Baking Botanical Birthday Bash

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One of my friends had a dream of a Cake Party for her birthday, so me and several others made the trek to a beautiful botanical garden where we had a picnic under a blue sky with a slight breeze to exchange cake slices from different cakes we all made. I busted out a Baking Yesteryear recipe (pictured) that seemed to be a hit.

 

The Cake was in fact not a lie.

 

Cakes that were made: Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes, Lemon Pound Cake, Tres Leches, Lemon Herb, Dubai Chocolate, Oreo Chocolate, Midnight MallowMalt, and Apple Honey.

After the cake was exchanged and gifts were opened we cleaned up and hiked through all of the gardens. I’m planning on making another trip there sometime…really meander around when the weather is a little cooler but before the flowers all die.

I’ve recently purchased a film camera and I am eager to go back once I’ve cleaned the camera and actually made sure that it works. It has a macro setting that I think would be amazing for the flower.

 
 

An IMAX Movie Adventure

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The IMAX Theater

 

Apparently I am in a state where one of 40 theaters in the entire world are showing the 70mm film IMAX version of The Odyssey, so you know we had to do it.

Our tickets were purchased an entire month in advanced, it was the soonest we could get tickets and the showing was at 8 o’clock in the morning. Instead of risking potential traffic in the morning we opted for an overnight stay in a hotel where we watched the 1994 classic (?) Clifford, starring Martin Short while we ate our mediocre Wendy’s.

I woke up early enough to hit the breakfast buffet (my safe go to: plain bagel and those little packets of peanut butter) and to procure some coffee and we headed out.

I would like to give some kudos to this theater…it was BEAUTFUL. It was so colorful and fun, neon lights, patterned carpets, and even every toilet paper dispenser in the restroom was a different color that matched the confetti colored tiles. It was breathtaking. It was like stepping into 1996 and I was here for it.

While enjoying the sights we meandered down the deep hallway to watch the film. This is the 2nd time we’ve seen it, the first was in a decommissioned regular IMAX (big picture?) and we we surprised out how fast the film felt, at a nearly 3 hour runtime you would think we would be shifting in our seats for the movie to be done but each time we both could have sat there for probably another hour. This film envelops you and time just evaporates. Seeing it a second time I was really able to focus on some details and even notice some things that I missed the first time.

 
 

The theater was basically sold out at 8 in the morning and this theater of people locked in. Unfortunately the person next to me seemed to suffer from restless leg syndrome so my 70 mm IMAX experience also had a 4DX experience added to it for free. The dude was shaking my seat so bad but what am I going to do? He probably felt terrible.

After the film we got to take a bit of a detour behind the theater. They have a booth with windows where you can see the actual film, film case, and projectors used for the 70mm movie. It was so cool to see. They also had a poster where you could put a pin from where you were from to see The Odyssey in this format.

We took a photobooth photo to commemorate the occasion and then went on a tiny Grand Rapids adventure. We went to Rise (a vegan bakery!), several 2nd hand media stores, and I even got to see this crazy ass Castle apartment complex that one of my friends did a PowerPoint on and it felt famous to me. I also saw this really cool Potato Chip Ad but were were driving by so fast that I was only able to capture a blur as we drove by. It was such a fun Monday.

Sailor Moon Live! Part I aka: DAYTON, OHIO?!?!?

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It was announced in early 2025 that the Sailor Moon, Super Live! Show was going to be touring around North America. I knew that this had to happen in my life, I must go! As a Sailor Moon fan from the original airing of the Dic Dub that aired at 6:30 in the morning before school and that I got up for….I had to go. Sailor Moon also has a long and storied history of live shows in Japan but this would be the first tour that ever left the country. There was a show in DC, I believe (it had gotten moved around because of COVID) to gauge interest and interest there was. So much so that they had to eventually add more tour dates.

I got in to an early pre-sale and was like, I would love to go to Chicago but I feel like that one might sell out and you know which one I felt wouldn’t sell out? DAYTON, OHIO. That’s right, there ended up being two entirely different shows in OHIO but not a single one in the great mitten state. It just isn’t fair. The pre-sale came and I was 100% correct in my assumption, I didn’t even have a chance in Chicago. But Dayton? Front row Balcony tickets, baby!

The Dog’s Grandmother was approached for dog sitting and she agreed and hotel reservations were made. Which, accidentally, ended up being right next to the venue, so go me.

Now we had to drive there. This was not a thrilling drive. The mid-west is notoriously flat and the straightest way there was a very old highway that went through tiny little towns. But adventure was had! Some sights (literally everything) below.

We stopped for lunch (Wendy’s, surprisingly easy to make dairy-free) and at the stop we saw a strange looking building which ended up being The Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum.

Imagine seeing this sphere in the middle of nowhere Ohio

Never one to turn down a science museum we stopped off to finish our lunch and stretch our legs in the museum. Many jokes were made about how many astronauts come from Ohio and how they needed to leave Ohio so much that they had to escape to space. The museum wasn’t the biggest but it was bigger than I had expected and it was super cute. I wonder how many field trips this thing sees a year.

One object of note just because I think it is neat that it’s all the way in Ohio:

 
 

The reason that this is neat is because…I’ve been to Meteor Crater! That was part of a big birthday road trip I took several years ago before leaving Arizona and it’s one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. Also one of the windiest.

My hair was everywhere. I miss that jacket. It was my favorite jacket. Vegan leather apparently starts disintegrating in 5 years. Also this was in 2017, that is nine years ago. Time isn’t real.

After the museum we made it into the hotel and got settled. It was time to get ready to head next door. Part Two next week!

 
 

Pennsylvania. A Food Review Part 3

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This has the vibes of where I was at in PA.

 

So I write here today another couple restaurants that I visited on my trip to Pennsylvania.

Oori a Korean Restaurant in Pottstown, PA. I got my tried and true: BiBimBap and it was delicious! I was surprised at the quality and taste in such a tiny town. I will say that I’ve had better kimchi, but I’m not sure if that is something made in house or something they buy, it could be a bit sharper.

I’d give Oori a 4/5. I need to ask more questions about their dairy free options because I’d want to try something different next time.

Deliciously Dairy Free.

I made my way to downtown Pottstown (which is quite a bit different than the area of Pottstown that Oori is located at) to visit the iCreate Cafe. This was an entirely vegan restaurant, which is always a plus for me, since I know I won’t get dairy’d.

I ordered a smoothie, the Peanut Butter Dream Shake and I also ordered the Cheese Steak Panini. Both were delicious! The shake could be a little bit thicker but with an Almond Milk base, I expected it to be a little thin. I ordered my cheese steak with the black bean patty and was really pleased it wasn’t dry. I would order from here again but I wouldn’t go by myself.

The area is a little sketchy and I had a creeper hanging out by my car when I was coming back with my takeout order. Creepy enough where I walked on the opposite side of the road when I saw him coming down and taking his time once he saw me. I don’t fault the restaurant for this though! The atmosphere in the restaurant was very welcoming (if not a little warm, why is there not more AC in PA???) and the cook was super friendly while preparing my order. I’d get stuff from there again but maybe I’d bring a friend too! 3.5/5