Another Year Younger

My dad came into town this week, and we celebrated a birthday.  It was nice to spend such a special day with my dad.

 

A lot of birthdays had come before this one -- a lot.  But, I'm not passing judgment.  It's inevitable when you have been around that long.  Time marches on, and some things don't work like they used to and you have to seek aid, but the drive still exists.  We call it the pursuit of happiness.

Isn't it kind of cool that they have a place like this in Tijuana?

Some things are timeless, however.  Like a taste for the finest things in life.  For example, there is a quality cigar shop on Avenida Revolucion that my father visited while he was here.  You just can't get good Cubans in the States.

Good food is another.  In Mexico, there is a strong tradition of food:

From the Hotel Caesar, where the Caesar Salad was invented... 

The waiter actually mixes the dressing fresh for you at the table.

To fish tacos...

So, in honor of 201 years we took in some culture at the Cultural Center in Tijuana.  After all, it is never too late to learn something -- like about the Intervention of the North Americans, where blind greed for part of Mexico caused the U.S. to start a war without provocation.

 

And, we took in some live traditional music.  This guy sang directly to my dad.  It was special.

 

 

And we went to a birthday party with theme-colored Jello.

 

As midnight neared, I took the old man to the dog track for one final treat.  Supposedly they were strapping monkeys to the backs of the dogs as they went around the track like tiny little jockeys.  After a couple of races, I finally asked one of the employees about it, and he told me that those races had ended about 15 minutes before we got there.

It was the only sad part about the whole trip/birthday extravaganza.

As we left the race track that night, I knew that I had made this birthday special for him.  It was like none other that he had celebrated before.

I am so glad that my dad had the chance to be with me, Lisa, and his grandchildren on that special day when we celebrated 201 years of Independence for the Nation of Mexico.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEXICO!