San Diego, the Neals, and the wonders of Tecate!

The older I get, the more I realize that siblings are the best. Luckily we live close enough to my sister Jenn and her husband Matthew to get to hang out with them and their cute kids periodically.
This time around Matthew's passport was about to expire, so we planned a day trip across the border into Mexico. Since Matt and Jenn both speak Spanish, something as run-of-the-mill as Tijuana would never do...we went all out and headed for Tecate, knowing only that it was part of Mexico and famous for its brewery, of all things. The locals should be in good spirits, right?

Miles and I drove down the night before, and got to go to the San Diego temple. Unfortunately, these pictures don't do it justice! Nor do they do justice to the huge lake that we stepped in on our way out of the temple.

Miles took this. Gorgeous, huh?

this one, too. He's good.

 We slept over and then had some fun times with the nephews--I recently learned to make balloon animals for our YW carnival, so I brought that and we had some fun times playing with them. Jason cracked me up.

Anyway, we finally got off to Tecate. Miles and I, and especially Miles, and also I, REALLY miss the land and space that there is in UT. It was like coming home again to drive out to where there were no houses and just rolling hills. Someday!

The rest I will tell through the pictures, because a)it is much easier not to try to format these suckers, and b)I think it is more fun to read, no? Enjoy!

Onward, to Mexico! We payed five bucks to park our car in this magnificent lot, I believe :) The pots were free

I think Jennifer is on the US side of the boundary. Looks easier to cross than I imagined...

Just kidding! This is the real boundary! Lucky for us we just walked right on through

It was pretty cold and rainy. That church behind us had some really neat stained
glass windows, and told the story of St. Guadalupe(ask Matt on this one)

Well, they pegged me, but Miles is really more of a baritone or bass.

Tecate! and ... McDonald's! I forgot to look and see if they had McEnchiladas or something.
We walked all around the city, checking out the little shops, the old train station, and headed for the museum.

I guess this is the real draw of Tecate. Yep, the brewery. We walked to it and thought
about doing a tour, but it smelled funny, and we didn't want our free beer coupons.

After a while of walking to the Museum, I thought it might be necessary to hire some transportation. 

We also considered staying the night at this lovely hotel, but since
Matt's passport expired that day, we couldn't chance it. Pity.
Just kidding, this is part of the Tecate Community Museum. They also had some cool
computer screen thingys and indoor displays, which saved us from a torrential rainstorm or two

...and here we have Atlas, oops, I mean, Matt. Mattlas? 

We were getting hungry, so we stopped in to a little grocery store and found THESE little gems.
We bought some cookies.

What we DID end up eating was delicious! Tortas, a quesadilla con adobado, and a burro gigante!
And don't worry, we didn't lose Jenn. She and Matt just took turns taking all the pictures.

Here it is, the most delicious restaurant in Tecate. That we have tried, anyway.

Wouldn't it be funny if this was a coincidental picture?
It wasn't, though. We passed these murals a few times and couldn't resist taking pictures.

Jenn couldn't stop laughing! 

I still think Miles wins the prize for this one. And for humoring me when I wanted to take a picture of his imitation.

"The best bread in Tecate!" Of COURSE we went in.

...and it was pretty much the Willy Wonka's chocolate factory of Mexican baked goods.
We filled some paper bags, gave away the last of our pesos, and headed back to the border.

What!? $3 per sin? What, are they still selling indulgences here?

 Ok, quick break from pictures only. Only because this was hilarious! We were walking down the street towards the border, completely by ourselves, and suddenly what did we hear? Crazy mexican carnival music blasting from...I don't know where--one of the houses? Enjoy!

AHa! I think we were inspired to walk across the border! Look at this crazy
long line of cars trying to get back in! Also, thanks for sharing your churros with us, Matt!

Back to the good ol' USA. What you can't see is Matt crossing his fingers in his pockets that they'll let him back in.

Hurrah! We made it! and I finally took my hood off :) hey, it was COLD!

The US side of Tecate. Welcome to the USA, everyone!!!

Our first(and last) view of Tecate. 

What a fun trip! I'm so glad that we live close enough to Matt and Jenn to occasionally hang out like this! We also probably would have never planned something so cool on our own, and it was such a blast to spend time together! Thanks, guys!!!

and then the other part of the adventure...

OUR TRIP BACK:
Alright, so we took off on Sunday, loaded with snacks, gas, and books that I got from the library--we were prepared for anything! Until Vegas...
At this point I should pause and explain that our little civic has no working exhaust fan, and therefore doesn't like to go slowly in hot places where there's no air flying over the engine. That said, when we slowed down around Primm and the heat started to rise, we decided to turn off the A/C. I checked the temp outside...102 F.
We were trying to hold the leftover cool air in by keeping the windows shut, but our car turned into a greenhouse within about 2 min, so we caved and opened the windows. Miracle #1...breeze!

The next two hours or so was a bit sweaty, and especially for Miles, who hadn't changed first! There was bumper to bumper traffic at every hill because of the merge-on-and-off truck lanes, and the funniest part(miracle #2?) was the semi driver that wouldn't let anyone run up the illegal side lanes. He'd see a car coming and scoot over so that no one could pass all the people who were waiting. There was one very determined little white car that he about ran off the road. I think he was taking advantage of the fact that there was no "how is my driving? call________" sticker on the back of HIS semi. It was pretty entertaining, though!
On the last big hill the heat started to get to the point where we'd have to turn the car off. Just as I was wondering how long we'd survive living out of our car in the desert, Miles remembered a trick Robert had taught him: on went the heater... we were saved! And actually, the air was the same temp as the hot wind blowing in, anyway, so it wasn't too bad :)
The moral of the story is that prayer works--I'm pretty positive we had heavenly help on this one!
Also, Miles wins the award for best husband ever, and especially because of how patient he was all the way across that desert. My award was not for patience, unfortunately, but I do take credit for the brilliant idea to drink the used-to-be-ice bags that Kira had sent with us...cold water! :) Thanks, Kira and Travis!

Note to self: replace fan before hunting season trip across Nevada