Spiky cacti and new foods

Andrew has become the defacto morning parent (thanks hun!), and on this particular day, it was Emerson who woke up first. The two boys changed into their bathing suits and hit the pool to play pretend cooking class with fallen leaves and a plastic bowl. Emerson’s teeth were chattering and his lips purple, but it was too fun to get out. Unfortunately for Andrew, Shiloh slept in, giving him no excuse to towel off.

In the late afternoon, we wandered through galleries and shops, then stepped into a Spanish language tour of the botanical gardens. (The tour in English happens only once daily and can’t be booked in advance.) Shiloh was naturally captivated, but Emerson took a bit more convincing. He’d been scared to go to the garden after we’d playfully told him there’d be spiky cacti. He didn’t want Shiloh to get hurt, he explained. But Coco had assured us he’d been and it was safe, so I entertained him with pretend stories about each plant: name, origins, uses, size… We debated about which plants were edible and what animals may have lived in each.

As Shiloh napped that afternoon, Emerson and I went out to find him a purse, but alas, yet another truck (this one a logging truck) was calling his name. After his treat had been secured, Shiloh and Andrew joined us at a chocolate shop for a quick sampling. It was a good foray into our final hoorah of the trip: a street food tour.

I could have just about cried when I saw Emerson carefully trying new foods (two bites of a fried quesadilla) while Shiloh reached for spicy moles and salsas. We strolled from food stand to food stand, some with crowds that rivaled those of Emerson’s hot cocoa stand during the after school rush.

The chaos is part of it, we were assured. But even our foodie child stopped enjoying himself by 7pm, so we hustled through the flavors until Shiloh dove into his bathroom crib for the night.

A baby and a toddler stroll into a cooking class…

On one of our last days in Oaxaca, we took the ultimate risk by bringing a baby and a toddler to a five-hour cooking class. We came equipped with toddler knives and Casa Crespo was equipped with tiny aprons and hats. We designed a menu and hit the market, then began creating tamales, tortilla soup, mole, squash blossom tacos, fresh tortillas, and chocolate ice cream. Emerson chopped and blended and poured and stirred (even when it wasn’t necessary). Our translator and the chef worked harder than they ever had in a class before since our help was slow and incomplete and interrupted often by snack and laxative breaks. Shiloh, completely stimulated by the busy kitchen, finally fell asleep on Andrew just as it was time to sit down to eat.

Emerson ate nothing but the ice cream, Shiloh missed it all, and Andrew and I ate in our characteristic rushed and grateful style. It’s hard to know what children get from various experiences, but in this case, Emerson showed us his delight, finding every opportunity to play cooking class in the days to come.

Mezcal makes you magic

By Christmas Day, Shiloh had adjusted to the time zone, so at 6:30am, Andrew and Shiloh hit the empty streets to allow Emerson to sleep. They wandered for three hours before Emerson emerged, recharged, and ready for the day.

Coco picked us up from our hotel and kindly insisted we go first to his favorite spot to learn how textiles are made. Emerson was so attentive as the artisan explained their process. First, they gather the animal furs, then washing them with a natural soap, brush, spin, dye and weave. It’s simple enough to explain, and remarkable to see done. The artisan showed us how to find colors from the most unexpected places, like using pomegranate seeds to create green dye and the dried and crushed fungus that grows off a cactus to make purple.

By mid-day it was back to our regularly scheduled program: a mezcal tasting. Mezcal is made from agave plants that, depending on the type, can take between 7-15 years to grow. Some agave plants can be farmed, while others are more similar to truffles and can only be cultivated in the wild. In a wildly simplified explanation, the leaves are cut from the agave leaving a huge, heavy pineapple-like plant that is cooked beneath the ground in a fire for 7-10 days, then crushed by a giant rock pulled by a mule, then double distilled (single distillation could cause blindness), then, ta-da! Mezcal! Emerson was given a juice tasting to match our collection of mezcals. Andrew learned about the different mezcal varietals, and I learned that I really only like mezcal in cocktail form. In Oaxaca, mezcal is consumed daily because “Mezcal doesn’t make you drunk. It makes you magic.”

On our way back to the hotel we stopped to see the widest tree in the world and the small town that prides itself on their tree.

At dinner that night, Emerson ate his pasta by the handful, explaining to Shiloh that he’d ordered his own food. Shiloh consumed his weight in octopus, and we all went to bed happy.

Christmas in Oaxaca

On Christmas Eve, the city had quieted. Many shops remained closed for Christmas celebrations. Emerson announced that he’d be “bringing Hanukkah back” and sang Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel throughout the day, interspersed with the Hamotzi. In the morning we took family pictures and in the afternoon we strolled through Jalatlaco, a neighborhood known most for its incredible murals.

I sampled hot chocolate made from real, Oaxaca chocolate (a local daily treat), and took the boys to a vegan cat cafe. Emerson declared that he loved it so much, he’d like to go back daily. Shiloh left with puffy eyes. After a long nap and a short dinner, we wandered back into the crowded main square brimming with street vendors.

Emerson chose confetti eggs and a blow-up airplane with wheels which he treated as his baby for the remainder of the trip. It was perfect.

My favorite part is all of Mexico

We knew getting to Oaxaca would be a stretch. After weeks of very deliberate packing, we woke at 4am to board an early morning flight to Mexico City. We were prepped with toys that suctioned to seatbacks, magnetic puzzles, and an Instagram-recommended snack box that doubled as a matching game. Paw Patrol had been downloaded and lollipops acquired for takeoff and landing. The first flight was long, the layover nearly five hours, and the second flight was delayed, but we made it. We were met in Oaxaca by twinkling lights. I swooped up E and told him I was so so happy we were in Mexico and we laughed and at that moment, the trip had begun.

The boutique Pug Seal hotel would be our home for the next few days, and we immediately fell in love. Despite E falling off a chair at breakfast and securing a black eye that persisted throughout the trip, I’d categorize our first breakfast as a delightful surprise. The food was superb and we had our first glimpse into Shiloh’s zest for anything edible that lay before him. Emerson embraced the swings and Shiloh tried endlessly to crawl into the water, and the staff couldn’t have been nicer, constantly accommodating Emerson’s request for freshly cut apples from the bowl he could reach.

Our tour guide Coco picked us up from the hotel to guide us through the streets of Oaxaca for our city tour. Emerson filled his cup with water as we exited the hotel, enthusiastically embracing the day… until we got outside. The streets were bustling with people, crowded, bumpy, colorful, and loud. Everything was new. Emerson’s response to the overstimulation and overwhelm was to fall fast asleep in his stroller almost immediately. Shiloh, on the other hand, had an energizing response to the sensory stimulation and refused to sleep. Oaxaca was gorgeous and bustling. We wandered through two markets, one more known for buying ingredients and the second more known for buying prepared food. We (Shiloh included, of course) tried cheese and pastries and fresh juice and tortillas. When Emerson awoke, we wandered to a mezcaleria for churros. Away from the crowds and in the oasis of quiet, Emerson finally began to come alive and Shiloh fell fast asleep.

As we continued wandering through the streets, we ran into a wedding parade in the streets. Oaxacans, Coco explained, like to celebrate publicly, loudly, and with mezcal. Coco also shared that Oaxacans love to protest publicly (presumably also loudly and with mezcal). On this day, Coco explained they were celebrating a protest that happened long ago, where field workers carved sad faces into radishes as a way to protest their pay and ruin the radishes. Today, the annual Radish Festival draws crowds to the center square where various artists work all day to carve intricate scenes into radishes to display at night. By sunset, the radishes have begun to brown and are destroyed.

As E and I sat on the swings that night, I told him that my favorite part was the way the courtyard of our hotel opened to the night sky. He said, “Not me. For me, my favorite part is all of Mexico”. By the end of the day we were fried, so ate one of the literal best meals of our lives from Levadura de Olla Restaurante as quickly as possible (typical Americans) and fell fast asleep.

You had me at “Farm tour”

On Wednesday, we booked an animal interaction tour through Airbnb Experiences. The Kauai Animal Education Farm is a nonprofit dedicated to serving native Hawaiian animals by taking in native animals who are no longer wanted (like chickens who no longer lay eggs) and by providing a safe space for non-native animals that disrupt the ecosystem. Our little animal lovers were fearless in doing their part to care for the animals.

That evening, we went to a different kind of farm, this one a regenerative food forest called Common Grounds. Here, they plant banana trees next to papaya trees next to starfruit trees. They practice no-till farming and cover cropping to reduce soil erosion, a significant issue worldwide. They’re also of the belief that with better farming practices, Hawai’i should not need to import 85% of its food. In fact, with one anise plant, they supplied the entire island with enough spice for every Thanksgiving pie. The tour concluded with an absolute feast crafted entirely of food sourced from the farm.

Tour Guide & Dancer

On Tuesday, we ran around the Na ‘Aina Kai Botanical Gardens, a private sculpture garden. While we’d originally hoped to book a guided tour, Emerson became our tour guide extraordinaire. He ran from one sculpture to the next, with Shiloh surfing in the wagon behind him. We loved feeding the koi, engaging with the bronze, and doing airdry in the palm tree garden.

At night, Emerson surprised us all by going onstage to learn the hula at the Tahiti Nui luau.

Surprisingly civilized dinner

Much to our surprise, one of our more successful outings was to dinner at the 1Hotel, Kauai’s new top resort. We couldn’t quite justify the cost of a resort stay given the fickle nature of children, but we did thoroughly enjoy some buttered pasta with a side of fruit.

Tiny bubbles

The next day led us to another rainy adventure, this one enjoyed under the cover of a boat. With the exception of a wipe-out from running on slick mud, the Smith Family Grotto Boat Tour was a hit for the boys. Emerson continues to sing the songs that were shared with us as boat entertainment. “Tiny bubbles, in my wine, make me happy, make me feel fine…”

On our way home, we stopped for fresh fruit smoothies, freshly dried mango, and shave ice in the town of Kapaʻa. Shave ice was a hit throughout the trip, with Emerson eating nearly two bites per purchase.

We love citrus!

On our first day in Kauai, we stepped out in the rain to tour a fruit farm. This farm tour, found on Airbnb Experiences, takes us through Moloa’a Organica’a, a private fruit, vegetable, and spice farm in the northern part of Kauai. Rather than organized rows, the trees were all intermixed in a disorganized array, some old, some new, and nearly all bearing fruit across 30 acres. As we weaved through the orchard, our host would stop at a tree and take out his cutting board, slicing the exotic fruit as he told us stories about medicinal uses, history, and flavors. We tried noni, apple banana, star fruit, avocado, breadfruit, coffee fruit, and more. Shiloh and Emerson enjoyed sucking on the many varieties of oranges from their comfortable positions in the carriers. We were all soaked by the time we meandered back to our cars, arms full of fresh fruits to bring back to our Airbnb, grateful for the experience and exhausted by the skipped naps.