4 – A Long Strange Trip

We stayed in a campground outside San Francisco proper. It was across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin, CA.  A nice convenient location near the city kind of place, that we somewhat botched up how we managed our transportation into and out of the city. On our next to the last day we finally got around to taking a tour bus around the city.  Unlike the tours we later went on in Portland, this tour was on a big huge bus that held about 30 people. The driver and tour guide was a treat, especially if you are a fan of comedian Larry Wilmore. He looked like him, he sounded like him and he had almost the exact same comic style as Larry Wilmore. I even asked him if he was related, to which he seemed to not know anything about Wilmore. I found it odd that no one recognized the similarities before.  One of the items the driver covered on our tour was Chinatown. One thing he mentioned was that you can get free tastings at many of the tea shops there. San Francisco’s Chinatown is crowded, being right near the downtown business area, shops and restaurants of all Asian styles were everywhere and wonderfully overwhelming.

Chinatown was our last tour stop, where we would get some dinner and replenish our lost tea stash.  Read about that here.  For four days, we enjoyed ourselves immensely but our brains were taxed to the point where our normal city guards were not totally down, but not fully engaged either. We sat down in the first free tea tasting tea shop we ran across. There were no other customers at the time, just an older woman who sat towards the back. The salesman’s mother perhaps? After a little chit-chat he asked us individually what kind of tea we liked. Shirley asked him about Matte tea and then proceeded to tell the salesman that I liked fruit flavored teas. A big mistake – that I knew right away was not going to be helpful. From there on in the salesman would preach to me that having anything in your tea that is not the tea leaf disqualifies that drink as tea. I do like black caffeinated teas that are blended with fruit but I knew not to say that; since I enjoy many types of tea and flavored is not my most frequent tea. I was looking only to replace my morning caffeinated tea, flavored or not. I don’t drink coffee, so my morning wake-up comes from tea. After hearing that I like fruit teas he would not let up lecturing me on what real tea is. Our minds mildly toasted from touring for four days straight, we walked out with over $100 worth of tea, a couple of tea pots, and no idea whether or not I got strong caffeine content in the teas I bought. As we walked around looking for a place to eat we stopped at a few shops where they had bags and bags of Black Tea, loose and sealed in 1 lb clear plastic bags. I asked the price and what type of tea, the lady running the store told me it was Pu-errh and cost $1.50.  I bought it and have been drinking it for the past month. Not super strong, but it does the morning wake-up trick, and it tastes good.

The teapots we bought were of a style I had already purchased for at home. The tea leaves lay loose and then it pours out the bottom after steeping. The tea comes out full flavored, fruit or no. Only the one I have at home steeps a full large mug, these only steep a half cup. And the one I opened broke mechanically in a week.  As I said our brains were foggy.

We went to a Chinese restaurant that the salesman suggested. I could have sworn that the same older lady from the tea shop was sitting there as well.

The moral of the story is not about shopping, but it is about salespeople. Some sales people will purposefully misdirect you, so you buy something you may like, but it may not be what you want and need.  Politicians are sales people, their product is themselves. We have all gotten misdirected from time to time; that’s life. When a politician’s entire career is built upon misdirection, then the teapot won’t serve your needs and the tea may not quite be what you want or need.