Well, rather my mind has gone fishing for something to write about this month. I’m having serious writer’s block. This seems to happen around this time of the year. It’s the end of the school year so there are lots of activities. It’s summer, so it’s hot, and maybe my brain melts a little. This year, I went on a rather spur of the moment trip to the PNW, where I had an amazing time touring Oregon and Washington, which is why, in addition to my epic skill of procrastination and actual time constraints, I missed my June deadline. Now I’m two days overdue for this month, and I’ve actually started three different articles, but just can’t seem to focus on one subject enough to get a cohesive story written. A wise and published author, AK Smith, gave me some good advice last year. She said just sit down and write for thirty minutes every day. So, I to try to write something every day, but a lot of it is just stream of conscious thoughts, that hopefully someday will merge together as “the great idea”.
So, I don’t have any tips or advise on Rocky Point this month, but I’m always up for researching and writing on anything you may have questions or interests about. Just email Alicia and she can pass your ideas on to me.
However, for those full timers, or interested travelers who are reading this, we found a new weekend vacay spot … Mexicali. I know you probably are thinking it’s just a border town where lots of Americans go for medical and dental treatment. However, we went to Mexicali last summer for work, and our daughter loved it. Well, she loved staying at the swanky hotel (I mean who doesn’t). So last weekend, we took her there for her birthday because it’s the closest big city we can visit without crossing the border. We stayed at a hotel in the Plaza la Gran Via, which is a very nice area with lots of nice restaurants and shopping. We love Rocky Point as our home, but Mexicali has lots more shopping opportunities like Costco, Home Depot, Petco, etc. that we usually have to travel to Phoenix for, but the benefit is not having to cross through customs. They also have all the American fast-food chains. Although we didn’t actually eat at any because Mexicali has so many great local restaurants, and Mexicali is famous for their Chinese cuisine. We went to the Bosque y Zoológico de la Ciudad (the zoo), which was a lot of fun. We’re already planning to return over Christmas break to check out the rest of it because it was 100 degrees there. We also went to the Museo Sol del Niño (children’s science museum) which was interactive and very cool. It was also very affordable, about 100 pesos for entrance to the zoo and 200 pesos for the museum entry for all three of us. For reference, admission to The Phoenix Zoo would have cost $65 USD, the children’s museum of Phoenix is $17 per person. For the overall experience we were very happy tourists! Of course, we also ate some of the famous Mexicali Chinese food. We previously tried Chiangs, but this time we ate at Pagoda Cocina China. One thing we didn’t have time for was going to the movies. They have Cinepolis VIP (110 pesos per ticket) and Cinemex Premium (95 pesos per ticket), with subtitled movies offered at least once a day.
If you go, beware that the driving is an adventure unto itself, complete with crazy drivers and insane streets that don’t make any sense. It’s a little harrowing. At one point I got stuck in a roundabout and went about three times around before I could finally merge to exit it. You can drive to Mexicali from Rocky Point by taking the El Golfo route, which is faster, but has significant road conditions of potholes and sand on the road, or you can go up to Sonoyta and over on highway 2, which is a much better road, but there are lots of trucks and it is about 30 minutes longer.
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, no matter where in the world you find yourself!
