We rented a large home here in San Miguel de Allende as we were hoping for a lot of visiting friends, but Jim was also hoping to pull together a reunion of his three brothers. The reunion of all four brothers did not happen but we were able to convince two of the three to visit with a couple of days overlap. David is Jim’s next oldest brother by three and one half years. He and Sandy are twins from different parents. David is a retired biology professor and lives with his wife Lynn in Silver Point Tennessee where they stay busy renovating an old house and managing a small farm.
To prepare for David and Lynn’s arrival we walked 1.5 miles to City Market to pick up some snacks and breakfast items. This is a high end supermercado which caters to the expat community of SMA. There are numerous eating options in the store itself and the one above is a seafood/sushi bar that we had lunch at and enjoyed watching the fish swim in the aquarium. 
On arrival we gave them a tour of our villa which has three bedrooms on three levels and this rooftop terrace is a fourth level. 
Yup we did the stairs their first morning here. 
They are pretty fit and active so they enjoyed this workout. 
a lovely little lookout after the 500+ stair climb. 
They enjoyed the murals on the way down. 
David, ever the scientist, is continually exploring the nature around him. 
We gave the usual SMA tour and covered many miles a day. 
We have taken this photo with all our guests 
Brunch at Sierra Nevada downtown with Ivonne and Miguel. Miguel has been communicating by email with all of the Steen boys and it was very fun to finally have them meet in person. 
Every February Parque Juarez has a festival called Candelaria with musical performances and regional horticulturists come from all over to sell their beautiful plants and flowers. They are here for a couple of weeks and many of them camp out in the park with their families. 
David probably identifying some tree species for us. 
Cannot forget the mandatory sunset photo. 
We took them to a fascinating toy museum with displays of vintage handcrafted toys from various regions in Mexico. 
One of their favorite things to see was the Mercado where David purchased some delicious fruit for our breakfasts. 
We enjoy seeing the hot air balloon’s floating by our library room window. 
On our walk to show them City Market we admired this home with a spectacular flowered vine. 
This is the Tuesday Market, not to be confused with City Market or the downtown Mercado. Paul and Alicia really enjoyed this market also. 
You can buy anything as you can see. 
Also a great place for people watching. 
David bought a leather belt at the market.
Jim’s brother Claude Steen III is five years older and is a retired minister. He and his wife Donna are living in Timberlake NC in an old historical farmhouse. Their old house and a small farm keep them very busy and we were fortunate to lure them away from home for this visit. They are the parents of Paul Steen who rescued us in Huatulco just before Christmas after visiting us here. Paul and Alicia also visited us in Mexico City in 2019. We also have to thank Paul and Alicia for insisting that Claude and Donna visit us here.
Claude and Donna arriving on the BajioGo shuttle van. 
David is a great photographer and very phone camera savvy. 
We enjoyed our fireside chats together.
Claude did a great job on the stairs. 
Wish you were here Philip to complete this photo 
Miguel played the Marimba for us at his home 
David and Lynn return to Tennessee 
We enjoyed our walks with Claude and Donna around town 
Evening performance in Park Juarez 
We had a gathering of the friends we have met in SMA and our maid catered the event that was held out in our garden terrace. 
There were about 18 people at our little party. 
We feel so blessed to have met such fascinating and well travelled people here and it was fun exchanging travel stories of various countries lived in or visited. 
A sunset picture of part of the group. 
These women were practicing their painting skills outside our doorway doing a sketch of the houses on our street 
Typical of Sandy she invited the women into our home and offered them the opportunity to return and paint our backyard. They never did return. 
La Aurora Art Gallery is always fun to see the changing artists displays. 
This guy was just chillin in a chair in an antique store in La Aurora, 
Our library/Tv room window gives us a sunset view every evening. 
Lunch at La Terrazza, a hillside Terrace restaurant with killer views and an extensive menu. 
Early morning wait for the shuttle van to the airport and return home to NC
It was such a pleasure to be able to host at least two of Jim’s three brothers. We really missed Philip and Phyllis but they have promised to come to Madrid.
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