Hello Kitty Grand Cafe

Location: Irvine, California, USA
Address:  360 Spectrum Center Drive
Date: June 2019
Website: www.sanrio.com

  Hello Kitty was created by company Sanrio in 1974 and since then she has appeared on everything from pencil cases to electric guitars.  Hello Kitty products generate billions of dollars every year.  People just can't get enough of that cute little kitty with no mouth.  That includes us.  When we heard that California had a Hello Kitty Cafe where we could also have tea, we made our reservation right away.

  The Hello Kitty Cafe is located in the Irvine Spectrum Center.  The Irvine Spectrum Center is located about 1 to 3 hours drive (Welcome to LA!) south of Los Angeles.  Once you arrive you can load up on Hello Kitty shaped cookies, cakes, macarons and more.

  The cafe is decorated with drawings of desserts that feature Hello Kitty.  Some of them were available and very similar to what was pictured.  Anyone can purchase items from the cafe but you need a reservation to have tea in the Bow Room.  There are only about six tables in the Bow Room so book ahead.

  The Bow Room is located through a door at the back of the cafe.  If you have a reservation you are welcomed into this room, while everyone else looks up from their Hello Kitty cookies to try and sneak a peak.  It is called the Bow Room after the little pink bow Hello Kitty always has in her hair.  Sorry Pochacco but this is not the Bow Wow room.  Only Hello Kitty is featured, none of her large group of Sanrio friends.

  We were seated at our table for two.  We had place settings of gold cutlery, pink tinted glasses and a Kitty shaped plate.  We each had pink sugar shaped like Hello Kitty herself.  How sweet.

 

  The tea cups and tea pots all had a gold Hello Kitty on them and of course a bow.  It was too cute.

  We started our meal off with a fruit salad topped with coconut cream.  It had a Hello Kitty face inside a heart on top.

  Hello Kitty's backstory claims here real name is Kitty White and she comes from England.  For this reason we hoped she knew a thing or two about high tea service.  She did not disappoint.  We enjoyed everything.  We were served 3 tiers of scones, quiches, sandwiches and desserts.

  We devoured everything in between sips of tea.  One of the last desserts we ate was a square cake with a frosted Hello Kitty on top.  Sorry Kitty but looking cute will not stop us from eating you.  Same goes for you Hello Kitty shaped sugar.  Into the tea cup you go.

  The Bow Room serves cocktails in the evening.  But it also looked like you could have your tea around the Hello Kitty silhouette bar.  We enjoyed the Bow Room and our visit immersed in Hello Kitty.  As we left the cafe we passed a Hello Kiity near the entrance.  Goodbye Kitty.......for now.

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Map of Our World
Hello Kitty Grand Cafe

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Post # 257

Washed Ashore

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  2000 Meadowvale Road
Date: May 2019
Website: washedashore.org

  Each year thousands of pounds of plastic wash ashore on one Oregon beach.  A group of volunteers have been cleaning this debris from the beach.  This plastic has been made into artwork that reminds us that we need to stop our plastic consumption.  We visited the Toronto Zoo to see the giant animal ambassadors created by Washed Ashore.  The exhibit runs until November 2019.

  On the day we visited, Angela Haseltine Pozzi was there to talk about the organization.  She founded Washed Ashore in 2010 and is one of the main artists.  Since 2010 she has worked with volunteers to put in countless hours, collected over 40,000 pounds of plastic from the ocean and turned it into over 70 works of art.  There are eleven sculptures on display at the zoo.  Angela is standing beside Sebastian James the puffin.

  This sculpture by the zoo entrance is Flash the marlin.  Marlin are one of the fastest swimming fish in the ocean and travel many miles through the water.  They need the water to be clean and free of plastic that gets in their way.

  Sebastian James the puffin stands outside of the zoo's main gift shop.  Just inside the doors to the gift shops hangs a jellyfish made out of water bottles.

  Outside of the Australasia pavilion is another jellyfish.  This jellyfish is also made from plastic water bottles.  We should try to drink from reusable containers and at home drink Brita filtered water from glasses.  The large packs of bottled water are a huge plastic waste, not to mention breaking your back by lugging them home.  Sea turtles like to eat jellyfish and sadly cannot tell the difference between floating plastic and a swimming jelly.  They end up filling their bellies with plastic instead of food.

  Just around the bend from the Australasia jellyfish is Grace the humpback whale.  Humans almost hunted humpback whales to extinction but today they can be found in all of the world's oceans.

  A closer look at Grace shows some of the plastic from toys, umbrellas and other items.  Sadly, the real humpbacks are forced to swim through this garbage every day.

  Poly the polar bear was made with the help of staff from the Toronto Zoo.  Poly's name comes from polyethylene, polystyrene and other names for plastic.  Poly is supporting the idea that we all try to reduce, reuse, recycle and refuse when dealing with plastics.  The best option is to refuse single use plastics.

  Poly is also made from plastic trays, containers and more garbage which came from the Rouge Valley surrounding the zoo.

    Nora the salmon is found near the Kid's Zoo.  Salmon travel up streams to mate and spawn.  The new salmon swim back to the ocean.  Unfortunately, millions of pounds of plastic polution also head downstream into the ocean each year.

  Octavia the octopus was sitting outside the Americas pavilion.  One of her arms was around the neck of a plastic Canada goose, but it should be trying to shake some sense into people who don't realize the consequences of their actions.

  In the African savannah you can find Sylvia the silvertip shark.  Sharks eat other small fish who eat plastic and this means the sharks end up eating the plastic too.

  Rufus the triggerfish is near the Indian rhino house.  He is made up of children's beach toys, flip flops and even parts of chairs.

  Triggerfish have sharp teeth and strong jaws that let them eat urchins and mollusks.  Plastic has been found with their bite marks, which means they are also eating this harmful human product.

   Oil pollution is the main threat to penguin populations.  Next to the black-footed penguin exhibit is Gertrude the penguin.

  Gertrude looked down on us as if to say "You can do better!".  We all need to think about how we can help the animals.  Washed Ashore vows to keep on spreading their message as long as there is debris floating up on their beach.  They dream that they will one day run out of supplies for their art.
 

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Click here to take a virtual tour and see our collection of Toronto Zoo animal photos.

Map of Our World
Toronto Zoo

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Post # 256

Unconditional Surrender

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Address:  Tuna Harbor Park
Date: June 2019
Website: en.wikipedia.org

  As you walk past the USS Midway Museum in San Diego and head into Tuna Harbor Park you come across a couple locked in an embrace.  This is a sculpture by artist Seward Johnson and is based on a photograph taken in Times Square at the end of World War II.  It is called Embracing Peace.

  San Diego is a huge naval town and the USS Midway is an aircraft carrier with fighter jets parked on top.

  Behind Embracing Peace out in the harbour are active naval ships that are ready for action as needed.

  The 25 foot tall couple doesn't notice as passerby snap photos.  They reminded us of the couples in an old commercial for Big Red chewing gum.

  The original artwork was in Sarasota, Florida and then moved to San Diego.  The artist then made several versions of the statue available.   The original was foam filled and stayed in San Diego until 2012.  It was originally called Unconditional Surrender.

    About a year later a bronze replacement arrived in San Diego.  This is the strongest version offered by the artist.  As the couple continues to stand in the habour, that is one strong kiss as well.

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Map of Our World
Unconditional Surrender

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Post # 255