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The House That Changed History: Visiting the Jackson Home at Greenfield Village

By

On June 8, 2026

In Michigan

Jackson Home at Greenfield Village

We have been to Greenfield Village more times than we can count. We know which steam locomotive stop has the shortest line. We know that the Edison Menlo Park district will take longer than you think and we could spend hours watching the glassblowers and the pottery makers.

We thought we knew this place.

And then the Jackson Home opened, and Greenfield Village became somewhere new again.

The Jackson Home Placard

A Little Background (That You Genuinely Need)

If you haven’t been following the story of how this house came to be in Dearborn, Michigan, it’s worth a minute of your time — because it’s remarkable.

The Dr. Sullivan and Mrs. Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson Home originally stood in Selma, Alabama, where it had been the center of something extraordinary. In 1965, the Jacksons opened their doors to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his closest allies as they planned the Selma to Montgomery marches — the sustained effort that ultimately led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Civil rights leaders, U.S. congressmen, and two Nobel Peace Prize winners all passed through this house. And the Jacksons saved everything.

More than 9,000 artifacts. The dining table where history was made over dinner. The armchair where Dr. King sat watching President Lyndon Johnson pledge to pass voting rights legislation on television.

When Jawana Jackson, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Jackson, approached The Henry Ford in 2022 about finding a permanent home for the house, the museum said yes — and then pulled off something genuinely audacious. The house was carefully dismantled, loaded onto trailers, and driven 1,060 miles to Dearborn (You can watch a video of the move here). The restoration team then worked to return the home to its 1965 appearance, using family photographs, press photos, and the artifacts themselves as a guide.

The whole thing took years. It will open to the public on  June 12, 2026. It is the first new home added to Greenfield Village in more than 40 years.

We went during the member preview — a perk of our Henry Ford membership that we have never been more grateful for. Here’s how it went.

Jackson Home Dining Room

Getting a Timed Reservation (Do This Before You Go)

Before anything else: the Jackson Home requires a timed reservation to enter. The house is a historic structure with limited interior capacity, and they are taking that seriously. Reservations are free for members or included with regular admission, but you have to book them in advance through The Henry Ford’s website.

As members, our reservations were free — one of the genuine advantages of a Henry Ford membership that we don’t talk about enough. We booked ours as soon as the member preview slots opened, which, if you know us, means Chris had a calendar reminder set for approximately three weeks in advance. We are not casual about this stuff.

Learn from us. Book early.

Jackson Home Kitchen

The Location in the Village

The Jackson Home sits on Maple Lane in the Porches & Parlors district, between the Logan County Courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law and the William Holmes McGuffey Birthplace. It’s a tucked-away corner of the village that, honestly, we used to speed through on our way somewhere else.

We won’t be doing that anymore.

There’s something intentional about the neighborhood — the Jackson Home standing near the birthplace of a man born into slavery and the workplace of the man who eventually freed the slaves. The whole district feels different now. More grounded. The Jackson home continues the story into the 20th century.

Jackson Home Living Room

Walking Through the House

We’ll be honest: we weren’t sure how we’d feel going in. Greenfield Village does so many things well — the costumed interpreters, the working machinery, the sense of walking through time — but civil rights history carries a different weight than a working glass-blowing studio. We wanted them to get this right.

They got it right.

The interior of the house is restored to 1965, and the care that went into it is evident in every detail. The furnishings are overwhelmingly original — not reproductions, not approximations, but the actual objects that were in the room when Dr. King was there. The dining table. The chairs. A remarkable density of everyday life preserved exactly as it was.

The armchair stopped us cold. It’s positioned in front of a black-and-white television (above), just as it would have been the night Dr. King sat in it and watched President Johnson address the nation. There’s a placard with context, but honestly — the chair doesn’t need much explanation. You just stand there and feel the weight of what happened in that room.

We both grew up in Michigan and have been to this village dozens of times, and this was the first exhibit in Greenfield Village that made us genuinely emotional.

The interpretation is thoughtful and unhurried. The guides in the house were knowledgeable and gave us space to move at our own pace without making us feel rushed. Given the timed reservation system, the groups inside the house at any given moment were small — which was exactly right for this kind of space.

Jackson Home

The New Interpretive Space

Attached to the home is a new 1,500-square-foot interpretive space that provides broader context about the Voting Rights Movement, the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the Jacksons’ role in it all. If you’re coming in with a solid background on the Civil Rights Movement, you’ll appreciate the depth.

A Few Tips Before Your Visit

  • Book your timed reservation in advance. We said this already. We mean it.
  • Plan for at least half a day in Greenfield Village — not because the Jackson Home itself takes that long, but because you will want to decompress and process, and the village is a good place to do that. Grab some food, ride the train, let it settle.
  • The Porches & Parlors district rewards slow walking now more than ever. Don’t rush through it.
  • Consider pairing it with the Henry Ford Museum next door, where a companion exhibit on the Jackson Home’s restoration ran earlier this year. Check the museum’s website for current programming related to the opening.
  • Bring water. Summer in Michigan is unpredictable — it can be beautiful or it can be aggressively humid. We lucked out during the member preview with warm -not too hot- weather.

Final Thoughts

We’ve said before that some of our best travel doesn’t require a passport — that the most transporting experiences are sometimes right in our backyard. The Jackson Home is exactly that kind of experience.

Greenfield Village has always told stories of American ingenuity and invention. The Jackson Home tells a different kind of American story: one of ordinary courage and extraordinary consequences, of a family who opened their door and changed the country. It belongs here, in a village that asks visitors to reckon with what this country has built — and who built it.

It is, without question, one of the most significant things The Henry Ford has ever done.

Go see it. Take your time. Make the reservation first. Plan your visit at TheHenryFord.org.

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

Why We Went Back to Xochimilco (And Why You Should Too)

By

On June 1, 2026

In Travel

Why We Went Back to Xochimilco

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Some places earn a second visit. Xochimilco is one of them.

On our first trip to Mexico City, we’d made the bleary-eyed decision to book a pre-dawn kayak tour through the canals — alarm at 4:30 a.m., hotel lobby in the dark, cold water before the sun came up. We loved every disorienting minute of it. (Read all about that experience here) But when we returned a year later, this time with family in tow, we wanted to share the magic without the predawn suffering. Our solution: a trajinera tour at the very reasonable hour of 8 a.m. A small but meaningful upgrade.

Egret along the canal in Xochimilco

Egret along the canal in Xochimilco

Skipping the Tourist Circus

Here’s the thing about Xochimilco that doesn’t make it into most travel guides: the Xochimilco most visitors experience — the loud, festive, mariachi-soundtracked stretch of floating party barges — is only one version of the place. A colorful version, sure. But not the whole story.

We launched from the same pier we’d used for kayaking the year before, which sits away from the main tourist embarcadero. That choice made all the difference. No vendors sidling up to sell you things from their boats. No competing sound systems. Just the canals, the stillness of the morning, and the slow drift of a trajinera doing what trajineras have done here for centuries.

Farmer milking goats on the chinampa

Breakfast on a Working Farm

We made our way back to the same chinampa farm we’d visited the year before — and honestly, it felt even better the second time. There’s something quietly extraordinary about eating breakfast on land that has been farmed this way since before the Aztecs, watching someone milk goats a few feet away while your coffee cools.

The salad we picked in XochimilcoThe chinampas — those famous “floating gardens” that made this whole area agriculturally remarkable — aren’t just a historical curiosity. They’re still working. We got to pick our own salad greens: arugula, lettuces, a handful of vibrant calendula flowers. The farm made soap from ingredients grown right there. We hung out with farmers. We slowed down.

This is what our friend Laila talked about when we interviewed her for the podcast last year: Xochimilco still supplies a significant portion of Mexico City’s food. Most of the millions of people who live in this city don’t know that. Most visitors don’t see it either.

Trajineras in Xochimilo

The Reputation vs. The Reality

We understand why Xochimilco has its party reputation. On weekends, the tourist zone fills with bachelorette groups, birthday flotillas, and family reunions — entire extended families booking trajineras for hours of floating celebration. Even Mexico City locals do it for big occasions. It’s genuinely festive and fun in its own way.

But if that’s all you see, you’ve missed what makes this place genuinely special. The ancient agricultural system. The farmers who still work the land. The quiet canals away from the noise.

We loved our Xochimilco experience so much that we came back a year later. We’d go a third time. We probably will.

Getting there: Skip the main tourist embarcadero and book an agritourism tour — you’ll find a much calmer, more authentic experience. 

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read more about this trip, check out the Returning to Mexico City Trip Report Page. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

A Full Day in Chapultepec Park: Castles, Cable Cars, and Staying Dry in a Downpour

By

On May 25, 2026

In Travel

Clouds rolling in on Chapultepec

Mexico City is a city that rewards the curious, and nowhere is that more true than Chapultepec Park. On a recent visit, we spent an entire day exploring this massive urban green space — and came away with one of our favorite days of the whole trip. From a Habsburg castle perched above the city to a hidden mosaic mural buried in the back of the park, Chapultepec has far more to offer than most visitors realize. Here’s how our day unfolded.

Some of the links below are affiliate links, and as such, I earn a small commission from purchases that allow me to continue telling you my stories without costing you anything extra.

Gardens on the top of Chapultepec Castle

Chapultepec Castle: Worth Every Step

We started our day the right way — with pre-purchased tickets to Chapultepec Castle. (Seriously, buy them online ahead of time. You’ll thank yourself later.) This was actually our second visit, and we’d do it a third time without hesitation. It’s simply one of those places you have to experience in Mexico City.

The castle’s history alone is worth the trip. It was originally built by the Habsburgs during their brief and ill-fated rule over Mexico — a reign that, as we joked, did not go particularly well for them. After that, dictator Porfirio Díaz used it as a residence, and it later served as a military academy. Today it’s a museum, and a spectacular one at that.

You’ll find beautiful art, sweeping murals, and some genuinely stunning stained glass from the Díaz era. But the thing that will really take your breath away is the view. Chapultepec Hill is one of the highest points in the city, and from the castle’s terraces you can see Mexico City sprawling in every direction. It’s one of those panoramas that just stops you in your tracks.

Pro tip: The castle is well-labeled and easy to navigate on your own, but if you’d like a guided experience, check out this combination tour with the Anthropology Museum on Viator or this wonderful tour of Chapultapec Park with our favorite guide, Laila!

Torta in Chapultepec

Tortas, Tarps, and a Memorable Rainstorm

After working up an appetite exploring the castle, we headed into the park’s food area for lunch. On our last visit, we’d had a fantastic experience with tortas in the park, and we were eager to repeat it — though we ended up at a different stall this time around.

The tortas were enormous. Gigantic, even. We may prefer quality over quantity in the future, but what that particular stall lacked in refinement it more than made up for in providence. Because just as we sat down, the skies opened up.

The stall owner had strung a tarp from the side of the stall to a nearby fence, and that humble piece of plastic saved our afternoon. Around us, other vendors weren’t so lucky — EZ-ups and umbrellas were collapsing left and right, and we could hear people shouting over the downpour. We, meanwhile, stayed completely dry, eating our enormous tortas and watching the chaos with slightly guilty relief. We didn’t move until the rain stopped. No regrets.

Museo de Arte Moderno DSC0023 (35557149325)

A Special Frida and Diego Exhibit at the Modern Art Museum

From the food stalls, we made our way to the Museo de Arte Moderno, which sits within Chapultepec Park itself — a detail worth knowing, because it’s easy to not realize how many world-class cultural attractions are clustered in this one park.

During our visit, the museum was hosting a rare special exhibit: a privately held collection of portrait work by both Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. While Frida is of course celebrated for her self-portraits, seeing Rivera’s portrait work was a revelation — he’s so associated with his towering public murals that this quieter, more intimate body of work is easy to overlook.

The collection had reportedly not been seen in Mexico in about 30 years, which made it feel genuinely momentous. One gallery — featuring the famous painting Las Dos Fridas — had a line that stretched out of the museum and around the corner. (We were visiting during Holy Week, when Mexican students have two weeks off, so every museum in the city was packed.) We made the call to skip that line and look up the painting online later. Sometimes the museum gods are not on your side, and that’s okay.

Note: If you’re planning a visit, check the museum’s website in advance for current special exhibitions, as exhibits rotate.

Diego Rivera Sculpture in Chapultepec Park

The Hidden Gem: A Cable Car and a Secret Mural

This next part of the day is what separates a good Chapultepec visit from a great one — and we almost certainly would have missed it without our wonderful local tour guide, Laila.

After the Modern Art Museum, Laila led us to the cable car that runs through the park. And here’s the thing that makes it special: this isn’t a tourist attraction. This is actual urban transit that locals use to get around. We paid just a handful of pesos per person (somewhere around five to seven pesos — a trivially small amount) and rode one stop to the back section of the park.

Our destination was La Cárcamo de Dolores — part of Mexico City’s municipal drinking water system, and also the site of one of Diego Rivera’s most unusual and least-visited works.

Close up of the Sculpture

Outside, there is a remarkable mosaic sculpture of Tláloc, the Aztec god of rain (though our guide Laila believes its origins may trace back even further to the Olmec). The sculpture sits in a reflecting pool, and the scale and artistry of it is genuinely impressive. Inside the facility, Rivera painted a series of murals called El Agua, Origen de la Vida (Water, the Source of Life).

What makes these murals extraordinary — besides their beauty — is their history. They were originally designed to be partially submerged in water, with the sculpture outside and the murals inside creating a deliberate visual alignment. The flowing hands of Tláloc seem to reach into the painted imagery within. Eventually the water level was lowered to protect the murals (one does wonder about the original logic of commissioning delicate frescoes and then flooding them), but the connection between the exterior and interior is still powerfully felt.

A newer addition to the site features pipes that make actual musical pitches when water flows through them. It’s as strange and wonderful as it sounds.

This place does not appear in most guidebooks. We would never have found it on our own. If you’re visiting Chapultepec, go here — and consider hiring a local guide to get the full story.

Ending the Day at Aztlan Feria de Chapultepec

Us with Laila on the Ferris WheelAs the afternoon light softened, Laila brought us to the amusement park tucked into another section of Chapultepec — a place called La Feria. It’s a bit more of a local attraction, with small rollercoasters and family rides, but we rode the Ferris wheel and it was the perfect way to close out the day.

As the city lights began to flicker on below us, the Ferris wheel offered one more sweeping view of this endlessly fascinating metropolis. After a day that had included castle history, pouring rain, rare art, cable cars, hidden murals, and truly epic tortas, it was a fitting and peaceful finale.

We were still full from lunch, by the way. Those tortas were enormous.

 

Mural in the Chapultepec Castle

Planning Your Visit to Chapultepec Park

  • Chapultepec Castle: Purchase tickets online in advance. Budget 2–3 hours. The views alone are worth it.
  • Modern Art Museum: Check the museum website for current exhibitions before you go, especially if there’s a special exhibit — lines can be long during school holidays.
  • La Cárcamo de Dolores: Located in the back section of the park; hire a local guide or look it up specifically — you won’t stumble onto it by accident.
  • Cable Car: A few pesos per person, an authentic local experience. Use it to get from the main park area to the back section.
  • Food: Grab tortas from the food stalls in the park. Go in with reasonable expectations about quantity versus quality, and try to position yourself near a vendor with a good tarp setup.
  • La Feria Amusement Park: Great for families or anyone who wants a low-key, fun end to the day.

Chapultepec Park is enormous, culturally rich, and genuinely underexplored — even by people who visit Mexico City. Give it a full day. You won’t regret it.

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read more about this trip, check out the Returning to Mexico City Trip Report Page. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

Markets of Mexico City: Where the Real Magic Happens

By

On May 18, 2026

In Travel

Mexico City Markets

If you want to understand a city, skip the guidebook highlights for a morning and head straight to its markets. Mexico City’s markets pulled back the curtain on daily life in a way that no museum or monument ever could — and we walked away with vanilla beans, a new skirt, and a story about grasshoppers.

Mercado de San Juan Pugibet

Mercado de San Juan Pugibet (Food Market)

Our first stop was the local food market — a sprawling, sensory-overload kind of place packed with produce stalls, fish counters, whole chickens, and meat displays that reminded us just how far removed most of us are from where our food actually comes from. We had a mission: vanilla beans. Making homemade vanilla extract has been on the list for a while, and we figured Mexico City was the place to source the good stuff. (Spoiler: it’s going to make excellent Christmas gifts.)

But the vanilla hunt was just the beginning. What really stopped us in our tracks were the insects. If you’re not already aware, edible insects are a genuine part of Mexican cuisine — not a novelty, not a tourist gimmick. Vendors were enthusiastically holding out bags of chapulinas (grasshoppers or crickets) hoping to convert us. We politely declined. Multiple times. No judgment to those who took the plunge, but we were not ready for that particular adventure.

Mexico City Markets

The Artisan Market (Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela)

From the food market, we made our way to the artisan market — they were only a 6-minute walk apart. We’d actually visited on a previous trip to Mexico City, and it did not disappoint the second time around.

This place has everything: hand-woven blankets and rugs, pottery, jewelry, embroidered headbands, and textiles in every color imaginable. I actually bought a skirt here that I wore to a wedding after we returned home, which felt like a perfect Mexico City souvenir Fair warning: if your Spanish is limited, bring a patient friend (or Google Translate) who can help you ask about sizes, availability, and fitting rooms. Having an in-house translator made a real difference, and yes — that translator is still accepting thank-yous.

The market is laid out in a grid, which sounds organized until you’re inside it and realize you genuinely cannot tell if you’ve already visited this pottery stall or a different one selling similar wares two rows over. The repetition can feel overwhelming, but push through it. What makes this place worth every confusing loop is knowing that the money goes directly to the artisans. We literally watched a woman sitting on a piece of cardboard, weaving a hammock by hand. That’s the real thing.

Practical Tips

Come with cash, a sense of direction (or willingness to abandon one), and low expectations for efficiency — but high expectations for discovery. The food market is best visited in the morning when everything is fresh. The artisan market rewards slow wandering; budget at least a couple of hours. And if someone offers you grasshoppers, well — that part’s entirely up to you.

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read more about this trip, check out the Returning to Mexico City Trip Report Page. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

The Museum That Kept Going: Our Morning at Museo Soumaya

By

On May 11, 2026

In Travel

Museo Soumaya Exterior

Here’s a lesson we learned the hard way in Mexico City: plan your museum days carefully, because most of them are closed on Mondays. We found ourselves with a free Monday and a city full of shuttered doors — until we discovered a place we’d somehow missed on our last visit: Museo Soumaya.

Located just north of the Polanco neighborhood, Soumaya is hard to miss. The building itself is a statement — a gleaming, irregular silver structure that looks like something between a sculpture and a spaceship. It’s modern and a little eccentric, which, it turns out, is a pretty good preview of what’s inside.

Soumaya's replica of the David

More Floors Than You’re Ready For

We walked in with zero expectations and zero idea how big this place actually was. That second part matters. A lot. By the time we reached the top, we were the kind of tired where your brain just… stops processing art. There is no placard interesting enough at that point. You’re just a person with feet.

The first floor sets an interesting tone: full of robotically carved replicas of famous sculptures — think Michelangelo’s David and other iconic works, recreated with what we’re told was a precision robotic process rather than traditional casting. It sounds gimmicky, but honestly? They’re impressive. Worth the stop.

Then comes the second floor. We’re going to be honest: skip it. Unless you have a deep, abiding affection for vintage televisions, ornate dollhouses, antique clocks, and pianos arranged in no apparent thematic order, you’re going to stand there and ask yourself what you’re looking at. We did. Repeatedly.

The Good Stuff Is in the Middle (and the Bottom)

Museo Soumaya Interior

Floor three picked things back up — European paintings from artists you’ve actually heard of, including what we’re pretty sure was a Cézanne. It felt like a well-edited survey of the kind of art that makes you glad museums exist.

But floor four was the highlight for us: Mexican art. There were murals, there were paintings, and there was an unfinished Diego Rivera that stopped us cold. No explanatory plaque. No context whatsoever. Just this massive, strange, incomplete work featuring what appeared to be Uncle Sam, a figure representing the British government, and — we’re pretty sure — Stalin. All in the same mural. We have so many questions. Did Rivera die before finishing it? Did he abandon it? We need answers and we haven’t found them yet.

The Rodin Is at the Top — Plan Accordingly

Rodin at the Soumaya MuseumThe museum’s crown jewel — reportedly the largest collection of Rodin sculptures in Mexico — lives on the top floor. We got there. We looked. But we were so thoroughly museum-brained by that point that we couldn’t give it the attention it deserved.

If Rodin is your whole reason for coming (and it’s a legitimate reason), here’s our advice: take the elevator as high as it goes, walk the ramp the rest of the way up, and then work your way down through the floors. Don’t save the best for last in a building with this many levels.

Museo Soumaya is genuinely worth your time — just go in knowing it’s bigger than it looks, stranger than you’d expect, and totally free.

Have you been to Museo Soumaya? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read more about this trip, check out the Returning to Mexico City Trip Report Page. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

A Private Tour of Mexico City’s Anthropology Museum

By

On May 4, 2026

In Travel

Aztec Sun Stone

Some of the links below are affiliate links and as such, I earn a small commission from purchases that allow me to continue telling you my stories without costing you anything extra.

One of the most visited museums in the world sits in the middle of Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, and after two trips there, we’re still not sure we’ve cracked the code on how to experience it properly. That’s not a criticism — it’s actually a testament to just how extraordinary the National Anthropology Museum really is.

Teotihuacan Pyramid of the fFathered Serpent replica

This was our second visit, and we went in with a different approach than our first trip. Last year, we did a small group tour that moved quickly through most of the museum — a great overview, but not exactly deep. This time, we landed a private tour almost by accident. We had to do some last-minute reshuffling of our itinerary, and the small group tour we’d originally booked no longer fit our schedule. Through a company called Free Tours Mexico  — we booked a private tour for the three of us. The price? Around $80, not including museum admission (which runs about $10 per person). For a private guide at one of the most important museums in the world, that’s a genuinely remarkable deal.

Anthropology Museum

Our guide, Arturo, was a character in the best possible way. Rather than racing through the entire museum, he zeroed in on two civilizations: the Teotihuacanos and the Aztecs (Mexica). And he went deep. At one point he was literally reading stone carvings aloud to us, which was impressive — if, admittedly, a moment where we were silently willing him to move on. If you’re a history and anthropology enthusiast, Arturo is absolutely your guy.

Here’s our honest takeaway after two visits: there’s no perfect way to do this museum. The fast-paced group tour let us see the breadth of the collection but left us feeling like we’d only skimmed the surface. The focused private tour gave us real depth on two cultures but left much of the museum unseen. Your best bet? If you have the luxury of multiple days in Mexico City, consider splitting the museum across two visits — though we’ll admit that even a half-day here is enough to leave your brain pleasantly exhausted.

Have you visited the National Anthropology Museum? We’d love to hear how you tackled it — drop your tips in the comments below!

Thanks for stopping by! Book your private tour of the Anthropology Museum on Viator! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read more about this trip, check out the Returning to Mexico City Trip Report Page. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

Chasing Diego Rivera Through Mexico City: A Mural Lover’s Must-Do

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On April 27, 2026

In Travel

History of Mexico Mural

Some of the links below are affiliate links and as such, we earn a small commission from purchases that allow us to continue telling you our stories without costing you anything extra.

If you’ve been following along, you know that Chris and I made our return trip to Mexico City this spring — and this time we went deep on Diego Rivera. Like, really deep. Four days, five stops, and more incredible public art than we knew what to do with. If you have even a passing interest in Mexican history or muralism, buckle up, because this is the itinerary for you. You can make it easier on yourself and book this tour through Pies Descalzos!

The Museum of Mexican Muralism (Formerly the Secretary of Education Building)

Stairway in the Museo Vivo del Muralismo We actually visited this place on our trip last year. It opened to the public in the fall of 2024 and is still flying under the radar in most guidebooks, which means you can actually enjoy it without fighting through massive tour groups. That alone is worth noting.

The murals here were painted by Rivera over many years, commissioned by the government after the Mexican Revolution as a way to teach history to a largely illiterate population. Walking through, you can genuinely watch Rivera grow as an artist from panel to panel. It’s remarkable. Plan to spend serious time here if art is your thing.

Sunday Afternoon in the Alamada Central

The Diego Rivera Mural Museum

This one we first visited on last year’s mural tour, and it’s worth circling back to — or making a dedicated stop on your first visit. Tucked inside the Alameda, one of the beautiful parks in the Centro Histórico, the museum houses a single mural: Rivera’s iconic Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park. When we were there in spring, the jacarandas were in full bloom, filling the park with purple flowers and a fragrance that made the whole experience feel even more special. The mural itself is a sweeping retelling of Mexican history set right in the park where the museum stands — and it contains what is arguably the most famous image Rivera ever painted. The Catrina, the elegant skeleton now synonymous with Día de los Muertos celebrations, appears here in what is the painting that made that image iconic worldwide. Rivera didn’t invent the Catrina — her original creator actually appears in the mural too — but this is the work that made her famous. Admission was free when we visited on a Sunday, which seems to just be how they roll. It’s not as heavily trafficked as some of the other mural sites, and honestly that makes it even more of a gem.

Man, Controller of the Universe

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Even if you’ve already seen this building from the outside — and you should, because it’s stunning — don’t miss the Diego Rivera mural inside. We went specifically for it, and it comes with one of the best backstories in art history. This mural is a recreation of the one Rivera originally painted for Rockefeller Center in New York. The Rockefellers, despite knowing full well that Rivera had communist leanings, commissioned the work anyway — and then got more than they bargained for when Rivera painted the face of Lenin into the composition. When Nelson Rockefeller asked him to remove it, Rivera said no. The original mural was destroyed. Rivera later recreated it here in Mexico City, Lenin and all, and it now lives inside what is primarily one of Mexico City’s grand performance venues — the Palacio de Bellas Artes hosts a major ballet performance once a month that’s well worth looking into if your timing lines up. But even if you’re just there for the mural, the building alone is worth the trip. It’s the kind of story that makes you appreciate art — and stubbornness — on a whole new level.

Mural at the National Palace

The National Palace

This is the crown jewel. Home to some of Rivera’s last and most detailed work, the National Palace murals are breathtaking — especially the sweeping staircase piece depicting the full sweep of Mexican history (top). The tour is free, but you must be accompanied by a guide since this is where the president resides. First tours start at 10 AM, and everyone online recommends arriving an hour early to queue. We did exactly that and were glad we did, since we had another tour lined up in the afternoon.

Photo by Joaquin Martin

Colegio de San Ildefonso

This one is easy to walk right past, and most visitors to the Zócalo probably do. It’s part of UNAM and houses Diego Rivera’s very first mural in Mexico — and honestly, it’s a fascinating oddity. After being sent to Europe on what was essentially a government arts grant, Rivera came back painting like a European. We’re talking flat figures, golden halos, fresco-style compositions that feel more like a gothic church than anything you’d expect from the man who painted the National Palace.

A Few Tips Before You Go

If you’re planning your own Diego Rivera tour, we highly recommend that you book this tour with Pies Descalzos to learn much more about the art and its story than you will get on your own!

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read more about this trip, visit the Returning to Mexico City Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

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Returning to the City That Has Everything: Mexico City, Round Two

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On April 20, 2026

In Travel

Fountain in the Almada Central

We are back from another incredible trip! Mexico City has been calling us back since we left last year. Five days, one convenient hotel, and more murals, markets, and mezcal than we could have imagined. If you’ve ever wondered whether a city you’ve already visited is worth a second trip, let me just say: Mexico City absolutely is.

Some of the links below are affiliate links and as such, we earn a small commission from purchases that allow us to continue telling you our stories without costing you anything extra.

We stayed at the Hotel Fontan Reforma, which put us in a fantastic spot — right on Paseo de la Reforma, walking distance to the Alameda Central, and easy access to the historic center. If you’re heading to CDMX, I’d highly recommend this area as a base.

Here’s a quick rundown of everything we packed into five days:

As you can see, we did not slow down for a single moment. I’m so excited to share every detail, so be sure to check back each week as I work through each day!

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

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Stepping Back in Time: A Visit to the Detroit Historical Museum

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On April 13, 2026

In Michigan

Stepping Back in Time at Detroit Historical Museum

Some of the links below are affiliate links and as such, I earn a small commission from purchases that allow me to continue telling you my stories without costing you anything extra.

If you’ve been following along, you know that Chris and I have a soft spot for the kind of travel that doesn’t require a passport — the kind where you discover something extraordinary about the place you already call home. That’s exactly what happened when we finally made it through the doors of the Detroit Historical Museum on Woodward Avenue. And honestly? I’m kicking myself for waiting so long.

We’d driven past the building dozens of times on our way to the Detroit Institute of Arts next door. It just sort of blended into the Midtown scenery. But one rainy Saturday, with no real agenda and a strong craving for something indoors, we pulled into the parking lot, walked up to the entrance, and handed over our $10 admission fees. What unfolded over the next few hours was one of the best afternoons we’ve spent in the city.

Streets of Old Detroit

Streets of Old Detroit: Our Favorite Stop

The moment that made us both stop and genuinely say “whoa” was descending into the Streets of Old Detroit exhibit on the lower level. I don’t know what I expected — maybe a few old photographs and some text panels — but this is a full-scale recreation of Detroit’s streets from the 1840s through the early 1900s. There are storefronts, cobblestones, gas lamps, and historic signage that make you feel like you’ve wandered into an old photograph.

We spent way more time here than we planned. Chris kept stopping to read the placards, and I kept pulling out my camera to capture the details. The old apothecary, the barbershop, the period-correct window displays — it’s the kind of exhibit that rewards slow, unhurried exploration.

America's Motor City Exhibit

America’s Motor City: For the Car Lovers

From there we made our way to the America’s Motor City exhibition, which is exactly what it sounds like — a deep dive into how Detroit became the automotive capital of the world. The highlight here is the Cadillac “body drop,” salvaged from the Clark Street assembly plant when it closed in 1987. Watching a car body get lowered onto a chassis, even in a museum context, gives you a visceral sense of just how remarkable Detroit’s manufacturing legacy really is.

I’ll be honest — I’m not a car person. But even I found myself riveted. There’s something about seeing the actual machinery, the actual tools, the actual scale of what this city built that hits differently than reading about it in a book.

Gallery of Culture

A Personal Moment in the Gallery of Culture

The exhibit I wasn’t expecting to hit me so hard was the Allesee Gallery of Culture. Walking through its celebration of the everyday businesses, neighborhoods, and people that shaped Detroit life. From a sign from Old Tiger Stadium to a signed Darren McCarty Red Wings Jersey, this exhibit celebrated life in the city in the 20th century. I was surprised to see a reference to my dad’s Metro Detroit record store, Repeat the Beat, in a display about music in the latter part of the century in Detroit. It brought tears to my eyes to think about the importance of the store and my dad to the people of Detroit.

100 Years of the Detroit Red Wings

100 Years of the Detroit Red Wings

If you’re visiting any time soon, do not skip the temporary exhibition celebrating 100 years of the Detroit Red Wings. Chris, who grew up watching the Wings during the dynasty years of the late ’90s and early 2000s, was practically buzzing from the moment we walked in. The exhibit traces the full arc of the franchise — from the Detroit Cougars playing their first NHL game back in November 1926 all the way through eleven Stanley Cup championships and the legends who made this city synonymous with hockey. There are jerseys, equipment, and artifacts that span a century of Hockeytown history, and the storytelling does a great job of connecting the team’s legacy to the broader identity of Detroit itself. Whether you’re a diehard Wings fan or just someone who appreciates what a sport can mean to a city, it’s a genuinely moving display. We lingered far longer than planned — which, honestly, seems to be a theme with us and this museum.

Tiger Stadium Sign

Tips Before You Go

A few things worth knowing before your visit: admission is $10 for adults, with discounts available for seniors, students, active military, first responders, and educators. The museum is located at 5401 Woodward Avenue in Midtown, right next to the DIA, so it’s easy to pair both in a single afternoon. There’s a paid parking lot on Kirby Street, and they even have a few EV charging stations if you need them.

Plan for at least two to three hours — more if you’re the type who likes to read all the placards. The museum is spread across multiple levels and never felt crowded on our visit, which meant we could take our time without ever feeling rushed or hemmed in. And with the Red Wings exhibit in the mix right now, you might want to budget a little extra time just for that.

Final Thoughts

The Detroit Historical Museum reminded us that you don’t have to board a plane to have a genuinely transporting travel experience. This city has layer upon layer of history — industrial, cultural, painful, triumphant — and this museum holds a lot of it. We left with a deeper appreciation for the place we get to call our backyard, and that’s really the best thing any museum can do.

Have you been to the Detroit Historical Museum? Did you catch the Red Wings exhibit? We’d love to hear about your favorite part in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

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How We Actually Budget for Travel (Without Feeling Like We’re Missing Out)

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On April 6, 2026

In Travel, Travel Tips

How we budget for travel without feeling like we're missing out

We’re going to come right out and say it: we recently stopped listening to a travel podcast about ten minutes in because we couldn’t take it anymore. Without naming names, the host basically declared that if you carry any credit card debt, you have no business doing any traveling. And then — in the very next breath — tried to sell us a travel credit card.

The hypocrisy aside, the thing that really got under our skin was the premise: that travel is a luxury, a reward you earn only after you’ve achieved some arbitrary level of financial perfection. We couldn’t disagree more, we’ve been traveling long enough to have some actual thoughts on why.

Travel is not a luxury (but it can be)

Let’s be clear about what we mean. A week at an all-inclusive resort on the other side of the world, where you pay someone to bring you drinks by the pool? That’s a luxury. A road trip to a state park two hours away where you sleep in a tent and eat food from a cooler? That is also travel — meaningful, perspective-shifting, genuinely restorative travel — and it costs almost nothing.

Some of our best trips have been the cheap ones. There was a week of camping in Michigan years ago that we still reference as a benchmark for every trip we’ve taken since. We didn’t spend much. We came home changed. That’s not a luxury. That’s a basic human need: to step outside your context, reset your thinking, and remember that your normal life is only one version of normal. You know the quote: “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” (Thanks, St. Augustine)

The point is that travel — specifically the act of changing your environment, breaking your routine, encountering people who don’t live the way you live — is good for you in ways that are hard to put a dollar value on. It builds empathy. It shakes loose calcified thinking. It forces rest. These are not luxury goods. These are things humans need.

Our actual approach for budgeting for travel

We don’t use travel credit cards. We’ve thought about it, we understand the argument, and we still don’t use them — partly because of the ethics of a system that essentially passes merchant fees on to every consumer who doesn’t play the points game, and partly because, well, a researcher we respect spent a full year using only a debit card and spent significantly less money. Make of that what you will.

What we do instead is treat travel like any other planned expense. Not a splurge, not an afterthought — a line item. Chris uses a budgeting app (YNAB, this is not a sponsorship or affiliate deal, just an honest recommendation) and maintains specific buckets for specific things. One of those buckets is travel.

The Basic Method

Rough estimate of what a trip will cost → divided by how many months until departure → compared against monthly cash flow in the travel bucket. Adjust and repeat. It’s not complicated. What makes it work is doing it consistently, not perfectly.

The rough estimate matters more than people think. We don’t try to predict every meal, but we do ballpark transportation, lodging, any big-ticket experiences we already know we want, and a buffer for the unexpected. Then we ask: does this fit? And if it doesn’t, we ask: what can we adjust?

Intentionality over restriction

The word “budget” carries a lot of shame. It sounds like deprivation. Like saying no. But the actual practice of budgeting — or planning, or whatever you want to call it — is really just deciding what you value most and pointing your money at it deliberately. You’re not sacrificing travel. You’re prioritizing it.

There’s a real tension in personal finance advice between delayed gratification and enjoying the life you’re living right now. We’ve landed somewhere in the middle, and here’s why: the future is not guaranteed. You can work and save and plan for decades and have your health or your circumstances change in an instant. That’s not an argument for recklessness. It’s an argument for intentionality on both ends — making sure you’re building toward something and making sure the journey is a life you actually want to be living.

If you spend years depriving yourself of any joy in pursuit of some future financial finish line, you may reach that line and find that you’ve spent 20 years becoming someone who doesn’t know how to enjoy things anymore. That’s not a plan. That’s a trap.

What "responsible" travel actually looks like for us

We do believe in avoiding high-interest debt when possible. Not because some podcast guy said so, but because debt is a very specific transaction: you are asking your future self to pay a premium so your present self can have something now. Sometimes that trade is worth it — a roof repair, maybe. A life-changing trip, possibly. But it’s worth naming the trade clearly and deciding with open eyes.

We also think hard about the real value in a trip versus the Instagrammable version of value. We’ve paid for a dinner that was built entirely around its aesthetic — decor that Chris described as “the back of a limo” — and we’ve paid less for a meal that we still talk about years later. Expensive doesn’t mean valuable. The same logic applies to travel broadly.

Flying a budget airline and using those savings for an experience you’ll actually remember? That’s not being cheap. That’s being smart about where value actually lives. Even as you’re working toward something big in the future — make sure you enjoy the journey.

The one think we're working on

We’ll be honest: our travel has been frequent enough in recent years that we’ve mostly been keeping pace rather than getting ahead. What we’d love to build — and are actively working toward — is a travel slush fund. Not earmarked for a specific trip, just there for when an opportunity shows up. A fare deal that’s almost too good. A spontaneous long weekend. We want to be in a position to say yes to those things without scrambling.

That is a form of privilege, and we know it. Not everyone has the margin to save for an unknown future vacation. But it’s also a goal worth building toward, and it illustrates the broader principle: the more intentionally you plan, the more freedom you actually have.

The bottom line

You don’t have to be financially perfect to travel. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to have the right credit cards or a certain number of points or a spotless balance sheet. You do have to have a plan — one that reflects your actual values, accounts for your actual circumstances, and leaves room for actual living along the way.

Travel isn’t the enemy of financial responsibility. In our experience, it’s one of the clearest expressions of it: deciding that this — seeing something new, understanding something more, resting in a way that actually works — is worth planning for. So we plan for it. And then we go.

Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos, be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.

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