travel: souvenir shopping

I always bring back something from a trip whether it’s an expensive mouth-blown glass vase from an artisan studio in Louisville that I’ve had to transport carefully into my backpack for my flight home or a cheap but attractive red colander from a thrift store in Brooklyn or even seashells I foraged from the beach in Sanibel. And this road trip to So Cal was no different. I bought a bucket hat from the Getty which protected me from the brilliant sunshine. And at the Huntington, I bought a novel by one of my favorite authors of speculative fiction (and she was a native of Pasadena) as well as a tiny ornament for one of my husband’s bonsai trees (I’m thinking it’s perfect for his ginkgo tree).                        

And in Anaheim, I almost got one of those crushed penny souvenirs at  Downtown Disney, but I didn’t have any coins on me (my penny from Kauai is still in the dashboard of my car). However, while shopping for fro-yo, I found an Asian strip mall with a Daiso and a Goodwill.        

 

To my delight, I later discovered that my Zara striped tee was part of the half off summer tops sale, making it only 4 bucks! I wore my new/used shirt the next night to dinner with my family at Disneyland. And before hitting up the yogurt shop, where they happened to have my favorite flavors of passion fruit and mango and guava yogurt, I went a bit nuts at the Japanese dollar store.

Every item I bought at Daiso was each only a $1.75! I’m going to sew a linen napkin pouch for my new knife and fork (must find cute Japanese wooden spoon too next). The tea bowl and little pitcher I’m going to make plaster molds of for casting. The okonomiyaki kit actually cost $4.99, but I can’t wait to cook it! And the flower frog is going to come in handy for my floral arranging and Ikebana this summer. The green or seaweed noodles I’ll eat with leftover tonkatsu broths from takeout at Santa Ramen. Such fun shopping in Anaheim. But the best part of Anaheim and the highlight of my trip was seeing my brother, his wife, kids and his six grandkids.                             

Oh! Earlier I noticed this kiosk. I normally ignore all the tchotchkes for sale at a theme park, but I loved the merchandise in this one.            

There's the Disney motto sans any logo of "Magic," but all the goods are African American-themed. I also loved the simple and muted color palette of brown, tan, black and terra cotta. I wanted those pillows and to give my grandnephew and grandnieces those books! Speaking of which, I need to give them the books about pan de sal (the Filipino bread of their heritage) which I forgot. My to-do.

I had originally planned to hit a beach in Huntington or Newport, but instead relaxed and read at my hotel in Anaheim, and that’s okay. My neighbor, Helen and Kathy and I are looking for an Airbnb near the beach in San Diego. This summer’s gonna be all about resting and recharging.