Every year, Mike’s family goes to Hsi Lai temple for Tet. And every year, Mike and I have gotten out of going…until now. If you know me, you know I hate going to LA. I hate everything about it: the traffic, the bad driving, the crowds, the heat, the poor air quality…the list goes on. But this year, we had no excuse. Tet was on a weekend. Hahaha.
The drive wasn’t so bad. I thought it would be further but the temple is in Hacienda Heights so it was just about 18 miles away from Garden Grove. We had breakfast at Mah-mah’s house and drove to the temple. The kids napped for the entire drive.
Once we got there, I was surprised on how organized they were. It was like Disneyland, but a Chinese temple. We were smoothly guided to great parking. (I guess the trick is go get there early, before 11am, because Steve and Jenny came a little after us and were not able to get good parking and decided to turn around and go home.)
Mom did her praying thing as we walked around. It was beautiful. Easily the most beautiful temple I’ve been to (not that I’ve been to many). The kids were great sports and in good spirits despite the 80 degree heat. We lit some incense, rang a gong, threw coins at a bell for luck, ate some vegetarian deliciousness and went home a little before noon. I even at stinky tofu for the first time, and it wasn’t bad!
To see more, photos, view our February 2010 photo album.
Overall, we had a really nice time. Happy Year of the Tiger, everyone!