Grace and Mo at Playa Bucerias.

Today was the big day that my niece, Mo, and her daughter, Grace, arrived. Wanda and I took the bus to the airport to meet them. Their plane, due in at 1:54 pm, was one of a dozen planes touching down at 2 pm. That means that customs is a mad rush. It took them about 50 minutes to clear.

They packed well. With only two smallish bags, we were able to easily board the bus back to Bucerias. Once settled in, we took a colectivo to the ATM with the best rates to get Mo some pesos. Then we walked the ocean beach to Ocean’s Bar on Playa Bucerias.

At 20 years old, Grace isn’t quite old enough to legally drink in the US. She is legal in Mexico, where I believe the legal drinking age is something like 5 years old. (Actually, it is 18, but who is checking?) She ordered her first legal drink - a strawberry/mango margarita, which she gave a big thumbs-up to.

For an informal beach bar and restaurant Ocean’s Bar serves surprisingly wonderful food. Wanda and I split an order of Nachos that was one of the best plate of nachos we have had. Mo and Grace split a chicken fajita.

The air was refreshingly cool as the waning sun gently warmed us. It was a great first evening for margaritas on the beach.

Grace thoroughly enjoying her first legal drink, a flavor-bursting strawberry-mango margarita.

Chicken fajitas. Hot corn tortillas were served on the side.

Chicken nachos.

Three beautiful ladies - Wanda, Grace, and Mo.

We closed out the evening at Jax Bar listening to the Availables.

We topped the evening with a stroll around downtown Bucerias. The Availables, playing their Friday gig at Jax, pulled us in for their last set.

So, how did Mo get her name? When I was 15, my sister, a single-parent mother of two young daughters, moved to New Orleans. I helped her drive down in her white Ford Falcon station wagon with a stick shift. No, I didn't have a driver's license, but she was in need so we bent the rules.

When we landed in New Orleans, we found an apartment near Fortier High School, where her new job as a math teacher was. To set up child care, Donna hired a wonderful black nanny named Jackie to watch her preschool daughters. Jackie was a spectacularly warm woman who would call out “MOE-reen”. Mo stuck.

Mo’s sister, Kack, got her name from Mo. Mo, at 2 years old, couldn't say Kathleen. It came out as Kack, or sometimes Kackle. That also stuck to this day. It will always be Kack’n’Mo to me.

Dave and Wanda

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