Tea For Two (or three?) at Cafe K'tizo

Last month I went to Illinois to visit my children for a week.  Every day we tried to get out and do something fun, even if it was just shopping or out to eat.  That is no easy feat with a eight month old!  

On Tuesday, we went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry during the day and at night we went to see "The Greatest Showman".  Even though I already saw the movie, my children had not, and I was more than happy to see it a second time because it's one of my favorite movies that came out this year.  Because we had such a full day on Tuesday we were pretty exhausted on Wednesday so we decided to do something a little more low-key and relaxing;  like visiting a local tea shop!

Cafe K'tizo is a posh and modern shop specializing in tea but they also offer coffees, soups, salads, sandwiches, sweets, and "breakfast bites".  

I really enjoyed the open, modern look of this tea shop.  It had two levels, with plenty of seating and also different types of seating ranging from comfortable lounge chairs to more standard tables and chairs.  

Isn't that tree picture just gorgeous?  Ashley and I stared at it for quite some time trying to figure out if we could ever to attempt to paint that on our own.  We decided we could, but neither one of us had space for it in our own homes.  haha!

And aren't these light fixtures fabulous?  You'll see more of Cafe K'tizo's unique light fixtures in the pictures below.  They remind me of what you would see in a IKEA store.

The menu was a beautiful display of colored and white chalk artistically written on a chalkboard framed in red wood trim.

Alethea and Ashley waited comfortably in one of the lounge chairs while I placed our order.

 I absolutely LOVED the red shelving unit on the side wall.  It held all the cafe's unique blend of teas.

They have a huge selection of fine looseleaf teas for sale and also tea ware.

I really enjoyed the open, bright, spacious dining area.  

The staff was very courteous, helpful, and nice.  One of the employees even offered to take a picture of the three of us.  That was so nice, as we don't get a lot of pictures of the three of us taken because one of us is always taking the picture ourselves.

Ashley ordered a Chai Tea Latte and I tried the "Pangea Celebration" at the recommendation of the server.  I am so glad I listened to her, because Ashley and I thought it was amazing.  Although Ashley enjoyed her Chai, she wished she had ordered a "Pangea Celebration" too.  It was so good!  It is a blend of black tea, rooibos, coconut, vanilla, and chocolate.  Yum!  What's not to love with those ingredients?

 But of course the company was my favorite part of going out for tea.  Any moment I have to snuggle with my sweet granddaughter Alethea is precious time to me!

Here are more pictures of the fun light fixtures in this tea shop.  I think Alethea enjoyed watching the fans spinning.

The cafe also had these fun pendant lights as well.

I bought some loose leaf tea to take home to make as well, but I've never been able to make it taste as good as the cup I had in the store!

Cafe K'tizo is open every day except Sunday starting at 8:00 a.m.  Be sure to check out their event schedule!  They have a lot of fun events where participants learn  about tea, art, world cultures, and people living in their own hometown.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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Cantigny Park

The number one tourist attraction in Wheaton, Illinois according to Trip Advisor is Cantigny Park.  And although I myself was a college student in Wheaton, and twenty some years later my daughter became a college student at Wheaton and later settled there, I had never been to Cantigny Park.  Ashley and Jason (my daughter and son-in-law) had been there many times for banquets and performances but they never ventured into the park.  The only part they ever saw was the building you see below, because that was where their events were held.

But now it was Memorial Day weekend, and we were looking for something patriotic to do.  We attended the Wheaton Memorial Day parade in the morning (which was wonderful!) but needed something else to do to fill our day.  So I went on Trip Advisor and googled "Things to do in Wheaton, Illinois" and Cantigny Park came up.  It said they had a war museum and a tank park in addition to flower gardens.  Perfect!  What better thing to do on Memorial Day?

Unfortunately when we pulled up to the gate to pay our admission we were informed that both the war museum and tank park were closed for renovation.    We were so disappointed.  That's what my husband was looking forward to seeing the most...especially on Memorial Day!  We almost turned our car around and left, but we decided to at least see the gardens, and I am so glad we did!

Side View of The Robert R. McCormick Museum (mansion)

Cantigny Park is a 500 acre park that includes gardens, a 27-hole golf course, a picnic grove, playground (both areas closed as part of five year renovation project), hiking paths, two museums, a tank park,  restaurants, and a gift shop.  The park is the former estate of Joseph Medill and his grandson Colonel Robert R. McGormick , publishers of The Global Tribune.

We did not stop and spend any time at the visitor's center where I later found out there is a short movie you can watch to find out more about the history of the park.  But I did  talk to an employee who informed me that there are free tours of the Medill/McGormick mansion.  She said tickets are on a first come/first serve basis and that we should hurry there first...so we did!

Front View of The Robert R. McCormick Museum (mansion)

We missed the first tour of the mansion, but we did get tickets for the next tour.  No photography was allowed inside the home so unfortunately I can only show you pictures of the outside.  The tour began with a movie about the life of the owners and the history of the mansion and property.  Then we took an hour long guided tour of the 35 room mansion.  We saw three floors, all decorated and filled with artifacts of the time period and/or the family.

It was a beautiful home, and I'm so happy we got to see it.  I love to tour historic homes, and this one was very, very informative.

Before the estate was open to the public, there was a long tree lined road that led to the house, and this water feature was located at the end of that street.

Before and after the mansion tour, we visited the gardens.  It was late May in Illinois so the gardens were not in full bloom, but there was still plenty of color and interest.  

Pictured below is the Rose Garden in the foreground and the Idea Garden in the background.

This trio of urns was in the center of the Rose Garden.  They made the urns into a unique, attractive water feature.  The Prairie Garden can be seen behind the water feature.

They had the hugest Allium flowers in the Cantigny Gardens.  Mine only grow about half this size!

The Idea Garden is the place to get...what else?  IDEAS for your own garden.  I liked the height and interest this metal structure created in this small garden.  I also liked the pergola in the background.  I've always wanted a pergola in my yard!

Siberian Iris and Sage were in bloom when we were visiting.

 In the Idea Garden was a lovely patio sitting area with benches and pretty pots.

 There was a lovely pergola with benches on the edge of the rose garden so visitors could sit in the shade and enjoy the beauty.

Even though the roses weren't big or in full bloom yet, they still had a lot of beautiful flowers!

There was also a small pond garden in the Idea Garden.

A yellow flower was in bloom in the Prairie Garden when we were there.  Isn't it gorgeous?  I wish I could grow a prairie garden in my yard, but every time I try it just ends up getting filled with weeds!  I love this!  So low maintenance and so pretty!

This is the Octagon Garden.  At the center of this eight sided garden is a Weeping Crab Apple.  This garden changes with the seasons.  Spring brings 7,500 spring bulbs, summer brings annuals, and in the fall mums and kale are the stars of the show!

Throughout the gardens were scattered these fun indoor/outdoor furniture pieces.  Yes, they are meant to sit on!  Their bright colors and fun shapes really added a lot of fun interest to the gardens.  Behind the "couch" is the Dry land Garden.

There was a fun interactive fountain in the Formal Gardens that the kids loved to play in.  The Visitor's Center can be seen in the background.

My favorite gardens were the shady paths.  I enjoyed the solitude and the shelter from the sun.  It also reminded me of my own woodland garden back home.  These gardens were filled with a variety of shade loving plants and bushes and a large assortment of trees.

There were always plenty of places to sit and relax throughout the gardens.  And thank goodness, cause there was a lot to see so it felt good to sit and rest awhile!

We discovered this horse topiary in front of the mansion.  I had my son stand next to it to give you an idea of the scale.  Isn't it amazing?

This is the view outside of the mansion.  It's located on the side of the mansion, and you walk down this massive series of stairs to reach it (pictured in second picture above).

After spending a hour taking the mansion tour and a couple of hours walking the gardens we were exhausted and hungry.  Although there is a restaurant located on the property we had all agreed we had seen everything that was open in the park so we decided to leave and get some lunch elsewhere.  I said to my husband, "I know it was disappointing that the war museum and tank park weren't open, but I don't think we would have had the time or the stamina to see everything in one day anyway!"  So we felt better about our visit to Cantigny after that realization.  The First Division Museum (i.e. war museum) is scheduled to re-open August 26 2017.  Other parts of the park will still be closed and not open to the public for five years as they are under-going a revitalization project.  I said to my family, "Ok, let's remember on Alethea's fifth birthday to come and visit this park again!"  We all laughed as that seems an eternity away!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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Illinois Trip Odds and Ends

This is the final post of a travel series of a week I spent in Illinois to spend time with my children.  To start at the beginning go HERE.  The rest of the posts are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Once a year I leave my husband behind and I go to visit my children for a week or two.  It's my way of spending more quality time with the kids and getting out of the house during our long Wisconsin winters.  Hubby would come with, but someone has to stay home and feed the wood stove or else our house would freeze.

I've covered all the main attractions we visited in Illinois in the posts listed above.  In seven days I visited two conservatories, a zoo, downtown Chicago, several small towns, and I did a lot of shopping!   However, we did a lot of little things too so I decided to wrap them all up in this "Odds and Ends" post.

The highlight of my week was getting to see both my children perform.  They are both musicians.  Jordan plays the drums and Ashley sings;  although they both play other instruments too.  On Sunday morning Jordan played in his church's worship service.  I really enjoyed the music.  They took a lot of old hymns and re-worked them to make the music more modern.  Jordan has to play in a box in this church, which he doesn't like, but he loves the church and playing on the worship team.

That night my daughter had a gig in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  She was asked to sing for a group of believers who miss traditional worship so they gather together once a month to sing hymns.  I fall kind of in-between traditional worship and the latest worship trends, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this service.  Of course, the sheer beauty of Ashley's voice contributed enormously to the service, but what really struck me was how the people worshipped.  They all sang so loudly and lifted their hands to praise God.  It was such a beautiful experience.

This is Ashley just moments before the service began.

Ashley had a rehearsal prior to the service, so while she was rehearsing I went shopping!  I found the cutest little cookie shop I ever did see!  It was the week after Valentine's Day so they had a lot of cookies decorated for Valentine's Day and also Winter Cookies.

Aren't these fun?  They look so delicious, but I don't know if I could dare bite into them!  They are too pretty to eat!

On Tuesday Ashley had a doctor appointment to find out the sex of her baby (it's a girl!).  The appointment lasted all morning, so we didn't have a whole lot of sight-seeing time between her doctor appointment and when she had to go teach voice lessons.  So we stopped in St. Charles for a little bit, then we headed to Wheaton so I could enjoy a cup of coffee from a quirky, fun coffee shop.

At River City Roasters I finally had my first fancy latte artwork!  It was so fun receiving such a pretty cup of coffee;  and it was the best cup of coffee I ever had in my life!  I can't wait to go back and get more!

The weather was in the seventies that day, so we were able to sit outside and enjoy our brew.  Wheaton is such a pretty little town.  It has the cutest shops with brick paved roads.

Ashley had to teach a few voice lessons that afternoon in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, so I went with her.  I walked around the cute little town just enjoying the beautiful weather and the lovely town.

This tiny, adorable candy house is in Glen Ellyn.  I couldn't believe how small it was!

Thursday and Friday were shopping days.  I don't have a lot of great stores where I live, so whenever I travel, I love to shop.  We went to my favorite outdoor mall in the area (Oakbrook Center) and I was so happy to see an Altar'd State store.  The first and only time I ever saw one was when my husband and I went to The Mall of America last Christmas.  If you never heard of this store before, you really must visit one.  They are the most beautiful aesthetically pleasing stores and I love their merchandise.  They sell Christian home decor and jewelry, and gorgeous fashion.  They also play Christian music while you shop.  And be sure to check out their dressing rooms while you're there:  they are so luxurious!  They also have a prayer book where you can stop and write in a prayer request and their staff will take time to pray over those requests.  Isn't that wonderful?

On Friday winter returned and our summer February weather ended. :(  After spending the day shopping for items for my new master bedroom, we headed back to downtown Wheaton for some macaroons.  They don't sell macaroons in my neck of the woods, so I love to visit macaroon bakeries when I travel.

Look at all these yummy desserts!

This bakery looked like it belonged in a French town.  It was so cute!

We couldn't decide what flavor to get, so we got one of each.  The raspberry macaroons were our favorite.

And that concludes my Illinois Travel Series.  I will be taking a blogging break starting this Saturday because I am headed to Myrtle Beach and Charleston, SC with my hubby.  You can be sure I will blogging all about it when I return!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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