I love San Miguel, but man what I would give for there to be a lake like this right out on the edge of town.

Breakfast over the plaza.

I don’t know what it is about wakeboarding, but out of every sport I’ve ever participated in I would say this is my worst performer. This picture was one of the few times I managed to get up and on top of the water.

Of course the kids put me to shame.

This town is nothing but steep winding roads. Not a great place to break down.

Valle de Bravo is well known for its paragliding. It’s hosted the Paragliding World Cup many times, and seeing them soaring over us all day long we figured we may as well get up there, too.

I wouldn’t really call this an adventure sport. I mean, I’m sure it can be for the pilots when they aren’t floating tourists down from the cliff, but for us it was just a relaxing, calm, and quiet ride. A nice way to see the world from a bird’s eye view. In an effort to boost the exhilaration level, I asked my guy to do some tricks and he was happy to oblige. Rather than a gentle float, he was able to turn it instantly into a spinning freefall. Ouest and Lowe enjoyed it, too. Overall, it was a fun way to spend a couple hours in Valle de Bravo.

Ali kept her feet on the ground and watched us come in for our landings along the lakefront.

Perhaps the real adventure sport was climbing into the rusty old Ferris wheel in town.

Another day on the water.

We hopped on the tube, too. It was nearly the last thing I ever did. I swear, I’ll never get on one of those again. After some insane wipeouts Ouest wisely chose to get off. Lowe and I went next.

As they say, it’s all fun and games until…

In this case it was when the driver took us around a corner at about 1,000 kmph. When the tube finally tipped, I flew through the air spinning, landed backwards, and cracked the back of my head on the concrete/water. I’m sure I was out cold for a second and came to thinking in my head, “Breathe. Breathe. Take a breath.” When the breath came my next thought was, “Try to move your legs.” When those seemed to be working I thought, “Now try to move these tingly arms and hands.” Those worked, too. None of them worked great, but they all worked.

Of all the crazy and stupid stuff I’ve done in my life, I would not have expected to rank a tube ride at the top of the list.

The effects took a few days to wear off completely, but by that evening I was out and about. More tacos, a small hike up above the lake, and sunset back in the plaza.

Whether it was the smash to my head, or just my empathy rolling out full blast, this cross really choked me up. Some things hit harder when you’re a parent.

I’m lucky to have these two.