Todd & Holland Tea Merchants: Forest Park, Illinois

If you love tea, you only have to visit Todd & Holland once to know that you'll be back.  It is a tea-lovers paradise. 

In my adult life, I have sought out tea moments. I've visited tea farms, been to tea tastings, had high tea in England and sipped blends in the tea salons of Paris.  If you think of life as college, I sometimes I feel like I've minored in Tea.  Not a bad way to live, I say.  I'm probably the only one of my friends that longs for a temperature-specific tea kettle that lets you select the perfect temperature for brewing "Green Tea", "Black Tea" etc. 

*sigh*

Anyhoo, I say all of this because I know about or have tried just about everything in this shop and I approve!  What a selection.  The variety of tea they offer is mind-boggling.  Pretty teapots and mugs are everywhere - displayed in a way that gives them the attention they deserve.

The photo (above) is of their tea station.  You are to help yourself to one of several different hot or iced teas (in pretty glass mugs) that you can enjoy while you shop.  Love it!

You can also see in the background that they have a gorgeous selection of dish towels too.  Their dishtowel choices were lively, interesting and fun - a far cry from the dismal choices I have seen lately in other home stores.  I liked everything about Todd & Holland. Bravo, Aberdeen, for insisting we stop and shop.  

When you click the link to visit their website, I encourage you to watch the video tour of the store.  It is informative and can give you a true sense of their tea selection. I particularly enjoyed trying the "sniffing jars" in person.  They have a small jar of each tea displayed with the packaged tea for sale.  You can shake the jar and then open it and take in the aroma of that particular blend. It is a great idea and gives customers a better sense of what each tea is like.

I found what I was looking for: Japanese Matcha (powdered tea leaves) that I like to add to smoothies.  The powder is loaded with antioxidants. And I bought a mesh tea strainer with a bamboo handle (there were at least five sizes to choose from!).  I brought it home and it fits perfectly inside my glass teapot.  Score.

If you are ever in the Forest Park area of Chicago, you must treat yourself to a cup of tea and a wander through Todd & Holland.  I guarantee that you'll find something you need.  

Staying at a Frank Lloyd Wright House in Riverside, Illinois

Usually I do research when I travel.  Usually I know where I am going and what I want to see.  But this trip was different.  I was going on a roadtrip with Kim, my best friend from high school to stay with our friend Aberdeen.  Our plan was to eat out, watch a movie and catch up.  No advance planning necessary. If I had used my head, I would have read up on Frank Lloyd Wright.

I knew that Aberdeen lived in a Frank Lloyd Wright house, which sounded really neat, but I had no idea how fascinating it would be to go inside and actually live there.  To respect her privacy, I won't identify the house.  It isn't open to tours and it is up to her to share it as she wishes.

I will simply show you the window I got to look out each morning.  A row of these beautiful "light screens" lined the room and were placed almost at the height you would hang a piece of art. The effect is stunning.  Another plus is that the windows hinge open and on Sunday morning, hymns from a church service waft into the bedroom.  

I have been to many famous residences-turned-museums over the years (Monticello, Mount Vernon, Olana) and in all of them, it is the possessions (paintings, furniture, china, wallpaper) that made the impression on me. I enjoyed thinking of the lives of these famous men and how they lived at the height of their careers.

In this case, I was in a museum of sorts and had the chance to admire the work of a famous architect from within his creation.  Can you relate to what I am saying?  I have not thought about architecture that much and was fascinated with the idea of being inside something that a design icon created.  

You look at Monet's water lilies.  You look at Andy Warhol's Polaroids. You are never inside a piece of art.  That is until I was walking around inside a famous home by Frank Lloyd Wright.  I was able to see the flow of the rooms, the width of the staircase, the natural light from the windows, as well as the illuminated skylights with exactly the effect that Frank Lloyd Wright had wanted.  

Some of the furniture was original too, designed by the architect to work in the space. I loved it all.  It felt silly to gush about it all after the initial look around. I wanted to pretend it was no big deal to eat pizza in a grand dining room or sit outside and talk on a porch with a cantilevered roof.  I can't gush to Frank, so I'm gushing to you. 

Thank you, Aberdeen, for letting me look at architecture and art in a completely different way. 

Ernest Hemingway and Lunch at Hemmingway's Bistro in Oak Park, Illinois

When Kim and I were in Oak Park, Illinois visiting our friend Aberdeen, we found ourselves surrounded by Hemingway.  First, Aberdeen took us to Hemmingway's Bistro for a French-inspired lunch.  Everything on the menu sounded delicious and my Crepes Gratinée filled with ham and Gruyére was as rich and delicious as it looks.  This bistro is the perfect place to sit and catch up with your friends over a long lunch.  Naturally, since we were eating at Hemmingway's Bistro (an extra "m" was added avoid any copyright issues), Ernest Hemingway himself came up in conversation. Kim said that Hemingway "the man-the myth-the legend" turns up everywhere she goes on vacation!

When she was in Spain, she felt that every place she visited, Hemingway had been there first.  In honor of unwittingly visiting his birth place (and the "Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park"), we climbed the steps of this grand museum...and headed straight for the gift shop. Kim wanted a souvenir.  

The woman running the shop told us a funny story about a customer asking if they carried "3XL" size t-shirts. When she found one in stock and handed over the giant shirt to her, she commented that she must have a very big man in her life.  "Oh no, she said, it's going to be a nightshirt for me.  I've always wanted to sleep with Hemingway."

So here we were in Oak Park, Illinois, three friends laughing and paling around like we were in high school all over again.  Priceless.