It’s been a tradition for a few years now to have high tea for Valentine’s Day. We always skip Valentine’s Day itself, since it means limited menus in most places. For high tea though, at least where we go, it just means you have to pick the most expensive tea service. That’s alright by me! 😁
I decided to bring Vanilla Bean along. It’s her first outing, I believe.
I picked a tea called Vanilla Dream (or Vanilla Cream? I forget, but it reminded me of Vanilla Bean so it seemed fitting.)
Christopher gleefully hunts for menu typos.
Tea’s here!
I started with salad and quiche. Christopher had soup instead of salad.
Finally it was time for the glorious tray:
Looking at the photos now, I’m hungry all over again…
Lia, the proprietor, puts a lot of effort in the decorations, even now when there isn’t as much traffic. They are a delight to look at every time.
Here’s Lia and me. I never thought of getting a photo of us together before (she’s always taking photos of me though, haha) but today I wanted to:
It’s always a very lovely, romantic time and today was no exception. I hope it won’t be too long before we go again. Next though, I expect we will be going to Chuy’s for our next date night. It’s opening in just a couple of days! 🌮 ✨
CW: Calorie counting and weight tracking after the cut. Please do not proceed if you have an eating disorder and/or find posts of this sort triggering.
Today was a wonderful day. We had our early Valentine’s Day tea (coming in a different post) I went on a fun long bike ride, and got a long-awaited package in the mail.
As if that weren’t enough, Christopher surprised me by purchasing the espresso machine that I wanted. I only really got into having hot espresso in like, the last week… so him buying it completely threw me for a loop. He showed me the order on his phone while we were having tea and it made me cry, I was so surprised. It’ll be here Monday.
It’s a beautiful red so it will match my kitchen redecor:
There was a time when I did this at a restaurant I worked at. I wasn’t bad at it, so we’ll see if I can learn again. I’m so excited!
✨ New Rainbow Keycaps✨
It took over a month, but my rainbow keycaps from AliExpress are here! Like my keyboard’s original keycaps, these are also clear (the letters, symbols and numbers, I mean) so the RGB effect still shows through beautifully:
I’m over the moon with it, as you can imagine! It fits my overall aesthetic very well.
🥕 A Ride With Slinky 🥕
I was anxious to burn as many calories as possible after our high tea. I took a different route today, because it gets a little boring otherwise. I rode toward Tree Tops Park.
I decided to bring Slinky in my basket. Though she seems conspicuous in the photos, she was well hidden most of the time other than the lid of her hat. But I could see her, and it made me really happy. I’ve always wanted to take a stuffed animal in my basket.
I came across a little park on the way, with a huge lake in the middle and one path going all around:
There were several ducks and other birds present:
I even got a little video of the guy above:
I found a cow in a field. If it had wanted to come up to me, I would have been able to touch it.
It looked back at me with interest three or four times; I could see the white of its eyes. But it was too preoccupied with eating to engage with me.
I also came across this… thing, painted with a golf and tennis theme. It’s some electrical thing, or something of the sort, but it was so cool, I had to take a picture:
Finally, I was at Tree Tops Park. I didn’t go in, I just went straight on because it was such a nice path.
Maybe a half mile after this sign, a little more perhaps, I turned around because sunset was fast approaching. I had over an hour ride home against strong wind, and sunset was in 15 more minutes. The roads weren’t super well lit, so I panicked a little bit. I was quite far from home to be on my bike.
Night had just fallen properly when I made it back to familiar territory.
When I went through the door my legs were shaking from the effort, but I rode a total of over 12 and a half miles. I’m proud of myself. 😊
🥟 Ham & Cheese Empanadas 🥟
Pretty much as soon as I walked in I began to work on dinner. I made ham and cheese empanadas for the first time.
They turned out alright –I need to use a different cheese next time.
That’s all, I suppose, but there will be a separate post for fun tea photos!
