I've been wanting to go to Mexico City since I was in college. The size and scale of the city have always fascinated me so when planning our route through Mexico I knew we'd need to stay a few days here. According to this Wikipedia article the metropolitan area of Mexico City has about 20 million people (which is 10% more than New York City).

Thanks to frequent business travel over the years I had saved up enough Marriott Rewards loyalty point to earn us a free stay at Mexico City's JW Marriott. It was a sweet hotel. The room had plenty of space for the kids to wrestle.

The pool was a big hit with the family.

And we got access to the Concierge Lounge which provided us with free breakfast and dinner during our stay.

Mexico City JW Marriott Concierge Lounge View

There were several big public parks in the immediate area and we had to check them out. The first one we hit was full of paddle boats. Mick and I had fun but the kids quickly got pooped out. It was hot. One thing we could not get over was how everyone (kids and adults) actually wore their life jackets.

Next up was the Chapultepec Zoo. A few factoids:

It's the second largest zoo in Mexico
Admission is FREE
It's the first zoo outside of China to successfully breed giant pandas

We saw one panda but it was way on the other side of the cage. While the view stunk it was still cool (and the most crowded exhibit).

While there Tag was insistent that we find his favorite animal...the skunk (don't ask us why). We finally found it and he was so excited he decided to tell other visitors, who all spoke Spanish, how he knew it was a skunk...we got some strange looks.

For dining options at the zoo we decided to treat the kids to McDonalds. Yep, the chicken nuggets and the fries were the same but the fruit was not the standard apple slices and the condiment choices were not limited to ketchup.

That night Elle lost a tooth. Sure enough the tooth fairy found her in Mexico. She even paid her in pesos!

The next day we headed out on the Mexico City Subway to hit some more sites. Much like New York City's subway it is huge, safe and logical to navigate.

We started off in the Zocalo (a big plaza in the center of cities throughout Mexico). Mexico City's was impressive in it's size and architecture. They even had free Wi-Fi and a full blown fair in the middle.

Next we hit the oldest Candy Store in the City, Dulceria de Celaya. Despite the fact that the candy is not the typical chocolate or licorice the kids love to eat in the States they devoured the goods...but why wouldn't they, everything was loaded with azucar (sugar).