Bread & Honey

June 20, 2025

I'm a creature of habit. Once I get settled into a routine I tend to stick with it until we move on or something comes up to unsettle me. Today it's the weather, which has suddenly turned wet - it looks like it will rain all day, with thunderstorms expected in the afternoon. I need to get out to Kaiser for those blood tests that are a prerequisite to starting the drug transition, and I'd been assuming I'd take the Max over there and back. Unexpectedly though when I wake up it looks as if the rains might hold off until around ten. Thats just the nudge I need to shake me out of my rut that alternates between Lovejoy and Umbria for my morning coffee. Instead, I check the map and see that there's a well-reviewed spot just east of the Kaiser facility: Bread & Honey Cafe. I'll bike there for breakfast and then watch the weather to see if its time yet to head over to Kaiser if I want to avoid the rain. At the end if it's raining there I can hop on the Max, which allows bikes on board, for a dry ride home.

I love conditions like this, a natural black and white. The question for this morning though is whether I'll stay dry. It's just barely misting now so I stop for just the one shot and hustle on.

I arrive at Bread & Honey Cafe and like it immediately when I walk in the front door. The first thing that hits me is its general appearance - an industrial look with open air ducts running the length of the building and an attractive decor that appeals to me. Next it's the music. In my head I'm composing the previous day's post that I'll write here with Sarah Vaughn's song running through it as the sound track for the video when I hear a similar voice coming from the sound track - Billie Holiday. My kind of place as long as they have decent coffee, WiFi, and some sort of snack that works for me.

They have more than that. All their pastries are home made, and this morning I have an outstanding empanada, maybe even the most appealing breakfast I've had since we returned from France. And it has a congenial social atmosphere that feels almost European - friendly, multiethnic, full of regulars - Now that I know it's here I suspect I'll become a semi-regular, stopping in before solo rides out to the river.

I was chagrined to learn that Bread & Honey has been here for a decade, tucked away in the center of he block between Williams and Vancouver. I must have biked past it fifty times without ever noticing it was there.

The Bred & Honey Cafe. I should have included an audio. When I walk in Billie Holiday is singing a song I don't recognize and I'm wondering at first if it's Sarah Vaughn, whose voice is in my mind this morning.

There's a shelters lockup spot in front of the door next door but this spot where I can keep the eye on it is safer. I'll be ready to move on quickly when conditions change.

Between reading, spoiling my digestion on the day's news and getting it back again when I review the shots and video from yesterday's ride I'm there for about two hours. It's temporarily bright and partly sunny when time comes to move on, but I can see from the weather report that rains are expected any minute now. I stop for a few shots along the way to Kaiser and then pick up the pace, coasting into their parking garage just as the light shower starts intensifying.

This is a different side of the building on Failing and Vancouver - a community center from the looks of it - that I posted a shot of a different mural from a few days back.

La Cocina! It's a new restaurant in an old, familiar location. The menu looks good and it's perfectly placed for a lunch stop on the way home from a ride out to the Columbia. I'm sure we'll be back to test it out soon.

There's a pretty lengthy queue ahead of me when I pick up my ticket from the kiosk at the lab. I'm #63 and the board says they're just now processing customer #45. Which is fine - I've got the time, and the devices to divert my attention until my number rises to the top.

A half hour later, my left arm perforated and taped to prevent the bleeding, a head down the elevator to the parking garage and collect ny bike. When I bike out to Interstate when I leave the garage I see that it's lightly raining, so I remain under the overhang where it's dry until the light changes and then I start biking, in a hurry and hoping I can outrace the rain that's just coming in upriver from the northwest. I'm in luck - it's downhill most of the way to the bridge so I make good time, but even better than that is that I'm apparently keeping the right pace and make every single light. By the time I'm on the flats and passing the old Widmer Brewery and pub I've gotten ahead of the front enough so there's time to stop for a few shots from the bridge before heading for shelter.

It rains all afternoon, so neither of us is tempted to stir from the apartment. Cloistered by the weather, we watch it come down in buckets and turn back to the current project. Nothing new to report yet, but new ideas and information keep working their way into our discussions and consensus is beginning to occur.

A much different look at the city than we've gotten lately. Welcome, badly needed, but we'll be glad when it moves on in a couple of days.

A closer look at our building, the convex beige one on the right. From the looks of the sky it's time to head there now before the rain catches up with me.

Oh, and in case you wondered - this isn't the one I've been thinking of for a video. This is one that came up while I was writing this post, listening for other tunes that might work well. This one is perfect for the day.

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Kathleen JonesNow that was a big blog post finish, that performance. Thanks for that.

You two have quite the changes coming up. I’m betting on you to come out ahead.
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5 days ago

Scott AndersonTo Kathleen JonesIsn't that an amazing number though? It was pure luck that it came up on the turntable while I was writing this post.
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5 days ago

Karen PoretYour luck will help, as usual..🍀
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4 days ago