Coffeeneuring 2013 Re-Cap

Coffeeneuring 2013 - COMPLETE!

Eclectic (advanced metrics) statistics:

- 4 States, 1 Federal District

- 2 Coffeeshops-without-walls

- 4 'Pour Over' style drip coffee's

- 2 Americano's

- 3 New-to-me Coffee Shop's

- ~45 miles

- 4 different bikes

What a cool challenge, particularly fun reading about other people all over the Country and World doing the same thing.  Very hearty thanks and congratulations to Mary over at Chasing Mailboxes for making this happen!

#1 - Lakeside Coffeeshop without walls

1. Lake Waccamaw, NC
2. 10/12-10/14, #coffeeneuring on 10/14
3. Dunkin Donuts ground coffee, pour-over style, alcohol stove
4. Forgetful morning ride on the Atlantis, and I rode on a dock... :)
5. 4.2 miles

#2 Chicago Divvy Ride-Around

1. Chicago, IL
2. 10/20
3. Reneissance Marriot, Chicago Downtown - Black Coffee, drip... not bad but not noteworthy
4. Most landmarks in a new-to-me city seen during Coffeeneuring
5. 7.5 miles

#3 Camarillo Pour Over

1. Camarillo, CA
2. 10/25, a day of personal leave from work
3. element coffee, pour over house blend, could have been better
4. Single speed suburban ride.
5. 6.25 miles

#4 Back to the Commonwealth - ME Swings

1. Del Ray (Alexandria), VA
2. 10/28, a day of personal leave from work
3. Swings Coffee, Pour Over, Sumatra something.... dark and nutty, very smooth
4. Welcome back ride around the neighborhood - cool decorations abound for Haloween
5. 2 miles

#5 Yards Park Thermos Coffee

1. Yards Park, SE Washington DC
2. 11/3
3. Coffeeshop-without-walls, ME Swing 'MESCO' blend, hand ground, pour over, served from a thermos
4. One of my favorite parts of my old neighborhood, great view of the Anacostia River and interesting architecture/landscaping.
5.  16.8 miles

#6 Comfy Couch Coffeeneuring

1.  Old Town Alexandria, VA
2. 11/9
3. Killer ESP, Americano (to stay)
4. Right on King St, new to me but a place with great soul and presence
5.  4.9 miles

#7 We end at the beginning - Misha's

1.  Old Town Alexandria, VA
2. 11/11
3. Misha's Coffee, Americano (to stay), most of Misha's coffee is a bit dark/heavy for my tastes these days but it is a well crafted cup
4. Right on King St
5.  4.9 miles

Coffeeneuring #7 - Misha's in Old Town

And in the 11th hour... :)  no not really, more like the 9th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month.... the 2013 Coffeeneuring Challenge was complete!

The Trek has been to Misha's many times!

In a near carbon-copy of the actual cycling route as #6 I returned to King St in Old Town Alexandria for my final entry at Misha's coffee roasters.  This is really fitting as Misha's and cycling have been linked for me now nearly a year.  Bottom line is it has been a destination at least every other week for me to meet my friend and bike sensai Wes 'halfway' before work during the week.  It was halfway when I lived in the Navy Yard neighborhood, about 8 miles for each of us...  back then the 16 mile roundtrip was pushing the limits of my biking endurance and definitely driving earlier wake-ups than ever before.  Since March I've had the luxury of a short 2.5ish mile ride from Del Ray and the proximity has made my timeliness suffer.  But Wes is a great sport and we are actually meeting up there tomorrow for a cup (and then I'll go get a second cup at the Friday Morning Coffee Club downtown at ME Swings).

Coffee with my peeps...

What a fun challenge, I'm so happy to have participated.  I'll be working on a consolidated 7 stop post here soon!  Happy Riding!

1.  Old Town Alexandria, VA
2. 11/11
3. Misha's Coffee, Americano (to stay), most of Misha's coffee is a bit dark/heavy for my tastes these days but it is a well crafted cup
4. Right on King St
5.  4.9 miles

Coffeeneuring #6 - Old Town - Killer ESP

Noitice the sleeve to the right of the stem... brand new set of Nitto Noodle bars and I scratched the crap out of them with this older Nitto Technomic stem. Anyone have a secret for installing?

I hate to rave about a place, but a year from now.... ESP is what I'll remember first from my Coffeeneuring adventures.  It's not just the coffee (the Americano was excellent), I love the ambiance, the decor... the whole package!  If you like chill, eclectic coffee houses with some comfy couches definitely check it out!

King St, Alexandria.... does it get better for a downtown area?

 I wish the hours at ESP were a bit earlier in the opening, but just as well the hours dictate it will be an occasional weekend indulgence rather than a regular occurance.  I can't wait to try their Sorbet and Pie, all I can vouch for at this point is a very well crafted espresso based americano.

Just to orient you to what we're dealing with in Killer ESP, look at all those tea options!

Happiness

Headed home, fall colors on Dewitt Ave in Del Ray

Today's coffeeneuring jaunt was pretty short, under 5 miles round trip to King St in Old Town Alexandria.  Killer ESP had been on my radar for a while as it is just up the street from Misha's, where I meet my buddy Wes very regularly on weekday mornings for a pre-work coffee.  Very understated storefront, easy to miss.  Their coffee is from 'stumptown' which I understand to be well known and thought of in the Portland area.

1.  Old Town Alexandria, VA
2. 11/9
3. Killer ESP, Americano (to stay)
4. Right on King St, new to me but a place with great soul and presence
5.  4.9 miles

Coffeeneuring #5 - Yards Park, SE DC - Coffeeshop without walls!

Brisk morning in DC and my second Coffeshop-without-walls attempt.  This time I opted for simplified logistics and brewed the coffee at home for service out of my thermos.  I'm pretty happy with this setup, the thermos which I picked up at a yard sale keeps coffee warm for at least an hour.

I had a half capfull before setting out which was a great shot in the arm, and helped with the initial moments as I warmed up.  Unlike most of my other coffeeneuring trips this was a respectable 16.8 mile round trip journey.  I'll let the photo's do the rest of the work...

More pour over coffee, the nalgene bottle was just an intermediate container till I got the coffee loaded into my thermos

I'm really enjoying the 'craft' of the pour over brewing

My return home took me down the National Mall and I got this fantastic view of the Monument

The ride is somewhat pedestrian given it is almost my exact commute
1. Yards Park, SE Washington DC
2. 11/3
3. Coffeeshop-without-walls, ME Swing 'MESCO' blend, hand ground, pour over, served from a thermos
4. One of my favorite parts of my old neighborhood, great view of the Anacostia River and interesting architecture/landscaping.
5.  16.8 miles

Coffeeneuring #3 - Camarillo Pour Over!

With my good friend Kamal safely escorted cross country we got to spend a couple days exploring around his new home town of Camarillo, CA which is about 45min north of LA... We got a great ride in that didn't involve coffee as well but more on that later.

Don Adolfo Camarillo... namesake

The morning that I flew out we started off with a rolling suburban jaunt to Old Town Camarillo and the element coffee shop where we had noticed online that they did a form of the pour over coffee brewing that I've come to be so fond of at my local Swing's in Alexandria.  Element Coffee hits a home run on decor and ambiance... and the coffee wasn't bad but it could have been better. I'll chalk it up to the barista in this case and give them another try the next time I'm in town.

The bicycle for Coffeeneuring #3 was the borrowed Schwinn Single Speed I mentioned in a previous post.  I LOVED the single speed.... going to have to rig something up here at home.  #winterproject

A couple better shots coming soon, the frame size was great. My friend Brian put this sweet machine together himself!

1. Camarillo, CA
2. 10/25, a day of personal leave from work
3. element coffee, pour over house blend, could have been better
4. Single speed suburban ride.
5. 6.25 miles

The nearly ubiquitous pour over stand... I liked the all thread DIY rack!

Not only was the Giraffe on wheels cool, the little open air courtyard with couches was a great place to enjoy the coffee within reach of our bikes.

A genorously sized bowl/cup of coffee and a super sweet donut

Coffeenuering #2 - Chicago Divvy Ride-Around

The first stop on my epic cross country road trip last week was Chicago, a mere 10ish hours covering DC, VA, MD, PA, OH and of course IL (we were awfully close to MI for a bit but didn't bite).  The late night arrival left time for only a stop off at Pequods Pizza followed up with check-in at the downtown Reneissance (points).  Pequod's was fantastic, amazing atmosphere, friendly people and the deep dish was exactly as we'd been envisioning over the 10 hour journey!  Once back downtown we met up with my best friend Ryan who happened to be in town for an Amtrack meet-up and wandered around enjoying the ridiculous architecture, bridges and a couple cold beverages.

But on to the Coffeeneuring!  The following morning my friend Kamal and I (the two of us were transporting his Honda Civic cross country) took to the Chicago Bike share - Divvy, to see as much of the city as possible given our short window.  We started downtown by the hotel and worked our way to the Millenium Park and from there followed the water down to the Adler Planetarium and then back up through the city to the hotel...  As you can see above, the total mileage was about 7.5.  Not bad with LOTS of stopping.  In fact we took it upon ourselves to ensure that we never exceeded the 30min grace period on the Divvy bikes and ended up hitting 6 docks by my count.  Funny that I've never actually used the DC Bikeshare bikes myself, so the experience was alot of fun in Chicago.

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, gorgeous day, good company and a fun ride around.  The coffee was almost an afterthought.  I had wanted to stop at Intelligentsia which was close to our return route but we were getting short on time and wanted to squeeze in time for a Polish Sausage on the way out of town.  The coffee back at the hotel ended up doing the trick for me anyway, as it had a great view of the river.  I'd love to come back and explore the city much more properly next time!

1. Chicago, IL
2. 10/20
3. Reneissance Marriot, Chicago Downtown - Black Coffee, drip... not bad but not noteworthy
4. Most landmarks in a new-to-me city seen during Coffeeneuring
5. 7.5 miles

What can I say... this thing was AMAZING.

I've got some more shots to stitch a pano with that needs some attention. I'll get to it sooner or later!

Out on the breakwater at the Adler Planetarium... lots of cool buildings in Chicago!

I LOVED these twin towers, very close to our hotel, the floors from the ground up to about 1/3 of the way up are parking garage, and its condo's on up from there. Not pictured is the small marina on the river. So if you lived in Chicago, and had the dough... your boat, your car, and your condo are all extremely convenient to you!

After a fashion, we did find the polish sausage... and it was good.