One of my new year goals was to reduce our family consumption, especially of plastic, and then we went to Mexico, where it seemed we were more dependent on plastic than ever. Here is what I learned….

Seductive plastic playgrounds may not be as sexy up close, unless you like holes in your slides.

But rusty metal ones will save the day.

Coco Loco only looks like a guinea pig pooped in styrofoam, it is actually amazingly tasty.

Although nothing is as good as a coconut served in nature’s packaging (we agreed to save the straw forever.)

Plastic goggles and flippers are essential for swimming with whale sharks.

But not as essential as actually practicing swimming in the cold ocean ahead of time.

There was more screaming with whale sharks than swimming with whale sharks for our kids, but we agreed we’d try again after Ally learns how to swim. (oops)

Plastic signs can be very helpful for finding your perfect chill spot.

But even a wood sign isn’t that helpful if you don’t know how to read yet.

Plastic film cameras (that you have never used before) can give you lots of blurry results.

But it is possible to capture the cutest kitten love session behind the plastic trash cans when you get that focus right.

All plastic aside, the most important lesson we learned is that we can travel together as a family internationally. After our last family trip, we were too concerned that our kids might not do very well traveling in a different country and could bring our trip to a halt that we didn’t do much planning beyond our accommodations.

So now that we know we are capable of exploring the world as a family, our next challenge will be to travel the world as sustainably as possible.

So our kids grow in to people who say “yes” to adventure. And “no” to plastic, with the exception being plastic cameras, of course.