Inglewood Gave us a Warm Welcome Home After 6 Months in Mexico

By: Liz Tompkins

Our family recently returned from an epic 6 month driving trip through the US and Mexico. We had been dreaming of ditching all our responsibilities and hitting the open road for some serious travel for over 5 years and the time to go had finally come. The idea of spending an entire winter in the sun was a huge draw too! We put our jobs on hold, pulled the kids out of school, bought a new camera and loaded up our camper van with all our summer clothes! January 4, 2009- we were outta here.

Our travels were all we expected and more. We camped on some of the most beautiful beaches any of us have ever seen, we toured through colonial cities rich in culture and history, we ate fresh, delicious and inexpensive street food and rescued baby turtles from some hungry birds and got them safely to the sea. We drank copious amounts of dark beer and even darker coffee, met amazing, interesting new friends along the way and we were blessed with "sunny days in paradise" through one of the worst winters Calgary has ever seen. Our young boys- ages 8 and 12 , thrived in their new environment and we all got to know each other in ways only possible when you live in such small quarters for an extended period of time. Gone were the distractions of TV, computers and video games. If the boys got bored they read books or made sand sculptures! Seeing the world up close was our idea of heaven and we loved every minute of it.

Our return to the US and eventually to Canada was a difficult transition for the parents but an exciting one for the kids. They were excited to get back home to see their friends and back to their neighborhood games of "gunwar" and "airsoft".

We, on the other hand were depressed at the thought of leaving Mexico, a country and culture we had grown to love so much. We loved that we could buy fresh orange juice or a lunch of bananas through the camper van window while slowing for a speed bump and that an ice cold bottle of Negro Modelo would only set us back only $1 while we people watched in the beautiful plazas.

We arrived on our doorstep July 6, 2009 the same way we left January 4, with friends and neighbors waiting to see us and making us feel loved. Champagne was chilling in the fridge for the adults and a "welcome home" poster was made up by the kids and stuck to our front door. I left it there for about two weeks, it made me so happy to look at it.

All our friends gathered a week later at a wonderful homecoming party hosted by Angela Lovegrove and Rebecca O'Brien. It was so fun to see everyone and share a few of our stories around the firepit. Another HUGE poster was drawn up by the kids and Rebecca made a nice speech that made me cry. Do people in other neighborhoods celebrate like this?

Our connection to Inglewood is because of our amazing friends and is possibly the only reason we didn't get right back in our camper and head back to Mexico. There is so much going here on that brings us all together for one reason or another. Lawn Bowling is in full swing and we've had the opportunity to engage in some healthy competition with neighbors at the Lawn Bowling Club. We've been camping to Riondell, B.C and Castle River AB with more Inglewoodians and our kids had a great time at the mobile skate park set up at the community center earlier in July. The community garage sale enabled a gaggle of us to rid our basements of some treasures but the real reason we rented a table was hang out with old friends and perhaps meet new ones. I'm happy to say that since our return my sister, Michele, and her boyfriend, Scott, have decided to move into Inglewood as well where they plan to celebrate the arrival of their baby in December. I secretly think that she has seen our own children thrive in this neighborhood and wants the same sense of community for her own child- yeah Inglewood!

Thank You Inglewood for making us feel at home!

Liz Tompkins

(Remy, Hollis and Bowen too)