Mexico 2023: a Monday Afternoon and all of a Tuesday in Mexico City

January 04, 2024 by Brigham Barnes

From a chapel to a chapel! The drive back to the city was not swift, we endured a real dog of a traffic jam that had us editing our plans BUT one thing we did not edit was a little visit to Tlalnepantla, the final area of my mission. Unlike San Juan del Río, I recognized a lot of Tlalnepantla and I did know how to get to my apartment. I almost didn’t need a map driving around there, except new overpasses had been built, so I actually needed a map very much. Anyway. First stop, our chapel. Isn’t it good looking? I did some good work in Tlalnepantla, finally kind of decent at my Spanish, finally kind of decent at being a missionary, had a lot of friends in the ward, worked with some great missionaries, met a lot of characters and good people. Hooray for Tlalnepantla!

And here’s where I lived back then. Or, actually, I didn’t live in one of these buildings. But I lived in a building exactly like them on the other side of those ones. I was a little turned around when I got to the old complex and was like “That’s definitely the building! No, wait, that one, that one’s definitely it!” (gets back into car) “Oh wait no actually it was that one!” If you’ve read the story of my speedy departure from Mexico, just imagine me being lowered down from the roof into one of those fourth floor windows. It was really something!

From there we drove to our Air BnB in Condesa and the intensity did not let up! Boy was I glad to pull into our building’s parking lot. And boy was I glad our building had a parking lot! Our Air BnB abounded in quirks but also was very comfortable and a nice size and perfect for our trip.

Ok, now. Time to get down to business! Walked through Condesa right on over to an Orinoco to share the magic with Mom and Dad. And, as always, Orinoco delivered (to our table [although it took a while]). Just when you think to yourself “maybe Orinoco isn’t so magical? maybe I’ve been remembering it too fondly?” BOY does it remind you that it is quite the place. What a start to the Mexico City eating!

After returning our rental, we made our way back to Condesa on foot with a few stops along the way. First up: Taqueria Gabriel, which I had stumbled across on Instagram. I ordered lightly, just two tacos: a tripas and a campechano. The tripas was excellent. The campechano nearly knocked me out of my seat. Best taco of the trip (in a trip packed full of great tacos). I look forward greatly to coming back to Taqueria Gabriel and going absolutely buck wild.

From there we walked down Reforma and towards Roma (passing a promising looking taqueria that Liz has since been doing some good internet research on) and getting one more dinner at Tortas al Fuego, which we had visited on our last trip, but back then I didn’t realize it was, what, three stories worth of good taco eating plus a bustling outside stand? When we got home I was awfully worn out but went up on our roof to have a little look at what I could see from there.

TUESDAY: Up and at ‘em! We had things to accomplish and we caught an uber downtown around 8 in the morning. First stop? Breakfast at El Cardenal which was absolutely killer. On our last visit we’d eaten there during the Sunday brunch crush, it’s less than ideal. But on a calm weekday morning? It’s the life! A nearly 4 star experience from service to food to beverages and back.

After breakfast, we enjoyed a bit of a Zocalo/Zocalo area walk around.

And then we took a guided tour of the National Palace and the Diego Rivera murals found therein. First we gathered in a building across from the palace. Then we went into the palace.

Then we made our way through downtown over to our two lunches, with stops at the National Cathedral, Pasteleria Ideal, Blue Tile House, the Postal Palace, and Fine Arts Palace (for buying tickets!) along the way.

Lunch #1: Cochinita Pibil panuchos (which are bean-filled, fried tortillas topped with meat [in this case, the cochinita pibil]) from Tacos de Oro! I’d been meaning to get over here for years and it was so nice to finally get there and find that it was very worth the wait … and from there we walked over to…

El Huequito! Where I consumed one of my favorite things of the trip: An Ice Cold Orange Crush, just when I needed the sugar and the cold the most! From there we went over to the Ciudadela market and, well, walking around downtown Mexico City is taxing. A lot fewer photos were taken. And from there we took a perhaps mildly ill-advised subway ride up to the Basilica of Guadalupe (or I should say up to the walk to the Basilica of Guadalupe) — It all seemed (to some of us) like a good idea at the time, we survived, that’s what matters the most a month later.

From the Basilica we went over to the Mexico City Temple, enjoyed a nice session, Christmas decorations, downtime at the visitors center AND a man asked us to watch his baby while he used the bathroom. Ha!

And for Tuesday night’s grand finale, we had dinner at al pastor wonderland El Vilsito, what a wonderful party that was! (And nearby Tacos Tony looked quite promising itself…next time, Tony!)

Mexico 2023: a Return to San Juan del Río

December 20, 2023 by Brigham Barnes

Early early on Liz asked “when can we go back to Mexico?” and I loved it. We got a Thanksgiving trip in our heads, and then got it into our heads to invite Mom and Dad with us. And guess what? It all worked out! We went to Mexico for Thanksgiving!

But first…Liz and I had to drive to Chicago! Along the way we stopped at the Lincoln Oasis rest stop.

And then we made our way up to Bob Chinn’s Crab House in Wheeling to meet up with Mom and Dad after their temple shift had ended. I hadn’t been to Bob Chinn’s in 25 years and it was a favorite of Liz’s family during their Illinois/Wisconsin days so it was awful good to kick off our trip with a nice meal there. AND to get some new souvenir cups!

Then the next morning we were up nice and early to catch our flight to Mexico!

Goodbye Chicago!

Hello Mexico!

From the airport we picked up our rental car and then hit the road because this Mexico City trip was different from all the others (so far) … this Mexico City trip was going to start with a trip to San Juan del Río, Querétaro, a “small” town that was my second area on my mission. I cannot say the drive up was very familiar.

For dinner we stopped at Los Cochinos right outside of San Juan (we had considered another place but the owner had recently been execution-style murdered and weren’t feeling so crazy about it because of that…plus they mainly served lamb) for a wonderful porky start to our Mexico eating. What a porcine wonderland it was!

Back on the road for a bit…

Mom had found us a little hotel right in the middle of downtown San Juan del Río and it was absolutely perfect. The most wonderful little place to call our home base. After settling in a bit we had a nice walk around the main plazas and streets of the city, places I was very familiar with from back in 1997.

Perhaps this would be a good place to insert a little color re: Brigham & San Juan del Río c. 1997? I received my transfer to San Juan on (I believe) December 30th, 1997, just as I was starting to get comfortable in my first area, El Molinito. Molinito was a WILD place to start a mission, the easygoingness and general safe feeling of San Juan a welcome change. And San Juan del Río is flat! Molinito was very hilly. I lived there in a house with 3 other missionaries and worked with 3 companions. It had its ups and downs, but on the whole, it is easy to remember San Juan as a peaceful and happy part of my mission. And, in 2023, San Juan del Río proved to be a peaceful happy place still.

The next morning I woke up a lil early (as I do) and walked around the plazas and Main Street and side streets down to the river and back, wondering if I’d maybe find the old church building, but I didn’t know where exactly it was so I did not find it. But I saw a lot of great stuff and really ate up the feeling of the town waking up, people heading off to work, buses starting out their routes, all that great stuff.

Then we all met up at the hotel’s little restaurant for a breakfast that just hit the spot so hard. Probably one of our absolute favorite meals.

And then we all took a nice long walk to the river and back, but with a different route than all the other walks.

And then, holy smokes - we ran right into a parade! Turns out it was Revolution Day! It was quite the parade, we only saw a little bit of it before continuing our walk but still saw a lot.

Something you need to know about downtown San Juan del Río is that the sidewalks are all paved (tiled?) with this tile.

We kept on heading down to the river, admiring the beauty of San Juan as we went. On the other side of the river we visited a cool cemetery, then headed back up to the hotel.

And then it was time to leave San Juan del Río! It was such a nice little trip, so good to be back. On the way out I drove kind of blindly through the city kind of trying to figure out where I used to live but just wasn’t recognize BUT we did pass by a new, big SUD church and it’s nice to see the San Juan del Río saints got themselves an upgrade from the house they met at during my SJdR days.

We Live in Ohio! September - November 2023

December 16, 2023 by Brigham Barnes

We had a pretty cool Thanksgiving, but before I tell you about that, I think I should show you some of the stuff Liz and I got up to between when I got there and when we took our Thanksgiving trip.

I was barely an Ohioan for a week before my folks showed up for a magnificent visit. Stop number one? Filipino wonderland Bonifacio, which immediately earned a spot on my list of Columbus Restaurants that Drive Me Wild. (And after dinner Liz gave us a tour of her music-teaching workplace)

The next day, while Liz was at her music-teaching workplace, I took Mom and Dad to Las Carnitas, another Columbus restaurant that Drives Me Wild.

And later that afternoon we went to Greekfest at Columbus’s big Greek Orthodox church.

The next day we visited one more Columbus restaurant that Drives Me Wild, the soon-to-close Meshikou Chicken. What a place! And from there we drove through downtown and down to the Bookloft bookstore. And then that night, we went for it and bought our tickets and booked our Air BnB for our soon-to-be-posted Thanksgiving trip!

The next morning we went to this bakery, Fox in the Snow—it was the first time for 3 out of the 4 of us and, Wow! What a bakery! Columbus is an amazing city!

Then we went back home, took some porch photos, and dropped Mom and Dad off at the airport (after a lunch stop at Brassica, of course)

Here is Cornelius.

Here are pictures from an early morning walk I took around our neighborhood.

And then that Sunday we had everyone over to celebrate Peter’s birthday.

That night Liz’s music teaching job had a concert.

A nice midweek walk at twilight.

Liz performed at Endeavor Brewery and the Ginger Rabbit — after that Ginger Rabbit show we got Bojangles! There was another night where we had Indian food and walked by the church below.

After church one Sunday we walked around the quarry park and visited the posh farmhouses that had recently sprung up there. I thought they were cool but don’t need a house that tells me I’m cool.

The next Friday was pretty exciting. We were going to go to a nice lil dinner to celebrate our 6 month anniversary buuuut I slammed my finger in our patio door so incredibly hard. Urgent Care date leads to a Cracker Barrel date and actually it’s bit of a nice night in its own way.

Cornelius and I saw a squirrel. And the moon. And now Cornelius just pokes around the house, thinking about that squirrel.

Took another nice evening walk. Liz was teaching me to read while walking. She’s real good at it.

The next morning we went to Aubrey’s soccer game and then the next day we helped with a big Gardner family photo shoot. And showed off cheerleading moves.

And the next week? A few more nice evening walks!

Then Liz went out of town for a few days. I kicked off my alone time with a trip to the Asian Buffet (a.k.a. “Heaven”).

The next night I went with the Gardners to a High School football game, it was so fun!

Then - this was wild - the next day my work hosted a tailgate before an OSU football game so I went down to soak in all the Ohio football energy. Wow! I’d never witnessed anything like it. I think I would be willing to go to an OSU football game. Yes, I would do that sometime.