On our way out of San Francisco we took a little detour to stop in at Verve Coffee in Santa Cruz!   [Instagram]  [Facebook]  [Twitter]

I think this was my favourite coffee spot of the whole trip...! The interior had a great atmosphere and was open and spacious, and of course, the latte I got was pretty awesome.  They also have a couple neat looking locations in LA that we were hoping to check out, but ran out of time. (Blame it on LA traffic . . . !) 

Here's a fun video that takes you on a little trek around Santa Cruz and each of their shops there, as well as their roastery.  > > >
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So, this was supposed to be the first of a couple, but ended up being our only coffee stop in San Francisco! We had done lots of research to come up with a list of all the best coffee places to visit in the city, (there are a TON to choose from, the coffee culture there is crazy!) and planned to try and make it to at least 3 or 4, but the day got away from us so fast and we knew there was too much else that we wanted to do! So we skipped over the other cafes on our schedule and did more sight seeing instead....after all, how much caffeine do you really need in one day? ;)  

The location had a big open feel, and almost seemed like a trendy warehouse or something. Lierra loved running up and down the ramps and climbing and swinging on the rails, hahaha. Oh to be two again.

Our drink of choice to try was the "New Orleans" - their version of an iced latte. Cold brew coffee infused with roasted chicory root, mixed with whole milk and a bit of cane sugar syrup. It was really, really good. You can actually buy it in little cartons to take home as well...! Very cute. 

It was a fun experience to get to go on site to one of the main names in the Third Wave coffee scene right now and see how they do things. We got a bag of beans to have with us for the rest of the trip so Keanu could use them with his little portable brewing set-up. He made himself an iced coffee every day in Palm Springs. #happytraveler #piresfamroadtrip  

​Blue Bottle Coffee
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Back in August we had a chance to do a little family road trip down to California! We spent 3 days on the road, had a few days to relax at a relative's place in Palm Springs, then did 2 days in LA before flying home....! 

Our first stop on Day 1 was Portland. We got up super early in the morning to start the drive down, hoping baby would stay asleep for most of it (which ended up being a great plan because she slept pretty much the whole way there). Once we made it into the city, we headed for Stumptown Coffee to grab some drinks. It was nice to get there and have it still feel like "morning". I had a delicious tea and shared a bagel with Lierra, and then we all walked down the street to Powell's Bookstore to spend some time looking around. What an amazing store! Seriously any book-lover's paradise. Lierra and I enjoyed hanging out in the huge childrens book section, looking at all the fun different stories before picking out a few special ones to buy to take home :) I purposely didn't bring any books along for her for the car ride, knowing that we were going to be stopping at Powell's and I wanted to have "car room" to be able to purchase a couple new ones. Even after a good hour or two there, it felt like I had barely seen everything it had to offer, and I could have easily spent twice as long looking around at everything.

                                                               (Images from Stumptown [Ace Hotel] + Powell's City of Books)

After finishing up at Powell's, it was lunch time and we were all pretty hungry so we started trying to decide where to go to eat...! Keanu remembered that Portland was known for their food trucks and there were certain places in the city where they would all gather (called "Food Cart Pods). We turned to google to help us out, and saw on the map that there was one such area just a few blocks away.  It was fun to see the bustling set up of all the different vendors, but it made it hard to choose with so many delicious looking options! We settled on some street tacos from an authentic looking Mexican cart, and the rest of the gang ended up at a grilled cheese truck.

Once our tummies were full, we spent a bit more time just walking around the city, looking in the windows of the different stores along the streets. One in particular we came across and spent some time in was a leather shop called Orox. We chatted with one of the sons of the family that owns the business, and found out that the trade of working with leather has been passed down through their family for 4 generations. They came from Oaxaca to Portland, where the name Orox comes from, OR(Oregon)/OX(Oaxaca), so Keanu was excited to learn of that connection. The bags and backpacks they make are gorgeous, it was so enjoyable to just look around and see the exceptional quality of the craftsmanship of each piece. 

​Visit their website and view their amazing goods here! www.oroxleather.com
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