On the 4th, we hung out at the beach for a long time in the morning. Went up the room for a late lunch and then everyone crashed-except, of course, Steve. He is not a napper like the rest of us. We had an early dinner before we headed back down to the beach. The kids were playing on the beach and in the water-having a great time. We had someone take our family picture-the only one with all of us in it. These kids pointed out the jelly fish in the sand-pretty little, not like the huge jelly fish in Myrtle Beach and it had a blue tint to it. Well, Maggie was avoiding stepping on the seaweed and ended up stepping on the jelly fish. I was up under the umbrella reading and all of a sudden, I hear Maggie screaming and crying and Steve was carrying her. We had a cooler with us so we started putting ice on it. Andrew was so concerned about his big sister. The boys that warned us about the jelly fish had the remedy to pee on it. That was not going to be happening. They also said you could put ammonia or Windex on it-I always carry that to the beach with me.
Steve went to the bar to see if they had any medical information. The medical guy that came out to look at Maggie’s foot spoke no English. He looked at me when I talked to him like I would look at him if he spoke all Spanish to me. Anyway, his med kit did not even have band aids in it. I had probably brought more medical supplies with me than what he had in the med kit-another difference between the US and Mexico. He did bring a squirt bottle of ammonia-at least I think that’s what it was. He squirted that on Maggie’s foot which only made her scream and cry more. After he left, I just told Steve we needed to go up to the room and check on the internet what to do. Luckily, his blackberry was getting internet connection -what did we do before all these technical gadgets?
Of course, when we checked on-line they said you do NOT use urine or ammonia-so much for that “Friends” episode. The correct thing to do is to put the affected area in the hottest water the person can stand-we should have stayed at the pool and stuck Maggie’s foot in the hot tub. Since we were up in our room we just stuck her foot in the tub. She said it felt a lot better. That’s the photo of her sitting on the edge of the tub with her foot sticking out of the water.
We headed down to the beach as it was getting dark. Setting off fireworks is legal in Mexico, so it was a free for all on the beach. Fireworks were going off to the north and south of us and also right in front of us. There were probably a few people setting them off who shouldn’t have been. We tried to keep our distance. I don’t remember exactly what Andrew did to annoy me, but he ended up back in the room. Of course, he was just exhausted. He fell asleep pretty fast. The girls loved it. Maggie said the fireworks were her favorite part of the trip-after getting stung by the jelly fish, of course.
Saturday was our last day on the beach. The girls got their hair braided in the morning. There was a little argument with the girls on the beach-not our girls, the girls that were doing the braiding. I had agreed with one girl the day before that she could do the girls’ hair and Steve agreed with another girl, thinking that she was the other girls’ sister. I just told them they could each do one of the girls. Josephine, who did Maggie’s hair, was not happy. Even though I do not understand Spanish, I know what she was saying to the other girl was not nice. I talked a little with the girls that did Christine's hair. They were 17 and 15 I think-and of course I waited so long to do this that I can't remember their names. Their family had moved to Rocky Point from Acapulco-scary, that they thought their life would be better at Rocky Point. The girls thought they were very cool with their hair done.
While the girls got their hair done, Steve got Andrew this Batman kite. The little boys would make them for you on the beach. It actually worked pretty good. There are just so many strings I'm not sure if we'll be able to use it a lot at home without it getting all tangled.
We hung out at the pool most of our last day. We got the chairs right by the beach. I just could not take another day of peddlers. I will be more prepared for our next trip. I know that they probably love Americans coming down and it has created many jobs for them, but on the other hand I wonder what they think of Americans in general. Probably the worst display of Americanism was the college guys on the beach bonging beers (our children didn't notice them) while this Mexican boy sat off in the distance waiting to gather up their cans.
Anyway...enough about that.
Our final morning when Steve went down to start loading the car-our battery was dead. Just our luck! I continued to pack our stuff up as I thought about what we were going to do if we couldn't get it jumped-or if the battery was just completely dead and we would be stuck in Mexico needing a new car battery. Luckily, Steve found a guy at the pool that had jumper cables. Then someone was parked illegally so they couldn't get the cables to reach because this other car was in the way. Never fear though, a couple that we had talked to on the beach was walking their dogs and they had cables so they connected them all and got our car jumped. I was a little worried that when we stopped for gas-so much cheaper in Mexico it's unbelievable-that the car wouldn't start back up again.
As we took the highway back to the US, there was a random Mexican federali checkpoint. Luckily, we were not picked. They were out there with their machine guns around their neck, going through people's trunks and glove compartments. I wasn't worried about us having anything illegal. I was just worried about us having to get out of the car and stand in the heat while they checked our vehicle. I'm not sure our children would have understood to keep their mouths shut.
At the border we sat for about an hour to get back in to the US. This was another spot that the Mexicans make so much money. They have you trapped and they just walk up and down the road selling stuff. We got through the border with no trouble-they did ask if we had ham in our cooler. Not sure what was up with that.
We did have a funny moment at the US border patrol checkpoint further into Arizona. They stopped us. Asked both Steve and I if were US citizens. Then-the funniest thing-was they asked if the kids were ours. I was honestly so tempted to act surprised that their were kids in the back of our van, but I knew I shouldn't. The border patrol agents seemed to think it was a ridiculous question too-considering our toe head children. They probably have to ask everyone the same questions or it would be considered profiling.
Overall, we had a great trip. We will definitely be going back sometime. I want to go when it's cooler and Steve wants to go when it's still warm. The kids would probably have more fun when it's warm, so that's when we will probably go.
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