Then what happened?
Melissa and I are quite evidently still pining away for #OMGLondon (also known as ActualEngland™). So when I heard that a local inn was going to be serving a special seating of a proper tea this weekend, I jumped on it and booked us a table.
The Candleberry Inn is a lovely little B&B on historic Route 6A in Brewster, just one town over from my hometown of Dennis. I had been to one of their teas before -- they only do them a few times a year, on special holidays when they can be reasonably sure of enough warm bodies to make it worth their while -- so I knew that these were people who did the thing right.
We were not disappointed.
Nor did we leave hungry.
As soon as we sat down at our charming table for two, Melissa pointed out that my teacup was clearly placed there just for us:
You just gotta love a crest that features a unicorn rampant.
We ordered our tea, some sort of Russian blend (Caravan?) that was just as "smoky and exotic" as the menu advertised. Delightful with just a squeeze of lemon.
One clear sign of Doing It Right, of course, is the tea strainer. Nothing but proper loose leaf tea here, thank God.
First course was a bowl of amazing pumpkin bisque, accompanied by the best-tasting scones we've had since we were in Bath. Oh, Bath. (*whimper*)
Once the soups were consumed and cleared, our friendly hostess brought out the main event, a two-tiered porcelain affair, with light blue-and-white ribbons worked cunningly through the openwork borders, dripping with tea sandwiches, cheese, grapes, shortbread, and an abundance of sweets.
OMG yes.
Of course it wasn't long before we dropped whatever pretense we had to being ladylike and well behaved.
I mean, honestly. This is us we're talking about here.
We might have been laughing just a little bit too loud. But nobody seemed to mind.
(This might have had something to do with the fact that the room was empty except for us.)
Our waitress even offered to take our picture, which we promptly agreed to, since we've taken a fair bit of flack for practically never showing ourselves photographed together on any of our adventures. So here you go. We even took the silly grins off our faces and tried to look like grownups for a moment.
If we're lucky, they'll do it again for Christmas.
And if we're really lucky, we'll be enjoying ActualScones™ and ActualTea™ in ActualEngland™ again sooner rather than later.