Memorial Day Drive to San Miguel: 8 Hours, Three Stops, Two Kids

The Border Crossing (Read This Twice)

Okay let's get this out of the way because it is the part everyone is nervous about and it is, in real life, kind of fine. We cross at Laredo / Nuevo Laredo, but specifically at the Colombia Solidarity Bridge twenty minutes northwest of downtown Laredo. Less truck traffic, faster Banjercito (where you get your TIP — Temporary Import Permit — for the car), more space to figure out what you're doing without a line of semis behind you.

• Mexican auto insurance — buy it before you cross. We use a TX-based broker. Your US policy is not valid south of the border, no matter what the agent told you.
• FMM tourist permits — get them at the bridge. Each person, kids included. Keep them somewhere you'll find them on the way home.
• TIP for the vehicle — Banjercito at the bridge. Bring the registration, your passport, and a credit card. They'll put a sticker on the windshield.
• Cash — have pesos. There are toll roads (cuotas) the entire way south and they take pesos cleaner than cards.

Total time at the border, on a Friday evening with light traffic: about an hour. We've done it in twenty minutes. We've done it in two hours. Plan for ninety and don't be a hero.

Stop 1 — Overnight in Saltillo

Saltillo is roughly three hours past the border. We pull in by 9 PM, park at a basic business hotel near the centro, walk three blocks to a taquería, eat, sleep, leave by 8 AM. The point of Saltillo is not Saltillo. The point of Saltillo is sleep. But! While you're there, the cabrito al pastor is real. There's a place called El Tio, plastic tables, do it. Brian has had a cabrito-shaped hole in his life ever since.

Stop 2 — Long Lunch in San Luis Potosí

This is where I save the trip from being a slog. San Luis Potosí is roughly the halfway point on day two. We park near the Plaza de Armas, walk fifteen minutes to a restaurant called La Posada del Virrey, and we eat enchiladas potosinas — the local move, red enchiladas filled with queso, served with potatoes and chorizo. The kids run laps in the plaza after. Twenty minutes of running undoes about three hours of car-induced demonic energy. Vale la pena, every time.

Stop 3 — The Arrival

From SLP it's about three more hours to San Miguel. The road in through the hills as the light goes orange and the church spires come up out of the valley — it does something to me every time. Cariño, that view. Sophie stuck her head out the window and shouted "ROSAS" at the bougainvillea like she'd discovered them.

We rent through a friend of Tía Rosa's — a small place off Calle Sollano with a roof terrace and a hammock. Matty claimed the hammock by minute four. Brian started looking for the closest mezcal bar by minute six.

Three Days in San Miguel With Kids

• La Esquina Museo del Juguete Popular Mexicano — the folk toy museum, three floors, both kids loved it. Two-hour visit easy. Cheap. The gift shop is dangerous.
• Sollano ceramics walk — the street is lined with talavera shops and they do not mind kids browsing as long as you're holding their hands. We bought a serving platter that did not survive the drive home, RIP.
• Mole at Tía Rosa's friend's place — there's a tiny lunch spot off Calle Recreo that Tía connected us with. The mole poblano is hand-made, twenty-six ingredients, served with house tortillas. Matty asked for seconds. Brian asked for the recipe and was politely refused.
• Parque Juárez — the play structures, the giant trees, the ice cream cart. End every day there. The kids will sleep.
• Sunset on the rooftop bar at Quince — the parroquía is glowing pink, you have a margarita, the kids are with the babysitter the rental owner sent over. Nine PM dinner like a real Mexican adult. Es lo máximo.

Drive Home Tuesday

The drive home is the same in reverse, minus the overnight. We leave SMA at 7 AM, push through with two short stops and lunch at a Pemex with surprisingly good gorditas, and we're back in Austin by 11 PM Tuesday. Wednesday everyone goes back to school and work. Brian sleeps through his alarm. Matty turns in his Memorial Day reflection essay with three Spanish words snuck in. Worth it.