Adios

We began to make our journey towards San Diego by way of a quick stop in Albuquerque to say hi to Uncle Pat who lives in a VA facility. After a quick visit to show him wedding photos, we continued on to Phoenix with a stop at the Petrified Forest. Libby’s cousin lives in Phoenix so we spent Halloween night with her and Joy and their 3 dogs. We ordered Chinese food and hid from the Trick-or-treaters. It would have been a mad house to try and hand out candy with 5 barking dogs.

After Phoenix, we spent the next 5 days celebrating our beautiful Aunt Katie in San Diego. There were tons of family and friends present for her celebration of life. We enjoyed visiting and sharing stories. Aunt Katie was a special person who set an example of how to live an extraordinary life. We were grateful to have her as an aunt, mentor, and friend. She will be missed by so many.

These are Libby’s aunts and uncles (and dad) who were able to attend Aunt Katie’s service.

After San Diego we headed north to L.A. where we spent a week exploring. We got to hang out with Mary & Shadan who we know from the cafe. We also got a tour of Warner Bros’ Studio with Libby’s cousins.We were even sorted by the hat from Harry Potter! We got to go to the beach and find sand dollars – both alive and dead. Don’t worry – we threw the alive ones back. We saw the Hollywood sign through smoke. We went to the La Brea tar pits and discovered that there is still asphalt oozing up from the ground. There is a beautiful park there that the dogs loved exploring.We had dinner with Aunt Mary Jo, Amanda, Will and Keegan. We also got to go for a bike ride along the ocean from Hermosa Beach to Playa Del Rey. As busy and crowded as LA is, we really loved our visit to this quirky place. We even got to have lunch at Home Girl Cafe on our way out of town. This is a social enterprise project of Home Boy Industries. They take former gang members and those recently released from prison and help them become productive members of society through a cafe and baking program.

While having dinner with Shadan and Mary, we were learning various words in Farsi. Mary said good-bye to our waitress and I learned that the Farsi word for good-bye is literally translated to “May God Protect You”. We talked about how interesting that is and then Mary said Spanish does the same thing. Adios literally translated means “To God”. So, adios Aunt Katie!

Denver

It was so great to be in town for SAME’s 12 anniversary party. It is hard to believe that it has been 12 years. We got to reconnect with lots of regular customers and supporters. Mulberries Cake Shop donated a delicious chocolate cake and Tish made the most amazing appetizers. It was a very proud evening for us. A year ago, we knew we hired the right people to ensure SAME’s future. It was awesome to celebrate with them. Xavier, our nephew, was able to attend the evening with us. I love that Phil is photobombing in this photo!

Both of us were able to vote and participate in jury selections while in Denver – civic duty done for the year! Thanks to Angie and Ian (Brad’s sister and new BIL) and Mary and Shadan for allowing us to use your homes as a base camp while we were in town. It was weird to have a shower and laundry available at any time of day! We spent most of the week bike riding, visiting friends, celebrating new babies and birthdays, pumpkin carving, running and eating at SAME Cafe. It was a great week!

While in Denver, Aly and Parker’s professional wedding photos came back. Here are a few of our favorites:

Always a Duhawk!

Recently, Libby’s 20 year reunion was celebrated in Dubuque. Loras College has changed a ton since she and all her friends lived there. It was a cold fall day but fun to be back. We toured the campus, attended a few events that were sponsored by the college and even had time for a pumpkin patch.

It was another great opportunity to reconnect with some amazing people. We are so lucky! Loras gave us some really great lifelong friends!

After Dubuque, we decided to head South to spend time with some of the Birky family. We were able to have some great quality with Brad’s brother and his family. Since Todd’s birthday is coming up, it was great to spend some time with them.

Upon leaving the middle of Missouri, we got a text from a friend, Katie, asking if we were anywhere near St. Louis. (It was a little creepy – we thought maybe she was spying on us!) Because we happened to be only a few hours away, we turned east and headed there.

While in STL, we got to go to the City Museum which was super fun to experience. It is a very unique place for little kids and big kids, alike! The reason Katie and Robbie asked us to come to STL was they were contemplating a move and wanted to get our opinion. We were happy to tour their “new” house and get excited with them. It was a bonus to get to toast the newlyweds, too!

After STL, we began our journey towards the mountains. We were excited to get to have lunch at Thelma’s Kitchen in Kansas City. This will be our last community cafe for a while as we think we have visited all of the cafes that are open with regular business hours. Our last time through the Kansas City area, Thelma’s Kitchen was still in the planning stages of opening. They have made some amazing progress.

Beginning West

We left Denver a year ago. We have driven over 20,000 miles and have been in 47 states – somehow we missed Idaho! We have seen all the Great Lakes and 8 national parks. We were able to see 35 community cafes and have seen 60+ breweries. We have hiked tons miles and eaten a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We have seen both oceans and the Gulf of Mexico and been to Canada. We’ve seen tons of animals and marvel at the changing landscape of this country. It has been such a beautiful journey. It’s hard to believe it is time to head back towards Colorado.

After a wonderful day of ice cream and beer, we headed to Burlington, VT. Burlington is on the shore of Lake Champlain and is a gorgeous town. It feels very similar to Boulder, CO with its bike lanes and hiking trails. Unlike Boulder, there were boats everywhere and people out on the water even though the temperature is dropping. The fall colors here aren’t as brilliant as on our drive through New Hampshire but the trees are turning slowly. We found Foam & Magic Hat Breweries, went for a long walk and explored a lakeside bike trail.

The next phase of the trip took us to Niagara Falls. We’ve had Niagara Falls on our list of places to see since the beginning but it seemed so long ago that it’s hard to believe that it’s happening. Even more difficult to believe is that Libby’s parents and aunt and uncle will be here soon too! It’s been on their bucket list for years and they are finally doing it to celebrate Aunt Cheryl’s recent retirement . We told them we would scope it out for them.

We went to the American side first and walked all through the park. It is impressive. The sheer amount of water flowing over those rocks is incredible. The water is moving so swiftly. The view is even more impressive from the Canadian side. We grabbed our passports and walked over the rainbow bridge. You can see all three falls from this side. The Canadian side is much more commercialized. It is more theme park than natural wonder but that is pretty interesting too. It is late in the season, so a lot of the touristy stuff is already shut down. Brad really wanted to zip line but sadly it was closed. We walked back across the bridge and had dinner in the van and waited for the last fireworks show of the season. The falls were as magical at night as during the day. We walked about 7 miles total to see all the sights and we were tired. We tried to sleep at a Walmart but they were cleaning the parking lot until about 3 a.m. we didn’t get much sleep.

After visiting the falls we had to decide what our route would be back across the country. We got out the atlas again and found a national park in Ohio near one of the last community cafes that we missed the first time through so we headed that direction to check them out. This park had another waterfall -not as impressive as Niagara Falls but it was beautiful. After hiking we stopped at a farm stand on the roadside and bought 1/2 dozen duck eggs and made risotto with Parmesan. It’s a step up from our regular peanut butter and jelly.

Columbus was calling us. There is a pay-what-you-can cafe there that we missed on our first trip through Ohio. It is run by a larger organization and we have heard lots about this location so we were excited to check out.

South Side Roots Cafe is located on the garden level of a large municipal building that houses lots of services for this diverse neighborhood of Columbus. We had a light lunch and enjoyed browsing through the fresh market as well.

We got a text from Libby’s mom that a card arrived in the mail from Aunt Katie. We decided to alter our route plans and headed to Bloomington to get that piece of mail. Libby was so honored to get a note from her late Aunt Katie. It turns out we think she sent a note to each of her 35 nieces and nephews.What a beautiful human being.

Our next stop will be Dubuque for Libby’s college reunion.

CT, RI, MA, ME, NH, VT

After Beacon, NY we drove on to New Haven, CT -apparently Connecticut is the nutmeg state and home to Yale University- what fun things we get to discover! Leo & Gem we’re excited to go for a walk by the Long Island Sound. We learned all about horseshoe crabs and saw some folks fishing off a pier. We encountered a horseshoe crab skeleton after some local bird must have feasted on it. Those things are incredible. Did you know that horseshoe crabs have blue blood? It was amazing to find this natural area filled with so many interesting things right in the heart of the city.

We drove through Yale’s campus and discovered it wasn’t as big as we expected. The buildings and houses surrounding the campus were large and very old. The architecture of the area was impressive. We saw this outside one of the buildings!

The next day we headed toward Rhode Island. We drove through Mystic, CT a quaint little seaside town and stopped for lunch at a park in Rhode Island.

We almost missed taking this state off our list. We say you can’t count a state unless you stopped and did something fun there. We pulled off the highway at the last possible exit before entering Massachusetts. We had only been in RI for 45 mins!

After that we headed into Boston. This city is crazy busy! It felt a lot like Seattle – tons of traffic and lots of people. We have been here before for the Boston Marathon in 2012 but it was good to be back. We went for a run downtown near the finish line of the marathon and loved that the Adidas store has free lockers and showers.

We got to catch up with Brad 2.0 and hear all about the success that SAME is having under his leadership. We also got to visit the Sam Adams small batch research and development brewery while we were in town. It was quite a feat trying to locate it and a place where we could park the van as the brewery is nestled in the heart of a residential neighborhood. Another brewery to add to the list.

Lunch was at Panera Cares downtown. Before their corporate buyout, there were as many as 5 Panera Cares locations around the country. Ron Shaich, Panera’s founder and CEO at the time, saw SAME Cafe on the news one night and was inspired to use his restaurant experience to help those in need. In 2010, Panera Cares open multiple locations to tackle food insecurity in the communities where Panera’s were already operating. Today Boston is the only one still operating.

When Panera initially came to us and asked us about the concept, we wondered if it could work for a corporation to operate a pay-what-you-can cafe. We didn’t know if a corporation could take on a social challenge as complex and intimate as food justice. We worried how people would respond. At the heart of the concept is care and concern for each human being. Could a corporation show that? There are a couple of interesting articles on the web that address why the other locations may have closed. We were just happy to get to experience this location and were proud that Panera Cares is still working on food security. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.fastcompany.com/40582757/why-paneras-experiment-with-pay-what-you-want-dining-failed

A check light came on in our van and we had to stop to get it checked out. It just so happens that a cousin lives in this town too! (Yes, we even know people in Maine!) We got to hang out with Wil, his husband Rodney and their friend Russ. And the van is just fine – thank goodness!

The drive to Acadia National Park was just incredible. We passed a sunflower field, lots of shore line and crossed amazing bridges.

The park itself was even prettier! The weather cleared for us and it was a gorgeous day. We visited Thunder Hole, Otter Bay and tried to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain but we didn’t get to see anything as it was fogged in. All our other views were amazing.

It was great to be at the ocean today as we got the news that Aunt Katie Elsbree had passed away in the night. Aunt Kate lived in San Diego and we have loved visiting her and going to the ocean with her. We spent most of the day playing in tide pools as that is one of Libby’s favorite memories of visiting Aunt Kate’s as a child.

From Acadia, we began our trip back across the country. Our first stop heading west is Gotham, NH. We pretty much stopped there because while researching we saw that there was a cafe called Libby’s Bistro. It was amazing!

Gorham had a great coffee shop, laundromat and a grocery store. After all that and a beautiful hike we were on our way to our LAST state – Vermont!

The fun things in Vermont that we decided to do were Ben & Jerry’s factory tour, The Alchemist Brewery and the Von Trap Family Bierhall!

New England States

Since we were married twenty plus years ago we have been lucky enough to have visited every state except the New England states. Many of the states were checked off our list on this trip. We’ve been to NYC for a visit and had a conference in NJ once but we’ve never really been able to explore much. We are very excited to spend the next few weeks doing just that!

After crossing Delaware off our list, we spent some time in DC with our friends Marisa and her family and Suzy Booma, both old co-workers of Libby’s. DC is such a great city! If only it wasn’t so humid! We forgot to take a photo with Suzy!

We drove through Baltimore in the pouring rain! Our idea was to get out and do something fun but the lightening and the thunder convinced us otherwise.

Our next planned stop was Kula Cafe in Asbury Park, NJ. They are not a pay-what-you-can cafe but do a job training program for neighborhood youth. It was in the main floor of a senior center and was a very modern and inviting space. There messaging on their menu was informative and helpful since we really weren’t sure how they were in the list of community cafes.

There is a greenhouse and a small farm plot right next door to the cafe and you could tell the greens in Libby’s salad were fresh from the garden.

We spent the day hiking and exploring the area. Asbury Park and Tom’s River are both very compact urban spaces pretty close to water. Tom’s River has an affluent community located on a peninsula with gorgeous seaside mansions. Then on the mainland, there is every fast food chain followed by gas stations and grocery stores and thrift store.

JBJ Soul Kitchen is located in a strip mall on the mainland of Tom’s River. They have a food pantry right next door to the restaurant. It looks exactly the same as it’s Red Bank location which we were able to visit the last time we were in NJ for a conference. There are beautiful signs on the walls explaining the mission of the restaurant. The space is modern and well crafted. The kitchen is not open but has a service window that faces the dining room. The tables are covered in white table clothes and you have a server. The menu is set and the suggested price is $20 per person. If you want to volunteer for a meal, you have to work that out ahead of time with the staff.

It was interesting to see the food pantry set up right next door. You actually enter the restaurant and the food pantry through the same set of doors. It was a bit confusing at first and maybe that was the reason why there were no diners eating at the cafe. We ended our night in Tom’s River with a famous local frozen custard treat.

Our bikes haven’t gotten as much use as we would have liked on this trip. It is often too hot to leave the dogs in the car for a long stretch of time. We were really hoping that the dogs would love the backpack carriers we bought for them but they just don’t. They don’t mind being in them when we are hiking but they hate being in those packs when we are on bikes. This day was finally cool enough for us to leave them in the van and go for a ride.

After getting our bikes all geared up, it started to drizzle. We didn’t let that stop us! We were determined to get a ride in. We found a paved path outside of Brick, NJ and proceeded to get wet. Although Libby hates getting wet, she was a trooper and it was a great ride.

Another former co-worker of Libby’s lives in this area and we were able to have dinner with her and catch up. Again – we forgot to take a photo!

Our next adventure included a muddy hike in a beautiful park. The park included a memorial to 9/11 and had a beautiful view of the NYC skyline. It was humbling to be there and see all the names etched into that wall.

The list of community cafes had a cafe listed in Beacon, NY. Their website said that they hosted one meal a month on the last Sunday. We knew we were getting close to the end of the month so we plotted our course to include that town.

In addition to that we realized that Beacon, NY is close to Hyde Park where the Culinary Institute of America is located. One of our first vacations while we ran SAME Cafe was to CA and we were lucky enough to visit the campus of the CIA there.

We headed North from Newark to the Hudson Valley area to explore the CIA campus and have lunch with Fareground Community Cafe in Beacon.

Our trip got a little sidetracked when Libby realized she was supposed to report for jury duty on Monday. She sent off a quick email to let them know she wouldn’t be in Denver on Monday. Let’s hope that enough to keep her out of prison.

Once back on track, we spent the afternoon at the brewery on the campus of the CIA and then had a meal in the Tavern. Both experiences introduced us to new flavor combinations that were unique. We had a peach and basil gose beer that was interesting and for dinner a salad with duck confit and scallops among many other wonderful treats!

Sunday began with a crazy hike up Beacon Mountain. We wanted to get some exercise before lunch. Exercise we got!! It was straight uphill for a mile to a former wheel house that at one time was used to pull a trolley up the hill. We got a little lost on our way back down and made our hike a little longer. Leo and Gemi were covered in mud and sand as we walked through a shallow stream bed pretty much the whole way. The view from the top was incredible.

As we finished hiking and cleaned up we began to look for directions to where Fareground Cafe was hosting their monthly pop-up. As we traveled through town we noticed that there was some sort of festival happening – streets were closed and we noticed parade floats on side streets. We thought it odd that they would host a community meal on the same day as a parade but didn’t think too much of it. Until we pulled up to the center. There was absolutely nothing happening at the location. Instantly, we realized something was up. After doing some more intense research, we found that they hadn’t updated the website in many years! Ugh! This is why the community cafe list online needs to be updated! So instead, we walked downtown and joined the fun of the Spirit of Beacon days!

To Brevard and beyond…

Brad’s mom and her friend Cindy happened to be visiting the area simultaneous to our trip. We drove a couple of hours to the waterfall capital of the US and got to spend a couple days with them.

Bob and Val were such nice hosts. We made pasta from scratch, went hiking and drank good wine and beer. Brad’s mom and Cindy were staying to see Chihuly glass at the Biltmore but we moved on to visit another community cafe.

We made a stop along the way to check out Wythville’s future community cafe. Some folks from that cafe were in Boone at the conference and were talking about their soon to open space. We did a quick drive-by as construction workers were busy getting the space ready for a mid-October opening.

South Charleston, WV is home to Cafe Appalachia. Cheryl has been working for a year on a multiple program approach including a cafe. The space is beautiful and they are working on figuring everything out. They opened mid July and are moving right along. We were happy to listen to her challenges and give advice when we could.

After our visit and a few local beers we headed towards Staunton where a high school friend of Brad’s lives. We got to go to the local farmers’ market and have lunch with Sally and J- the most well behaved two year old on the planet.

Norfolk, VA was a great stop for lunch. We were happy to get to see Stephanie and her boys. Steph is Libby’s cousin who we missed on our last trip through this part of the world. We had met the two older boys before, but hadn’t met her youngest son who is another well behaved, hilarious youngster.

The next part of the journey was through Ocean City and on to Lewes, Delaware. We planned to hang out there for a bit but it rained almost the entire time. We glimpsed the ocean but that was it. This area is supposed to be great for biking but we didn’t stick around to find out. We did have some amazing coffee and some crazy local pastry before heading out. At least we got to take another state off of our list. We are getting so close to getting all 50 states!!

Conference during a hurricane!

Sunday and Monday were predicted to be the worst days in Boone due to Hurricane Florence. The first regional conference was scheduled for the exact same time. Knowing that most of the participants were still interested in coming, the conference was held as planned.

Folks from four different areas attended this conference even though it was pouring rain. They came from Shelby, NC, Wythville, VA Elizabethton, TN and TCU. It was an interesting mix of cafes stages as well. Some groups were in the research and planning stages, some were doing pop-ups and one is planning to open late October. Most of our conversations were around how to successfully open and operate a community cafe.

Our favorite parts of the training days were the hands-on experiences of participants and our in depth conversations about why they want to do this work. Because F.A.R.M. Cafe was open for regular business on Monday (even though the college cancelled classes again Monday and Tuesday) all the participants got to see a cafe in action and help out. They were able to see the concept come to life. They washed dishes, spoke with customers, served, and prepared food. It was a day in the life of a cafe. This kind of experience is invaluable.

The most moving part was hearing the stories of each participant about why they wanted to be a part of a community cafe. Often times, our gatherings are so focused on the nitty gritty of running a cafe that we forget to honor the spirit behind each of these amazing spaces. It really boils down to being human. These spaces are places of radical inclusion. It’s where we can practice taking care of each other and valuing the dignity of human beings. They are what we wish the rest of the world looked like.

We talk a lot about food access and food insecurity in each of these cafes but our real purpose is to build community – food is just our vehicle.

All are welcome except Florence

Our week in Boone started with a hike along the Greenway Trail. It is a beautiful spot right in town that connects to miles and miles of paved trail. There were ruins of a former hydroelectric power plant – one of the first in the area – that supplied Boone with its first bit of electricity. There was also a lot of wildlife to see along this path. This deer was devouring all the apples that had already fallen. After our hike, we added another brewery to our list, Lost Provence. This was a perfect first day in Boone.

We spent each weekday working at F.A.R.M. Cafe. F.A.R.M. stands for feed all regardless of means. Tommy, one of their key employees, helped us orient to our roles and we got right back in the grove of restaurant life. Although, that first day wore us out! We haven’t worked that hard in a while 😉 On Wednesday, we were the guest chefs for the day and made pizza! It turned out delicious! Libby was a little nervous because her cookie dough didn’t turn out exactly as she was hoping – she is a little out of practice. She has mentioned on more than one occasion that one of the challenges of road life is not being able to bake.

Everyone here is worrying about Hurricane Florence. The local college even cancelled classes on Thursday and Friday. It seemed a little premature as it was beautiful both Thursday and Friday here. We even got a couple hikes in – this picture is of Beacon Heights.

Saturday turned a little cloudy and we did get rained on but it’s not hurricane weather yet. We will see what Sunday and Monday bring as we are staying in Boone to help with a regional conference of pay-what-you-can cafes.

On our way back to Boone

We left IL and headed toward Boone, NC. Our first stop on this journey was Shelbyville, KY. It’s a great pit stopping place and it’s always good to see family- even though we were just with them. We made it in time for Libby to attend one of Nel’s Jazzercise classes and finally got to try the local street tacos.

We made a pit stop in Versailles, KY to see the progress of our friends at Spark Cafe! They are coming right along!

Next, we hit Knoxville again. If you’ve been reading our blog from the beginning, you know that our good friends Mary, Josh and Emory live here. They relocated from Denver and we were so excited to get to see them again. It’s almost like they never left Denver! Each time we visit, we get to see another part of this adorable town. If it wasn’t so hot and humid here, we might relocate too!

Our plan from there was to head to our favorite lake that we discovered the last time through this area; however, we had to make a pit stop in Johnson City for a brewery. We found out this was a great weekend to be in JC and decided to stay. We hit the farmers market, One Acre Cafe (which was supposed to be closed but we hit it just right), two breweries, the town-wide garage sales and the Umoja Festival. We also went for a hike and got monsooned on!