Another year, another April anniversary trip for us. This time, we are headed to Oaxaca City in Mexico. We travelled a little bit too much last year, so we figured we’ll take a shorter trip, and try to go at a more relaxing pace. Short trip starts with a destination that’s physically closer, to save on travel time, and also in similar time zone.

In laws arrived at the house last night to watch the kids. No spare bedroom means RL and I slept in one of the kids room while the in laws slept in our room. Woke up this morning at 5pm and had to use one of the kids’ toothbrush. Don’t tell the kids.

The drive to the airport was uneventful. Then the moment we walked in, we encountered this super crazy long Clear line chaos. The line was insane, probably like 50-100 people deep. Nope, we are not waiting in that line.

The Clear line stretches all the way to the other end of the building. Since RL doesn’t have TSA Pre, we couldn’t wait in that line either, so we walked to the other side of the airport and waited in the regular security line. The line was long, but it was at least constantly moving.

Is that sign really necessary? Took about 25 minutes for us to get through the security line. I wonder how long that Clear line would have taken us, my guess is probably longer.

And we are in, with some time to spare for breakfast.

Breakfast of champions in Austin airport.

Always eat it with BBQ sauce.

I think RL is excited about the anniversary trip. We were chatting about how it’s so much more of a relaxed affair now. Back when the kids were much younger and parenting was much tougher, I remember screaming, “KID FREE!!!!” in the car whenever we got to leave for vacation. Not anymore now. Now, I just kinda miss them already….just a little bit.

Flight leaving on time. Kinda important because we’ve got a short 1 hour connection at DFW.

Barton Creek Mall.

Lake Travis.

In no time, we made it to DFW.

The next flight in a different terminal, so we need to take the Skylink.

Lol. RL taking pictures of the flooring for house inspirations.

She said it looked like cool vomit.

They’ve got these new graphic for the departure list. Don’t like it at all. Makes it harder to pick out your flight.

Need coffee, I gave my last name, and somehow the barista heard it as “Hate”. WTF, and also LOL. Our last name sounds nothing like hate.

By the time we got our coffee, it was almost our boarding group.

Let’s go….wait…what’s that at the corner of the photo?

Oh shit…what happened there? Did something crash? I don’t see any more firetrucks heading that way, or any flashing lights at all though.

Quickly it dissipated and I didn’t see any emergency activities around it either. Odd.

We won’t get into Oaxaca until a little bit after lunch, so this will be my lunch on the flight.

Dessert and a night cap. I fell asleep promptly soon after this for the majority of the flight.

And 2.5 hours from DFW, we are over Oaxaca City.

I believe that’s Monte Alban, a pre Columbian archaeological site.

My guess is it doesn’t rain much here. It looks very dry.

Came outside looking for a taxi, but the taxis wouldn’t take us. Finally found someone to talk to who pointed us to a taxi booth inside airport.

Taxi booth line to pay official prices for a shared van into city center. Earlier in the day, we were accosted by a single male traveler also heading to Oaxaca. He really really wanted to talk and we could tell he really really wanted to hang out and attach himself with us…nope. 1. He was a little too much. 2. We are on a anniversary trip. Fortunately, he had to wait for his baggage and we only had carry on so we were able to shake him, politely of course.

Heading to the vans. It became very apparently immediate that this ain’t no Cancun. Very very few people spoke any kind of English.

Our driving taking down addresses of different hotels to drop us off.

Lots of cactus, and so very dry here.

RL really likes this photo that she took.

Here we are. Took about 30 minutes or so to get here.

This is promising. The rubber gloved hand is one of the employee doing cleaning.

Feels very serene. But this being in the middle of the city, you can still hear motorcycles and vehicles driving around all the time. Love Mexican architecture.

Check out my amazing translation skillz. English to English.

Our room wasn’t quite ready, and we’ve got an hours and a half. Haven’t had lunch, so we’ll do just that.

Weather feels pretty good even though it’s middle of afternoon.

Been traveling since early this morning, so we went with a near by option a block away for lunch.

Rooftop dining baby.

Guac with grasshoppers.

Look at it! I’ve had grasshoppers before but its been a while. They were cooked in some sort of spice and really added to the flavor. Odd that I had no problem putting them in my mouth and enjoying eating them, but I felt a little grossed out if I had to pick them up by hand…But when it goes into my mouth, totally fine. RL felt the same as well.

This will do nicely.

RL offers me her perfect bite.

Santo Domingo standing above all other buildings here.

Visit to a small grocery store around the corner to stock up on snacks and water.

Always interesting to see different international flavors.

Knocking bird at the door of our hotel. It’s almost 3, we should be able to check in soon.

Beetle centipede art piece in the lounge.

Waiting…

It’s a little bit past 3…room is almost ready.

Boom, we are in!! Outdoor bathtub. This is what $269 per night gets you in Centro of Oaxaca City. Not a bad deal at all.

Private courtyard. Look at the size of the glass door!!

It’s nice that our room is on the second floor and located at the back of the building in the middle of the city block. Even then, we can still hear a lot of road noise from the cars and motorcycles. Before booking this place, I looked at other hotels where the rooms faced the street, glad I didn’t end up booking one of those. I think for Centro Oaxaca, this is about as quiet as we can get.

Traveling most of the day, time for a nap before we head out later to roam and search for dinner.

Dinner time. It’s a little bit chilly here at night, a light jacket is perfect. The weather here is basically 80s in the day and 50s at night. The air is dry so even when it’s 80s, you are not sweating too much.

Love Mexican architecture.

Don’t remember why I had to go back up to the room, but here I’m coming down again.

Not ADA compliant.

Oaxaca Centro is very clean. Much cleaner than downtown Austin, and 1000x cleaner than New Orleans.

The Oaxaca Botanical Gardens behind those grates.

We made reservations here to come drink here later. Maybe we don’t need any? The whole city doesn’t look to be crawling with tourists.

RL wants to look at pottery.

Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzman. Seeing a picture of this church and the rows of agaves in front is what originally inspired me to look into coming to Oaxaca.

Not everyday that you see agaves as the garden in front of an really old church.

RL wanted to browse some shops. I was more than happy to sit in this plaza and enjoy the view of the church. Again, trying to slow down a little bit on this trip, and part of that means just sitting around.

Beautiful view. I love the green hued stones that they used on parts of the walls.

Back at the mezcal bar for some tasting.

Asked for some suggestions and this is what we got. Yum. It’s true, not all mezcal tastes like bandaids. Only some of them do.

Alright, let’s add a 4th one to our tasting.

Their decor here is made up of dried agave flower stems.

Now that we’ve got a good buzz going, time to head out and search for dinner. It turns out reservations were unnecessary. It was pretty empty here, and it’s pretty empty in the city. Must be low tourist season.

Dinner spot. Everyone is really close by here in Centro just a few short blocks away.

Here for all the different moles.

What’s RL taking a picture of?

And what am I taking a picture of?

The wall art is literally made up of beans, corns, and other seeds. It must be so dry here that nothing goes bad or sprouts.

Restaurant is upstairs and we got the primo spot by the window.

More Mezcal with oranges and insect spice powder.

We’ve had a few drinks in us.

We are the only diners here, and this is a very well rated restaurant. Kinda romantic to have the whole place to ourselves.

A tasting of different moles. They were all amazing in their own ways.

A little drunk, and definitely full. Time to call it a night.

Unfortunately, I started breaking out in hives when I got back to the hotel. Maybe something I ate? Maybe stress of traveling? Who knows. Took a couple Benadryls and slept it off. Other than the hives, a great start to Oaxaca.

To be continued in Oaxaca Day 2 Part 1.