Nuestra Señora de Carne Asada

We went to the zoo this afternoon – not actually into the zoo, just up to the admission gates. The zoo is only 40 minutes away from our house, but traffic came upon us suddenly. I kid you not, we saw a sign that said “Zoo: 2.0 miles,” and it took 30 minutes to get from there to the parking lot gates. The lot was full. The next lot was another 30 minute two mile drive. It was full.

At this point we’d been in the car for almost 150 minutes, but without the fun of a full length feature film. In desperation, I made Refe pull over and park in a forest preserve, and we walked a quarter mile to the zoo gates. And then, right as we arrived, we heard thunder, and nearly got run over by a mass exodus of people. It started to pour. Adeia, who we’d strung along with a cookie and promises of seeing “bunnies,” began to cry. I did too (almost).

Luckily this post is only partly about our depressing non-zoo experience. See, after we left the admission gates, we trudged back to the car. The car was parked at a weed infested field just outside the forest preserve, complete with one of those little stone shelters that people sometimes grill, or do drug deals at. We let Addie walk over to it because she politely informed us that she would freak out if we got into the car again.

And there, providence intervened and redeemed (mostly) the trip. We met the Señora de Carne Asada, and her friend Saint Chorizo. (english: the Taco Angels) To us, they just looked like a tiny old mexican couple with a curiously large amount of red meat in their cooler. Luckily Adeia was around, because she instantly saw the divine halo of smoke from their grill. So she walked up and said hi.

And then we were offered the most amazing tacos we’d ever had: Carne Asada. Oh man, they were good. We must have looked pretty disheartened, because the Lady offered us seconds. Adeia loved it. Refe loved it. I almost cried (again), because they saved our day.

We didn’t realize that we’d had a visitation ’til we were almost home, and we witnessed the miracle of the taco: Adeia fell asleep in the car. This hasn’t happened in eight months, no matter how tired the child or how long the ride. Apparently, the Carne Asada was blessed. God really must like us.