Smells like home

Walking around our new neighborhood today, we were suddenly struck by a familiar springtime smell - it turns out the Bay has a few of the same stinky trees that are all over Philly! Even though it's not exactly a pleasant odor, it was nice to be reminded of home.

We also saw some plants that were new to us, including these explosions of brightness:

And these crazy-looking things:

We both thought that they looked like birds, and indeed googling "orange purple flower looks like bird" turns up their name - strelitzia reginae, aka "bird of paradise."