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.