Mexico Dispatches

Me dancing at the Grand Mayan pool...without my wallet

Most family vacations contain some kind of challenge. Most of the time it involves the kids. Someone gets hurt, sick, loses something important...the possibilities are endless. On our family vacation to the Riviera Maya for Spring Break, the kids were fantastic. Dad was the one who caused all the problems.

There was the “lost wallet” incident.

And the “swimming cell phone” incident.

And best of all, the “Getting-lost-in-Cancun-at-night-and-running-the-red-light-and-getting-stopped-by-non-English-speaking-policia” incident.

Sophia, my 5-year-old, saved the day on that one. Go figure.

Yes, I lost my wallet. I either left it in the unlocked rental car overnight and someone took it, or it fell out of our stuff as we unloaded the car from a busy day trip to Isla Mujeres, and someone took it. Either way, I only lost my drivers license (that’s 2 hours at the DMV I’ll never get back), about $180 in cash and some credit cards that were never used, wasted 2 hours searching for the wallet and not lounging in the pool, and we aborted our planned day trip to Playa Del Carmen. No worries, though: the kids and Tanya and I were content to spend the day at the pool anyway. 

On the bright side, I did learn how to say, with perfect Spanish pronunciation, “¿Ha encontrado cualquiera mi cartera?” (Has anyone found my wallet?) and “Perdí mi cartera el miércoles por la noche” (I lost my wallet wednesday night). 

Sophia jumping in the pool...without her daddy's wallet

All in all, I think we can all agree that I came out on top.

Playing on the beach...without a wallet

And as far as the swimming cell phone and the run-in with the police? Next dispatch...