Visitors!

This week we had a BIG treat—my sister and her husband (Jill and Scott Blanch) came to visit us! We had a wonderful time showing them around Mexico City. Most of the places we took them are places I’ve already talked about on my blog, so I won’t say a lot. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.



Jill and Scott arrived on Tuesday evening. We took them to Terraza Grill for a late dinner. It is just around the corner from where we live and is one of our favorite places to go for a nice dinner. It was such a hit that we went there again a few nights later.

The flan at Terraza Grill has a little different texture than most I've eaten, but it is delicious!

Wednesday morning, we went to the Church’s area offices. Things were a bit quiet. July is when everyone who works there takes their vacations. That made it a great time for the Blanches to visit because we didn’t have much going on and could go off and play with them all week, but it also meant they didn’t get to meet a lot of the people we would have liked for them to meet. Scott was touched by the spirit in the offices. I guess we take it for granted because we go there so much, but he said walking into the Church’s offices felt like walking into a temple.


After that, we went to the Museo de Antropología (the Museum of Anthropology.) It was our second visit there. We showed the Blanches some of the things we found interesting before as well as exploring it a little further. However, it’s so big, there are still rooms we haven’t been in yet.
The actual Aztec Sun stone

A depiction of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl
       
This painting depicts the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, which is now the historic center of Mexico City. It was originally on an island in a lake. The Aztecs built manmade islands and had a system of canals for roads. 

       
I thought this stone box was pretty cool

Thursday, we went to the historic enter of Mexico City and visited the Zocalo. We’ve been there before but had never been inside the cathedral, so that was new for us. We had lunch at Balcόn de Zόcalo, which sits on top of one of the old historic buildings surrounding the Zocalo. It’s pricey and has pretentious (but tasty) food. However, the view was fabulous!
     
Balcόn de Zόcalo
     

     

The view from Balcόn de Zόcalo
     
The big plaza in front of the cathedral. All kinds of events are held here.
    

From there we took an Uber to the temple. The Wrights joined us, and we did a sealing session. Then we went to a street taco stand a few blocks away for dinner so the Blanches could try authentic tacos.

We started the day Friday with breakfast at San Gines, which has wonderful churros and thick dark chocolate to dip them in. The Barnetts met us there, and we all went from there to Xochimilco, which is called the Venice of Mexico. The canals there are what is left of the Aztec canal system.


     


    

Ron hired some marimba players to pull their boat up along side ours and perform for us.




That evening we went to Palacio de Bellas Artes. We’ve seen the outside of Bellas Artes but have never been inside before. We’d been told that it was worth going to a performance there just to see the theater, and that was true. It was gorgeous. We wanted to take Jill and Scott to the Ballet Folklόrico, which performs there every Sunday and Wednesday—except for the week they were here. Instead, we went to a performance by the Ballet Nacional de Espaῆa, the national ballet from Spain. Their performance was a mixture of ballet, flamenco, and modern dance. It was pretty amazing.



      

    

A detail from the painting on the proscenium of the stage
    


Saturday we started the day at the Tianguis, because shopping at a real Mexican market—not a tourist one—is about as authentic of an experience as you can get. To make it even more authentic, we rode a bus to get there. I acted as a translator for Jill while we shopped, which stretched me a bit, but I think I was able to understand and communicate everything that was necessary.

That afternoon we went to the San Ángel art market, which is held every Saturday at the Plaza San Jacinto. We call it the Art Park. Artists display and sell their art there. A lot of artisan craft booths are there as well, and always there is music. It is in the colonial community of San Ángel, and looking at the fun old buildings there is as much fun for me as is looking at the art.



Sunday we went to church, and then I made my second attempt at making pastes. This time they turned out really well, which was fortunate because I had invited all the Teca Once missionaries to come to dinner. It was kind of our farewell to Jill and Scott because they left early the next morning.



We had a great time showing the Blanches Mexico City, but the best part was just being able to spend time with them. We spent a lot of time just visiting, and that was the most enjoyable part of all!

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