April 2024 - Part 1

There was so many things jam packed into April that it had to have a two-part blog post.

We started April off with a visit to Portland to see Hatsune Miku & Friends.

This concert was a LOOOOOONG time coming.

I had secured tickets to an April 2020 show in San Jose, California as a surprise for Katie.

Welp, we all know how that turned out.
Boo.

So, when I saw that the Miku Expo was returning to the USA and Canada in 2024, I woke my butt up super early in the morning to get tickets.
SUCCESS!

I got floor seats to a show in Portland.

Knowing that Huzbend would not be remotely interested in a vocaloid concert, I got three tickets.

Katie asked Mikey to come along.

Since the concert would end late at night, we stayed in a hotel about a block away from the venue.

As is tradition, upon entering the hotel room, Food Network was sought out and Triple D was in effect.

We headed out to eat some yummy Mexican food for dinner and then to find the venue.

We were able to enter the venue early.
It was a sold-out show.

 

For those that don't know, Miku is not a real person.

She's a 3D animated character that is projected on the stage. She is also a singing voice synthesizer.

People can buy the synthesizers and use them to sing songs by inputting melody and lyrics.

You can find Miku and her friend's songs and videos on YouTube.

In concert, Miku and her friends sing with the backing of a live band.

Seriously.

They play music live to singing anime characters.

It's pretty amazing.

And loud.

Hi, Miku!

An important facet of the Miku experience are light sticks.
These light sticks change color - so you can select the appropriate color for the singer or song - and fans bounce them along to the rhythm of the songs.

The crowd was jazzed to see Miku and so was Mikey.

Here's a quick bit of the performance.....

These are some of Miku's friends.

They each do a set of songs and sometimes a duet with Miku.

Kagamine Len (boy) and Rin (girl).

And here is KAITO.

Very debonair in his long flowing jacket.

The characters were projected on a large LCD screen.

The clarity of the images was amazing.

Alas, all good parties must come to an end.

Mata ne, Miku-chan!

We hung out for a bit to let the crowd disperse.

Quick selfie before heading back to our hotel.

The next morning, we hit up a cafe that was attached to the hotel for a quick breakfast.

Katie had a flourless chocolate torte and a hot cocoa.

Mikey had a bagel and orange juice.

And then we went to the airport.

Just kidding. But not quite.

We got back from Portland on a Sunday and then made a quick turn around and headed to the airport on Tuesday to fly to Guadalajara, Mexico for our friend's Quinceanera.
This time, it was Mikey's friend, Bela who was turning 15.
Both Mikey and his pal Sienna were invited to participate in the event.

The flight was uneventful, with a little bit of turbulence upon landing.

Guadalajara was hot and muggy.
And standing on the curb waiting for our ride while breathing in car exhaust was not very fun.

The car rental place finally found us and shuttled us to where we would pick up our van.

We thought it very silly that we were renting from a place in Mexico that used the Coliseum on their store sign.

After what felt like an eternity as we waited in the hot van, we were on our way.

Yes, there are 5 kids stuffed in the back row of seats that only fit 3.

Mexico rules.

Which means, no rules.

It's just the way things work here.

We dropped the kids off at the place we were staying.
They were going hang out and start practicing their dances for the big event.

Bela's uncle, Raul, drove us to Walmart to grocery shop for our stay.

We bought A LOT of food.

Three overflowing carts worth.

It barely fit in the back of the van.

There was not much on tap for the next day besides relaxing, swimming and bit of dance practice.

The weather was beautiful.

We stayed in a house meant to host parties.

There were two bathrooms and about 5 or 6 bedrooms as well as a full kitchen.

Outside, there was a pool, large barbeque area, a covered pavilion, and a large grass field.

The grass field had old soccer goals in it.

Mikey took a late afternoon nap to recover from swimming and soccering.

Meanwhile, Katie worked on a paper.

Yes.

She did homework in Mexico.

For dinner we walked over to another house where Bela's Dad and some of his family and guests were staying.

Bela's Mexican relatives made a delicious dinner of tortas ahogadas.
Torta ahogada sandwiches are made with a local bread, filled with pork (carnitas) and smothered in a tomato chili sauce.

They are so darn good that I ate two of them.

After dinner, we enjoyed a chocolate cake for someone's birthday.

As we were hanging out, we noticed movement in the trees and walls across the yard.

We realized that they were rats climbing in the trees to eat the fruit.

There must've been hundreds of them

Here's a picture of just one.

The place we ate dinner was the place that we stayed during Bela's older sisters quinceanera back in 2021.

The kids went up on the roof to recreate a photo we took back then.

Again, Mexico rules.

There is access to the roof, but no safety fencing.

As darkness descended, the kids got to work practicing their dances.
Katie was off the hook this time.

Awww. Cute.

Besides a quick dance practice, the next day was all about relaxing.

There was more pool time.

And more nap time.

That evening, Huzbend made a rice dish for everyone for dinner.

One of Bela's aunts demonstrated how to make guacamole the Guadalajara way.

It was hecka spicy.

That evening was spent chilling on the couches and working on a slideshow for the quinceanera.

We also squooshed one large cockroach with my shoe.

It was finally THE day.

The quinceanera was this evening.

The day would be spent getting ready for the evening.

There's lots of hair and makeup prep that needs to be done.

There was no toaster oven, so Mikey fried up some toast for himself in a frying pan for breakfast.

Meanwhile, the hair and makeup began.

We had family join us for a late lunch since we wouldn't be eating dinner until much later in the evening.

Huzbend, with the help of Augusto, grilled up marinated chicken, hotdogs and burgers.

Relatives brought sides and fried up french fries.

It was Katie's turn in the chair.

TA-DA!

Guess what?

Mikey had a turn in the chair too.

Muy guapo.

After squashing another surprise cockroach hiding in a kid's suitcase, we cleaned ourselves up and got ready to go.

Myself, Kerri (Bela's mom), and Kerri (Sienna's mom).

Yes. Having two friends named Kerri does get confusing.

Ready for the party.

We shoved ourselves into multiple vehicles too small to hold all of us and drove about an hour to a fancy venue in Guadalajara.

See?

Fancy.

The time had arrived.

After a short ceremony, it was time for pictures.

Lots and lots of pictures.

Soon the attendants were released to sit and wait for the next prompt to action.

Always the clown.

Mikey did a little warm up dance.

Finally, pictures of the quinceanera were over and it was time for the traditional dances.

A dance with Mom and a dance with Dad.

Mikey's chair was borrowed for the shoe ceremony.

The dad of the quinceanera will switch out her flats for heels to show that she is a woman.

DANCE TIME!

The first dance is a formal dance.

The chambelanes (male members of the court) and damas (female members of the court) dance around the quinceanera and introduce her to the party.

Here's a video of the formal dance.

After the formal dance, there was a toast.

There was some sort of alcohol in them there glasses.

Mikey felt all fancy.

Next up was the "surprise" dance.

This dance is also rehearsed.

This informal dance is more fun, and the end result is to invite people onto the dance floor to celebrate together.

Here's the "surprise" dance.

After the dancing and ceremony, it was time to eat dinner.

This is Mikey asking me if it is okay if he takes off his pants now.

As you can see, his friends are less than pleased with him.

He had shorts on underneath his pants to help hold them up.

I'm not sure what conversation is being had right here.

................

As we ate dinner, the slideshow played on the big screen.

There were lots of cute pictures of our kids together through the years.

Dinner was tapering off and the party was about to start.

Besides the little kids in the background, who were the first people on the dance floor?

Yep.

They were soon joined by the quinceanera herself.

It was time to get down.

There was LOTS of dancing from here on out.

Sweating so much her eyelashes are melting.

I couldn't not take a picture of the creepy quinceanera doll.

This doll is part of a ceremony as well.

The quinceanera renounces the doll as too childish.
She looks a little spiteful. Or maybe that's surprise?

Here's Katie holding her own in a Mexican line dance called Payaso de Rodeo.

And then, there was dancing, a little bit of cake, and....

....more dancing.

Interspersed with a few tequila shots.

We got back LATE.

Like, really late.

3am or something?

Before bed, she had to get all that makeup off.

It was a lot.

After a few hours of sleep, we were up and out the door to head to Chapala.

Chapala is a large town on a pretty lake.

It's a big tourist destination.

Along the lake is a big outdoor market full of shops and snack stands.

You haggle at these markets.

Kerri, Bela's mom, helped out since she speaks pretty fluent Spanish.

Huzbend got himself a hat.

We did a lot of sitting and waiting for people to shop.

We had Raul and Augusto watching out for us all.

They wanted to make sure that no pickpockets or other people with ill intent got close to us gringos.

Shopping was going very slowly, so Mikey and I sat in the shade under some trees.

We all - the gringos and the Mexican familia - went to lunch to get tacos al pastor.

YUM.

Everyone enjoyed their lunch.

On the way home, the kids sat in the way back of the van.

We stopped at a grocery store to pick up some more essentials.

There was a huge bakery section.

Katie and I grabbed a tray, and she told me what to get.

That evening we ate the leftovers from the big party from the night before while being serenaded by mariachis.

Mariachi originated in Jalisco state, where Guadalajara is located.

There was a young mariachi about Mikey's age who not only could play violin but had an amazing voice.

A sampling of mariachi....

During the festivities, an emergency toilet clog had to be taken care of.
The man holding the plunger was not responsible for the emergency.

All was well, and the party continued.

After mariachi, it was time for pinatas!

All the "kids" got a turn.

Mikey enjoyed his spoils gathered from the smacking of the pinatas - a whistle.
Katie grabbed candy. All candy. 

It was getting late, but there was time for a little more dancing before calling it a night.

It was time to bid farewell to Mexico.

This is the room we stayed in.
Mikey stayed in another room with his friends.

Looking out our window, you could see the rest of the compound.

There are these beautiful purple flowered trees in Guadalajara called jacaranda trees.

For breakfast, I ate the pastries I bought at the grocery store the day before.

My favorite was the hand-pie looking one.

It had a coconut custard filling.

We helped clean up the house and the grounds before we left, and then said our goodbyes to our Mexican familia. It was a little emotional.
They were so welcoming and treated us like family.

We knew that we would probably never see them again.

We all squished in a van for the last time to ride to the airport.

Katie took the opportunity to work on her paper some more while watching Hey Bear sensory videos.

It was cheaper to make a layover in Houston before heading home Monday morning.

Hello, Mt. Rainier.

The kids were back in time for the first rehearsal of "Tech Week" for Cinderella. 
These rehearsals stretch from after school until about 9pm each night.
Parents volunteer to feed them dinner and help make last minute adjustments to costumes and such.

That Wednesday, there was an Earth Day event at the kid's high school.

Katie co-presented a session on "What You Can Do" to help stop climate change.

These things included volunteering and advocating for change.

It was amazing to watch her and her colleague share tips they had learned from their own experiences advocating and volunteering. Sigh. So grown-up.

I was so proud.

The bunnies were not happy to see that we had returned.

"Wait? Does that mean the dog is back too?"