i will take you down to chinatown

the bean and i went on an outing with lilcee & co. a little while ago that took us to some fun local spots.  we started with some delicious all-you-can-eat sushi in pasadena, where the bean was thrilled to satisfy their nonstop salmon craving.

our original plan hadn't really involved much more than sharing a meal, but as we chatted over lunch we decided to take it further and grab some sweets here:

the bean and i had never been to california donuts before despite rave reviews from friends at school, so i was pretty excited to give it a try.  we'd actually hoped to catch some of their "turning red"-themed donuts, but it apparently had been a limited run and so we ended up settling on some of their other delicious-looking flavors.

like, how cute is this?

it was tough to narrow it down, but we ultimately ended up with cookies & cream, snickers, pb&j and cookie butter.  and then we threw in a cute tote bag to give to the bean's friend who loves this place and was getting ready to move to texas.

chinatown is just a few minutes away, and since we were on a quest to find some confetti cannons for the bean we stopped in for a quick walkthrough.  i know i've been to chinatown before, but i really can't remember ever actually coming here before. 

we found the confetti cannons...along with some 4 for $1 "pow pows."  and of course we bought some, because why not?

little rides like this used to be outside grocery stores when i was little and i always wanted to try it, but was never allowed to.  and now that i'm a grown ass adult, i do what i want.  too bad my ass was too big for it, and i was pretty sure that i'd break the damn thing if i'd tried to drop a quarter in it for the actual ride.  so i settled for the photo op instead, as one does.

i love when old signage is preserved and kept in place even if the establishments are long gone.

we walked through this cute little shop:

then we took a selfie and headed on outta there.

chris tucker and jackie chan were here.  

oh - if you ever want some delicious cake, go to phoenix bakery.  i have such fond memories of birthday parties where they served this simple spongy white cake with whipped cream and strawberries and slivered almonds crusted on the sides.  so simple, yet so good.

lilcee said that they do night market-style events here in the summertime, so i'm pretty sure we'll come back for that at least once sometime soon.  stay tuned.