This picture was taken at the then “Teddy Bears and Tea Cups” on Balboa Island. It’s a yearly event. My mother of “Teaching Tea” fame (now closed), on the left, was introduced to tea by her grandmother and my daughter, on the right (yes, that’s me in the middle) is learning quickly. She obviously enjoys the dress-up part!
The first time we visited two years ago (the shop was under different ownership), my daughter was dismayed when they put lemonade in her tea cup? “Where’s my tea?” she asked when she was only three. Granted, her favorite part of tea is adding the milk, and the sugar when I let her, but lemonade was not a suitable replacement. She’d been exposed to the real deal, just one example of my child-rearing philosophy gone well ;-).
I credit Teddy Bears and Tea Cups with getting one thing really right. They know their business is geared to children where adults have to be involved and they keep it their main focus. Their main shop is filled with treasures children love and adults in their lives can afford~good books, dress-up clothes, and personalized room decor. But it’s a shop for the tea lover as well with pots, cups, books, and accessories. They serve looseleaf tea, a difference from the previous owner, and it would seem the owner really loves to be in the kitchen because the food (especially the dessert~yum!~wish I could remember it) was very good.
Unfortunately, our server, a young girl, addressed our table the entire time as, “you guys”, my NUMBER ONE PET PEEVE (yes, I’m shouting) when I go out to tea. And though she had an apron on and great teen-age legs, she was in short-shorts(!). I know we were at the beach, but, sheesh.
Take time to notice the extensive doll collection behind me~wow! The section we sat in front of included most of the First Ladies.