fumofu

I had the perfect birthday weekend ever. This one definitely tops them all, thanks to Albie’s wonderful planning. :) We started off with Saturday breakfast at Simple Simon’s (think Intermezzo on Telegraph, but breakfast food). Then we headed over to Huntington Library in San Marino. I had talked about going there for a while, and Albert included it in his plans. At first he wanted to surprise me, but I mentioned Huntington again earlier in the week. It was my fault for ruining my own surprise. :(

As always, we took lots of photos – about one picture every few paces. You can take a look here. I have had a peculiar fascination for Japanese gardens ever since I wrote a paper on the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park for my landscape architecture course at Cal. The one at Huntington Library is not as extensive as the one in GGP, but it holds its own. My favorite photo is one that Albert took of the koi pond (look how big those suckers are!!) with the reflection of the moon bridge. Supercool. I was surprised that the Library has the original paintings of Pinkie by Sarah Barrett Moulton and Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough. At my elementary school there were half sized replicas of these two paintings hung side-by-side along the grand stair case that I walked up and down for 6 years but only learned of them later in high school. It’s always exciting to see the original artwork.

After the Huntington, I knew we were going to some sort of hotel because Albert told me to pack clothes for an overnight stay. I was thinking really hard but couldn’t think of any hotels in the area. Then it suddenly hit me, a block away, that we were headed to the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena. Oh my God. Never in my dreams have I dreamt of spending the night at such a luxurious hotel. We handed my ’99 Corolla to the valet (they probably hid the car in the very back behind the BMW’s and Benz’s) and checked in. My heart was still palpitating from this grandiose surprise when Albert told me I have to get ready for a Swedish massage at the Spa. This was when I broke down in tears. All the bad things I’ve said to him or thoughts I’ve had – I felt really guilty for all of it. I feel like I didn’t deserve all the nice things he’s showering me with (considering  the birthday gift I gave him several months ago – see last entry).

It took a Lord of the Rings adventure (I was Frodo and Albie’s Sam Gangee, or the other way around…) to find where the Spa is. I was told I would be given a Swedish therapeutic massage. 5 minutes into the massage, I realized this was a deep-tissue massage. I mean, I thought I had a pretty high tolerance for pain, but my eyes teared up when the masseuse keep kneading me with uber-force. In hindsight, it might’ve been nice to have told him to ease off a bit. But I knew I had to suck it up because I really need my knots untied. No pain, no gain, right?! Plus, it was worth it because now my knots are gone…almost.

After the massage, Albert and I took a bath in a tub that is inferior to our Roman-sized (read: bigger) tub at our apartment. So we switched to the shower, which was also inferior to our duo-showerhead setup in our apartment. Yes, it’s a five-diamond hotel, but there really is no place like home. The night concluded with a fantastic dinner at the Dining Room, where we bumped into Jason, Hanie and her family. Albert pointed to the man sitting behind me and said, “Doesn’t that guy look like Jason Wang?” I turned around and saw a profile that looks just like Jason’s, and said, “That is Jason Wang.” So I said, “Jason!” with volume that was loud enough for the guy to hear, but soft enough so that if it wasn’t Jason I wouldn’t look like a complete idiot yelling out a random name to a stranger (at least that was my assessment…). Jason looked at us with the same stunned look as ours. We exchanged a few words and enjoyed the rest of our respective dinners. Afterwards, Albert and I took a night stroll and headed to the mini Japanese garden (two in one day!) on the hotel grounds. It was such a wonderful day I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Just lovely.

This Sunday morning, we enjoyed room serviced breakfast. Those people at the Ritz definitely do their jobs completely. I ordered Norwegian salmon and expected two flimsy pieces of fish. When I lifted the metal cover half the plate was covered with salmon. I love this stuff. We lazily packed our bag and checked out.

The really weird thing is, Joy (whose mom I think we saw at Huntington) lives about 3 blocks down from the Ritz. And 5 blocks away from the hotel is Alhambra, which is a Chinatown area we regularly frequent. For about 20 hours at the Ritz we felt like we were swept away to a far-off place, only to be jolted back into reality within 3 minutes.

When we got home, we sprawled on our comfortable bed (the best $300 I’ve ever spent, I seriously think the salesman put the wrong price tag) and enjoyed a spa-quality shower.

Now my only headache is what to plan for Valentine’s Day/Anniversary (it’s only been 7 years).