For Michael's birthday I wanted to do something special this year.
We haven't had a good amount of alone time in a while thanks to Thomas and Michael has been wanting to go travel Asia for a while. Before you get to excited, we didn't go to Asia. We did, however, experience the best of Asia Los Angeles has to offer.
Friday morning I surprised Michael by telling him that instead of going to work we were going on an adventure. We drove to LA and dropped Thomas off at my sister-in-law Megan's house. So nice of her to take on an extra kid for the weekend. She even provided us with cute updates on Thomas throughout the day. Saint.
I'm pretty sure he didn't miss us at all.
After we dropped Thomas off, we headed to Sunrider International to see the largest private collection of Chinese artifacts in the U.S. It was pretty impressive. Another thank you to Megan for the recommendation.
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside so here is the entrance.
They also had a cute little garden outside with a fun Koi pond. At first we didn't see any fish, but as soon as we walked to the pond edge they all came rushing out. I'm pretty sure they were expecting to be fed. I felt bad for disappointing them.
When we turned to move on down the path we ran into this guy. Apparently the fish weren't the only ones waiting for a meal. Michael and I love how grumpy it looks.
After the tour we stopped for lunch at Matsui for some delicious Japanese food. The Udon was so so, but the rest of it was amazing,
After lunch we headed to the Hsi Lai Temple for some Buddhist enlightenment.
Michael liked this fish dragon.
We liked the baby Buddhas displayed throughout the complex.
After the temple we headed to the Korean friendship bell. It had a magnificent view.
And was super windy.
Which ended up being perfect for kite flying.
I had planned on lighting a sky lantern for Michael to make a wish in and release, but they are banned in California...makes sense.
We finished up with some tasty Thai food. We got Tom Yum Noodle soup and beef saute. I would definitely eat here again. We really wanted their mango sticky rice, but apparently the mangoes weren't ripe enough :(
Then we went to the Miyako Hotel. Nothing like fancy toilets with tons of buttons to make you feel like your in an Asian country.
I have to say breakfast was my ultimate favorite meal. We ate at a bakery/cafe called 85C which had Taiwanese fusion pastries. YUM!
For our first round we got Mango bread, Taiwanese borch, a ham and cheese bun, and some cream filled thing. All amazing.
For the second round, we got a squid ink calamari bun and a brioche loaf. Brioche loaf = Heavenly
Michael eating the squid ink pastry. It was actually quite good.
After breakfast we went to the Huntington Library to walk around in the gardens. Everything was beautiful and it made me realize just how great it would have been to live in the garden of Eden.
Bonsai trees are so neat!
The reason I chose this place was because they have massive Chinese and Japanese gardens. This was in the Japanese gardens.
The Chinese gardens were bigger and even more amazing.
And of course we had to try our hand at Chinese brush painting. This was a combination of our efforts. We have a long way to go.
We finished off the second day with a trip to LA's Chinatown.
And then it was over.
Sad
But I am grateful for the time we had. It was a good trip.
I'll just have to find an excuse for another adventure, like say a five year anniversary?
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