Compared to the splendor of Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende, we weren't too enamored with Queretaro. Perhaps we would have felt differently if we had visited Queretaro first (without the other two cities to compare it to), or if we weren't absolutely exhausted from three consecutive nights of horrible sleep. Either way, while we would return to the other two cities in a heartbeat, I wouldn't be too torn-up if we never visited Queretaro again.
Thankfully our airbnb in Queretaro was the nicest of the three places we stayed in. We arrived in the city in late afternoon, tried to catch a quick catnap, and then walked into the old town city center. Queretaro is a much bigger metropolis than the other two cities, so while this section of the city is quaint and traditional Mexican feeling (it's even a UNESCO heritage sight), it also has more of the vibe of a large city.
Playing line tag in a plaza. We've found the key to traveling to places like this with kids is to have a good balance of touring and playing, even if means finding a park or playing tag.
Neat traditional looking buildings.
There were a lot of plazas with fountains and statues.
I was totally obsessed with watching this lady sweep the plaza with her broom made of branches...it was so effective! Maybe I need one...
The main cathedral of Queretaro
The inside was absolutely gorgeous
The boys, and Sam in his cowboy hat. It was his dream souvenir and made us stick out like a sore thumb (like we didn't enough already).
Seth is the photo-bombers of the family. I really liked the tile work at this restaurant.
Another cool plaza, another cool church. 
We ate at dinner at this really cool restaurant that featured food from the Oaxaca region of Mexico. We didn't expect our mezcal drink to come in a bowl: it was pretty amazing featuring fresh grapefruit, limes and oranges.
The night view from our balcony; we didn't stay up too late that evening...we were so tired!
The next morning we headed out early to find some coffee for breakfast before heading out of town for a hike. I always think that it's fun to see a city waking up.
Oh yes, that's yet another handmade broom out of branches. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see this one in action. I wonder if it was effective with all those leaves still on the branches?
Super weird statue outside yet another historic plaza.
This church was so beautiful with it's ornate coloring and curled buttresses.
Definitely my favorite all time Mexican wall!
While we didn't love Queretaro, we really enjoyed the hike that we went on at La Pena de Bernal (about an hour out of the city). It is the third largest monolith in the world! After three days of all city, we sure enjoyed the fresh air and countryside of Bernal.
Our boys sure have became great climbers here in Mexico.
Indian paintbrush in Mexico!
Quite the view on our hike.
The monolith in the background.
At this height, I was pretty stressed about Josh around the edges; Ben went on ahead a bit and decided to take the twins a little further on to the rim.
I stayed behind with Josh; we rested and then he made a little fort in the woods.
Below the monolith, the little town of Bernal was pretty cool as well.
The town cathedral.
After eating lunch in Bernal, we headed back to Queretaro because Ben actually had a work meeting with a business owner who lives in the city (which was great, because then he didn't have to take a vacation day!) On the drive back to Queretaro, we discovered that one of our tires was low (which was not surprising in light of how bad the roads had been). Thankfully, it did not end up being a second flat tire in less than a month; we were able to put some air in it at a gas station and the tire survived the rest of our driving for the day. It did make for an elevated stress level, though, as we were not only in a time crunch for the meeting, but also to get to the airport later that evening.
While Ben was at the meeting, the boys and I hung out another cool plaza. I read a book and the boys played an imaginary game surrounded these letters. Can you find all the boys on the letters?
As I mentioned above, our drive to the airport was rushed and a bit stressful (but boy was the countryside beautiful...we can't wait to return). Praise the Lord we arrived to the airport with a time to spare and were even able to order a quick dinner. However, we did have a low point of the day when our carry-on luggage went through airport security and they confiscated Sam's second souvenir: a thunder egg. I was SO angry! We were obviously a family with young kids passing through...are you really thinking that we would use a rock as a weapon to clock someone over the head with? To add injury to insult, the security lady wouldn't even let me take a picture of Sam with the thunder egg (because no cameras in security). Poor Sam was so sad and disappointed!
All in all, our four-day journey into central Mexico was a wonderful vacation! We loved the area and would really like to return again.
One more note of caution to anyone traveling to regions such as this: a few days after returning, little Joshy ended up with fever and diarrhea. Fast forward a few days and one really bad sleepless night, Josh had contracted pinworm (google it for a gross explanation). He probably contracted the bacteria from playing in a tepid puddle of water at a park in San Miguel. We were really careful not letting the kids play in the public fountains, etc., but never considered the danger of playing in a puddle. Apparently small animals, like turtles, can carry pinworm (and probably other bacteria). Thankfully all it took was a dose of medicine and he was fine; since then, our whole family has also taken the medicine, just to cover our bases. We definitely will not make that mistake again!
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