This past weekend was a pleasant one. On Saturday, knowing I’d need to rise early the next day, I slept in. When I woke up, I made some tea and toast and moved to the couch to begin reading the new Robert Galbraith detective story, Career of Evil. It’s a creepy novel, appropriate for the season, I suppose. Eventually, though, I decided some activity (and sunshine) was in order and changed into my bike togs.

As you may remember, the past couple falls I’ve done the Coffeeneuring challenge, the seasonal pairing of cycling and hot drinks. I like trying new places as part of participating, so when, during the week, I read about a place called The Pretzel Bakery across the city, I decided that would be one of my destinations. After making a few exchanges at the library, I biked down to the river, across the Mall, and over to Capitol Hill. The bakery is a walk-up adjacent to a ball field in the Barney Circle neighborhood, clearly a boon to business. I sampled each of their wares, as well as a hot Nutella drink with marshmallows before pedaling home, racing the setting sun.

On Sunday, a friend’s husband was running the marathon, so we rose early (for me) and went down to Rock Creek Park to cheer him on. (Marcus is very fast, so you can’t linger in bed if you want to catch him at the part of the course we live near.) I won’t lie; I was practically asleep still, and it was probably only the chilly rainwater seeping in the hole in my sneaker that kept me upright for the half hour this entailed.

We hit the farmers market, put in several hours at the garden for our fall cleanup day, and dozed with a cat for a bit (that may have just been me), before rallying late in the afternoon. A chai bar moved into the neighborhood last year and, despite being intrigued I’d never managed to make it over there (they close early in the evening). Rudi and I decided to go check it out. The shop, which also sells Indian spices, makes their various chais in front of you, so we sat at the beautiful counter and sipped our spicy beverages.

We finished the night by meeting up with our marathon-running pal, who still needed to replenish several hundred more calories, for ice cream at our local shop. It was nice to catch up on how he and his wife have been and was a perfect ending to the weekend.

Weekending along with Karen at Pumpkin Sunrise.