Our Deluxe Apartment in the Sky

Last Wednesday, we left the U.S. behind and drove the last remaining three miles into Mexico. We were both excited and nervous as we arrived at the border, and we were mentally prepared to handle any interrogation by the Mexican government. We took a deep breath and approached the signal lights where traffic was slowing down. The Mexico sign loomed overhead as the gates were raised and the green light flashed for us to proceed. And suddenly all the signs were in Spanish.

"Are we in Mexico?" I asked.

"I think so," Chris said.

"But that was too easy," I said. "Surely there's another checkpoint up ahead."

But there wasn't. In a matter of about two minutes we had crossed into Mexico. No one had even looked at our passports. I was actually a little disappointed. It was just so anti-climactic. Now don't get me wrong. I don't by any means want to be harassed by the Mexican government, but I thought we would at least have to flash a little passport. I'm told that it may not always be so easy to cross, and my date with the Mexican customs agents may be in the not so distant future.

A few minutes later we arrived at our new apartment. After a quick tour and a crash course in working the alarm system, we were left on our own to take in the view of Tijuana.

Our apartment makes up an entire floor of our building, so we can see Tijuana in every direction. Despite that, I still have no idea where I am in relation to almost anything else in the city-- except Wal-mart and the U.S. Consulate, which are probably the two most important locations in the city, so I'm good.

So, I've heard that some of you want to see pictures of our apartment. Okay, so maybe it was just my mom, but please humor me anyway. My camera, which is new because Chris broke the last one with his butt at the City Museum, doesn't do the apartment justice. Okay, so it's probably the photographer that's lacking. Anyway, just like The Jeffersons, "we're movin' on up to the east (well, I really don't know which) side to a deluxe apartment in the sky...We finally got a piece of the pie." Aren't you glad you're not in the room to hear me singing this to you?

In true Manhattan penthouse style, the elevator opens directly into our apartment, which I think is pretty awesome. By the way, Masters Jacob, Benjy and Andrew will be giving you the tour.


You step into the foyer/living room/office/dining room/ginormous room that is half carpeted and half marble floors.

The room doesn't actually curve, but I tried to use the panoramic view function to capture the entire room. You get the idea.




The marble flooring continues down an L shaped hall which has three bedrooms off it. First is Jacob and Benjy's room, then the master, and then Andrew's. The master suite includes a dressing room with built-in drawers (all the closets have these great custom built drawers) and a full bath, complete with bidet.




Also off the hall is the kitchen, which has two huge pantries with enough space to store food to feed a small army. The kitchen also features an eating area, not yet furnished, and a drive-up window. Despite the drive-up window, I am refusing all demands to be a short-order cook.



On the other side of the kitchen is another hallway, which leads to a laundry room on one side and the maid's quarters on the other. This room could be used as an additional bedroom or guest room since it, too, has a full bath. It is currently empty and therefore boring and so is not pictured. Also not pictured is a sun room, which is also empty, and a half bath and two other full baths, bringing our total number of toilets to clean to four, plus two bidets.

So, as you can see, it is a beautiful apartment in need of all of our furnishings. Right now, while lovely, it seems empty, enormous and echo-y. I can handle the empty and enormous part, but the echo-y part is really starting to get annoying. Perhaps Chris and I should start a list of rules for getting to live in our new apartment. 1. No matter how cool you think you sound when you shout "Hello, hello, hello..." it won't be as cool when you're shouting it from the street.

Maybe I can occupy the boys with sorting out all these keys to our apartment.