4th of July Weekend: East and West

by mo on 07/7/2009

Had a great 4th of July weekend, involving both Asian things (food and gardens) and of course, your classic fireworks, and a really good bagel.

On Saturday afternoon, we decided to go kite-flying! I haven’t been since last May, and Joey is the expert, but I wanted to improve my skills. Unfortunately, there was very little wind on Saturday, and being right up next to the mountains at Rancho San Antonio County Park did not help.

Unenthusiastic kite in the sky!

As we were entering the park, we were adequately warned of dangers. We made sure to practice being large and shouting.

Kite flying and pretty scenery, but no mountain lions:

Then it was off to Shoreline Ampitheatre to hear the symphony and watch the fireworks, with Joey, Erik, and Matt. There were lots of people there.

Good space-themed songs including: Star Trek, 2001, Star Wars, and some excellent fireworks!

After fireworks, and the post-fireworks sitting-in-the-parking lot for an hour, we were hungry and headed to downtown Mountain View. The only place that was open besides clubs was a Pho chain, where we got some very tasty Vietnamese food before heading our separate ways. A great way to end the 4th of July.

Sunday was another extremely stressful day. First stop was Noah’s Bagels where I felt definitely overcharged but did enjoy a magnificent bagel with cream cheese and lox, and a chai which I proceeded to spill on Joey.

Next we headed to Hakone Gardens, a Japanese garden founded in 1915, filled with some serious zen. Peaceful times as we explored the garden, taking many pictures. Here are a few of the nice places in the garden.

The bridge over the pond.

Cute little waterfall draining into the pond.

Bamboo garden – and we all know bamboo groves are possibly my favorite thing ever. The only sad part was that on many of the bamboo stalks, people had inscribed their initials and other such nonsense. Poor bamboo…

Another view of the pond, this time with a stone lantern. There were many stone lanterns, each unique of course, positioned all over the garden. They’re so adorable! Maybe I need to learn how to make Japanese gardens, other than on my iPhone…

Too many pictures to comment on, but click on the thumbnails to browse through some of the others…

After Hakone gardens, it was nearly time to head back to Santa Cruz. We felt like Chinese food, so I texted Tina for recommendations, while cross-referencing Yelp to decide on where to eat. The result landed us at Charlie Hong Kong (you know by just the name it’s going to be great already)…

What we had was the most Santa-Cruz-esque Chinese experience ever. Check this place out. Total beach shack kinda place:

Most of the food is rice bowls with different add-ons, but the have a pretty extensive vegan/vegetarian menu (that is Santa Cruz enough to begin with). The eating area was somewhat indoors, somewhat outdoors, and plenty of palm trees.