A day early: Cup o' Joe Monday, Installment XVIII

Chai latte, Cafe Pettirosso
So, I think part of my problem with consistently doing Monday coffeeshop reviews has been...Yelp! It seemed like a great discovery when I stumbled on it, because I could get a sense for places before visiting them myself, and even find good suggestions for coffeeshops from it. BUT at some point, I realized that a lot of the fun had been taken out of "discovering" new coffeeshops. Today, somewhat by accident, I did exactly what I intended initially to do with my Cup o' Joe Monday Project...wandered the streets of Seattle until I found a cute, local coffeeshop that piqued my interest, went inside, kind of fell in love...and here I am to blog about the experience.

This place is located on a little, vaguely industrial side street, with not much else going on. I almost walked right past it on my way to another visible coffeeshop, but was stopped in my tracks by a sidewalk sign advertising "breakfast bagel sandwiches" and an arrow pointing me in a new direction. Glad I did! The plan was to spend my morning somewhere getting some writing done, and this place was the perfect environment to buckle down and get some real work done.


Some people cleared out of the table by the front windows just as I got there, so though I felt a little selfish sitting at a four-person table all by my lonesome, I did appreciate the view...industrial street in the foreground, but downtown Seattle skyline in the background, and an endless supply of Capitol Hill hipsters coming and going at all times.

I actually decided to wear my Vibram Fivefingers out today, and as I was waiting in line for my chai, a guy came up behind me wearing Fivefingers, too. So smiling all friendly-like, I was like, "Hey, nice shoes!", but he just gave me a stony-cold stare and said nothing. I turned back around awkwardly and that was the end of it. This was actually the second time this exact scenario happened to me...trying to make a cute joke to a stranger about how we're both wearing the same crazy things on our feet, but they don't actually look down at my feet and get the joke, and instead just think I'm being a sarcastic asshole. That, or people who wear Fivefingers are just unfriendly, cold-hearted jerks with no interest in talking to me. Hmm...

Anyway, the baristas were a little on the quiet, reserved side - reserving, perhaps, their friendly energy for the regulars...but nevertheless, not unfriendly. No wi-fi, which would have been a big warning flag for me a few months ago, but on this particular morning, was perfect: no internet=more writing. The atmosphere was nice - some good breeze from outside, cozy lighting inside, great smells from the fantastic, freshly prepared food they offer, and swanky music that sounded like what would be on the record player in the lobby of a ritzy hotel in France at the turn of the century.

Other good things:


Better prices on beverages than a lot of Seattle coffeehouses.


Cozy atmosphere.


Pretty yummy bagel sandwiches. Albeit unlike the drinks, pricey ones that won't fit into my budget regularly :(
Overall, a good discovery...for what it's worth, I got a ton of writing done in the couple hours I spent there, and I'll probably go back again if for nothing but that sense of productivity. And kind of nice to feel like you're tucked away in a nook, just off the beaten path (i.e. Pike Street corridor of Capitol Hill.)

P.S. And, just because it made me laugh a little...some newspaper-graffiti in our break room at work. This was the headline story in the Seattle Times yesterday, about two guys who got lost out skiing and wound up hiking over 26 miles overnight in the wrong direction...fortunately, a story with a happy ending, as people were scared once they'd been reported missing, but they turned up just fine. Nevertheless, a subject of some amusement among my coworkers:

February Air

Spring's arrived in Seattle! Playin' outside.
So, long time, no blog. And before I say anything else, I'd like to address my recent hiatus from Cup o' Joe Mondays...they will return, I promise. Perhaps not as regularly as every Monday, but know that I haven't given up on coffeeshop reviews altogether...just doing a lot of re-centering of my time and energy and priorities, I suppose. And I'm trying not to let my blog just devolve into coffee and running ramblings all the time :)

The past few weeks have been warm, lovely, adventure-filled, and brimming with good company. Ruth flew all the way from the Big Apple to visit Seattle for what she thought was the first time in her life (though learned once here that she'd, in fact, been here as a toddler before.) So, Seattle decided to reinforce all its stereotypes in Ruth's four days here - overcast and rainy every day, except for a few small windows here and there in which the clouds flirted with the sun and we managed to squeeze in some play time at Seward Park:


...and an afternoon hike up Tiger Mountain:


   

We also spent a day out on Bainbridge Island, which I hadn't been out to yet. My friend Zoe from Oberlin is doing a grad program out there, and her blog entries and photos have left me yearning to experience the beauty of Bainbridge firsthand, but somehow the fear of the unknown has kept me from hopping on the ferry. But Ruth and I had a grand time playing on the Island (albeit in the rain), visiting with some relatives of hers that live out here, and touring a co-housing community and Native American artwork of the Suquamish tribe.

A good majority of our other Seattle adventures centered around food, as I find that when people come to visit, the things I want to share with them foremost are the parks and mountains - but barring decent weather to do so, food comes next: Ethiopian delicacies, Himalayan (Indian/Nepali/Tibetan) cuisine at Annapurna Cafe on Broadway, sweet potato hashes and organic pancakes at Portage Bay Cafe, Mighty-O Vegan Donuts, other yummy pastries and Italian espresso at local coffeeshops, ice cream at Old School Frozen Custard or Blue Bird or Molly Moon's (notice my particular attention to quality ice cream in this city...), free samples of dark chocolate coated cherries and honey crisp apples and chocolate linguini at Pike Place Market...

Ruth and I experienced many of the above, as well as making some of our own! After shopping around Uwajimaya, a huge Asian specialty supermarket walkable distance from our apartment in Seattle's Chinatown/International District, we had all the ingredients for a rockin homemade sushi night (sans fish.) Aside from the vast majority of the friends I invited having previous plans/work/homework/a cold/misc, we made quick work of our rolls and cans of Sapporo.


Zanna and Wes joined us in the festivities, which concluded with a trek to the Garage to go bowling and play pool - to my New York friend's shock, for the pretty price of $5-10/hour. Apparently bowling costs $50-60/hour in the big city? Geez. Sometimes I miss the Midwest.

On the other hand, I spent yesterday driving with the windows down and basking in the blazing sunshine on a beach with a bunch of half-naked sunbathers and happy children and rollicking dogs, surrounded by towering, snowy peaks on the horizon.

(Not in the Midwest anymore.)
Seattle folk seem to be pleased with the Northwest's reputation for crappy weather because, as they say, "It keeps the rest of the world from realizing how perfect this place is and moving here, too." And so far, Seattle's certainly done its part to look wholly unappealing to any and all visitors who've come to see me. For Shari's, Ruth's, John's, and a good deal of my dad's visits to Seattle, it just poured and poured and poured. Mount Rainier stayed hidden behind a gray wall of clouds.

I guess Alan gets off the hook since he pretty much officially lives here now, too (hooray for both of our Washington-plated cars!) He came back into town the day after Ruth left, and arrived to 60+ degree sunshine, which has lasted the entire duration of his time in town so far. Although I've been working a lot, we've gotten out when we can to play in the sunshine.


Still can't believe this is a CITY park.


Olympic Mountains + Puget Sound + Sailboats = Beautiful Sunday


Mount Rainier, and the tide-washed sand in the foreground.


Playing in my Vibram Fivefingers.
We rounded out the day with cold microbrews and good food on the waterfront in Fremont and watching America kick Canada's butt in hockey. We also managed to finally get around to seeing Avatar last week - splendid! Yes, of course, the plot was trite and the characters hollow and predictable, and certain scenes felt emotionally on par with Disney movies - but the visuals, as promised, were stunning. The fact that we saw it in 3-D in a six-story Imax at the base of the Space Needle didn't hurt either.

Yup. 'Tis been a good couple weeks indeed.

Orcas Island 25K Official Race Report!

The Improbable Ninjas have officially run their first 25K.
So, I often have a hard time blogging about things if I don't feel like I've got the right photos to accompany my stories. And as I left my camera in the bunkhouse during my actual run this weekend, I have no images to articulate how breath-taking the view from the top of Mount Constitution was. And perhaps above all, the absolutely stunning view up there is what I wish I could impart to all my blog readers who've not made it to the San Juans on a clear day...holy cow is it amazing up there! Unreal. Even in all my years in the Colorado Rockies, the various national parks in Montana and Wyoming and California through which I've hiked...I can honestly say that nothing matched the landscape that burst into view about 4.5 miles into yesterday's run. Hopefully Glenn or someone will have a picture from it I can post here at some point to at least give some idea...

Of course, it's entirely possible that the adrenaline and endorphins and caffeine all were making me a little crazy by that point. Let's rewind...

Friday afternoon, Don and I loaded up his car with backpacks, sleeping bags, and my plaid crockpot full of vegan chili that I'd spent the morning making in preparation for the evening's potluck. We made it up to Anacortes in plenty of time, saw some familiar faces from the previous weekend, got to know some new people, and caught a gorgeous sunset on the ferry ride over.


And did I mention that it was 61 degrees?
Friday night was a blast - hanging out at Camp Moran, sharing great food (and hooray! for once in my life, not feeling the only one at a potluck heaping an entire mountain of food on my plate and then going back for seconds), meeting tons of wonderful new people, watching some running movies, and just generally having a blast. Tom and his buddy Ryan rolled in to camp around 9:30 p.m. after being the badasses that they are and having ridden their bikes across Orcas from the ferry landing.


Seattle Randonnerds represent.
Also, Scott Jurek's words to Tom at the ferry landing last night: That's impressive.
Just like summer camp, we went to sleep in little wooden bunkhouses tucked away in the forest - a dozen people packed to a room, and naturally, I forgot earplugs. (Forgot, too, that people snore.) After manually plugging my ear with my finger until I was too exhausted to do so anymore, I did eventually fall asleep. Alarm clock went off at 6:55 a.m. and I woke up to Tom jumping down from the bunk above me and mentioning that he had four of those little double-shot cans from Starbucks. Perrrfect...

Downed one of those, had a relaxed morning of wandering around in the crisp, forest air in fleece and long johns, rubbing at my eyes and eating a breakfast that mostly consisted of bananas and peanut-butter-smeared bagel bits. Yum. Also took some pictures at base camp of some of the cars. Runners sure do love their bumper stickers and license plate decals.


My favorite is the one in the bottom right corner. Dorky humor at its best.
Finally got properly dressed for the run itself, laced up my Cascadias, filled my water bottle, dropped a nuun tablet in, stashed three energy gels in my waist pack, and lined up at the starting line for James, the race director, to say "All right, go!"

The run itself was just phenomenal. It was way less brutal than I was expecting; all my hellish training runs over the past three weeks paid off, because the elevation was not nearly as bad as I'd been anticipating. And the worst of it was over by mile 5. I did make the mistake of excitedly shoving a handful of peanut M&M's in my mouth at the first and only aid station (at the top of Mount Constitution) - this is something ultrarunners do, but unfortunately, I'd had no practice eating solid foods while on the run, and my stomach cramped up pretty terribly on the swift downhill right after that.

I ran through it, though, and really cruised down the steeps. There were some more minor ascents after that, but nothing major. I hiked most of the uphills to conserve my energy, and then just really gave it my all on the flats and downhills, probably averaging 6 minute miles on some of the descents. It felt amazing. I avoided my classic race mistake, which is going out too fast, and instead hung out in the back of the pack for the first few miles...being especially conservative in the climbs. But once we'd crested Mount Constitution, I knocked things into higher gear and just started catching people and passing them, one by one. That felt great - though the best part of it, honestly, was the conversations I had along the way as I ran with people for awhile, and we'd chat - with some more than others - before I'd eventually move on, run solo again for a bit, and then find someone else with whom to enjoy the run and scenery for awhile.

The last stretch was the best - just long, rolling loops around beautiful island lakes...mostly flat, and everybody was spread out enough at that point that I wasn't ever "stuck" behind anybody - I could just cruise. My energy level was great throughout - I never had a disparaging moment, or even much pain at any point. I passed one woman on one of the steeper descents who said to me, "Oh my God, I think I've burned holes through my quads - they're absolutely shot" and another guy who told me, "I swear, you women are built differently than us - it's amazing to watch you on the downhills, because you just CRUISE...I don't know how you do it!" and I don't know if it was the caffeine or the last-minute crash training or what, but my body just performed for me better, I think, than it ever has in a race. Definitely a vast improvement over the Seattle marathon!

I crossed the finish line in 2:42:09, and was floored. I'd told myself to worry only about finishing, not about racing, but having looked at the times from last year, I'd estimated I'd probably come in around 3:30 or so. So to beat that by almost an hour was unbelievable. I don't know what the heck happened to make all the stars align as they did, but the result is that I'm totally hooked on this trail running thing and can't wait to test my limits further.


The after-party was great, too. The weather was gorgeous - many runners stripped down to t-shirts and tank tops and even the occasional bare chests to bask in the sunshine while lying out on the grassy hill, downing bowls of chili, listening to a rockin Olympia-based bluegrass band, and yelling their heads off to cheer for all the runners as they slowly trickled in for the next six hours. You'll never meet a more supportive bunch of folks cheering each other on - and not in that false, fake-modesty, polite sort of way, but truly in that genuine, soul-shaking, got-your-back-100% sort of way.


Yes, the clock does say 8:28.32.
Yup, the people are definitely what I'll remember most about this weekened. I wrote about this a lot already after the work party, I know, but seriously - trail runners have got to be just about the nicest, friendliest, cheeriest, most easy-going darn people in the world. Even the official Orcas Island shuttle drivers who helped get us all from the ferry landing to Camp Moran commented that they'd never in all their years of work there had such a friendly, grateful group of folks, every one of whom took the time to look them in the eye and thank them for helping make our fantastic weekend possible.


Work party folks reunited, plus another new friend. From left: Jacek, Matt, Kelli, Don, Jordan, Myself
The would-be second and third place runners in the 50K got lost somewhere on the course and wound up running several extra miles and not placing at all, and when they finally came in, I was worried they'd be angry as all hell - but they just sort of took it in stride, laughed it off. No big deal. The guy who came in first, Alex, was one of the few I'd chatted with the previous night at the potluck, and he was just a super nice guy, also from Seattle, and someone I hope to run into at races in the future! Tom and I also recruited another Improbable Ninja for our MovNat adventures - Elodie, a personal trainer and rockin' trail runner who lives on the East Side, and whom both Tom and I ran with, independently of one another, for portions of the 25K. Basically, people are awesome.


Team REI, post-25K: Tom, me, and Ali.
And running. Running is awesome, too. Did I mention that yet?

Free your feet, and your mind will follow.

Yesterday was fantastic. Just a perfect Seattle day, in every way. I only worked a short shift in the morning - so my whole day didn't disappear, but I still got the pleasure of seeing many of my favorite people, and getting to do what I've honestly come to love - impart knowledge and help outfit people for their worldly adventures in the great outdoors!

Got off work, changed into running gear, and made the short and scenic drive up to Shoreline to meet up with Tom for further trail running and playing in the woods. For the first time, I tried out my brand new Vibram Fivefingers - a crazy but generally awesome innovation designed to help your feet mimic barefoot motion, but still get protection underfoot from the elements. The first word out of my mouth about ten seconds into our run was, "Ow." I felt everything. I described the experience as that feeling you get when you get a rock in your shoe, except there were a dozen of them, and no getting rid of them.


This is what they look like.
With that said, though, there's something cool about being that...ONE, for lack of a better word...with your environment. Seyeon's gotten really into running in Fivefingers, not to mention a good many of my coworkers. (Though for every one of them who swears by them, there's another ten who shun the things as though they're the devil's creation, and upon figuring out I got myself a pair, will undoubtedly denounce me as a lost and brainwashed soul, looking like a complete dork to boot.)

As Tom and I were climbing around and balancing on rails in the park, we did get asked by a guy walking by how we liked them. He'd had a friend or two who'd gotten some and loved them. I have this conversation twenty-five times a day with customers at work, as REI is the only place in a 500-mile radius that carries the Fivefingers, and we get more questions about them than just about anything else in the department (though UGG boots (i.e. glorified socks, priced at a hefty $140-$220/pair) are a close second. *Sigh.*)

Anyway. I needed that run, badly. The sun, the mountains, the forest, the joyous ache in my muscles for working new ones amidst the trees... Sinking my toes into the damp forest ground by Hidden Lake wasn't too shabby either. I think I'm going to like this "barefoot" running thing.

As I drove back into the city, I witnessed one of the most stunning sunsets I've ever seen. Words nor pictures can even begin to do it justice, but I did get off at a random exit to surge to the top of a hill and try, at least:


My dad's in Seattle now for the weekend (after a harrowing 26 hour trip to get here - damn you, Midwest snow!), so I'm looking forward to a few more days off from work, explorations, adventures, good food, and getting to share this lovely city with someone I love! Happily, I got to do just that last week, too, as Shari spent a few unexpected extra days in Seattle with me, and even though I had to work through a good deal of them, we had a good time staying up, catching up, and eating chocolate pasta.

Lastly...Oberlin and Kansas Run-ins of the Week:
1. Running into Celeste from Harkness Co-op at the local Trader Joe's
2. Sean, whom I played intramural soccer with, showing up to REI with his whole family
3. Randomly hopping on a bus in the U-District only to find Lu, my fellow Muser from high school, on it!
4. Haven't run into each other yet, but my elementary school friend Caitlin just moved to Seattle this week - cheers!