Slowly but surely, I will turn this blog into something readable. Sadly, like my education, I haven't been able to choose a single theme; happily, they all work together in some amount of harmony. Having spent most of my summer cooped up in classrooms, trying to hasten my most recent academic endeavor of an engineering degree, I decided vacation was in order. So off I traipsed to a "far off" place I've never seen before, for a week of good food, good drinks, and amazing fun.
Here in this wonderful vacation spot, I am being hosted by my friends E&N and their cat & rabbit. Two days ago, they took me to some beautiful (free!) gardens and an attached conservatory where they were married. Guaranteed good weather for a tiny ceremony... I'm thinking they have the right idea! Too bad I have a HUGE family; when the time comes, I must have a space large enough. Either way, this beauty stopped to be admired and photographed as I was leaving the conservatory:
Since before my grandmother's death a few years ago, and certainly after, we've released Monarch butterflies to celebrate her birthday and Mother's day. Whenever I see them, I always think of her and have to imagine that she's checking in on me and making sure I'm ok.
After playing in the conservatory with the butterflies, grouse, quail, canaries, and other assorted critters, we stepped out into the gardens. Up until we left the reflecting pool, we had E&N's friends C&D with us, but as C has some special circumstances, they left us to enjoy the gardens on our own.
I loved the reflecting pool, especially since the end of the enclosed garden it resides in has a small fountain that produces the most lovely sound. I'd love an enclosed garden like that: full of fun plantings and water features and high hedges to keep out cars and things... Ok, back to reality (I'll design my gardens eventually, first I need the house!).
We continued our jaunt through a rock garden, an herb garden, a rose garden, and finally into the exquisite Thai Pavilion garden. This pavilion was truly stunning. You approached along a walkway made with pavers arranged in a stylized dragon that led you over a bridge whose railings continued the motif, through a foliage dense path, and finally opening onto the pavilion. Along your approach, glimpses of the pavilion through the trees provided a teaser before you could truly see the structure in all of it's splendor. There is a rock covered reflecting pool in front of the pavilion, as well as carefully placed plantings around and behind it. The entire structure is gilded and the ceiling boasts a gold star on crimson background motif. Everywhere you look there's something to examine or discover. It truly took my breath away, and anyone who knows me, knows this is a feat of astronomic proportions! I could have stayed longer, but in leaving, I noticed some elephant statues that are likely to end up in someone's x-mas present!
In coming home, we decided some fun was in order. First, we stopped by the most amazing little pet supply store. They were having an adoption event, so there were kitties to pet, and some of the most awesome cat trees I've ever seen! We also stopped into a local bakery, and then went to a local custard joint where we got oreo frozen custard with various toppings. When we arrived back at E&N's apartment, we MEANT to make white sangria and take it poolside.... We never left the living room, but as mundane as Big Bang Theory and Sangria sound, it was the perfect end to the day.
Our sangria most certainly was the best sangria I've had. It was filled with lemons, limes, pluots, peach, nectarines, strawberries and raspberries! It was more about the fruit for me than the wine, but the combination was pleasantly delicious and refreshing. We used Chablis and White Zin, but I'm thinking White Zin plus some ginger ale might make amazingly tasty sangria! I'll have to find someone to help me drink it if I make some this week... It's supposed to climb back up to the 80's and I'd like something to help beat the heat!
Yesterday, we played at a neat cave complex! The caves were small but beautiful, and so much fun to go through! The formations were normal cave formations, but it's always fun to see what the water and minerals do in different caves. I wish we'd spent more time looking at the grounds surrounding the caves, but I did get to crack my own geode! That was totally awesome, and I'm looking forward to coming back and doing another!
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