Day two and three

After breakfast on day two, we drove to San Ignacio, a very small town with a swimming hole, a small church and a convenient place to park the bus to make dinner and have a campfire. We pulled up stakes and headed south again after eating.

The swimming hole in San Ignacio

The church in San Ignacio

The campfire in San Ignacio

Breakfast, day two

We got picked up in San Diego on Sunday and we crossed the border into Mexico. Our first stop was Ensenada where we wandered around the fish market, got a hematite anklet for Sherry and had some outstanding octopus. The art museum was open late, so we were able to go there,too. The bus left from Ensenada around 8 pm, headed south. I don't really know what beach we awoke on for breakfast, but it was on the Pacific and probably 8 hours drive south of Ensenada.

Playing football on the beach

The "Too Much Tequila" painting at the Ensenada art museum. 

Ready for Baja!

We are getting excited about our upcoming Baja trip and, unsurprisingly, Mike has put together a map for the trip. The live map with the daily itinerary is here at this link and a quick static summary is below. The fourth dot from the bottom is the place where we will be camping for 5 nights on a beach, and the bottom right dot is another 2 nights in a tent on a beach. With any luck, there will be a little beach shack with cold corona and no WiFi. 

Coffeeneuring #6 and 7- The Last Weekend

 Well, it is the last weekend for the Coffeeneuring challenge and I got in under the wire. Saturday was the "Pastry Xpo" in Merrifield. It was not my first choice, but when I rode out to Jammin Java, I found out that they don't serve coffee mid-afternoon. The cafe closes up while they get ready for the evening's musical gig, so I hit Pastry Xpo on the way home.

Pastry Xpo specializes in Illy coffee but they mostly are a pastry shop with a long long counter full of various pastries (not shown in the photo). They have the usual selection of lattes, cappuccino and espresso along with pastries and various middle-eastern food options. 

Sunday the 16th - "The Barn" in Lake Anna. Not really a coffee destination, but we were at the lake and there wasn't much else around.  Five of us rode about 5 miles from the house to the barn and back to the house. It was the only thing that got us out of the house that day because of the somewhat cold and windy weather over the weekend. 

Coffeeneuring trips 4 and 5

Saturday 8 November: Beanetics in Annandale

We have a local coffee roaster in Annandale about 2.5 miles from my house. I have purchased their coffee at the Falls Church Farmers Market, but had not gone there to try their espresso drinks or to buy coffee. I rode the porteur bike because I was on a multi-errand trip and needed the extra hauling capacity. 

 I got the vanilla latte and got a bag of their Timor coffee. Haven't tried the Timor yet because I have to finish the coffee I already have. Next week, Timor!

Sunday 9 November: Killer ESB in Old Town


Not sure how I got this photo - must have set my phone on some kind of high-saturation setting without realizing it. Anyway, it is a nice effect. The Indy Fab never looked so good.

Apparently, they have happy hour pricing at the bar for their Stumptown coffee.

Full menu. Loving the "double shots" part.

Cherry Pie, Killer Mocha and bike gloves.

The cherry pie is really dangerously good. Lots and lots of small cherries, not too sweet, just perfect. They get them from Dangerously Delicious - I may need to make a pilgrimage. Next year: Pieneurring.

Motorcycling in Northern California (no coffeeneuring)

Mike rented a BMW F800GS from Dubbleju rentals in San Francisco and headed north with Casey. We were heading to Leggett, where Highway 101 meets Highway 1.

Highway 1 along the coast mostly looks like this:

The last 25 miles to Leggett mostly look like this:

Day 1 - we rode up the highway from San Francisco to Cloverdale before heading to the coast. Highway 101 is pretty dull and we were both freezing. We stopped for breakfast and warm drinks after Cloverdale.

Day 2 - we decided to ride the entire coast down to San Francisco. It was a beautiful day and we had the time. I returned the bike 15 mins before it was due back. A day well spent. 

Austin Texas! (no coffeeneuring)

We went to Austin Texas on the 22nd - 26th of October. I had a 2-day work gig at the TNRIS conference and we stayed the weekend. For the first two nights, we stayed in a "Spartanette" trailer courtesy of Airbnb. The full listing for the Spartanette is at this site, and a photo is here:

The trailer was a lot of fun to stay in, but the neighborhood wasn't very close to the center of town so we had to drive to the various locations.

For Friday and Saturday nights, we stayed in a different Airbnb spot in the southern part of Austin.  Much closer to the fun things to do, but a bit of a weird space to live in. Picture a small art gallery with lots of paintings and a desk. Then put an inflatable bed in the corner. That about sums it up. Not too amenable to just hanging out, but a good location for exploring South Congress.

Sherry got us tickets to the Austin Film Festival and we went to a number of the showing. Each and every one had some kind of technical glitch but it was still worth going, just to hear the directors and actors discuss their roles and answer audience questions. Surprisingly good was a film called "Flutter" - watch the trailer. 

Otherwise, we walked around, ate good food, shopped at the little shops and enjoyed the warm-ish weather. 

Coffeeneuring #3 - Northside Social on 18 October

Today we went about 8 miles out to Northside Social in Clarendon.  We have gone past this place over and over and never really knew it was there. Funny how you don't really see things that you see every day. We usually go to the nearby Liberty Tavern which, apparently, is owned by the same people.

It was a windy day on Saturday, but the weather was sunny and nice so we sat outside and didn't care that our hair looked like this:

One vanilla latte, one cappuccino 1% milk 140 degrees. And a bran muffin. All were tasty and aesthetically pleasing.

The downstairs has the coffee bar and a few indoor seating areas and an outdoor seating area. Upstairs, there is a wine bar that starts serving at 5pm.

Sherry was sporting her new white fenders with the red reflective heart on them. 

Coffeeneuring #2 - 12 October

12 October saw Sherry and I riding out the W&OD trail to Caffe Amouri in Vienna. We had never been there before, even though it is only about 5 miles away. Their "Dutchess Blend" espresso was really nice - we ended up buying a pound of it. Not as dark as a traditional espresso blend but still dark enough to make a tasty cappuccino. The cafe was busy but not packed at 11 am on a Sunday. The line was reasonable and we got two seats at the bar since all of the table were occupied.

Friendly staff, very local, and the owner was there for at least part of the time we visited.

The Rock Lobster and the Betty Foy propped up against the wall. This is the burbs on a Sunday morning, so locks are optional.

The menu at the coffee bar. They have an extensive collection of tea and some nice muffins and pastries. 

One bran muffin, one cinnamon twist and a vanilla latte. Sherry's cappuccino was to the left of the photo. 

Coffeeneuring Challenge 2014 - Week #1

I decided to take part in the 2014 Coffeeneuring Challenge. You can read about it here. Essentially, it involves biking to seven different coffee shops in seven weekends.

5 October 2014

Dolcezza Coffee and Gelato shop in the Mosaic District. They have two locations, right next to one another. The first permanent location is the Gelato shop tucked in under the Target. They also temporarily took over the stand-alone building between Target and Anjelika for coffee and pastries.

The Mosaic farmer's market is on Sundays, so this was a two-fer trip. Actually, it was my Sunday morning workout, followed by coffee, followed by farmers market, followed by Mom's Organic Market but I don't think that four-fer is a word. Angelika, our favorite film center is in the background.

I had the (pictured) latte. Generally, I like vanilla lattes but they don't do flavors here. The person behind me ordered a Dulce de Leche latte - wish I had seen it on the menu. The sun was shining, and kids and dogs were playing in the fountain.

Great Allegheny Passage 13-16 September 2014

The GAP trail runs from Pittsburgh to Cumberland. It is an old railroad track that has been turned into a hiker/biker trail. The C&O Canal then runs from Cumberland to Washington DC and it was a mule path running alongside a canal. So, you can ride for 5 days from Pittsburgh to DC and not be on a road. Sherry and I were in a group of 6 friends and we did the GAP portion while our friends continued on to DC on the C&O Canal.



Since this is a point-to-point ride, the first challenge was getting 6 bikes to Pittsburgh. The other challenge was having a car ready for Sherry and I when we bailed out near Cumberland. We drove up to Pittsburgh on a Saturday morning, with our Rav4 packed with 6 bikes. Two on the outside, four in the inside. The plan was to drive up to Pittsburgh, spend a day fooling around, and then unload the bikes and drive to Frostburg where we would get picked up by the other four on their way to Pittsburgh. James had a one-way rental minivan from DC to Pittsburgh.

It all worked out and, by Sunday night, all 6 people and all 6 bikes were safely in Pittsburgh waiting to start the ride on Monday.

During our fun day in Pittsburgh, Sherry went to the National Aviary where she participated in the "Flamingo Encounter". Sherry being a Flamingo fan, couldn't wait. She got to spend about 30 minutes in a room with two flamingos and the trainer. They groomed her hair and her socks and did a little dance. Sherry was smiling for the next 24 hours.

 We then went to "Randyland" in the Mexican War Streets neighborhood. Mike is feeding Barbie to the rats and Sherry is with Randy himself.

Finally, it was time to ride. This is Mike's bike - the beast of burden. Sherry's bike is really small and it is hard to put any kind of luggage on it, so we packed really light. All of Mike's stuff is in the handlebar bag, All of Sherry's stuff is in the rear bag, and the group gear and repair kit is in the black bag in the middle. Extra tire is threaded through the rear spokes. 

Waiting in the lobby of the Sheraton for James to drop off the rental car. 

Here is the starting point - the confluence of the three rivers at Three Rivers Park in Pittsburgh. 

Haleh, Keith and Sherry at the start.

Near the end of Day 1 in the town of  Connellsville. 

Jan and James, the primary instigators of this trip.

The large and the small, heading down the trail.

Frontier Days Rodeo in Cheyenne

Mike was in Cheyenne for work today, and the Frontier Days Rodeo was going on so we both went to the rodeo after lunch. Neither of us had been to a rodeo before, so this was a lot of fun.

Sitting in the stands watching bull riding, bronco riding, calf roping, and calf wrestling.

Walking along one of the strips. 

Hiking in Boulder

A quick hike near the Flatirons after my Google meeting.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Hiked up from Bear Lake to Emerald Lake today.