Saturday, July 28, 2012

Obon Festival; Visit to Santa Maria

Well, I think I'm basically over my cough/fatigue thing I had for a few days... so I'm finally getting around to updating.

The Obon Festival was nice. I went with a friend of mine and some of his friends. There was food, there were games, there were decorations, there were drum shows, there were candies, and also Hawaiian shave-ice, but I didn't take a picture of it because it was really piled high and I did not want any to fall off while I tried to maneuver my camera to get a shot strategically-- but, just imagine, sweet flavored ice fluff like snow (I got cotton candy and banana flavors), and also vanilla ice cream in the middle of that. It was perfect for a hot day. 

Here's the inside of the food tent. There were a lot of choices. My friends and I shared some teriyaki beef sticks. 

This is the Buddhist temple that hosts the festival each year. It has a neat looking roof.

There were pretty paper lanterns hanging up high. 

My friends and I also looked around at some shops in Japantown (the festival was in Japantown) and this is the bag from some candies I got. The candies they have over there have such colorful bags and wrappers.

The candies are supposed to be flavored like various kinds of soft drinks. So, that's fun. They kinda had this "carbonated" texture because they used this powder in the candies that is the same powder found in "pop rocks." 

When I got home, it was great to see my family, and our cat Mindy. I don't know if I've ever shared a picture of Mindy before. She's very cuddly and friendly. She likes to roll around in the sand outside and then clean herself and then eat or cuddle on the couch and take naps.

Sometimes she sleeps in kind of funny positions. 

I made some plum muffins at home because there were a few plums still left from the plum tree. They turned out nicely. 

This is the cat that comes and visits my housemates and I. She kind of lives in our backyard but she is not really our cat. We just feed her and brush her, and she is nice. 

Next time I'll share about my most recent outing to Palo Alto where I met a pen pal I've had for about 10 years! It was a fun day.

6 comments:

  1. Hey Jen!

    Happy to hear you are feeling much better--woohoo! How thoughtful of you guys to be so kind to "kitty cat"--Cheers! How far is Palo Alto from SF? Enjoy your day :)

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    1. Palo Alto is about 30 miles from San Francisco, and also about 30 miles from San Jose. So, it's a great location as far as distance to places... plus, it's got the lovely campus of Stanford. :)

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  2. Hey Jen!

    Appreciate the geography lesson..
    ..would have been here sooner today but my commamd of geography was not a command performamce as much as driving around in circles...

    Would SF be an ideal place for you to meet your pen pal?

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    1. Nice to see you Al :). SF would be a great place to meet my penpal. Unfortunately he will only be in the area for a few more weeks before he goes away to start grad school in Canada so hopefully I'll be able to see him at least one more time before he leaves and I go on vacation. In fact if it's possible I'm a bit more tempted to show him around my favorite SF spots than San Jose, since there will only be time for one.... but we'll see what happens.

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  3. Hey Jen!

    Hopefully you guys will be able connect before your vacation. Are you excited about your travel plans?

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    1. I am getting excited about my travel plans :). I found a new dress today that I can bring to wear over there. Going to try to pack my most summery, hot-weather clothes, because I guess it's going to be really hot over there.

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