• 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…

  • Life

    Sesame Place and Longwood Gardens With Our 1-Year-Old

    September 21, 2022 - By 

    In the year that Young Sophie was 0-1, or 2022, we chose to buy a season pass for Sesame Place and a membership for Longwood Gardens. We also considered the Turtleback Zoo (https://turtlebackzoo.com/admission-hours/), which gives free admission to those under 2. Sesame Place We chose Sesame Place for a simple reason that I am sure many other parents of children aged 0-3 understand: Our child likes Sesame Street. And Elmo. Sesame Place grants free entry to those aged 23 months and younger. The cost of one visit with two adults and one baby would total something like $50 Tickets x…

  • Winnie-the-Pooh Macarons in front of a Bibble and Sip box.
    Food

    Bibble and Sip

    June 24, 2022 - By 

    Bibble & Sip is a cute little bakery in NYC on 51st Street. That happened to have the Asian desserts I am used to. I unfortunately ate my delicious cloud-shaped thing before thinking to photograph anything, so all I can show you are my Winnie-the-Pooh macarons. These were not as good as the cloud-shaped thing, which was clearly fresher, but they were still delicious and quite fun to look at. Ah, I will enjoy being back in Asia where I can get cute and delicious desserts every day!