Tea For Two

What did I have two, no....make that THREE, cups of today? It wasn't gravy, or Coca Cola, or Bourbon, or Cranberry Juice. It was TEA, wonderful tea.

Ever since I was younger, tea has been a pleasure to enjoy, both hot or cold, sweet or unsweetened, as long as it's not adulterated as that Fruit Tea business you know I can't get behind, or Jasmine (too much like drinking Potpourri water to me). But - Japanese Green Tea, English style, Chai, Thai Iced - it's all pretty much marvelous to me.

Luckily, Scott shares my love of tea. We jokingly have "tea and book time" (in bed too, but I swear, it's totally PG-13 rated) as our British alter-egos Russell and Margaret -- our first names, as we both go by our middles. Ol' Russ and Mags are just simple homebodies who like scones, a spot of tea, a good historical novel or quaint little series on the Public Television station, and a nice gentle rainy afternoon. Or something like that. Can you tell we've really thought this out?

So, as I digress (my bad, my bad).... we like the tea. So it was no surprise (or WAS it? *eyebrows thoroughly arched*) that Scott took me to Charleston Tea Plantation for my birthday. This is the ONLY tea grown in the U.S., folks, AND their tea is used to make Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka.

(Cool sidenote: Sweet Tea, the theme song on the Firefly web site, is by none other than Scott's cousins Whitt and Jim and their band, The Bushels. Look 'em up!)

Located on Wadmalaw Island south of Charleston, it's a gorgeous 120+ acres of Lowcountry
land.

With thousands of tea plants...

And huge trees with Spanish Moss draped so languidly in their branches.

We took both the trolley tour and the factory tour. The trolley was a fun way to see a LOT of acreage.

Scott liked the tractor they call the "Green Giant."


I liked this sign.

On the way home, we stopped at the Angel Oak Tree, per the advice of our friend Shaloot. It was absolutely MASSIVE. Even Handsome Tall Blond Man looks teensy in its wake!

That is one BIG ASS tree - it covers 17,100 square feet of ground.

Scott and I have visited the Charleston area now for about eight years - it was there in April 2002 where we decided we kinda sorta liked each other a lot and had that major dating discussion every semi-serious couple will have where the awkward/amazing "L" word comes up. Yep, the L-Bomb was dropped in Charleston, SC. So, it's a special place for us, not to mention we married there too.

This trip was really fun because we branched out (no pun intended) and visited new places. Big thanks to Scott for thinking this one up - you are always just my cup of tea! (Ok, pun intentional, and wow, it was cheesy, but so worth it!)