Little Hands for Little Cups

We had tea and dumplings Chinese Gardens today, a rainy, bluish kind of Saturday. The general consensus upon driving up to the place was that it was going to be a bust--the gardens are small and are located on a rather dismal street in small Portland Chinatown. But once we got got inside, we realized how wrong we were. The smell of new flowers--gardenias, maybe lotus blossoms (do those smell?)--swirled through my nose and I was hooked, and so were the kids. Entranced is probably a better word for what me and Brian felt, and energized is certainly the word that would describe the kids' behavior. The rain made the experience even more calming. We watched together the little circles made bigger as the rain drops landed on the pools of water inside the gardens, we caught rain in our mouths, and we forgot for the moments we were there about the bluer moments we have had on the outside.