We stored a few things with Ty's parents (photos, my paintings, yearbooks, etc.) but everything else that didn't fit in the mini van, we sold, donated or gave away. We didn't even have a car top carrier on our drive south because we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves as "tourists" driving through Mexico.
Here's a picture of the very BEST thing we brought to Mexico....
Stuff I wish we had kept:
- a cooler - we sold all of our camping gear, but why wouldn't we have kept a cooler when moving to a hot climate? Dumb-dumbs.
- More of my tools - I kept a few small hand tools and my cordless drill, but there were many times while we were working on remodeling projects last summer that I wished I had kept more of them.
- Our collection of pool floaties/innertubes - our house was on a river when we lived in Seattle and we were big fans of lazily floating down it for a couple hours and ending in our backyard. We stupidly got rid of them even though pools are common here and we live at the beach. Dumb. And annoyingly/ironically, quality pool loungers were hard to find here. (I'm sure we have your sympathy, right?)
Stuff we should have brought but didn't know we would need it (a.k.a. "stuff I'm going to buy when we go home in July"):
- Gringo taco seasoning - You know that pre-mixed, orange-colored taco seasoning you can buy at any grocery store in the states? You can't buy it in Mexico. Go figure.
- American brand hairspray - Seriously, what is up with Mexican hairspray brands?? I feel like I'm just spraying aerosol air freshener at my head because it doesn't actually "hold" anything and it smells like flowers. Dumb.
- Bug repellent that actually works and isn't full of cancer chemicals (Thanks again, Aunt Pam!!)
- A backup iPhone charger. Or two or three. I've gone through at least 4-5 chargers in the past year. It's hard/impossible to find legit Apple products here, and the knockoff chargers either don't work at ALL, or they last a couple weeks before they fizzle out.
Things we brought with us that we shouldn't have:
- Our Cornhole boards - Cornhole is a yard/beach game (usually played with a beer in hand)...it's pretty much just bean bag toss with more specific (and entertaining) scoring rules. Even though it's brought us hours and hours of silly fun over the last few years and I thought we'd whip it out at every beach party or barbecue here...it's gotten used twice in 11 months. But more importantly...I wish we would have left it at Ty's family cabin on Anderson Island in Washington, because now we can't play it THERE in the summers. What was I thinking?!
- 10 sets of golf clubs - okay, so it's "only" like 5 or 6 sets, but still! Our van was like half golf clubs when we packed it up. Ty had originally wanted/planned to start some sort of golf concierge business down here, so he bought up a bunch of used clubs before we left... Turns out the local courses don't want or need his services and they basically told him to go pound sand. So now our closet is mostly golf clubs with a little bit of clothes mixed in. It's come in handy when we've had friends or family come visit who've wanted to golf with Ty, but the other 360 days per year, they're just space suckers.
- Salad spinner - I've had the same (nice, stainless steel, Crate & Barrel) salad spinner for like the last 12 years and I've used it maybe 5 times ever...and for some reason we lugged it thousands of miles despite it's main purpose having been dust-collection over the years. Why? Because for sure we would have to wash our lettuce and veggies more than we do in the states! Because, germs! We haven't used it once. Anyone want it?
- Shoes - why did I bring so many pairs of shoes? I just counted: 5 pairs of Nike running shoes, 1 pair of Vans, 10 pairs of sandals/flip flops, and 3 pairs of loafers/slip-ons. Most of them I haven't even so much as looked at, let alone worn. I literally wear the same flip flops every day until the soles are paper thin and the straps break. And then I staple gun the straps and wear them a few more weeks. And then I super glue the straps when they inevitably re-break. And then I wait several more weeks before sadly admitting that they're garbage and I need to just throw them away.
- DVDs - against my wishes, we brought a big box of our favorite movies even though we never watched them before we moved. (That's because it's 2017 and we watch Netflix like normal people, duh.) But we brought them with us anyway and they sat in the box untouched until we dropped them off at the little video rental store in La Cruz when we moved into Jardin.
- Winter-ish clothes - yes, it can get a bit "chilly" in the early mornings in December and January and when we visited Guadalajara last year I wished I had a jacket with me, but we brought one of those big, blue IKEA bags (you know the ones) stuffed full of warmer clothes, for some dumb reason. I've worn a couple things (you can't separate a Pacific Northwest girl from her favorite hoodie forever!) but Ty hasn't so much as even looked at winter crap he packed.
- Ty's underwear - he's worn underwear exactly twice in 11 months...once to a Catholic confirmation and once to a wake. Apparently he thinks wearing boxer briefs is a sign of respect. The rest of us losers he doesn't care about just get to see his ever-present butt crack hanging out. (Because he also refuses to wear belts.)
- I just asked Ty if he could think of anything we should have left in the states and he said, "Yeah, you!" Whadda jerk.
Welp, we have new guests arriving any minute, so I'm off!
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