Residence Inn Baja California Tijuana / Real del Mar

... it's made up -- they had a couple of Italian restaurants along one street and so deemed it Little Italy. Probably very cynical of me. The W Hotel is happening tonight ... some big wine tasting event. Lots of sleek young bodies in high heels and/or tight pants. Both men and women. Very amusing. I definitely felt out of place ... <br>

At work all day, then late afternoon flight. No problems with flight at all ... arrived, got rental car, then drove the few miles to the W Hotel. Very swank. The "living room" bar was happening ... but we just went to our rooms, then met for dinner at Rice, the embedded restaurant, which serves Cuban/Asian fusion. Food was fine, not fab.<br><br>Room is fun ... there's a chalkboard (that received a bit of J. Alfred Prufrock from me) and a window seat. And the linens are wonderful.<br><br><br>

... a detailed interrogation on why we were entering the US. The farcical yarn we were trying to lay on them wasn&#8217;t washing or even registering. Once again, &#8216;Where have you been in Mexico?&#8217;. &#8216;We just went across to get cash!&#8217; Met with unbridled suspicion.<br><br>After half an hour we were let through but still could almost feel the high powered rifle sights trained on us as we made our way once again over the pedestrian walk way ...

... tash, struck up a conversation with us. Asking us where we from and if we had been to Mexico before. I think that this was the first time that i had heard a real strong Mexican accent from a person when speaking Spanish. It was for me almost impossible to understand as up until that moment i was only really used to the way Spanish is spoken in Spain, well mostly the castillan way anyway as down south it can get a bit testing as well but this was completely different. The words ...

... to the receptionist to ask for my change which God bless her, didn't have any change either. Get the point? I did manage to go into the financial room, which has 2 ATM's and got lots of Mexican Pesos, for the rest of my stay. I pulled out the piece of paper of the cabby and decided to test his honesty, called his cell number and to my surprise he answered and said will be there in 15 Minutes at the same place he dropped me off. WOW! Unheard of in the USA, for us it's just ...

... coming up while you're eating that keep wanting to serenade you with trumpets and accordions. (For a generous tip) great the first time but annoying after the fifth one comes and wants to play for you as well! Anyway it was an interesting day in Mexico, and a good experience to see what one part of Mexico was about! So it was all fine and dandy until we went to go and board the Mexico coach back to the border that left on the half hour! We thought if we got it at 4:30pm for the 10 ...

... I called normal. I had to adapt to so many things that are different. I crave familiarity. Don't be disappointed when I don't know what to say, or don't have a big speech prepared for you. I want to tell you everything. I want you to see what I saw. I want you to understand the world. I want to teach you what I've learned. I want you to see the importance of traveling. Of understanding the world and appreciating how lucky we are to have what we do. We live in the United ...

... not Mexico, simply a playground for visitors from across the border. A place where the entertainment is cheap and you can do a lot of things not allowed across the border. Getting back across the border involved some questioning and took about half an hour. Overall very painless though. Spent another night at the Holiday Inn back in San Diego. Tomorrow we head East.

DH's friend kindly gave us a ride to the airport. But first he was even more kind to take us to this great antique place on the way. I bought an old framed print. It was fun. Unfortunately our flight home did not go as smoothly. Because of a storm or something, our plane was re-routed to Los Angeles. We waited for hours to then be bused to San Diego. It took us over 24 hrs to get home! Thank goodness DD travels well...I think she did better than I did. :)