I was telling a friend about how gorgeous the fall leaves in Washington are, and she commented, “It must be wonderful to see autumn for the first time as an adult.” I hadn’t thought about it, but yes. This is my very first full-color, genuine autumn. It has temperatures cool enough to really appreciate hot cocoa. I’ve actually seen pumpkin patches, for crying out loud. But best of all? These glorious leaves! They’re delicious. I keep wondering if they could be this bright without actually somehow going past real colors into a frequency I can just barely sense. Washington gets a scarlet and lemon and fluorescent orange extravaganza … Texas gets leaves that turn brown and fall off. Right now, I’m loving the fall thing.

With that in mind, I want to remind people that right now the Japanese Botanical Garden is especially gorgeous. In fact, they’re doing a special Maple Viewing event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday October 20th. If that sounds too crowded, I enjoyed just driving down Lake Washington Blvd.