Tourists in our own city.

For the first time in well over a month and a half, I was off work before 2pm. On a Saturday. With no plans to work Sunday. And that was AWESOME. Hello, welcome to the life of a CPA. To take full advantage of this time off, Justin and I decide to go to downtown Seattle and roam around. It was a beautiful day (meaning, cold but no rain) so why not? We went to pike place and explored the market, walked along the Puget sound, and eventually made our way up first avenue where we stumbled upon a tea shop. Tea tasting? Sure, I love tea so why not?

Justin and I are both avid tea drinkers and by that I mean that instead of drinking coffee every morning, we reach for tea so this was perfect. Here's Justin as we first started out on what would become about a 2 hour tasting (aka: education) on tea.

This was our "tourguide" or tea guru or whatever you want to call him. I have no idea but he was AWESOME. He taught us about appropriate temperatures for various teas, chinese cultures, how to serve different teas, and he let us try about a BILLION different kinds of teas (that whole wall behind him? We tried most of it). We LOVED IT. It was really pretty cool.

We ended up walking out with all of this as our loot. I'm pretty sure that the little chinese man loved us as much as him at the end of it all... wow, authentic teas are pretty pricey. But SO good.

After our tea tasting, we wandered back through pike place market, got some roasted nuts, wandered through a wine store and decided we were starving. So we headed to our newly discovered (thanks CJ!) favorite sushi place, conveniently also on first avenue- Japonessa. They have the BEST happy hour so we got seats at the bar, ordered some wine and just relaxed.

Mmmm wine and sushi. We spent a couple of hours at the bar and can I just go on a little rant here? Does it seem like men sometimes don't listen? I mean I'm just SAYING. We parked in a parking lot where I SWORE we only had until a certain time before we needed to pay more, Justin said it was good for all night. I didn't say much but after paying that $73 dollar ticket, I don't think I am ever going to listen to him again! But, ticket aside, it was such a great day and we literally felt like tourists in Seattle. So fun and so badly needed.

The next day, we made some of our new tea... and we went on a little 6 mile hike close to home. LET ME JUST SAY. I haven't been hiking in oh, I don't know, MONTHS so this was incredible even if it wasn't the longest and most challenging hike ever.

And the following Monday, I put my new little tea pot to use for the new we had just bought (a pur tea, which is a tea that chinese people drink daily for optimal health and is aged, like wine). It sort of tastes like dirt which I know sounds disgusting but I actually rather like how it tastes. I know, I'm doing wonders for promoting it but trust me, it's awesome!