Winter Wanders

Hello and Happy New Year to all of you, friends! I started writing up a 2020 reflections post and going through my phone for pictures to pair with it, but I found all of these photos from Longwood Gardens in the winter, and they were too beautiful not to share with you.

While going to school in Delaware, I’d visited the gardens a few times in the summer months, but I had always wanted to come back to see their Christmas display. I finally got the chance last month. My sister came over from Harrisburg and we met for breakfast. It’s wonderful to be living in a place where you can meet up with a treasured family member for a day! She introduced me to her favorite restaurant, and I’m a little embarrassed to tell you that we ate there for breakfast, left one of our cars, and came back for lunch when we picked up the car. It was that good!

It was a warm day for December, so we wandered around comfortably outside and in the greenhouses all afternoon. I may bite my tongue later, but so far I’m appreciating the mildness of Mid-Atlantic winter. It’s been seven years for me without a real winter, and it’s not as bad as I remember. Ask me again in late February…

The decorations were gorgeous! I’m curious to come back at night, but those reservations filled up quickly, so we’ll have to wait until next year.

Disney Day

It feels weird to talk about Disneyland right now, but that’s where we went three weeks ago before it shut down until mid-April. It was my first time, and I was very impressed! My parents have always spoiled me rotten, so I’ve been to Disney World more times than I can remember. My sister and I even ran the Disney Marathon in 2012. We are old Disney pros.

I wasn’t sure what level of excitement to bring for the trip. My mom warned me that the California version of Disney was smaller with fewer adrenaline-inducing rides. But the park is less than an hour from East LA and we started out with the new Star Wars area, so that quickly raised the bar high.

The day got even better from there! We rode all my old Magic Kingdom favorites and saw new things like Mickey-shaped pretzels and the Sleeping Beauty castle. Since we were in the off-season, it felt like a chill rendition of the all-out Orlando experience.

We helped Katherine eat a giant turkey leg and hung out by the Louisiana-looking river. She and Nath have been living in LA for a few years, so this wasn’t their first rodeo. They showed me the fast pass system which rmeant we didn’t have to wait in line for more than an hour for most of the rides we wanted. We were bummed that the newest Star Wars ride was already booked for the day by the time we got there, but there was plenty else to do.

We met Pooh and Eeyore and got more drenched than expected on Splash Mountain.

Riding “It’s a Small World” was a bit surreal for me when we saw the koalas and kangaroos in the Australia display. Had I actually been in another hemisphere only a week before? It really was a small world after all.

It looks like we won’t be visiting any amusement parks for a while now, so I’m glad we went when we did. LA Disney turned out to be 10/10, would definitely do again.

Koala Hunt

I took a little break from tourism for that one whole week that I was working full-time, but don’t worry, I haven’t made a complete character change, and I’m back to my usual romps. I visited the Royal Botanic Gardens on my first trip to Sydney, but I recently found out that, for a limited time, there is an exhibit/scavenger hunt of a bunch of painted koala statues. Obviously that is something I would be into!

Koalas, koalas everywhere:

I found about a dozen adorably painted statues. There were probably more, but I was also on a mission to trek all the way through the gardens to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, so I couldn’t get too sidetracked.

I did stumble upon an unexpected emu, though:

The chair is where Governor Macquarie’s (the fifth and last autocratic governor of New South Wales, thanks Wikipedia) wife used to sit because she thought it presented some of best views of Sydney Harbour.

I can’t disagree:

This city definitely has some amazing places for walking and running. It’s helping me get all my steps in and then some.

I found more koalas on the walk back:

I can’t say I’m missing the snowy weather back home. I’m feeling grateful for the greens and warm temperatures.

On the other hand, this week has been pretty smoky and hazy in Sydney due to the wildfires nearby. I’m having flashbacks to LA at this time last year (and this time every year). Hoping for safety and rain in this new country and the original!

White Rabbit

I’m writing this from the future where I’m trying to throw together a last minute Halloween costume, but my first weekend in Sydney was full of things I love. Of course, Friday was a hit, what with Noodle Night and all. On Saturday, I took two dance classes at Dance Central Sydney. I used to take dance as a kid and it still really makes me happy, so that’s what I want to spend my time doing, ya know?

Sunday started with yoga— as the best ones always do. The studio I’ve been going to has live music on Sundays, and it makes the practice really special. I never want to miss one! It takes a little less than an hour to walk back to Mike’s, so if I’m not in a rush, I’ll skip the bus and take the path through two nice parks and the center of the city. It’s been nice to get a little tour of all the neighborhoods; my biggest problem is that I like them all and can’t decide where I want to live!

As I walked back on Saturday, I needed to stop at the grocery store for a few items. I bought some new deodorant that I don’t really like the smell of, so I’m currently dealing with that. I also walked past the White Rabbit Gallery, a Chinese Contemporary Art Gallery that I didn’t have time to visit during my last trip down under. It’s open on Sundays, so I decided to pop in.

Wow! I didn’t know that I was into contemporary Chinese art before, but I guess now I am. There were so many interesting pieces; I took my time and didn’t want to leave. There was one very long scroll of cartoon illustrations that takes you through much of Chinese history, and I was glad one of the attendants handed me a guide so that I could understand some of the intricacies.

I’m kicking myself for not taking any photos Sunday night, because Mike brought me along to an experimental music gig at the Petersham Bowling Club, aka the PBC. The type of bowling here is lawn bowling, which I assume is kind of like bocce, but I have no idea. It’s had a bit of a resurgence with hip young people in the past few years, kind of like our shuffleboard trip to Brooklyn. They had good beer, fun-looking lawn bowling (although we didn’t have time to play), and two stages for musical activities. Hope we’ll be back there soon!

What To Do with Parents in LA

Hi! I’ve just freshly landed in Australia, but before we get to that, I better tell you about the time in February (too long ago now) when my mom and stepdad came to visit me in LA. It was kind of “cold” for visitors (ie. it was 60 degrees and I had to wear my ski jacket), but they were en route to Cabo, so I didn’t feel too bad. I almost went to Mexico with them, but the hotel they were staying at only had couple’s suites and that would have been a bit too much togetherness for us all. Instead, we had a few days in LA.

We were able to do a lot of the sightseeing stuff that I’d not gotten to yet. I showed them the worst of traffic—only once! They tried In-N-Out (overrated) and a few of LA’s other most fine and trendy eateries, like Sqirl, Republique, Manuela, and Donut Friend (not overrated).

I’m very into building itineraries, so I packed way too many activities into each day. We sprinted around Huntington Gardens, stopped by the Getty Villa, and ate in the Arts District all in one day, which are all in opposite directions if you didn’t know (hence the traffic).

I brought my mom to work (aka yoga and Zumba class in Monterey Park) and was wildly impressed that the Zumba teacher made up a special dance with costumes for Chinese New Year. To be a conscientious teacher like that!

We saw the Rose Bowl Stadium, which is kind of just there and you can’t go inside, so maybe strike that one off your list if it’s not football season and you aren’t staying in Pasadena.

We had a very Hollywood day when we took a celebrity van tour—so much fun and you must, must do this when you host visitors or are a visitor to the area, if not for the celebrity homes then for the views and for seeing parts of LA that you wouldn’t normally feel like driving to. Then we went to the Pantages Theatre to see Hello, Dolly! where everyone promptly fell asleep because I didn’t calculate our energy levels when planning the ultimate Los Angeles experience. Oh well.

Overall, it was an amazing few days and I’m so happy they could make the time to stop here before their beach vacation. I love showing people around as well as finding new fun places for myself, so come visit whenever you can!