. What’s the one thing that everyone remembers to pack that would be ridiculous to forget?
I’ve forgotten it.
“I have two weekdays off in early December,” my husband informed me. After making him triple quadruple check this with multiple people, we decided to go to Ixtapa. Ixtapa is a beach destination in Mexico that many expats and locals recommended. We decided that four days there would be enough time to get a good taste of the beach and would be worth the 5-6 hour drive. Plus, it was the only time we had available.
“Wait, we leave for the US 4 days later,” I said to my husband. “That’s just crazy.”
“Let’s do it,” he said. I am so glad that we did!
I’ve spent some time researching all these animal tourism experiences that sound wonderful. I want to do them all! However, I’ve come across the truth of many of them. Most touristy activities that involve captive animals also include horrific animal abuses at worst and neglect at the best. Spending my tourism dollars on ethical animal tourism is important to me. In fact, it is one way we can all make a huge difference.