I get messages from people who tell me they are “envious of our [your] adventures” and I share with them what I want to honestly share with you now. No life – no matter how perfect it seems – is perfect. Our vacations, like life, aren’t always Instagram worthy. As dreamy as it looks, nothing is perfect. There is plenty not so pretty and lots not so easy and part of the adventure is deciding how you will choose to look at it. What makes the difference is how you decide to savor the bottle you’ve uncorked.
On our recent vacation to the pacific Coast of Mexico, the rental car fit 5 comfortably so I took the bus. I arrived before the rest of the family and had this been 7 years ago — I kid you not — I would have been back on the first bus back home. The town was dusty, broken, and unkempt. The Airbnb itself was fine. Just big enough for 4 adults and 2 small kids but one bathroom was tough. There was a weird smell and I’ve learned the valuable lesson of always bringing my pillow to every getaway from this point on. The beach outside of our apartment was beautiful… from the rooftop — but not at all kid-friendly for our kids. The gigantastic waves were what my nightmares are legitimately made of.
It wasn’t ideal and we had two choices. Complain and see everything that was wrong with the place or not. We choose the latter.
L e s s o n 1 : G e t O u t T h e r e
Since the beach in front of our place was a hard NO, Husband and I went to find another. We walked across the river where it shallowly met the ocean and then climbed a small, rocky hill to find a more family-friendly beach in Guayabitos where we would camp out at a beach restaurant for the day. It was like a mini adventure date for us.
L e s s o n 2 : G e t P r e p a r e d
We didn’t want to beach-restaurant-it every day, so that day, while we were there, we looked into gathering things we’d need for the days to come.
Beach umbrella? –Here comes the vendor selling umbrellas. Check.
We need beers. How about a cooler? –I saw a cheap one at the Oxxo.
We have towels but the grandparents will need chairs. —Look. That guy over there is selling some.
The vendors sold everything from bags to candy to grilled shrimp to – I kid you not – a wooden statue of Jesus on the crucifix. (We were in Mexico at Easter.) And now that we had what we needed, we relaxed into it all.
L e s s o n 3 : L o o k f o r B e a u t y
Husband and I walked into the town center everyday. We found a family who squeezed fresh orange juice for less than a dollar. There was a simple fair with a few bouncy houses and games that our kids would screech in delight for. We discovered where to buy ham (the pharmacy) and which market sold beer for cheaper. It wasn’t the kind of town where beauty was easy to find but you could find it if you wanted.
L e s s o n 4 : E x p l o r e
When you’re content, you don’t push yourself out of comfort zones, and often, the coolest things are found outside of that bubble. So we explored the crap out of the beaches in that area of the coast: Sayulita, San Francisco (which is nicknamed San Pancho), and back to Platanitos to visit a friend.
We had zero idea of where to go in Sayulita so we typed “beach” into Waze and followed it to a hand-painted sign for Playa los Muertos (Beach of the Dead). The name was less terrifying than the road there. It should have required an all terrain vehicle but we continued and discovered a small beach cove with dramatic rocks and cliffs and peaceful, cool water and met new friends.
In San Pancho, we scoped out a small, bohemian town. The kids played in a neighborhood park and we wrote down info for places to stay next time.
I am certain we wouldn’t have ventured to these places if we were safe in our bubble.
L e s s o n 5 : L e a n i n t o i t
A few times, looking out from our rooftop to the streets below, it hit me that I was in Mexico… and it felt real. It made me percolate on the thought that I didn’t come to Mexico (or abroad for that matter) just to stay in beautiful places, did I? So many times we travel to beautiful resorts with landscaped, perfect views and I feel like that resort could be any resort in any place in the world. But this? This was real and it felt like I was really seeing it.
L e s s o n 6 : w h a t l a s t s
When we got back home, the SheBabe suggested playing the Grateful Game around our dinner table. “I’m grateful for this vacation. We had so much fun at the beach and went to the fair and spent time with our family.”
We work to make sure our kids grow up grateful, and in that moment, I was the one learning gratitude. The one bathroom, terrible pillow, weird smelling apartment wasn’t ideal but it was a vehicle for a vacation that is now a family memory — a “joy” memory like from Inside Out that our kids will store in their memory bank. It was another experience we are blessed to share with my parents, another destination to check off the list.
