Meeting a Fellow Traveler Who Can Help You Save on Your Travels

A fellow traveler, Nathan Agin, made it to Philadelphia last week and we made arrangements to meet him in person finally. We’ve known Nathan for over a year and have chatted by phone and Skype and worked together on some projects. Since we’re still in South Jersey, we were able to meet in person in Haddonfield.

Joel D Canfield and Nathan Agin at Jersey Java and Tea
Joel D Canfield and Nathan Agin at Jersey Java and Tea

Nathan has been traveling for over a year nearly free or for very little. He can help you with phenomenal savings on travel. Check out his website for more details.

Morning Tea Routine – A Little Taste of Home

Joel and I are not coffee drinkers usually. We do have a morning cup of tea – every morning. It’s our daily morning routine. It was reinforced in 2005 when we went to Ireland and had Irish breakfast tea every morning. Actually throughout the day. Since we’ve come to Minnesota I’m finding I want tea throughout the day as well. It doesn’t seem to keep me up at night; so why not?

When we started traveling, we kept a few things to travel with. Included was our small blue teapot and our two favorite mugs for tea. The teapot is just the right size to make our two mugs of tea every morning. So wherever we go, we hope to find a tea kettle. Or at least a saucepan to heat water in. Then we find our tea. We used to have a favorite India store back in California where we could get bulk tea fairly inexpensively. Not only is that not convenient any more, we did get a bit tired of it.

Currently we’re drinking Tazo Awake tea. It’s a bit more expensive though. We’re always looking for a good robust tea to drink that’s not too expensive.

So no matter where we are, we have a little taste of home. We can feel right at home every morning drinking our mugs of tea and having our morning chat as is our routine.

What morning routine do you have? When you travel is there something you bring along to make you feel at home and in a routine?

Morning tea routine

Celestial Seasonings Tour and Leanin’ Tree Museum

Last Saturday we took a tour of Celestial Seasonings in Boulder Colorado. The tour is free. The factory wasn’t in production on the weekend and we’d love to go back and take the tour again when it is. We enjoyed the tea sampling before the tour. You can sample any of their 75 varieties. Joel’s favorite is Roastaroma. I especially enjoyed the Sleepytime Vanilla. And Fiona’s new favorite? Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride. These aren’t varieties we usually find in stores. So we bought a couple boxes each at their discounted price in the gift shop.

We also visited the Leanin’ Tree Museum only two blocks away. The sculpture garden was a lot of fun – especially since you could actually climb on a couple of them.

Things to Do in Boulder and Longmont Colorado

We’ll be house sitting for a couple in Longmont Colorado the week of April 5-12 2011. Our host sent us this list of things to do in the area. The items with an asterisk in front are things we definitely hope to do.

We’ll be going into Denver April 6 to visit Mrs. Parker’s Kindergarten class again. We may be meeting another traveling duo as well.

Boulder

*National Center for Atmospheric Research – free – 1850 Table Mesa Dr, Boulder. Free exhibits and tours; kids love it too. https://www2.ucar.edu/campus/mesa-laboratory

Boulder Falls – closed until May 1st but you can see it from a parking area 11 miles west of Boulder on Canyon Blvd.

Nederland– quaint little mountain town 16 miles west of Boulder on Canyon Blvd (119) http://www.nederlandchamber.org/

Dushanbe Teahouse – Rita says, “I’ve heard wonderful things about this place and can’t believe I haven’t been there yet!” http://www.boulderteahouse.com/

*Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art – free – 6055 Longbow Drive, Boulder http://www.leanintreemuseum.com/

*Celestial Seasonings – free tea tour. 4600 Sleepytime Dr, Boulder www.celestialseasonings.com/

Pearl Street Pedestrian (only) mall – between 11th and 15th streets. Street performers, musicians, shops, art galleries, restaurants. The best (free) place to park is north of the mall on Pine St or a side street near Pine; 14th, 15th, 16th, etc.

Falafel King – our favorite place to eat on the mall. excellent gyros and falafel plates. be sure to get the hummus and baba ganoush. between 13th and 14th streets.

Boulder Creek Path – 7 mile concrete path that parellels Boulder Creek. Best place to park is on Arapahoe Ave south of Eben G Fine Park. Be sure to always walk on the right; bicyclists use this path also and some a bit too fast. Walking west will go along Canyon Blvd, under Canyon Blvd then along Boulder Creek. Walking east will take you to the library (nice exhibits) and beyond.

Flagstaff Mountain – views as far as you can see from 6850 feet. Best pullouts: Panorama Point and Realization Point. Take Baseline Rd west.