Afternoon tea – Any Second Now

If you’re like me, you’ve waited until the absolute last-minute to get your gift list together for the Christmas Holiday. I do it every year, and I don’t know if I’ll ever learn to be proactive and do it earlier.

So what I’ve done is found some really cool gift ideas that are a bit outside of the norm, and only one requires actual gift wrap. Cheers and happy shopping!

Caffeine Crawl 2015 Tickets

The Caffeine Crawl takes place January 23-24 2015, and showcases 16 different coffee houses in San Diego. Tickets range from $23-30 per route, but it looks like you get some goodies along with your tickets. This is a great gift for the coffee lover in your life!

Tickets include an event packet with Crawl goodies and souvenirs, admittance to all stops on your selected route which includes a drink or chocolate sample provided and determined by each shop, and short, educational presentation.

Afternoon Tea at Mary’s English Kitchen

I had such a wonderful time during my own afternoon tea experience at Harrods (original post here), so I have been looking for another experience to match it. When Katie from the blog La Jolla Mom mentioned Mary’s English Kitchen in La Jolla, I thought about getting that as a gift for me and my girlfriends as a great afternoon out. If you want to do the same, you can call them at (858) 263-4614 to inquire about gift certificates or to make a reservation.

(Photo courtesy of Yelp!)

ClassPass Gift Cards

Recently, I was able to take part in a month membership to ClassPass (post here), where one month’s membership gets you unlimited access to participating exercise studios in the San Diego area. If you have someone in your life who would like to do the same, gift cards are available for one class, a one month membership or three-month membership. Click on the link for details! ClassPass Gifting

Duty Free City Gift Certificates

After I won my Furla bag from Duty Free City and attended their grand opening (posts here and here), I truly feel it’s a wonderful place to spend a day with family or friends because it’s not just about the shopping, but the experience. Gift certificates are available to give that experience to someone you love by calling (619) 621-2600.

The Sand Cloud Beach Towel

Finally, the only gift in my little gift guide that may need actual wrapping paper: The Sand Cloud beach towel. When I first posted about this fantastic little beach blanket/towel (post here), it was merely a start-up. Now they have a full-blown shop where you can purchase one for $32.50 and they come in six cool colors. I have two of them myself: one in Ocean Blue and the Mint Green one pictured above. Stay tuned…I may have a surprise in the new year for you regarding Sand Cloud!

In the previous two times I had been to London, it had not occurred to me to have formal tea while out there. The first time I had travelled to London was on my honeymoon, and since that was my first time there, I wanted to take in all of the sights with my new husband. Our second time out in London was to watch the San Diego Chargers vs the New Orleans Saints in the NFL International Series at Wembley Stadium, and afternoon tea just didn’t fall in line with that kind of trip (plus, I was five months pregnant at the time). So this trip to London seemed like the perfect time to fit in an afternoon tea with my best friend. I booked our tea at Harrods, which actually allowed us time to spend the early afternoon shopping beforehand.

Prim and proper on the Tube ride to Knightsbridge (the stop at Harrods).

There are 32 restaurants/cafes in Harrods. Because there was no way that we could visit all of these eateries during our visit, we played it by ear for where we would go, other than our scheduled visit to The Georgian. We first visited the famous Harrods’ Food Hall to grab lunch. I have been to Harrods before and have visited the Food Hall, but my husband and I never actually ate there. Janice and I each had a hand-carved roast beef sandwich, but I added English mustard to mine. We also had fresh juices and a dessert. Janice had the Creme Brule, and I had an oh-so-sweet caramel popcorn cupcake (it has a dollop of caramel in the middle). It was quite the treat!

A close up of our desserts, yum!

After a bit of shopping down the street at Topshop (where I bought the pants from the previous post) and a couple of souvenir shops, we headed back to Harrods to have our tea at The Georgian Restaurant at 4pm. The restaurant is on the fourth floor and is such a beautiful space that I could imagine someone having a wedding there. We were decked out in pretty dresses for the occasion, although we did not don any hats. Our menu consisted of freshly made sandwiches, home-baked English scones, a selection of tea pastries, and of course, our teas (the full menu can be viewed here). I can’t recall what Janice had, but I had my standard Earl Grey. It was quite the elegant affair, and I’m glad to have finally had the chance to experience afternoon tea in this way. This is definitely something I would like to repeat again when next in London!

After our wonderful afternoon tea experience, we shopped a bit more (are you surprised?). One of the floors was labeled “Christmas”, so we thought it would be just a few bobbles and ornaments as an introduction to the holiday season. To our surprise, it was Christmas in August at Harrods and nearly an entire floor was dedicated to the occasion. After that, we did our obligatory souvenir shopping, buying up lots of little trinkets with the Harrods name. We then decided to have a little bit of silly fun in the toy section.

We ended our fantastic Harrods experience at the Cafe Godiva, on the second floor. Yes, you read it right, there is a whole cafe dedicated to Godiva chocolate. Janice and I had what’s called a Chilled Chocolixir, which is described as “an icy blend of chocolate ganache, topped with layers of whipped cream.” I ordered the white chocolate one and Janice got the milk chocolate version (full menu can be viewed here). It was a delicious way to end our wonderful, yet busy day at Harrods. Next post: a stroll along the Thames river that included trips to Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace.

All photos were by Janice Gutana except for photos 3, 4 and 14, which were taken by me, using an iPhone (photo collages are counted as one photo).