Exploring Our City: Japanese Friendship Garden

{ little explorer }

Hi! I wanted to introduce you to my new little project, Exploring Our City. My goal is to explore little areas in our city and take pictures and blog about the experience, at least once a month. With this, I hope to share beautiful spaces that you can explore with your family as well.

In the month of march we visited the beautiful Japanese Friendship Garden located in Balboa Park. We always walked past it when in Balboa and were curious to go inside but weren't sure what to expect. We were blown away by all the beauty inside the garden, from the blooming cherry blossom trees to the koi fish pond and all the bridges and plants in between. They also have the tea pavilion restaurant which we wanted to try (but it was too crowded), maybe next time. We loved it so much that I can't wait to get our family membership to come back as many times as we want!

While this is a beautiful place to take your children and teach them about nature, they have very strict rules. You must stay on paths at all times, no food, no running and no shouting are a few of them, so it may be a little exhausting for those of you with very active toddlers like mine. I had to keep reminding Maximiliano that he needed to stay on the path, to not try to pet the koi fish and so on so forth, but nothing too crazy.

The garden admission tickets are only $8 per person and children under 6 are free. Monday - Friday they open from 10 am - 5 pm and Saturday and Sunday they are open from 10 am - 4:30 pm. They have different membership packages which include a generational, student, individual and family membership, all for great prices.

Ice Cream Date + Sunday Zoo Trip

Life Lately. I've been reading quite a few books, taking walks to the park with Maximiliano, cooking, forever being thankful for the beautiful weather, drinking lots of coffee and over-thinking a bit. I wish I could add listening to lots of music to that list but ever since my iPod broke a few months back, I just haven't.  Another thing I would love to start doing again is going on runs, I'm going to wait until next month when it starts getting dark a bit later.

It had been almost a month since we took a zoo trip, so we went on Sunday. I finally got kettle corn, every time we'd go, I'd say "I'll get some next time!". It was a really nice day and the bears were finally out! They were so cute, playing with each other and putting on a show for everyone. After that we walked to the park that's next to the zoo and sat and ate a sandwich while listening to the Sunday performers. It was the perfect ending to our Sunday. It all felt so good. I have another trip to the zoo planned for this weekend since Maxi kept on asking for the eagles that we did not see (one of his favorite).

XOXO, Lidia

Pizza Date

{Maximiliano enjoying a slice of mushroom ricotta, this was after he ate all the ham off of my slice}

{then he decided to finish eating under the table}

{mushroom ricotta + hawaiian (or should I say pineapple)}

{run forest, run}

{cotton candy clouds}

California Skies

{beautiful rainbow, snapped while at work}

{Maxi's favorite dish, he loves pho I dare to say more than candy}

{dad had to hold him back from grabbing this bird at the zoo}

{waving hello}

{looking up at the beautiful sky while at work makes me feel so at peace, clouds and palm trees are some of my favorite things}

{short stories and iced coffee while waiting}