adventures with a best friend in an afternoon fairytale

The title pretty much explains it all. That's exactly what happened. But! Lucky for you, you are reading this and you'll get awesome pictures along with awesome explanations. Great!

So, the last time we talked, I was in Rhode Island with Maria and the next day we were going to go to the Kinney Azalea Gardens! Well, we did!

But first! We had a Paranormal Activity marathon. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'Julie, didn't you just watch the Paranormal Activity movies with Greg?' And the answer is: YES. Yes, I did. But! Maria and I got to talking about them, and then we were like, 'let's watch the first one!' And then during the first one, we were like, 'let's watch the second one after!' So we did! And it was great. Although not very scary, those movies are fun to watch. It was a good marathon.

Then we slept really late the next morning.

And then! We got our act together and went to the azalea garden. Now, we realized pretty early on that we were going in late late November and nothing would probably be in bloom. And, nothing was. But, it was still an incredibly magical place. Can't believe that Maria lives right down the street from it! Awesome!

So, here are the pictures. I think you will find them enjoyable. :-)








There were lots of little gardens with month names. Such as this one, 'June Garden.' We kept looking for the November/December Garden... but apparently it doesn't exist.



We did find this artsy looking shed! It instantly reminded me of this artsy shed that Kara, Aunt Liza and I stumbled across in Canada last winter.




Then we found a tree with a face. Ya know, like you sometimes do. The first magical encounter.

Also, I should mention that all these photos were taken on my iPhone with the Instagram app. You can make the pictures look all hip. So, that's why they look so hip and olde-timey. :)






I think that's the house that belongs to the Kinney Azalea Garden people.




It felt like we were in The Secret Garden.




THERE WAS A MOON GATE!





Maria in the moon gate!




This was the view from the other side of the moon gate.




Us inside the moon gate! We felt protected.




So pretty :) The second magical thing we encountered in the garden.




If you see a sign for a hidden bridge, you immediately need to find the bridge.




It was hidden well.
















This is us either on the Andromeda Path or the Circle Path... I can't remember. That was kind of a confusing area. I feel like we accidentally ended up there like, 5 times. Time warp? Maybe.





Monsters? Check.




It didn't come out that well, but there were many tiny Godzillas in that tree.



Branches over Maria. :) I like this one.




And then! This dog came charging at us. It was scary. And then, ANOTHER dog came charging at us!




This dog had three legs.




Three-legged dog? The third magical thing we found in the garden.









Another secret bridge! This one was guarded by a Troll.



Yep, you guessed it. Fourth magical thing to find in the garden.





Another view of Troll Bridge.





Cool branches, eh?






Florals!





YET ANOTHER BRIDGE!!! It was great. We named this one, 'Jeff.' After, Jeff Bridges, of course. Jeff Bridges' Bridge. ha. Yep, we made lots of jokes about that.








Goodbye, Moon Gate! This was as we were leaving the garden. Such a beautiful journey! We were both hoping that since we were in a fairytale that we would find two Prince Charmings at the end. But, no.

Hidden bridges, secret pathways, monsters, trolls, three-legged dogs, moon gates.... it was magic in there.

If I were Taylor Swift, I would probably write a magical sounding song about that place.

I hope me and Maria go back when the gardens are actually in bloom. It'd be cool to see the place in a different season. But! I bet not many people visit during this time of year! So, that's cool, too. It's like going to York beach in the middle of winter. Or, being in the Airport Lounge at 4am, (during not finals time.)

So then! We were super hungry. Maria suggested we go to Crazy Burger. We did. It was down in Narragansett, RI, which was a short drive away. YUM!!! Their burgers certainly were crazy. Lots of vegan and vegetarian burgers, too, which was awesome. I got a turkey burger. It was delish.

The restaurant was only lit by twinkle lights!! I snapped this picture from behind me...



Pretty!!

Then sadly, I had to leave. :(

I was stopping in Providence on my way home to pick up some delicious East Side Pockets, for Kara and myself.

So! I decided that I wanted to see all my favorite sights of Providence while I was there. THEN - I decided that I should turn it into a "20-minute Tour of the City," and post everything on Facebook. SO I DID!!

But! If you weren't on the tour when it was happening, or for some reason do not have a Facebook - don't worry - I have all the pictures here. I will do another tour for you :)

LET'S GO!




First stop was Thayer St. to get the food. Love Thayer Street! It wasn't too crowded at this time of night, which was weird. But nice! Although, I still had to wait in a long line at East Side Pockets.




And I couldn't stop in Providence without seeing THE GREAT AND CURIOUS WALL! Duh!! My favorite tourist attraction in the whole city!!! This is the Wall along Hope Street. And, this is a great article that I just found on the Wall, and the Dexter Asylum, which used to be behind the wall. It's actually taken from the athletics page on the Brown University website, haha. Because now instead of the poor house being behind the wall, it's the million dollar athletic complex. I know I've talked about this many, many times. It never stops being fascinating.


After the Wall, I texted Kara asking her how to get over the the Overlook. Which is another hidden gem of Providence. Maybe it's not a hidden gem... it's always pretty crowded there. Anyways, it's a great spot!






Right on top of College Hill, you can see the whole downtown! It was very beautiful. And, the moon :) We went from moon gate, to moon at night. Full circle. Unlike the moon. HA. Wow, that was funny. Yeah, I'm laughing to myself right now. Moon jokes FTW!

ANYWAYS.

It was a GREAT day of adventure! I felt like a powerful explorer after it was over. Yeah, that was a great day. :)

It was a nice drive home. But, I was sad to be back because that meant I was not with Maria. But! I was with someone who missed me very much, and that someone was Ruby Tuesday! She was very happy to see me :) I missed her, too!!


The rest of the week was good. Saw the Twilight movie with Greg on Thursday night. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. The ending - OMG. It rocked. It was the first movie where I wasn't totally annoyed by Kristen Stewart. She looked kinda pretty! I think it was the way the movie was lit. It didn't have that bluish look to it. It looked happy! Yeah, it was a good movie. Nice time.

Then I worked a whole bunch.

Saturday night was fun because we went out celebrating Jen Sabin's birthday. All my friends who I used to work with in high school and college! We went out for drinks and lots of dancing. Great time!! My feet hurt for like four days afterwards.

Other than that - just been working. Today and tomorrow are my days off. REALLY REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS.

Tonight I'm going out to the Brick House for some live music. If you're reading this and you live nearby and want to come, you should come. Find me. I'm looking forward to it. "the more the merrier!" Kara said, so seriously, you should come.

ALRIGHT! I think that's about it. I got a coffee this morning when I went out to run some errands. I was going to go to Aroma Joe's, but then my apple fritter radar went off and told me to go to Dunkin Donuts. So I did - and they had delicious looking apple fritters.



YEP. That happened. Did I eat the whole thing? You betcha. My apple fritter radar is very strong.

Ok! I guess I'm going to hang around some more before it's time to go. Tomorrow I have no plans. I'm very excited about this. It'll probably be a day where I stay in my pajamas all day. Nice. I might watch Moulin Rouge. I've been wanting to.

OK! Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?? Anything else exciting happening in your life?? You can let me know. I'd like to hear about anything and everything.

TALK TO YOU SOON!!! Be well!


☃ <--- snowman.