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Even Better Than You Remember [Bloggin’ on the ETC]

I grew up in St. Louis, but I truly feel I came of age in L.A. This makes me nostalgic for one city but head over heels in love with the other. While I have very fond memories of St. Louis and love coming back to visit my family, it often feels like a high school reunion. Like the quarterback who you realize is only 5’10 with nothing much to add to conversations when you’ve long remembered him as a 6’3 god with a magnetic personality, I’m often surprised by all the things in my hometown that aren’t quite as good as I remember.

For example, White Castle sliders, which I adored in high school are now gross patties sandwiched between two lackluster square buns. LACMA puts the art museum I grew up with to shame (though, I’m often surprised by how quickly Chuck Close’s “Keith” draws me into a mini-thrall). And it often feels like St. Louis’s hottest new restaurants are sad copies of what’s already come and since become derivative in L.A.

Because of this I’ve begun to distrust my childhood memories. We have family memberships to both Huntington Gardens in and The Arboretum out here in SoCal. A few times while walking through, I’ve said something along the lines of, “We have a really nice Botanical Garden in St. Louis, too,” to my husband. But then I’d wonder. Was it really that nice, or was I remembering it through the lens of a kid who didn’t have any real cultural experiences beyond St. Louis until she went east for college?

So imagine my surprise when I attended the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and lo and behold, the venue wasn’t as good as I remembered it. It was even better: much larger than the image from my childhood memories and brimming with statuary and history (it’s one of the oldest botanical gardens in the U.S.). Sure, there were some things the gardens I have memberships at have going for them that Missouri’s doesn’t.

Betty and me at the ongoing China exhibit, one of the many delightful and interactive activity areas for children.

The Huntington has more interactive water features for the children, the Arboretum has an army of gorgeous peacocks roaming the grounds, and when we put on an Asia-themed festivals, they’re often mostly run, or at the very least, feature a majority of performances by actual Asians and Asian-Americans, as opposed to mostly non-Asian people in kimonos, karate uniforms, and their favorite anime costumes. But overall, the park was bigger and even more gorgeous than I remembered with so much for children to do, it’s no wonder I so loved the field trips I took there when I was a child.

It was really nice to spend a pleasant afternoon in a space that deserves all the fondness I’d bestowed upon its memory — then eat at Steak N’ Shake for dinner. Mmm, the Frisco Melt, is always as good as I remember it.

Has anyone else gone some place they hadn’t visited since childhood, only to find it even better than you remembered? If so, sound off in the comments.