Cabo Part 2

While the beaches in Cabo are beautiful, they're not particularly safe for swimming.  Bren & I were politely reprimanded by a lifeguard for wading in an area he deemed too treacherous.  

So, build a sand castle it is!

Brennan was a very dedicated sand-shoveler, but he preferred to leave most of the tower and wall construction to me.  Demolition, however, was a project he could really get behind:

We got lucky for Christmas Eve Dinner - Mi Cocina at the Casa Natalia Hotel is a pretty nice spot, and full up on the holidays - but since we were looking to dine at the unfashionable hour of 5:30 pm and promised to be long gone by 8, they were willing to put up with us.  Both kids were actually really good, and Lucie even stayed fairly clean.

After dinner we walked around the town square, to admire all the lights and listen to a little of the Christmas Eve mass at the cathedral.  

Christmas morning, the kids were relieved to discover that Santa managed to find us in Mexico, after all.  Admittedly, Santa delivered most of the goods to San Francisco, because he didn't want us to get socked with over-weight charges for our luggage on the way home.

I hadn't brought much in the way of gifts, figuring we'd pick some stuff up in town.  Which would have been the perfect plan if Bren & Lucie were interested in colorful ceramics, tin art, tequila, or getting their hands on some viagra without a prescription.  Thank goodness we at least managed to find some paper-mache shaker toys at a restaurant.  Shake Shake Mustachio Kitty Stick was Lucie's constant companion for the rest of our trip.  

I dragged everyone down to the beach for a Christmas Day family portrait.  I apparently missed the "wear your sunglasses" memo while I was setting up the shot.

The day after Christmas, we made our only attempt to escape the San Jose del Cabo to Cabo San Lucas resort corridor and went to Todos Santos for the day.  The drive takes you past a lot of dry desert hills, beautiful views of the Pacific, and goats in the road.  It would have been a pleasant enough trip, had Lucie not decided to cry the entire way, making herself so exhausted that she could barely stay awake once we started walking around the town.  A meal usually rouses her, so we tried an early lunch....no luck:  here's the video footage of Lucie falling asleep in her chair.  

When it was clear that the chicken quesadillas wouldn't bring her back, I found a shady bench in my sightline and let her sleep.  

I had about 15 minutes of enjoying my Pacifico and appetizer, whatever it was, before Brennan started complaining about being too tired to eat.  I let him sit in my lap to rest and realized he was oddly hot, even on a warm day.

Don't let the smile fool you, he's sick.  

How he managed to catch some Mexican GI Bug while dining almost exclusively on french fries and packaged cereal is something of a mystery.  Don't worry, with the help of children's ibuprofen and Dr. Internet's recommended pediatric dose of imodium, he rallied:

He also learned that complaining of a "tummy-ache" would get him out of finishing meals for a number of days.  Mommy learned it would have been much less hassle just to stay put and play in the pool - and that's pretty much how we spent the rest of our vacation.