What's Your Cup of Tea?

  Tea; most of us can say we drink it, in some form or another. Whether it is hot or cold, a cup at your table, or a bottle of raspberry tea from the gas station, it's prevalent. Though as a nation we may not be the leading consumers of it, ( Kazakhstan is number one, and surprisingly Great Britain is lower down, ranking the fifth of the top ten), my family at least, drinks enough for the rest of America.:)

We drink it by the box as Fall progresses, and it doesn't stop in the Summer, only appearing more often  as cold tea. Of our favorites, Lipton black tea is unquestionably king, followed by Celestial Season herbal tea.
 I like the Blueberry, and Apple Cinnamon is fantastic for the Autumn season.:)

 

 But don't let me be the only one to talk about tea-what's your favorite, and how do you like to drink it?

I'd love to read your comments.. with a cup of tea to sip. :)

Family Trip Up North

  Annnd we'ere back! "great", you say, mildly surprised, "you were gone? Pray tell, where have you been?"
 All in good time my friend! Yes, we were gone, and are now back, from the upper regions of Northern Missouri-St. Charles to be more specific. It's been a very, verrry long time since my family has embarked on a trip of this kind, since, well, since before I was born. So my parents decided to load everyone up and take us to see a town my sister and I had heard glowing reports from, from our violin teacher. The streets are cobblestone, lots of tea shops... oh yes, it sounded lovely!
 So we took off Sunday morning; we could have made in in four to three and a half hours.. but that's not the way we roll in our family; we like to sight-see along the way, and stop at flea-markets. So we got into St. Charles later in the afternoon. It was different than what I was expecting too; I thought it was a small town, all old style-nope. A larger town than I'd imagined, with lots of free-way traveling to get from here to there. The old St. Charles was  more off to the side of the town, set closer to the Missouri River-incidentally, this was the town Louis and Clark set off from on their expedition, and also held the first state capitol!
 We didn't make any stores in either the new or old town, as things closed earlier there on Sundays, so we just went to the hotel.

The second day in found us shopping in the new side of town, after a quick drive-around the older buildings, as not all the shops in the old town are open on Mondays-some of the people there run their stores differently..

  So the next day, Tuesday, (and also my brother's birthday), found us out that way.
It is a lovely, picturesque little street, with cobblestone's and old buildings that remind one of Boston or Charleston.

Mom got directions for us.:)
 

Yep, we found us a British shop! Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures inside of all the neat items they had, but they do have an online website. 

theenglishshoponline.com

After much walking and ooh-ing and awww-ing, we had lunch in a parking lot next to the Missouri River.

After a pow-wow, we headed off to St. Louis, for the arch. Due to construction on that area, we had to take a free bus ride over to it; our bus driver was such a friendly, outgoing person-not what I'd been expecting in the big city.:) Dad and Justin went into the old courthouse to get tickets, and then our next stop was the arch. 

Annnd...

we went up in it! (that's looking over into Illinois btw) Albeit, the tram was a lot smaller than I had anticipated, and it tilted-which was scary. However, the view was great, and I'm so glad we were up in it!!

And when we got to the bottom we watched a video on how it was built.. and believe it or not, THAT'S when I got really light-headed!

The next day was our day to head home.. we did pop into Hermann though, which was a town settled by German's. Lots of tin roofs and cute old buildings.:)

And thus endeth the long and lengthy article! Hope I haven't tired you all out; and no, I don't spend my whole time traveling, no matter how it looks on my blog.:D Hope you enjoyed it, Cheerio!