• Food - Tea Things

    Fall Afternoon Tea at Salamander DC in Washington, D.C., United States

    November 26, 2024 - By 

    I will probably not be back at Salamander DC for afternoon tea after the ridiculous experience I had, but I might still book the hotel for its excellent location. It happened like this: I noticed that Salamander DC, my scheduled hotel in Washington, D. C., offers Afternoon Tea in their lounge. I would be in time for the very last day of Fall Afternoon Tea in 2024. The cost was US$95.00 per guest excluding tax and gratuity. I immediately ran into a potential problem: I wanted to possibly apply $100 of hotel experience credit (which I received for booking through…

  • Life

    Gryph & Ivyrose Seal the Deal(TM) Moisturizing Balm

    November 6, 2024 - By 

    I decided to try the Gryph & Ivyrose Seal the Deal(TM) Moisturizing Balm after I had been experiencing a wrist rash for about half a year. It was suspected to be a metal allergy, but the rash unfortunately persisted months after I stopped wearing the suspected bracelet. The rash was annoying, a little embarrassing, and I was willing to spend more to try make the allergy rash go away sooner. I found this balm in the Saks Fifth Avenue online store for US$49 before tax. Gryph & Ivyrose is based in Miami, Florida, United States. The Seal the Deal (TM)…

  • Travel

    Sleep on History in the Noon-Collins Inn in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, United States

    August 15, 2024 - By 

    The Noon-Collins Inn, originally built in 1834 as a judge’s residence, was also a YMCA, a small library before it became the bed and breakfast it is today. In 2024, it cost US$122.10 for a night. I called to make the booking, but they requested that I just do it online through Expedia. When I booked, they asked us to call ahead to let them know when we would arrive. I told them in a note that it would be 7 or 8 and called on the day of to let them know 7:30. The parking lot belonging the inn…

  • Travel

    TSA PreCheck is Not Available for All Airlines

    July 9, 2024 - By 

    TSA PreCheck is wonderful to have at a US airport— unless you cannot actually use it. Whether you can or cannot use it depends on what airline you are flying on. To check whether your outgoing flight is going to let you take advantage of TSA Precheck, see if your airline is on this TSA list: TSA PreCheck® Participating Airlines | Transportation Security Administration. If your airline is not on the list, you will be unable to use the TSA PreCheck line. Why would TSA PreCheck be related to the airline? Because on your ticket, they mark who is eligible…

  • Food - Tea Things

    Afternoon Tea at the Windsor House Tea Room in Lafayette, NJ, United States

    June 24, 2024 - By 

    The Windsor House Tea Room and Bakery in Lafayette, New Jersey, United States, is open from Thursday to Sunday. Afternoon Tea, advertized as “an authentic British tea session (with a few American twists!)”, is served in the tea room on Thursdays at 1 PM; Fridays and Saturdays at 11 AM, 1 PM, and 3 PM; and Sundays at 11 AM and 1 PM. The Windsor House does require reservations. My husband was able to make a reservation on Thursday for Sunday at 1 PM. He was allowed to choose 11 AM or 1 PM. He notified the Windsor House of…

  • Travel

    A Short Stroll Through the Cutler Botanic Garden in Binghamton, New York, US

    May 10, 2024 - By 

    The Cutler Botanic Garden is a small free-to-visit learning and research botanical garden in Binghamton, New York, in the United States. It is meant to help teach visitors about horticulture in self-guided tours with the help of signs that explain what is going on. Visiting in April is a sort of dead time, because of the natural cycle of the plants. For example, the Rose Path was still on its winter Thorn Path variation. However, there are still things to see as things are preparing to bloom or starting to grow— all of which are neatly labeled— and fun landscaping.…

  • Food - Tea Things

    Afternoon Tea at Sally Lunn in Chester, NJ, USA

    March 1, 2024 - By 

    Sally Lunn’s Tea Room & Restaurant in downtown Chester, New Jersey, United States, is a small tea room with a Victorian theme and very good scones. No matter the flavor, they have a nice texture and they serve some of the nicest clotted cream I have found in the US. One important thing to note is that they are dedicated to the Victorian theme. Victorian-era people thought it was bad taste to have bare walls and tried to cover every surface with things. This restaurant tries to do that while still making it possible to run a restaurant that is…

  • Travel

    Crossing by Car Between US and Canada 2024

    February 22, 2024 - By 

    I rarely cross from the US to Canada or Mexico by car, but I recently did. All I really knew was that US citizens just need their passport and that the US-Canada land crossing has a reputation for being a lot quicker than the US-Mexico land crossing. Contrary to what I expected after reading about others’ experiences, the US agent was more friendly on our way back than the Canadian agent on our way to. United States to Canada When we crossed to Canada by Champlain, NY in 2024, it was very quick. You can look ahead to see what…

  • Travel

    TPE to SFO to EWR with United

    November 18, 2023 - By 

    For this trip in 2023, I was with family, including my daughter! The daughter part made it more difficult to take pictures freely. The Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), like many other places in Taiwan, gave us preference because we had a /wah-wah tsuh/, or a baby stroller. In this case, we got to go through a screening line with no one else at all. The person manning the gate seemed excited to have anyone going through his not-really-a-line at all. (My father later explained that all the preference I had received was probably because the birth rate in Taiwan…

  • Travel

    The High Latitudes: EWR to YUL to NRT with Air Canada

    October 8, 2023 - By 

    In 2023, I took a higher latitude route to get to Asia. I usually take direct or a transfer in California, which is around 40 degrees latitude. My route this year took me over Canada and Alaska for roughly 65 degrees latitude. After booking, I read about how one is exposed to more radiation when flying at higher latitudes. In fact, some flight attendants were convinced that they had developed cancer from these routes. I was not entirely thrilled to learn the potential radiation detail but I was not bothered enough to cancel my current ticket and buy a different…