So have you looked up the Mexican ‘dia de los muertos’ festival on Google yet? You should, because I might forget to tell you about it. But I am ready to tell you why I have so many pictures of the artwork associated with ‘the day of the dead’…

Three days ago, when my English relatives arrived in San Diego, they wanted to get right out and start seeing sights. That is how the English… and my family in particular… roll.

We are always up for an adventure…

Well, they got themselves some tickets for the hop on/hop off bus tour… yes, just like we we did when we were in London last year… very good, you are either paying close attention, or you went back and read about our European adventures.

They were going to hop on the bus near their hotel downtown, and then meet me in Old Town. What I didn’t know, when I set out right away instead of waiting for their text so I could surprise them, was that the bus went all the way to the fancy old Hotel Del Coronado first… yes, where my wife and I stayed not long ago to celebrate a big birthday for her, and we threw the sneaky surprise party for her, you really are paying attention…

So I showed up an hour and a half before the bus was due to arrive…

The thing is… and this is the thing that explains this whole thing… that Old Town is surrounded and full of shops and stalls. Yes, a lot of them sell cheap tourist crap hyping San Diego, but many offer spectacular works of real art, and almost all of those have a section  hand-crafted dia de los muertos things…

And I mean all kinds of things… You can get skulls and skeletons, and skulls and skeletons on stuff… like clothes, oven mitts, towels, light switch plates, dinner ware, you name it… or you can get paintings of skulls and skeletons… or painted skulls and skeletons…

Because it is a festival honoring the dead, where you can go to the cemetery and have a picnic with your departed relatives. It is a happy thing. A day of remembrance and a celebration of life. And you can do it any day of the year, but there is one day when it is celebrated with more enthusiasm.

I don’t remember what day that is because I am bad with numbers, but I seem to recall that I took a picture of a sign that talks about it.

Anyway, I had time to kill… and a camera… and I love you… so I walked for miles, poking into every store and stall, and asking if I could take photos of the folk art to share with you. I hope you are enjoying it.