Fortunately for us, after having missed the floats at the first parade, there is a second Carnaval parade two days later. It’s a reverse of the first, and this one started on our end of town, so we were sure to see some parade floats this time.

This young boy needs to work on his technique. He was standing down on the beach, all alone, fifty yards from the nearest person, with a tray full of donuts.

We didn’t expect there to be very many people at the parade on Tuesday. It started before dark, which is not something that happens in Mexico very often. Clearly this one was more geared for kids to be able to visit, and they came out in droves. We showed up just as it was starting and had to scramble through the crowd until we spotted a tiny opening in the top row of one of the bleachers. We climbed up the scaffolding at the back and squeezed our way in.

The Mazatlan Venados won the Caribbean Series Championship this year. Those of us from the States sometimes have a hard time realizing that anybody else, outside of Japan or Cuba maybe, plays baseball, much less has a championship series. After all, the U.S. has the World Series, right? The crowd here got crazy when the team came through on their float.

The kids were both exhausted. Being out until 7:00 does that to them. Their little bodies are so used to their schedule that they just shut down at that time regardless of what we’re doing. Wedding party? Nope, bed. Bonfire on the beach? Nope, bed. Parade? Nope, bed.

I carried Lowe asleep into bed and dressed his limp body in his pajamas, in the dark. I tucked him under the covers, then he mumbled,  “Papa? Are we going to read books tonight?”

Ouest managed to keep her heavy eyelids up. Her last words of the night were, “Papa. I had a lot of fun at the parade tonight.”