Why you should never buy a plane ticket on Expedia

Why you should never buy a plane ticket on Expedia...or the cautions if you do.

We have had 2 major adventures with international tickets...unfortunately both with Expedia.  Grrr!
The first "adventure" is that we found a deal for our tickets from San Fransisco (SFO) to Sydney, Australia (SYD) (via Vancouver...but heck...it was Business Class so it was not a big tragedy and I had never seen Vancouver before). It was about $300 per ticket cheaper than any other ticket.  BUT since we were doing a company international move...things were of course going to be changed/delayed. SO we found ourselves having to move our ticket.

Matthew did most of the work as I was still in Brussels working.  It was painful!  What he first discovered was that Expedia would not move the ticket.  Period.  But there was nothing on the Expedia website that said we could not change our tickets. Nothing, anywhere when we bought it.  Normally to change a ticket, you expect to pay the change fee and the difference in fare.  No problem, we expected this...but NO.

We did not expect what Expedia told us.  They said that there was absolutely no way to change the ticket...period. They were helpless, don't you know.  Not their fault. We had to call Air Canada.  Air Canada said Expedia had to make the change as they had no issues once we paid the change fee.  Expedia told us we could not change because of Air Canada. (We elevated to a supervisor level) Air Canada (whose customer support is actually quite good) said it was a totally normal ticket and of course they could change it, they just needed Expedia to do so.  So with Air Canada on the line, we were kept on hold for 45 minutes calling back into Expedia and then put on hold.  And then hung up on by Expedia.
Eventually we discovered:
- Expedia has a 1h45min timer on your call and the line gets disconnected after that.  Yep...so if you don't have someone with your call back number, you go back to the start of the whole thing.  We ran into this multiple times in this process and asked corporate and yep...it is true
- Each call center has different hold music (so if you don't like the agent, hang up and try again and if the hold music is different, you may be in luck)
- Every single Expedia rep will try to put you through the exact same script no matter how many times you have already gone through it on the exact same call.
- It takes 3 levels of escalation before you hit corporate for an actual employee of Expedia who actually can change your ticket even thought they tell you they can't.
- The fine fine fine print said that our ticket was non-refundable AND NON CHANGEABLE but it was buried so low that we could not access it in the general agreement policies when we bought the tickets
- Expedia says there are no change fees - well folks I am here to say that they do...but they call it a cancellation fee.  They would not change the ticket for us...we were forced to Cancel our ticket and get a refund (minus the cancellation fee)
After 4 hours, 13 minutes of phone time and talking with over half a dozen people we FINALLY found someone we could talk to and do something and we changed our flights.  Ugh.

The Final tally:
Elapsed time: 4h13mins on phone.
Escalations: 5
Max Escalation Level Reached: 3
Calls Dropped by Expedia right at 1:45min: 3
Number of transfers to AirCanada: 4

Expedia's "special tickets" are a little too special.  Do not ever buy one.  You will be stuck with a completely useless ticket if anything changes. In my case I actually had to cancel both tickets and reissue them with the new dates.

I guess I should have learned but I used them again to buy tickets for my parents to come visit.  Due to a computer glitch somewhere, only 3 of the 6 letters came out in my dads last name.  My mother called about this.  After being on hold for extended periods of time with Expedia, they said they could not do anything and she would have to call Air New Zealand (ANZ).  Mom called ANZ and they told her she had to talk to Expedia.  Calling Expedia back (and being told to call ANZ again), she said that she would stay on hold while they talked to each other.  Expedia came back and said that ANZ could not change the name without her buying a new ticket and getting the other one refunded.  This would be $300.  She was frustrated but agreed.
THEN she was told that neither she NOR HE could get a refund for my dad's ticket becuase I had bought the ticket.  WHAT?? So I called.
The rollercoaster started again.  Expedia told me I had to talk to the airline.  I called ANZ and they told me I had to call Expedia (sound familiar??).  Here is the crazy part....ANZ also told me that if it was an ANZ ticket, they could make the change but since one of the flight segments is on United, they could not make the change.  I thought this was ridiculous since it was a ANZ ticket on all segments...one of the segments in operated by United but it has a ANZ flight number.  Code share partners apparently does not mean anything that can help you.  The Star Alliance partnership is a JOKE! Grrr!!!
I call Expedia again and spoke with a very friendly guy named Tom in Manilla (there was a typhoon going on).  He tried to help but it turns out but apparently Expedia needed to talk with the ANZ office in the United States and they were not open.  Grrr!
He took my number and said they would call back.  They did.  I was shocked.  Unfortuntaly the person still had no power.  After an hour on the phone explaining the same thing, they told me that (I know this is a shock) the ANZ desk in the US that handles travel agents was closed and we had to talk with them.  Oh...Expedia also said that for an airline like Delta, a 3 letter change is not a problem BUT this was ANZ.  Nice!  This person also told me that CLEARLY, it was my mistake.  Like I don't know how to spell my last name.
I call back AGAIN and explain the whole thing AGAIN...this time I reached a supervisor.  I could recite the lines at this point.  The difference this time is that she said that she would call me back and she actually did.  It was an ungodly hour in the morning, but I did receive a call back.  She explained that we were going to separate the 2 tickets on the itinerary.  I had to pay the difference for my dad's ticket to the current price.  Frustrating!  ANZ was blaming this on the United flight. They said that if all the flights were on ANZ, they could add the extra letters to the name.  I can tell you that the airline partners are not really partners, there are handshakes that pretend to make traveler's lives more convienanient but only when it suits the airline.  I ended up getting out of the deal for under $300 and one more call from Expedia.  What and ordeal!!
Here is the other fun thing.  We could not pick seats or get info about changes to flight times.  We ended up calling United and ANZ directly to take care of these issues.

The even BETTER part was when I went to Expedia to log on while in Sydney.  I couldn't.  Since I was not in the US, I could not just pull up www.expedia.com and get my itineraries.  I had to figure out how to get to the US site to sign in.  I finally found the convoluted way to the US website from the Australian one and logged in to my account (with the user name and password I was using before).  So Expedia does not even have a working partnership with Expedia.  In this modern day and age why would a travel agent site not be normalized across countries???  I was quite concerned and thought I had messed up my password and such.  UGH!  More silly frustrations with Expedia.

A word of advice.  Always try and buy directly from the airline.  ANZ is not a friendly.  Experiences with Expedia are painful if anything goes wrong.
Grrrr!!

Adelaide - South Australia

We went to visit the capital of South Australia, Adelaide. I had never been to South Australia (SA) so I was quite excited. SA is the only state in Australia that does not have a historical beginning centered around a penal colony. In fact there was never a penal colony in SA...a fact that the South Australians are VERY proud. I heard this fact within 30 minutes of landing and then repeated multiple times over the weekend by different individuals. Very proud!

We were greeted at the airport by our amazing tour guide friend. She took us on a tour of the city. Like all major Australian cities, Adelaide is situated near a mountain range and the ocean. It was a planned city. There are four quadrants built around the central Victoria Square. Each quadrant has its own square of green park space. They are extreemly organized.

This vision was that of Colonel Light. He selected the location and designed the quadrants and parks. Against much opposition, Colonel Light's vision is the backbone of Adelaide. Overlooking the city is a monument to the founder of Adelaide.

I like Adelaide. It is a very livable, neat little city. It has the best aspects of a large city without the downsides. It offers great public transit in the city center, professional sports, and a university.

Cricket is huge in Adelaide. The Adelaide Oval is their massive cricket pitch, seating 36,000 people. It was established in 1871 and has a rich history. The University is charming. On one side of the university is a walking path along the river Torrens complete with a picturesque footbridge. The river Torrens could be mistaken for a creek from what we saw. The irony of the name was not lost on us.

Rainforest Building

Just down from the university is the Adelaide Botanic Garden. It is free to enter and worth the visit. There is a nice walking path around several ponds with ducks and water lilies. We watched a tree full of brightly colored parrots that were hanging upside down. The succulent garden had some crazy plants including what Matthew described as "fractal broccoli cactus". The rose garden is extensive. Even in the late winter, we found some roses blooming. The rose garden lies in the shadow of the "rainforest" building. It is a large, modern, spacey (or Spanish explorer hat) design.
Near the entrance to the rainforest building was a tree that has been dated to be between 1500 and 2000 years old. It fell when it was 500.
An oddity were the plaques around the garden. We found a plaque to commemorate a lunatic asylum from 1852 to 1902. I can not imagine the person who decided to spend public money on the plaque...interesting thing to commemorate.

Giant Fig Trees

Outside the garden were HUGE giant fig trees. I loved them. The roots were taller than I am! I could stand next to the tree and not been seen. They are beautiful graceful trees.

The botanical garden in the center of town is not the best botanical garden in Adelaide. Mount Lofty Botanic Garden has a Rhododendron Path that was still in full bloom in September. The azaleas and rhododendrons were stunning.

There are lots of jokes about the "Special Bus". Well...Adelaide is apparently the place where one can catch the Special Bus. The center of the city is easy to navigate. A free bus operates around the perimeter of the city center.

We decided to explore the city market. Adelaide's market is a block from Victoria Square. Like the city itself, it is remarkably well laid out. It was clean and extremely bright. It was a sharp contrast to the markets in Melbourne and Sydney. This market also only has food, unlike the larger markets that sell just about anything.

There are also trams that run regularly from the city center to the beach town, Glenelg. Tickets are sold on the tram.
This beach town looks and feels like any other generic beach town. We walked to the end of the pier. The day we visited, the wind was so strong that some of the sea spray was splashing up on the pier.
The view from the pier is a bay so big that you cannot see across. It was crazy windy and the waves splashed up to the walkway. The fish measuring station would have made my father excited.

Even though it was chilly and windy we did as you would do in any beach town, we grabbed ice-cream. We found a place that has a station to apply unlimited nuts and toppings on your ice-cream. The place was called Copenhagen's. It was down the walk from another ice cream place named after a European city. Ironically, a popular ice cream place in Europe was "Australian Ice Cream". This idea Australian ice-cream in Europe but European ice cream in Australia. Hmmm.

Adelaide is full of history. We walked around the hills above Adelaide to the Glen Osmond silver-lead mine.
It was the first metal mine in Australia. The fortunes of Adelaide rose and fell with the mines. Miners flooded into SA but quickly cleared out to follow the gold rush in Victoria. It was impressive to look in and see the beginning the mine shaft. I would hate to have worked down there.

The city was full of animals. I had one of the most up-close and personal experiences with a koala that I have ever had. We were sitting in a spa (we would call it a hot tub) and heard scratching behind Matthew's head. There, about 1 foot from his head, a koala was trying to climb up a palm tree. Poor guy could not get up as his claws could not dig into the trunk of the palm. He tried a couple of times and then gave up. He was so little and fluffy and cute. He looked at us, then up the tree, and then to us again. I can't believe how close I was to a wild koala! He walked to within a foot of my head on his way to a tree with bark. It was amazing to be in a city and yet so close such an amazing animal.

From Adelaide, you can drive up to the Flinders Range for hiking or down to Kangaroo Island. On the way down south is a wonderful place called Second Valley. We went to go kayaking.

We grabbed lunch at a traditional Aussie pie place. Pies and rolls are a staple in Australia. Like in the UK, they put all kinds of savory meat fillings inside a pastry wrapping. We also learned about the South Australian's affinity to flavored iced coffee and milk drinks. Egg nog is one of the most popular flavors. They were surprised that egg nog is not available year round in the United States, where it is exclusively a holiday flavor. By the way, egg nog flavored milk in SA has a much lighter flavor and is not as thick as that in the US.

Second Valley is a neat place along the ocean. Apparently when Colonel Light first went to SA, the first valley they found was named Rapid Bay. They used the creative name of Second Valley to....yep...the second valley they found.

Donning the "slenderizing" wet suits, we jumped into kayaks and started our battle against the brisk wind and cold waves. We were kayaking along amazing cliffs. The cold and wind were even worse once we started paddling. Luckily, the wind was blowing back into shore so we had to work to get out and would get the wind to help us back. It was HARD to paddle. We stopped for lunch at one of the few scattered beaches down the coast.

Metamorphic, sedimentary schist sounds like dirty words. The rock was jumbled up over time with cliffs that drop straight into ocean. It had such an old feeling. The beautiful colors of rock next to the cold, tropical, turquoise colored water was spectacular. Along the waterline it had been worn smooth by the waves. It was fantastic to climb around these old rocks.

The layers of rock carved from wind and waves were fun to walk on. The different levels offered foot and hand holds. We walked to a cave at the next beach down. There is a seal colony just pass Rapid Bay. We kayaked past an old jetty around the headland. It was like going through rapids. There were dozens of seals lounging on the rocks. They were smart and not struggling through the water like we were. After clearing the headlands, we wind took us on a ride back to the jetty. I was cold and tired but happy about the experience exploring the quiet valley. The hot shower was heaven!
Rain moved in on our way back to Adelaide. We saw a double rainbow. Stunning!

Overall we really enjoyed Adelaide and South Australia. I plan to go back to explore more on my next trip to Australia.

Tasman Peninsula - Tasmania

Van Diemen's Land was the original name Europeans had for Tasmania. Named in honor of the Dutch Governor General, Anthony Van Dieman sent Able Tasman on the voyage that lead to his landing in 1642. Van Diemen's Land was an apt name for another reason. Home of Australia's largest penal colony, Tasmania was truly a hellish place.  Over 67,000 convicts were shipped to Tasmania and forced into to hard labor.

Once a brutal penal colony, the Historic Port Arthur is now one of the most visited tourist destinations in Tasmania. The entrance ticket includes a multi day pass into the grounds, a guided walking tour, and a boat cruise. The tour guides are historians and have interesting stories of people who have touched them. The entire place is now a series of museums. One section takes you through a "day in a life" of one of the convict by name.
Another building has a computer where you can look up your family name to see if you have a convict family ancestry. The scariest place is the isolation area including the half meter concrete walls and the place where the convicts had church in individual, isolated, standing sections. Not to anyone's surprise, the insane asylum was adjacent to the isolation building.

The grounds are beautiful; almost pretty enough to forget about the miserable history.


My favorite building is the church. It is beautiful but surreal place. It had a fire that burnt out the roof. Now, it is an open structure. The boat ride was also a highlight. It sails past the boy's prison island and the graveyard island.

We went on a ghost tour (for an added charge). The highlight was seeing a living wild Tassie devil, of course since it was dark, it was just a glimpse.

Only a few kilometers from Port Author is The Remarkable Cave. The site was recommended by the managers of our accommodation.  It was a great recommendation!  Because it was not the easiest to find, it was fairly deserted.

The path was short and lead along a stunning cliff that soared above the tumultuous ocean below.  The water was memorizing with the waves that churning in and out. The cave outlines the shape of Tasmania...apparently that is why it is called remarkable :)

The cliff face leading into the Remarkable Cave had an interesting section of rock where Dolerite met sandstone as the Earth's surface was being forced up. The texture and color was beautiful.  It is a stunning place.

We also visited some of the more popular cliff tourist spots on the Tasman Peninsula...the Tasman Arch, the Blowhole, and the Devils Kitchen.

A stroll for an hour or two will bring you to the edge of sheer drops, overlooking massive chasms, surging ocean, off-shore islands, white-sand beaches, and waterfalls that tumble into the sea.  It is a beautiful coastline.  

One fun side trips is a drive through Doo Town.  The houses in this little stretch of road name themselves using "Doo" in their name.  My favorites are "Thistle Doo Me" and "Wattle-I-Doo".  Don't blink or you might miss it.  The "town" is really just a group of houses and shacks.

It is important to note that you wan to not wait too long to eat.  They close things down after about 7 and very little (if anything) will be open.

The Tasman Peninsula is only 75 miles southeast of Hobart on the far south eastern part of the island of Tasmania.  It is full of history and rugged coast lines with its own quirky since of humor. I love it!

Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens

Eels and bats...oh my...am I in Transylvania? Nope. I am in downtown Sydney.

Some of the best views of the Sydney icons are offered from the public gardens. The Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens is part of the original garden called the Governor's Domain.
In 1816, the land was set aside by the Governor of Sydney, Governor Macquarie. The huge number of things in Australia named Macquarie is a testimony to his governing (or his vanity). One spot in the park is named Mrs. Macquarie's Seat. She liked to sit, look out at the harbour, and watch the ships coming and going. Since he was Governor, he had a road built through the Domain just for her to get there. The seat is carved out of stone. It's good to be The Governor.

Just above this spot is one of the most photographed spots in all of Sydney (you would never know it because it is where people stand).

The viewpoint looks back on the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge backdrop. It is the PERFECT place to watch fireworks on New Years (if you can get there early enough). I did exactly that in 2001 when Australia celebrated its Centennial of becoming the commonwealth. It was an amazing spot but by noon, the place was packed.

The park is beautiful. It has expanded since the original Domain and now is over 30 hectares. Throughout most of the park you can see the skyscrapers of downtown Sydney just behind the trees.

The gardens can be accessed from several entrances including an easy walk from Circular Quay around the Sydney Opera House. It is open until around dusk and is free to enter. They even have daily free hour long walking tours. The tours are different depending on the guide, but most of the volunteers conducting the tour are quite good.

The plants include an herb garden, rose garden, palm house, Chinese garden, and natural indigenous plants. Every tour makes a point to stop at the Wollemi Pine. It is one of the world's oldest and rarest tree species belonging to a 200 million-year-old plant family. It had only been seen in the fossil record and was thought to be extinct. A grove of them were discovered in the mid 1990's by a botanist bushwalking in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Several specimens have been sent to protected parks to help ensure the survival of the species.

Among the most stunning sights are the Jacaranda trees in full bloom. The purple was so beautiful and vibrant.  The other show-off is the yellow wattle.  The yellow poof balls are all over the tree (pictured above).


The tall, proud Norfolk Pines are also scattered through the park. These trees were imported from Norfolk Island (a Pacific island east of Australia, between New Caledonia and New Zealand). Captain Cook thought that the trees would make excellent ship masts, as their trunks are so straight and tall. This was not the case but their distinctive features are great for marking harbour entrances. They are scattered throughout the South Pacific.

I love the Queensland Bottle Tree. There is an aboriginal story about the tree. The legend goes that the tree was a beautiful tree, but was vain. The tree would flaunt its beauty to all of the other trees around. The gods warned the tree to stop. The tree ignored the warnings. So the gods came down and uprooted the tree, turned it upside down. The bottle tree has remained with all of its roots in the air.


The gardens are full of animals. Sulfur-Crested Cockatoos are found in droves. They crunch on seeds and nuts. And they are LOUD. You hear a flock of cockatoos before you can see them. They are constantly screeching at each other and jostling. It is a lot of fun to see them display their crest of yellow head feathers.

The other bird frequently seen in the garden is the Australian White Ibis. The ibis are strange looking birds. They have long, thin, curved beaks. They are much quieter than their compatriots but also can be cheeky.

One of my favorite discoveries was the ponds with ducks and eels. We were told that the ponds are emptied out occasionally for cleaning. The eels are removed and relocated. The park workers have seen new eels slithering across the grass from the harbour back to the pond. Yep, they can actually move across land to get to their desired destination. Fascinating. I laughed at the plaque beside the pond that describes how natural it is for a cuddly duckling to become an eel meal.

It is strange to think of bats in a park in a major city.  There are hundreds of fruit bats (or flying foxes) in the trees. Unfortunately, they are damaging the trees since they are not leaving for their normal migration. So the trees never recover. I guess they have decided that they like the views from the garden as well.

The sandstone in the park has been carved out over time creating beautiful spots to sit. The Sydney Royal Botanic Garden is a great place to read quietly, go for a walk, or picnic with friends.
It is a favorite Sydney destination and a must see when visiting..

Mozart's Don Giovanni - Sydney Opera House

Picture from Don Giovanni article
from Sydney Paper

It is always a good sign when an opera opens with an incredibly muscled man jumping out of a window wearing skimpy black leather shorts and an open shirt. Then he opens his mouth and a deep, huge, booming baritone voice fills the entire theater...it was like butter. Oh my...a six pack with butter.

We saw Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Sydney Opera House. It was stunning. One of the best operas I have ever seen.

Don Giovanni is a character that you love to hate. He is a gallivanting, narcissistic cad who preys on women...literally thousands of women. In the opening scene, he gets in trouble when he is challenged by a girl's father who he ends up killing in the duel. Instead of going away to another unsuspecting female pool in another country, he stays in the same area. He is hunted by an ex-lover after making his presence known to her by propositioning her inadvertently. She is torn as she is still captivated by him but knows he is no good. Then he aggressively pursues another woman on her wedding day by neutralizing her groom. The betrothed of the girl whose father he killed vows revenge to prove his love. For those keeping score at home, that is a soprano, a mezzo-soprano and an alto (three female leads) and two fiancées (a baritone and a very high tenor) all out to get Don. Not to mention Don Giovanni's own manservant who does not like him either. In the end, a statue of the father he killed in Act I raises the powers of darkness to come and drag Don's soul into the depths of hell.

 Mozart really knew how to write music. The score is great. It has both intense music and melodic interludes. The vocal arrangements are stunning. Some scenes have 5 operatic leads all singing harmoniously together.

The voices were absolutely incredible in the Sydney production! Teddy Tahu Rhodes played Don Giovanni. He is amazing in this role!  With his powerful baritone voice and stage presence, he blew everyone else out of the water . The actor portraying Don Giovanni needs to be overpowering.  He is also competing with the other five leads. Teddy succeeded.

The remaining cast members were all extremely strong and powerful in their own right. Donna Anna was played by an Australian and lit up the stage. Zerlina's voice was beautiful. I could have listened to them all night. My other favorite was listening to the sweet tenor who played Don Ottavio (Henry Choo). His voice was so soft and sweet. Don Ottavio is shafted the whole show. I felt sorry for him. His voice reflects the tenderness of the character. Amongst such depravity, he is the only really sympathetic character in the play. 

They must have spent their entire budget on the vocal talent. The sets are fairly minimal with just a big space on stage with doors/balcony. But we did not go for the props. The show was fantastic with all of the full voices. The last scene was strangely blocked. Don Giovanni almost escapes from the hands of death (strapped to a coffin) and then gets grabbed a different way for no apparent reason other than to use the trap door in the stage floor. I guess they wanted to show off the one fancy part of the set. It is saved by the entire back part of the set crashing to the stage floor. Drama drama drama.

We sat in row Q on the floor and the seats were fantastic. Row Q is just about the best row in the house. The first ten rows are directly under the surtitles so you can't see them and the overhanging balcony obstructs the view from the last 4 or so rows. The sound is perfect. We were just right and not even any porridge spilled.  There was, however, some cooked chicken (and silverware and cups) flung across the stage in the second act when Don Giovanni is acting like a slob. He's and eating and drinking as much as he is tossing around, and he's throwing anything he puts his hands on. But Row Q was outside the splash zone.

I have come to think that with La Boehme, Macbeth and now, Don Giovanni, that opera is all about plotting and death.

Nature in the City

Sydney has been a fun city to live in. Unlike when I lived in North Queensland, there are significantly fewer opportunities for animal interactions in a big city. In Townsville, we had little geckos in our house daily. I missed the sound of their calls when I moved.

In the more temperate city, birds are more prevalent. Ibis and seagulls were common to see everywhere in Sydney. The botanical gardens were full of flying foxes (bats) and the loud cacophony of the sulfur crested cockatoo which were fun to see in the middle of a city.

We lived on the 7th floor of a high rise building. It was normal to have bird visitors on the ledge outside of our building. The lorikeets were my favorite. They were so brightly colored with bright blue heads, rich red beaks, green backs and stunning yellow chests. They tended to visit in pairs.

Rainbow Lorikeet in Sydney

One morning I heard very loud squawk...louder than normal. I moved the curtain over our window and saw that one had come in and was on the inside of the window and was talking to his partner on the outside of the window. They were trying to figure out why they were not able to be next to each other. I left the curtain closed and he eventually found his way out.

He was so much nicer than the magpies that came into visit.

My not-so-plesant visitor came on multiple occasions. I was sitting in our apartment in Sydney. I opened the window because it was a beautiful day and I wanted the airflow. A magpie came into the cracked window and flew into the apartment. He landed on the kitchen counter, looked around, pooped, and flew out. I learned that I needed to close the windows when I left. This happened 3 or 4 times. I did not appreciate the gifts left.

Sydney is full of birds. The Australian White Ibis and seagulls were commonplace. The ibis are not like the common birds I am used to.  They are white birds with black heads and a long, curved black beak.
The whip bird was not common to see but was fun to hear. It has an amazing sound. The song started as a high pitched sound that grew louder and louder and louder in a crescendo. Then the song would drop off suddenly. The effect was like a beautiful whistle whip cracking.

Out walking in any park or forest area, it was normal to hear the laugh of the kookaburra. I love the sound of kookaburras.  Their sound is so much fun and makes me smile.

Nature in the city is fun especially if it stays OUTSIDE.