Tea Time

Another weekend, another tour.  Yesterday, the folks took a tour of Celestial Seasonings.  Mom has really been trying to cut back on her drinking of Diet Pepsi and she has been trying out some iced brew teas, but hasn't been able to find anything that she really liked yet.  She decided it might be fun to tour the Celestial Seasonings.  It is where they make tea!  They have 75 teas that you can sample and she figured if she didn't find one that she liked there, she wasn't going to find it anywhere. 

All the tea that Celestial Seasonings makes is here in Boulder, CO.  It is their only location. The company started in 1969 by a small group of young people.

Outside of Celestial Seasonings

The tour begins with a short video showing the history of the company.  It is then time to tour the factory.  If you take the tour Monday - Friday, you actually get to see people working.  Tours are offered on Saturday and Sunday and while you are still allowed to tour the factory, the only people you see are maintenance workers.  Even though nothing is going on in the factory, the folks still had to wear hairnets. 

Everyone walking to the factory.
 

The first thing you notice when you enter the factory is the smell of tea.  It is quite strong.  The tour begins in a room with large tubs of herbs.  Next, visitors are taken to the tea room. The tea room has a door on it that remains closed so that the tea does not pick up other odors.  There are three types of tea; green, black and white.  The next stop is the peppermint room and this room also has a door that remains closed.  When you walk into this room, the smell will about knock you over.  Visitors were told not to wipe their eyes.  Mom said they were told that it will feel like their eyes had dried out and they should just blink a few times.  She said the peppermint smell was really strong.  Dad said it was like having a lot of Hall cough drops in your mouth.  Mom said they sell a magnet in the gift shop that says "I survived the Peppermint Room".  :::snicker:::   The next stop is the packaging area.  They just looked at the machinery and used their imagination.  :::snicker:::  Mom said even without seeing production taking place, it was still a lot of fun and educational.  The tours ends in the gift shop.

The folks decided to go back to the tea tasting room and try out some teas.  Mom found several that she liked. The people working there were very nice and more than happy to talk about tea.  Mom asked if she could turn just about any hot tea into a iced tea and the employee said "some of our hot teas are actually much better cold".  Mom admitted that she had never tried their tea before.  They told her it was okay, she was there now.  LOL

Sleepytime Bear

The folks were given free samples of tea to take home, but Mom wanted to visit the gift shop and purchase a few of the ones that she sampled and liked.

The gift shop is quite large.  That is tea all along the back walls and even some in the middle.

The gift shop sold lots of things besides just tea. 

This is everything that Mom brought home.  She bought more than she expected, but she is pretty excited about it. 

On the way home, the folks stopped at a restaurant called The Sink.  It was on Diners, Drive-In and Dives. Robert Redford worked there as a janitor in 1955 while he attending the university. They were seated at the Presidential table. They didn't understand at first, but were told that President Obama sat there when he visited.  I asked Mom what she thought and she said we don't discuss politics on our blog and the food was good. 

Their table was covered with photos of the President.



Fried Mac & Cheese - good but not worth $8

Guests are allowed to write on the ceilings.  It is a college town.

 

Mom's burger and onion rings.  She said it was good. She would have preferred a bun over sour dough bread. She ordered wrong.
 

Outside of The Sink.

 The folks then did a "drive-by" of Mork and Mindy's house.  Remember that show?  They didn't film there, they just showed the outside of the house.  It has become a tourist attraction.

Told you it was a drive-by.  The house is the one with a person with a blue shirt standing in the yard.  It is a private residence, so the folks didn't want to stop. They thought the person in the yard might be a tourist because she seemed to be taking photos.  Rude to go through the fence, don't you think?

One more try from Mom's side.  That person is still there.

The folks said the drive to Boulder was beautiful!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Having A Fun Sunday With His Folks

I Met A Girl!

There is a dog that I have been watching since we got here.  Her name is Daisy. She is a black and white Boston Terrier. She is an older woman at the age of five. We have passed many times, but never had any contact.  Her Mom says she can be pretty rough.  She knocked over Gus, the tripod.  Yesterday, we were out walking and her Mom stopped to talk to us.  Another dog that Mama doesn't like was running loose....again and they were talking about it.  Diamond is a bulldog that has no manners. Her Mom is the laundry room offender. She paid $2,000 for Diamond. Yikes! Anyway, Daisy and I sniffed and that is all it took. I play-bowed to her.   We really wanted to play, but we were on leashes.  Daisy will be leaving soon.  They are headed to Georgia to pick pecans. I think it is a very short-term job that her Dad wants to do.  Her folks are retired.  It's sad that just when we became friends, she is leaving.

Here I am with my new toy.

 This morning, we met the lady that was bit by the dog. She warned us that there was a loose dog at the other lake. It was probably a dog that lives in the subdivision. The RV park people cut down some trees and since that time, the dogs from that subdivision have been coming into our park.  She told Mama that she was bit by a dog here.  Mama acted surprise, but the lady did not go into detail.  She thanked the lady and we walked in the opposite direction since we didn't want to encounter the loose dog.

It appears that the party house has been shutdown. We haven't heard a sound from the house in over a week. We think bringing in the band put an end to his loud music.

Stay tuned for Mama's review of a restaurant they visited.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Has A Crush On An Older Woman

After visiting the Bush Presidential Library and Museum, we headed to a restaurant that appeared on Food Network's show, Diners, Drive-In's and Dives.  The place is called Hullabaloo Diner.  The diner was originally located in Albany, New York.  In 2004, the restaurant was set to be demolished.  The American Diner Museum of Providence, Rhode Island stepped in to help save it.  In December 2005, it was moved just outside of College Station, Texas where it now sits.  It took a week for it to make it to it's new home.

This is Hullabaloo Diner. It was built in 1940.  It would be easier to see without the cover over it.

The end of the restaurant.

The counter

It was packed when we arrived at 2 in the afternoon. People were turned away.

Seats became open as we ate.

 We ordered Elvis' Fries for our appetizer.  They are fries that are smothered in homemade sausage gravy and cheese.  LOL  They were good.

Elvis Fries

I ordered a cheeseburger, of course.  They had a chicken fried steak sandwich, but I thought it might be tough.

My burger and fries. I wasn't thinking when I ordered fries as my side item.

Jeff ordered the Roman Sausage sandwich.  It is made of two homemade spicy-Italian sausage links smothered in green peppers, onions and smoked provolone cheese with spaghetti sauce on the side.

Roman Sausage Sandwich

Side salad - the big surprise was that it had pepperoni slices.

Jeff really liked his meal and actually brought half of it home.  I liked my burger for the first two bites and then couldn't determine if the burger was freezer burned or if it was the seasoning. It was fine though and I would go back, if is was closer to us.  I really enjoyed being in this piece of the past.

George Bush Presidential Library and Musuem

Our temps are in the 80's.  It has been raining a little each day and the skies are overcast, but that is okay.  We are able to leave our blinds open when the sun is not shining and I can see out. Scout is even happy with the cooler temps.  She is very happy walking these days.  We are supposed to be having this type of weather all week!

Mama surprised us with a new toy.  We were surprised because we are way over our dog budget with everything I have needed lately like my boot, supplements and my vet visit.  I will have to take some photos of it later.

Stay tuned for Mama's report on what they did this weekend.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Happy That It is Monday And He Can Rest

We visited the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum on Saturday.  As I mentioned last week, we visited the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum a few years ago and really enjoyed it.   I was excited about visiting the George Bush Museum because I lived through his presidency.

I was excited during the drive because we were off the interstate. I actually saw open spaces again.  There were cows and horses.  Jeff commented that people say if you visit Houston or Dallas you are not seeing the real Texas.  I have to agree.  I could live in Texas if I was outside of Houston.  Houston is way too big for me and it is so congested.

The museum is located on the campus of Texas A&M University. 

George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

We had to go through security and then we were greeted by a friendly man.  He told us that we would not actually see the library and we could not check out books.  The library is open to scholars.  We knew that from our visit to the Eisenhower Museum.  We were then told a movie was starting in five minutes and we didn't want to miss it. We hurried and bought our tickets which were just $7 a person and that was for the entire visit.

The movie was shown in a very presidential looking theatre.  I should have taken photos.  The seats were a blue velvet.  It was very pretty.  The hostess told us the Bushs' actually have an apartment across from the library and they visit often.

I am not positive, but the Bush apartment may be on the top floor of this building.  Mrs. Bush is often seen walking her dogs according to the hostess.

George and Barbara are actually going to be buried on the grounds.  Their daughter, Robin, who died when she was three, has been moved to their cemetery on the grounds. We were told we could visit her grave site, but when we arrived there was a gate saying renovations were being made and it was closed.

The bridge to the grave site.

 The movie showed the life of President Bush. It was really interesting. He spoke through much of it. He is quite funny.  I felt as though the story of George and Barbara was a love story.  I really enjoyed the movie.

After the movie, we then entered the museum.  The museum takes you through the entire life of President Bush.

Presidential Limo

The Seal

President Bush

Mrs. Bush

Various family photos

Items that belonged to Mrs. Bush's mother

Replica of Mrs. Bush's wedding gown.  Their wedding photo is in the background.

Their first car.  A gift from Mr. Bush's father.

Mrs. Bush does needlepoint.  Items she made early on in Mr. Bush's career.

Close up of the needlepoint purse.

Statue of Mr. Bush.

A display of elephants (Republican party symbol).  I had to take this photo for my Blogsville Ladies Crochet Society.

Replica of the Oval Office.  Supposedly, this is how it was decorated when Mr. Bush was in office.

Another view of the Oval Office.

Replica of the office at Camp David.

Camp David Office

Dog treats in Camp David office.  Scout would love to have this.  She could get her own treats.

Actual piece of the Berlin Wall.

Replica of the Situation Room

Kuwait Door - this was a gift from the Kuwait people.

The door is engraved with the names of all the US soldiers that died in Kuwait.

Saying goodbye to Washington.

The two Bush Presidents

Statue outside of museum.  It was inspired by the Berlin Wall coming down.  The horses symbolize the human spirit being set free.

We really enjoyed our visit here.  There was much more than I took pictures of, but this gives you a glimpse of what the museum has to offer.

There are currently 12 Presidential museums with a 13th coming next year for President George W. Bush.  We have now seen two of them and we would like to visit all of them.  Who has Presidential museums?  Hoover, Nixon, Franklin D. Roosevelet, Ford, Truman, Carter, Eisenhower, Reagan, Kennedy, Bush, Johnson and Clinton.  We should have visited Truman's when we had the chance.

After our visit to the museum, we ate at a restaurant featured on Diner's, Drive-Ins and Dives.  I will write about that tomorrow.  It was different and fun!

Patty