What would you do for a Pfizer shot? Drive 2200 miles? Would you do it over a weekend? How about in triple digit temps?

 

We have been trying to figure out how the heck to get our vaccinations from here since we haven't gotten the documentation to procede with our residency yet.  So we decided to hop in the car and drive over a thousand miles up the peninsula to So Cal to get our shots, and then 1000+ miles back down.  It was actually a super fun trip with ridiculous amounts of hysterical laughter and silliness.  I am so grateful we found kind people to stay at our place with Blanca and Toby as well as neighbors who offered help and support too.  

Bright eyed and bushy tailed at the very start of the trip. 

I read so much about people not wanting the vaccines; insisting they are gene therapy or that they haven't been proven safe.  Clearly, we see it differently.

 

For an interstate, it's pretty narrow.  However, these straight aways are a joy to come upon as much of it is wildly windy.

Luca was thrilled to find a book about D-Day in the hotel on the way north.  It was a total dive but had windows that opened wide and clean sheets so we were happy.

It doesn't look it, but this was outside and we were the only patrons.  Dinner was yummy but I think the waiter tried to scam us out of 50 pesos, which felt a little icky.  Maybe he just sucked at math.

There is a large military installation at the border between the north and south and of course we had to check it out.

Speaking of military, there were many checkpoints along the journey.  Mostly they just checked in with us and took a quick peek inside the truck.  A few times we had to get out while they rummaged more thoroughly.  

I have no idea what I was trying to explain to Luca when he snapped this picture.  We mostly used this beach as a picnic stop, though of course I had to at least wade in the water.

Not a bad place for a smörgåsbord!

This photo is not special for its content, but rather its story. Well, I guess it is a pretty picture of a place called Nopolo and that is great.  But what is completely ungreat is that as we went through the curves and hills approaching Nopolo, I accidentally threw my phone out the car window and down a slippery, rocky hillside right as I took this picture.

I thought my companions were incredibly gracious about stopping in 101 degree temps and scaling the crumbling little ravine as we did a grid search for my poor device.  Here I am joyful after climbing back up with my completely unscathed phone!

 

Here are my entrepid guys who chose to enjoy the scenery and embrace the adventure, even through silly pitfalls.  

 

Speaking of high temps - our thermometer registered 140 as we waited in looooong lines at the border.  Obviously it wasn't quite that warm but hot damn it felt like it.  It took us 2 hours to go less than half a mile.  We couldn't keep the windows down because of the super aggressive street vendors, but we couldn't keep the air on without overheating.  And I couldn't even complain, because there were beggars in quite sad states of affairs reminding me of how astoundingly lucky I am in life.  It was a very long, conflicted 2 hours.

But then we had our first shots + crossed the border back to Mexico!  We may still have had 20 thousand hours to go, but we felt accomplished + were heading back home!

Please bear with me - I found this place incredibly interesting + picturesque and it is very hard not to share *all* of the photos I took and to ramble on for pages + pages.  But here we are discovering part of the salt encrusted coast of Laguna Salada, a large dry lake not too far from the border crossing at Mexicali. 

At its widest, the lake is approx 37 miles x 11 miles and 10 - 12 meters below sea level.  It's apparently been the scenery in a few shows + movies - and was even a backdrop for a Pavarotti performance.

My feet were starting to sink in places.  My brain kept wanting it to have the physics of snow.

Can I taste it, Mom?  Do you think it is clean? Can we bring some home?  

                  

 I can take no credit for this adorableness, but am happy someone took the time to do this :)

Do you want to build a saltman?

We had high hopes of staying in San Felipe - a lovely town on the pristine waters of the gulf.  When we went through, however, it was like Spring Break meets Mardi Gras meets...well, a lifting of restrictions after a long hard year of isolation.  We'd seen what a zoo it was on the way up so we stayed in the States instead and only stopped back in on the way down for a few quick tourist photos :)

I think there were more anatomical issues than simply the leg bit Max and Luca are inspecting; it bordered on creepy.

The nearly endemic cirio, or Boojum trees, always merit a stop from me. I find their graceful silliness irresistible, but hard to capture in images. I'm sure I tried in the post for the original trip down, and here I try again. If Dr Suess designed the desert.

Soon it was back up in the triple digits and I was impatient to get out of the car and into some water!

Can we stop?  Pretty please?  Is that a turnoff?  That looks like access. Let's try that beach.

In the end we agreed to wait and visit the beach that we used to camp on with our school bus back in the 90s.  It was always a bear to get into, even with extra low gears and super high clearance.  It was no easier in 4 wheel drive low in the truck.  But the nostalgia was very convincing and we committed to bringing our son to our special spot.

This photo doesn't do it justice. The water is so clear we spent hours just watching the underwater crabs eat snails or the fish nibble at our toes.  We used to bring our canoe here and go out deeper and pick scallops and clams from the sandy bottom and cook them over an open fire - sometimes for breakfast as the sun rose.  And at times we would be there when there was bioluminescence in the water and we would paddle around at night watching the trails of light we'd leave in our wake, full of awe.

We spent the night in Santa Rosalia - a town with a rich history of mining copper. Out hotel was built in the late 1800's and felt every bit as old as it was - with no safety regulations added on.  

Sleeping in a hotel made entirely of wood planking with batting and fabric over the walls and electrical wires run free from the confines of coduit, snaking to old rickety light fixtures...we didn't even lock our door in case we had to flee from a fire.  

Not that we would know if the place caught as there were certainly no pesky modern smoke detectors anywhere on site.

This photo was taken after I rehung the art and tried to straighten the lights. LZ found the whole thing full of charm, romantic that he is.  Max wanted to have the couple we met in the street, who called staying here "bucket list" material, committed. 

Because we didn't have a lot of time we didn't get to go explore the old smelter works nor visit the mining museum, though we read a few interesting + informative articles over breakfast.  Of course, we are always suckers for a train display.  (I love hearing Max explain what all the parts are, how it all moved, the way the steam powered everything.  No matter how many times we have played out this exact scene, it always makes me happy.)

Another interesting landmark in town is the church.  Here is a little history, by the incredibly knowledgable David Kier, for those interested:

Alexander Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame) had designed a pre-fabricated metal church in 1884 as a prototype for missionary churches in France's tropical colonies. Built in 1887 to be strong enough to withstand severe tropical weather, the church is made from galvanized iron. In 1889 the church and the Eiffel Tower were put on display at the Paris World's Exposition. Gustave won first prize for the church's design.

Years later, an official for the French Boleo Mining Company learned of the church being stored in a Brussels warehouse. He purchased it and had the church shipped to Santa Rosalía where it was reassembled in 1897. It was given the name 'Iglesia de Santa Bárbara'.

Pretty cool, right?

Every hour or so animals would make their way to the road, reminding us to slow down and take it easy.  To enjoy the journey.

But just in case, we decided to stop at a roadside shrine and light a candle for us, and one for all the travelers on the highway.  

This entry doesn't really star Toby or Blanca, and I apologize for that.  Fortunately, we were able to leave them out of our shenanigans, in comfort, at home, with good people.  They are both doing well and will have updates in the coming blogs, I promise.  We are so happy to be on our way to having antibodies!  I am really looking forward to being able to spend real time with the good friends here who have been vaxxed for weeks and are just waiting on my pokey self to get the shots.  I look forward to going out to explore our community with LZ and to finally be able to connect more.  I am a safety first person and love the hell out of my masks, but I am so ready to venture out into the world. Holy cannoli, though - I think we may need to figure out flights for the second shots!  This is a long drive for all of us to do again.  Thanks so much for sharing the thousands of miles with us - the thought of getting to share it all here with you made the trip even more fun! So much love to you.