coffeeneuring challenge 2013, # 7: peet's coffee, downtown pdx

So this may or may not meet all the rules, but I am two weeks away from recording my album in the studio and decided I'd try to get these done before the weather turned any colder or wetter. So while my day began with teaching, it ended with a concert and a hot beverage and that's good enough for me.

To be fair, Portland has had an amazing start to autumn, with bright, sunny days and highs in the upper 60s for over two weeks now. But today, the rain finally showed up. I rode to Hebrew school in a light mist that evolved into a drizzle by the time I got to temple. After class, I rode up to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (affectionately known in Portland as The Schnitz) to meet Sweetie for an afternoon concert by the Oregon Symphony. I had slept poorly and hoped that the Shostakovich 10th Symphony would keep me awake and interested. (Just in case, I grabbed a quick cup of something vaguely resembling coffee from the kitchen before I left temple.)

The concert was very enjoyable. (Disclaimer -- we get occasional free tickets as a perk of Sweetie's job. She's the annotator for the Symphony, which means that she's the one who researches and writes all the notes in the concert booklets. Yes, that's a real job.)

Afterwards, I rode over to Peet's downtown location to meet up with a friend for a quick cup of sonething warm. Since I'd had enough caffeine for the day, I opted for coffee cake and a -- sit down -- pumpkin steamer.

It was delicious.

I made my way home in the early evening. The rain had stopped before the concert, and the clouds parted to reveal brilliant light cutting low across the sky. In northeast Portland, I was stunned by an almost blinding goldenrod color in the distance; it turned out to be one of the few trees that still had most of its leaves.

 

Finally, I stopped at the bottom of the hill near my house, turned and looked behind me toward the west. The sun was streaming through a patch of fast-moving clouds, and I snapped a photo just before the sun sank behind the house.

A good end to my official coffeeneuring adventures for 2013.
Temperatures are scheduled to fall into the 30's by mid-week, and many of the remaining leaves will end up on the ground, turning Fall into Fell. A lovely season.
Total: 10.7 miles.