Tulum

Every time Hayden, Austin and I travel some place we love it. We are expert and enthusiastic vacationers. Tulum may hold one thing above the others: we loved it and we think we might want to keep coming back. 

It is far from undiscovered, yet we liked the balance of stunning beauty and Mexican culture with relative proximity and just a ton of fun things to do. We stayed at Livetulum, a boutique hotel in town with a swim up, apartment style room decorated with rustic antiques and Frida Kahlo art and images. It was pretty cheap in peak season and had a great big breakfast served outside in a room small enough to chat to other guests about sights to see and restaurants to dine at. The street itself was a mix of ramshackled, rubble filled lots (developing country style) and cute boutique hotels, hippie cafes and Mexican restaurants. The beach was a 4 mile drive where the jungle stops abruptly at the stunning azure shoreline. I don't think I've used the word azure in my life!

Tulum is charming and has a super laid back vibe. We found the playa paraiso the first beach day and it was perfect. Umbrella and chairs by the sea. A beach that stretched to the ruins and back. No seashells though, in case you were wondering. Austin enthusiastically built a sandcastle with me, who used the ancient Huber gothic sand dripping method of castle building and Hayden, who built a moat and dug a hole til he hit water.

The Rivera Maya is steeped in the ancient history and even the super touristy parts (like the chochkey-riddled street leading to the ruins) weren't so bad. The ruins themselves were well presented...a lovely natural path that led to the opening of the roped-off ruins AND had giant iguanas all over the place. 

Tulum is a total food scene and we had mixed luck here, mostly because of happenstance. We loved La Coqueta so much we ate there for dinner twice. The fresh fish filet Mayan style with chipotle honey was to die for (and I hate chipotle). The margarita was insane: fresh lime juice and tequila; As it should be. Also good but a little loud ("mommy, let's go to the disco party") was Mateo's. We were not fans of El Capitan and we tried several times to eat at Matt's favorite taco place but it seemed to only be open from 9:00am - 9:47am daily.

On Wednesday with Hayden's insistence and my reticence, we went to the Grand Cenote. Cenotes are underwater caves that pepper the interior around Tulum. I fretted over everything: cold water, Austin's fear, Austin's safety, bats...it was of course fine. Austin loved it. I liked it. And after about an hour we headed for the beach. 

While the days of Austin napping on the beach are over, we timed it pretty well and managed to get several hours and lunch in before returning to the hotel for a nap for him and some rest for us. When he woke, he would immediately want to go into our perfect little pool where in the matter of minutes he figured out how to swim on his own (with a life jacket) instead of clinging to one of us. He could swim the length of the pool. And he used a kick board too!

We are hopeful that this might be the first of Austin's extraordinary vacations that he remembers. Our confidence grows, because with a direct flight, reasonable prices &/or points, and a fairly easy car ride down, Tulum is a keeper.

Lalaland with Kate

Kate has been my bestie since we met in 1992. I am grateful for her laugh, her grump, her wisdom and advice in all things (except record players) and her love and loyalty.

LA is exactly what I thought it would be and also different. All the typical places I visited seemed so familiar. Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills 90210 looked and felt exactly as seen on TV. I asked Kate, "do movie stars live in Beverly Hills?" She said, "I don't think so."

What was different were the places I hadn't seen on TV, like where Kate, Alex and Andrew lived- a section of LA called Los Feliz. It's a little modest/upscale neighborhood in the middle of Hollywood. It has a little intersection of trendy but not ostentatious restaurants like Mexico City, and Messhall and Little Dom's. The people all look fabulous, but all wear athletic and leisure wear. Random celebrities, like Tim Roth, eat along side of you.

The day after I arrived Alex, Hope and little Gio joined Kate and I for a neighborhood hike up to a scenic view with a panorama of all places in LA and the snow capped mountains that line its outskirts. The observatory from Lalaland was right there! And the skyscraper from Die Hard was there in the distance. Gio was more interested in a crack in the pavement that yielded some dirt that he could throw.

We brunched at the Four Seasons (!!) and saw a favorite character from Game of Thrones and a few other celebs. We took a long drive out to Santa Monica so that I could very ceremoniously dip my toe in the frigid waters of the left coast. It was wonderful and oh so California, with people working out on the beach, including a group performing some sort of aerial gymnastics.  At each stop we sipped another glass of wine or a cocktail, as one does in Lalaland.

Kate hosted a little soirée with her friends on Saturday night and we drank bottle after bottle from her recently procured Napa run. We tried to keep the evening indulgent, but kept slipping into politics. Lots of questions and fear, just like everywhere else. The typical echo chamber of lamentation, anger and paralysis.

It's this weird feeling: spoiling myself with food and drink and me-time and, best of all, Kate-time, while knowing things in the US may be irrevocably damaged. Knowing that suffering around the world and in this country will grow exponentially, that my own privilege and standing in life will soon be under direct threat while those so underprivileged bear the onslaught already.

We missed a Hollywood moms resistance session we planned to attend. My friend Jessi, who started the group and who is freaking out as much as the rest of us, was particularly dogmatic about physical presence. "We need to get off the internet and be together in person!" She's right.

It was time for my Lalaland bubble to deflate and return to my boys and to the resistance. But jeez, what a town to escape to every now and again!

Thanks for a great visit to Lalaland. Now back to our regularly scheduled resistance. Stay gold kategrodd!