Starbucks

When it comes to chain coffee shops my list would look like this Dunn Bros, Caribou and Starbucks bringing up the rear. You'd think the first Starbucks was founded in Colorado instead of Seattle, Washington. I say this because on the Sucking Wind Tour (See July 3rd post if you don't know what I'm talking about) when we were in search of coffee, Starbucks was the only game in town.

Now Starbucks is not the top of my list but when you need coffee...you NEED coffee. An hour into our trip, just on the edge of the beautiful Colorado Rockies, in a town named Silverthorne we stopped for a coffee. At a Starbucks. I ordered what I call a safe coffee, a soy latte with vanilla. Linda got some kind of juice and we each had a sweet treat. With coffee in hand we headed out the door to sit outside. I need to say at this point we could see another Starbucks across the street from where we were sitting.

Now I don't care how bad the coffee is, when you have a view, a real honest, hang your mouth open view, it doesn't matter. I swear it could have been pig swill in my cup. I didn't taste it because I was drinking in the view. And what a view it was. There before us was a picture postcard. A long sloping valley running up to the feet of tall snow capped mountains. And we would be threading our way between them to Breckenridge where there would be more snow and more mountains, and more valleys and more Starbucks.

Even in Aspen, Starbucks was the coffee house of, well not choice, it was just the only coffee shop. It would not be until Linda and I arrived at the airport on the day of our departure that I found....a....CARIBOU! I sucked down a milk chocolate coffee cooler - no whip- faster than a camel can spit! The barista put stickers on one of my cards, swiped the other as I proudly paid. I felt a sense of community. I was home. This is where I knew the menu. I could order maple brown sugar oatmeal or an apple sausage bagel or a depth charge. And, AND there was the cute little caribou on my cup not the creepy girl goddess on the Starbucks cups.

Linda didn't seem to really care about coffee. She's more of a black tea drinker though at Starbucks in Breckenridge I did get her to order a passion fruit tea and she not only dug the striking violet color of it but she actually liked the flavor. So, Starbucks, Caribou, Dunn Bros did not matter one iota to her. And this is probably a good thing. She seemed less stressed about the whole choice and after all we were on vacation. I just wanted to stay awake for it!

Peace and good coffee
Karen

 My sister Linda at Starbucks in Silverthorne, Colorado

Me at Starbucks in Silverthorne, though you can't prove it because I cut the all the logos out of the pic!