It was a short flight from Santiago, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina. It only took us around 1.5 hours to get here and then around 45 minutes by Uber to make it to our Airbnb in the heart of the city. While waiting in line for customs in Argentina the kid in front of us asked us if we were from Minnesota. He had seen one of our luggage tags and it turns out he was from Brooklyn Park. His name was Bryant and he was studying abroad in Chile through Stanford University.

We took two Ubers to our Airbnb apartment, but catching the Ubers was more difficult than expected. A lot of the drivers want you to pay in cash (and at that point we didn’t have any Argentinian currency.) Our apartment is a two bedroom, older home with tall ceilings and intricate detailing in the flooring and crown molding. It is located right in the heart of the city on the corner of a bustling street. We have an awesome balcony that overlooks the street. There are many restaurants located near by including one directly below us. There is a french cafe across the street called Talon. Tom does not like coffee but tried a caramel macchiato and has been back to Talon almost every night since to drink one. The Alto Palmero mall is right across the street which has been nice. We enjoy the sounds of the busy city. The kids love the city buses and the subte(subway). The subway line runs under our building and makes it rumble each time a train comes. The buses are all really cool with neat paint jobs.

Buenos Aires has been one of our favorite cities so far. It has some of the best food in the world along with having stunning architecture and a great love of the arts. We both agree that if we were dropped off in Buenos Aires we would not guess we were in South America. Our guess would be France or Spain if it weren’t for the language. We would have no problem living here for an extended period of time.

While the moms/grandmas were with us we did a lot of checking out the city. Here are a few of the highlights from our time with them in Buenos Aires:

The Japanese Garden- Our second day in Buenos Aires we decided to walk about a mile to visit the Japanese Gardens. Upon arriving in the park, Chelsea instantly spotted Bryant (from the customs and immigration line on our flight). We walked around the park and chatted with our new friend about our mutual love for travel, Minnesota, and life. There were beautiful wishing trees, bridges, paths, and flowers. It was a place of relaxation and beauty.

We also checked out a number of parks in and around the area. The grandmas helped push the boys on swings, find sticks, and even went down the slides. There is a giant park called Parque Las Heras that is down a few blocks. It has two playgrounds and a carousel and is the park we frequent the most.

We went to the famous Sunday market, called the feria, in San Telmo. To get there, we took a bus, the 152. At the market we got fresh squeezed orange juice and looked around at all the shops. Everybody enjoyed watching the free Tengo show. We also checked out the Casa de Dulche de leche. They had every kind of Dulche de leche you could imagine. They even had alcohol made out of it which we bought a bottle of! Tom really liked some of the old fashioned seltzer soda bottles that several vendors were selling. We grabbed lunch at a really great brew pub called Gervelar. The kids agreed that they had the best chicken nuggets in the world. They are nugget connoisseurs so that is high praise.

We took the Subte to the end of line D to check out the Catedral Metropolitana and the surrounding area. It was built in the mid 1700s and is the main catholic church in Argentina. It’s a beautiful neoclassical church with giant columns in front. Outside of the church is the Plaza de Mayo which we walked around for a while. We hiked over to check out the famous Puente de La Mujer pedestrian swing bridge. The whole area is really neat. Warehouses line both sides of the river and are full of shops and restaurants. We had a late lunch and then took the subte back.

High on Tom’s list was to have a steak dinner in Argentina. They are said to have some of the best beef on the planet. We found a steakhouse nearby called Steaks by Luis. It was a small place with about 4 tables making for a very intimate lunch with personal attention. There weren’t even signs outside for the restaurant. We did the 1pm lunch and were the only ones in the restaurant for the first hour. Luis served us himself and explained the wines and each course to us. Our first course was a sandwich with house made sausage and chimichurri sauce on really good bread. Second we each got a giant piece of steak and grilled vegetables. It was one of the best steaks we have ever had. The kids were supposed to get smaller steaks but they were practically the same size. Finally, we each got a piece of cheesecake for dessert. It was an awesome experience with a great host in Luis. We would definitely recommend his restaurant.

One of the things Chelsea really wanted to do while in Buenos Aires was to attend a Tango show. The Grandmas were nice enough to watch our kids one night allowing us to go on our first date night of the trip. Chelsea picked the Señor Tango show which included dinner before the show. The dinner was a very good 3 course meal with a small bottle of wine included for each of us. The show was amazing. It was filled with music, singing, and a variety of Tango dance numbers. They did not allow us to take pictures of the show (so one below is from the internet. )

It rained all day on the Grandmas last full day. The day before we had spotted a good looking breakfast place a few blocks away called Whoopies. They had a photo in the window of a stack of pancakes covered in berries and cream that had caught our eye. We took a rainy walk over Whoopies to check it out. It turned out to be a great place with lots of good food. Especially the pancakes!

After breakfast we headed back to our Airbnb. Grandma Cathy had brought one of the boys cooking lessons from Raddish Kids with her. Each month she gets recipies mailed to her for a specific country or theme. This lesson happened to be for Argentina. We made and ate delicious chimichurri sandwiches, potato salad, and dulce de leche cookies.

The moms/grandmas took off and made the almost 24 hour journey back home (with stops in Santiago and Toronto before arriving back in Minnesota). We know it wasn’t easy to travel so far to see us, but we surely appreciated having them here. There’s nothing like family. We are thankful for the technology to video chat with loved ones, but it was extra special to have them here with us.