We arrived home Sunday night, tired but still excited from another wonderful trip to Kino Bay. Our guests all had a great time and some of them are ready to go again in October! We had a few days of uninvited wind and had to teach some of our classes indoors. Kind of a bummer but everyone took it like grownups. (even me) Our day trip to Hermosillo was so interesting and fun, again. I wasn't sure I could easily find every place we wanted to visit but there were no problems. Violetta conducted our tour of the Governor's Palace again. She is so cute and fun because her english is pretty good but far from perfect. A good time is always had trying to fill in the words she doesn't know. (or some we don't know, it goes both ways) Mardi and I always love going to the old traditional Central Market. It is in the heart of old Hermosillo and was built in 1912. Sort of a permanent farmer's market with everything from freshly slaughtered meat to coffee and small restaurants. All variety of Mexican meals are served, cabeza (head) soups and tacos, Menudo, fresh carrot juice, seafood and on and on. From there we always must go to Zazuetas, a kind of restaurant supply, florist supply, curandero supply, pinata store, dime store, ............you get the picture. It is great! After spending a couple of hours downtown, we drove to Mariachisimo, a mexican steakhouse(ish) featuring a 10 piece mariachi band. The food is to die for and the meat will melt in your mouth.
The last night in Kino, we all went to Zanahoria's restaurant, Mariscos Judy. He cooked shrimp and fish and Mardi and I took our big double burner, paella pans and all the "fixins" and cooked Paella in the beach restaurant. Wow! What a meal that was! The girls had fixed a table for us, all beautiful with a white tablecloth and a flower centerpiece. Some other gringos who eat there often, mistook our table to be for them and sat down. Our hosts never blinked and neither did I. When Mardi arrived with our guests we had another table set up just the same and only a little bit in the sun. No one knew any different and of course, we had a wonderful time.

Today we are just 6 days away from our next Mexico road trip. This will be one of our smaller groups but the intimacy will be fun and we will be able to provide more individual attention to our eager cooks! I am really excited since we are going to back Kino Bay on the ocean in Sonora which is one of my favorite places! Along with being able to share many of our best seafood recipes with our guests, we can introduce them to some of our favorite people. My "buen amigo" Zana and I have been friends for 35 years. It is always good when we get to share time together. He has a small restaurant on the beach so we are very fortunate to be able to involve him and his place in some of our cooking classes there.