vamos a mexicali?

I was holding for a job that was going to start next week but that went away and I dunno what put the idea in my head but I really want to go to Mexicali where my mom is from. I used to go once or twice a year but as we've gotten older the visits have been less frequent. I never got to go while pregnant and the family down there hasn't met Alice and I haven't seen my beloved aunt Chela, my mother's twin for awhile now. I think it's been about three years since we've been back to Mexicali and thankfully I think we went for a wedding and not a funeral. 

Of course once the idea got in my head I google mapped my nana's house and remembered the sights around the neighborhood and felt this insane nostalgia I can't describe. A familiarity and a distance all at once. A joy and a longing. Or are all these sentiments the definition of nostalgia? Anyway... the bakery on the corner of the street where we got the mandatory pan for the cafe.

And the church on the corner that's been painted a million times whose bells we would hear often. I've never been inside of it because that was forbidden by my religious mother since it was a Catholic church and we're not. I don't... get it either. 

If we go we're thinking Mon-Wed or Thurs next week and I'm planning the trip as a tourist and I've never been a tourist in Mexicali before! You mean there's restaurants there? I only ate what my family made. You mean there's hotels there? I've only stayed at my family's houses. Though my sister Mary says that it's kinda boring there to begin with but come on, I'm up for a challenge.