It was a hot summer day with not much to do, so my friend Sarah and I decided to bike to Westfield Santa Anita, the nearest mall. It is 4.2 miles away, roughly 7 minutes by car and 24 minutes by bike. Before we left, we checked the route and there is a 750ft difference in elevation between Caltech and Westfield so we thought the ride wouldn’t be too difficult. Indeed, the ride there was easy, since it was mostly down hill. We just cruised along. Since there was little exercise/effort necessary, the heat didn’t bother us too much.

The mall is massive, and wandering around it can easily kill a whole day’s worth of time. We fueled up with pretzels before going on a shopping spree at Forever 21, MUJI, Bath and Body Works, Teavana, and too many other stores for me to remember. We did see this store selling traditional Chinese herbal medicine and some very expensive teas. We were so content with all the things we bought that we forgot to consider how we would bike back with our new stuff.

$380.00 for tea? It’s only slightly above the average student’s budget (*sarcasm).

Before we left, we had to hit up Matcha Matcha. I LOVE everything matcha, especially ice cream. There was a long line, but it’s worth the wait. We got soft serve swirled with black sesame and topped with mochi and strawberries. It really is as good as it looks. Even though the portion looks pretty big (average by American standards), I finished it in 5 minutes.

The ride back though was ATROCIOUS. We missed an intersection without realizing it and kept on biking to no end. Around 20 minutes late, biking up hill the entire time, we realized that we had taken a huge detour. Rerouting back to Caltech didn’t take too long, but with the sun on our backs, the continuous elevation gain, we were soaked in sweat by the time we got back. My legs feel like soft serve right now and I can do with another serving of that matcha sundae.