Bunny Wanders to California - Day 1

Good morning everyone! I am spending the week with my friend Amanda and her mom in Covina, California. I arrived yesterday morning after a nice flight to step outside into 107 degree weather. I was really hoping my phone was lying about the temperature, but sadly it wasn't! I thought I could be ok in this weather since Semmes, AL has high temperatures in the summer too, but there is definitely a difference between wet and dry heat. I don't think I really cooled down until later that evening when the temperature dropped.

So our itinerary yesterday: relaxing, chatting, shopping, and a little bit of crafting. (Sounds like a good vacation so far, right?)

First order of the day, boba tea at Ten Ren's Tea Time. I thought it was hilarious because almost as soon as my luggage was loaded in Amanda's car and we were driving down street, she was telling me that I needed some boba tea. Unfortunately we got to the boba shop a little bit after they were opened so they didn't have any boba ready. So I had milk tea without boba, which was still nice and refreshing after being assaulted by 100 degree weather!

After that we got lunch at In and Out burger. I ended up getting the animal style cheeseburger, which is basically a burger with everything on it included grilled onions. If you are in CA, stop by and try In and Out. I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's not fancy, just your average burger chain, but it's good!

We decided to take our food back to Amanda's place so we could eat and chat a bit.

Since we were going for a lazy vacation day we drove over to her local Daiso store. If you don't know, Daiso is a Japanese dollar store chain. They have opened up a few of these shops along the West coast. I've seen so many haul videos on the Internet about Daiso and its products. Amanda and I walked through the entire store and came away with quite a lot of stuff. I got some letter sets, stickers and decals for resin, some felting and felt mini kits, some candies, and these neat bags for root vegetables. They are supposed to help keep your vegetables from sprouting roots so soon. I ended up getting them for my mom to try in her kitchen.

I actually came away with a few more items which I can't show you because they will be either Christmas or next year's birthday gifts. You gotta love vacation shopping for gifts!

In the same shopping area was a 85°c Bakery, which is a Taiwanese bakery chain. The last time my sister and I came to CA the only location near us was Irvine, but it was so popular that they opened several more locations. Luckily, one is near Amanda's house. We didn't want anything too heavy because of the heat so ended up sharing a fruit cup! So pretty and yummy. I love how light a dessert it was. It had jelly, fresh fruit, and (I think) almond jelly at the bottom.

Another dessert we had was this Taiwanese ice cream called snow that Amanda's mom had picked up. She got it at a shop called Class 302, which Amanda tells me is/was decorated to look like a Taiwanese elementary school classroom. She got a milk flavored version and a mango flavored one along with two small containers of toppings which included read bean, taro, almond jelly, grass jelly, and condensed milk. Both ice cream flavors were good. They are a lot lighter than American ice creams because of how they are made. They melt in your mouth. The bad thing about this type of ice cream, you can eat a lot of it and not even think about it since it isn't a dense ice cream!!! Sneaky dessert!!

Today's itinerary: the Sherlock Holmes exhibition at the Discovery Center. The literary geeky side of me can't wait!!!

Until next time >____<