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I was contacted quite a few months ago about writing a review for a gift site. And not just any gift site of things and doodads but a gift site of experiences, of adventure. Funny thing is I had purchased one of these Xperience Days, once before for a friend of ours who was moving from the Bay area to Seattle. She was a foodie and was really hard to buy presents for - I was always fearing either she already had it - or she wouldn't like what I would get her and sometimes, there are those that a gift card is just not the same and sort of lame. You know, those types of people? who like to make things and are cool? Crafty type of people? Yeah, she was one of those..bless her ;) Anyway, so since I knew she was leaving SF - I thought heck, why not get her the Chinatown food tour experience..and she loved it. At first I thought, man this could be lame you know? Anyway, fast forward to a few months ago and I had already forgotten about it..but so glad Xperience Days contacted me, so I can experience it for myself! I know, how selfish of me...

At first I had signed up for a Sonoma cooking class but had to reschedule due to a photography gig on the date of the class. Total bummer because I was looking forward to it. Anyway, so I wasn't able to reschedule the same class and had to settle for a chocolate tasting tour of SF instead..Real bummer right? (in reality I'm not one for sweets so..I wasn't too excited about it..I know, I'm weird). The plan was, it would be a nice thing that me and the hubs could do together - just for us - you know, like a date - when was the last time that happened? Well, it still didn't happen because our youngest had a bad cough the previous day so we had to keep her home from daycare an additional day (so we could infect the rest of the tour goers - of course!) and so we had to take her with us. BUT, it was pretty freakin awesome and a good thing that the tour allowed children..I don't think we could have done it with both kids though. My 4 year old would have been quite disruptive and demanding (to eat all of the chocolates and then be on a super sugar rush - imagine this - at 0:43 seconds).

It was a wonderful day to explore the city and even though I had lived in SF for at least a decade (though now we live in the East Bay) I learned a few things about chocolates (of course) and San Francisco, and got to experience some pretty neat stuff. Oh and taste some really yummy chocolates too! (I actually did not regret choosing the chocolate tour...chocolate is indeed yummy..high quality chocolates even more so)

The chocolate tour itself was conducted by Gourmet Walking Tours - check out their blog here. On the tour we learned about the process of how chocolate becomes the tasty treat we eat. From the raw cacao to the bar or chocolate product used to bake and make other things out of..It reminded me of how coffee is made..from the roasting process to the serving of coffee process. So many choices and so many ways to do it - from different origins as well as the amount..well especially for the chocolates. I am sure you have now seen the percentage of cacao labeled right on the bar itself. The higher the percentage, the more coca bean there is and hence a higher quality and less sugar and other sweet fillers (so less sweet the higher you go).

We were taught the following ways to discern chocolates and I will probably never eat chocolate the way I used to..as they say to enjoy life, you need to stop and smell the roses...well, chocolates that is..

First things first, look at it - is it shiny, textured or smooth?...then snap - and listen to that snap of the chocolate....take a bit of it and sort of move it from the top of your tongue and side to side - in order to you know - get your taste buds, um..tasting..  obviously you can smell it too - just like wine and coffee..(but I think, all in moderation - snap it, eat it and enjoy it - that was my motto for the day). With all our senses - you can decipher how the chocolate was tempered (a clean snap for instance yields a well tempered high quality chocolate bar). It was pretty neat to get into it and visit just a handful of places - that some I probably wouldn't have even ventured to..but at the end of the day, we were pretty much good on chocolates! (except when the last place we visited mentioned a savory treat - a smoked blue cheese chocolate - WHAT?! - I had to buy it!)

Here are the following stops we made:

Recchiuti at the Ferry Building -

I loved their caramel sea salt chocolate, it had a fancy french name you know - that french sea salt. It had a smokey flavor - more so than other caramels - which is their signature. This is one of their best sellers.

La Cocina, also at the Ferry Building - I love this company, so much so that I have donated funds a few times before. They help immigrant women and minorities who have dreams of opening a restaurant or start somewhere and do something in the food industry by providing them a commercial kitchen, industry technical assistance and access to opportunities to have their dreams realized.

New Tree Cafe - where we had some delicious subtle chocolate brownies - the Belgian Walnut Brownie (my fave since I'm not a total sweets person. I had two of these moist yet dry - i know that doesn't make sense, right? - desserts)

Fog City News - Yes, a newspaper stand..so strange because I have been there before and just never thought it was unusual - that they have over 200 varieties of chocolates amongst their international papers and beverages..I think I used to buy export a's here before I started rolling my own cigarettes (this was a very very long time ago, obviously..I've got kids now..so no, I don't smoke). We tasted some great offerings here too. Definitely a place to buy some gifts while you are at it..

Leonidas Chocolates at the Crocker Galleria - were we sipped some delicious hot chocolate - and where my daughter woke up - and had some too. The entire rest of our experience, she was asleep! We got to choose two truffles (or actually it was just one, but I chose for my hubby) - I chose an earl grey and a coffee one - :)

Teuscher Chocolates off of Sutter Street - What made these famous recently (was it recently?) is Oprah's rave reviews of their now best selling Champagne Truffles.

Our last stop was CocoaBella - where I had to buy the smokey blue cheese chocolate - I loved it :)

If I wrote everything about this wonderful Xperience Day treat, I would need to write three more posts, and I ain't got time for that..besides it would be boring - it's better to actually go and experience it yourself. No, really. I recommend it. It was a nice day spent with my husband and my daughter exploring the city and our taste buds. There are several experiences from nearly every metropolitan city to choose from, from the totally adventurous to the more zen. Check them out this holiday season (and of course birthdays and anniversaries too!)

disclaimer: I received a free experience in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, so your experience may vary.

More photos will be posted soon!

Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to wear prescription eyeglasses. But then again, I was also the kid who wanted to wear a retainer. Yeah, I don't know why either (I used to bend paperclips into shape as to pretend that I had a retainer. I thought it was cool! did I mention I'm weird?)

I was also the last in my family to ever need to wear glasses and every time in school when we had those eye tests, I would fudge it a little so that I could get a prescription for glasses. It turns out it doesn't work that way. Finally, in my junior or senior year in High school, I passed, I mean failed that test and got a prescription! I know, I am totally a nerd because I was excited, I can still feel the grin on my face. Now, I was only to wear my glasses only when I needed to - but I felt I NEEDED to wear them ALL OF THE TIME.

Fast forward to now and well, now I really have to wear my glasses. all of the time. And if you are a scatter brained person like me, I lose my glasses, misplace them or, um unintentionally and accidentally break them. And let's face it prescription glasses are expensive. But nowadays, you can find affordable AND stylish glasses online! This is where GlassesUSA.com comes in. I was super duper excited when they contacted me to do a review of their site/product/company! They offered me a gift certificate towards a new pair of glasses, for me to try out.

The hardest part of this was, which glasses should I get? They have a large selection and so, I of course ended up liking a good handful! Even if you don't wear prescription glasses, you can order designer sunglasses or non prescription frames for at least half the retail price.

I know that the best part about getting a new pair of glasses, is seeing how you'll look with them. Which is why they have this nifty tool on their site called the virtual mirror tool where you can "try on" a pair of glasses by uploading a photo of yourself and the tool will place it so you can check your hot self out with a potential frames contender:

They also have a way to narrow your search, if you know what you like or what you are looking for by creating filters. Like choosing only plastic frames, women's frames, and a shape, like cat eye frames, as well as color, that way it isn't so overwhelming.

So what did I pick? Ever since stumbling onto Keiko Lynn's site (a fashion/makeup blogger) a while back, I had been coveting her pair of cat eye glasses, which were a fancy name brand pair,, which meant I could never afford them. And so began my search to find something close and a fraction of the cost. I did find some on other online glasses "shops" and they were pretty cheap, but unfortunately, they also happened to look pretty cheap. So after awhile I just gave up and forgot about them. but when this opportunity with GlassesUSA came up - I was on the hunt again!- With their site it was easy because like I said, you can filter your search, and bam - there they were. The cat eye glasses that were pretty close to the ones I have been coveting:



So here is my review (a score of 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest):

Ordering - 8/10:

I did have a couple of issues when I finally made my selection and completed everything, which was easy enough. But then I got to paying, which wasn't the problem but by choosing the paypal option, it wasn't letting me choose the shipping method which was required to complete the process - and when I would try and edit, it would revert back to paypal but there was no shipping method - but I also could have been totally an idiot and too excited to carefully look at the page to see if and where there was anywhere else to choose the shipping method option. Not to worry, I just used the Amazon Payment method and that worked out great. They have a chat feature so, if I really had a problem, they were only one click away to resolve it. I love it when companies have the live chat feature - makes dealing with issues, if one comes up, a breeze. After the purchase,  I received a few emails right away letting me know of my order and it's progress.

Delivery - 10/10:

I ordered my glasses on Feb. 4th. and I received my glasses on Feb. 7th! That is a 3 day turnaround people! I didn't order any special or expedited shipping. Did I mention it's free shipping?? I am in CA and the ship tag states it came from NY. I have ordered from other online retailers and this is the fastest turnaround I've ever experienced. From the other two retailers, it was 10 days and over 2 weeks respectively.

Frames (build quality) - 10/10:

Sturdy and look/feel expensive  and I have another set of "cheap" frames to compare this to and these Muse frames I selected are not cheap looking. They look great.

Lens - N/A: I can't thoroughly measure this quite yet as this is the first day of me wearing them. So far so good though. No glare. I didn't get any extra coatings (I think you do get some sort of standard though) though and I kind of wish I got the UV coat - tsk tsk on my part.

Rx - 8/10: So far, it's good - I know I was the one to actually fill in the Rx (I had had my eyes tested less than a year ago, so had my RX from that - always ask for your Rx! They can't keep that from you!). It usually takes me a few days to get used to the new glasses/Rx

Case - 10/10:

Matte Black which is nice and sturdy! And it comes with a more soft/texturized cloth then I am used to but works perfectly.

Other - I did wish that they had a couple of things. 1) on their site, I wish they had measurements on the picture of glasses somewhere - instead of just the numbers and then the info link that will pop up in another window. I think detailing it on the page helps. Of course, the virtual mirror tool helps to alleviate the worry of not having it fit or what not, but I would still like the measurements addressed with the image of the frames. 2) I would of appreciated an invoice/order info/small note to be included in my delivery of my glasses that said a little something of, not only here are your glasses but hey here are your glasses (with the info you used to order the rx with), please inspect them carefully and if you have any problems or questions, please contact us here...or something of that sort. But perhaps, that's just too costly of a thing..but I think it would help - or even a little notecard that was business card sized would give the same effect. Anyway, just my two cents.

UPDATE: Looking at other bloggers who have reviewed GlassesUSA, apparently they DO provide you with this sort of info on a card that is included with your order - inside the clear pocket that has your cleaning cloth - except - I never got one. I mean I received the cloth and the glasses case but no card with my rx, like this blogger did. Maybe in my excitement I simply misplaced it?? I have no idea.

 Oh, so you want to see what the frames look like on lil ol me? Right, right and viola-my very own cat eye frames! What do you think?

Ok, this is probably how I really look! ;)

I really like them but I thought they may be too small for my face, which saddened me a bit because I really wanted to like these! Good thing, my social networking peeps told me otherwise. So, it's a keeper! But even if I had to return it, it would have been fine too. GlassesUSA has an easy enough money back guarantee.

With GlassesUSA, not only will you get some good looking frames, you'll get:

• 110% lowest price guarantee and a 100% satisfaction guarantee (they offer a 30 day money back guarantee plus a one year warranty!)
• A generous refer-a-friend program (You can get $30 for each first purchase a referred friend makes - and use the $30 towards your next pair of glasses)
• A Facebook page and Twitter feed with exclusive discounts for fans

If you haven't noticed the changes on this blog, well thank you. It means you may be new here. And I appreciate you checking us out. But if you aren't new, then you know about my recent decision on opening up this blog to sponsors and ads (I know, I know). There is a new ad up over on the right side bar. A paid ad, yes. Something I believe in? Yeah, because I believe in a good bargain and I also support user driven applications (such as waze - have you checked them out yet? It is a free GPS navigation system that is user driven. YES, free - you iphone 5 users with the glitchy apple maps - check them out! *nope, not a paid post. we just use it a lot). 

So, I would like to welcome and thank my new advertiser, Coupons by Answers.com.

From their website:

 "Coupons by Answers.com is the newest way for consumers to find and share the latest deals from the most popular online stores. We've brought our community-based Q&A expertise to the deal hunting experience to help people like you find the best bargains on the web. On Coupons you'll find everything from the most popular stores to niche retailers, all offering incentives to get you to shop on their sites.."

The widget is  similar to a search engine and is easy to use. Just type in a store name you are looking to get deals on and click the magnifying glass or hit enter - it will  open up another window and take you to their site. You can use this site to look for those promo codes you need in order to get in those last discounts when you shop online (this is what I usually end up doing when I see a site that has a box for a promo code to enter). 

Disclosure of Material Connection: This post is brought to you by Coupons by Answers.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”.