Apparently, I took a lot of photos of what I was eating while I was traveling for work last week. Admittedly, I did have some pretty awesome meals in both Kansas City and NYC.

In Kansas City, we ate barbecue in a gas station, Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que. I had fries and a barbecued portobello mushroom sandwich (not seen here):

The next morning we had breakfast at Donutology, where they offered both regular and gluten-free doughnuts. I ate two hot glazed doughnuts (move over Krispy Kreme) and took an apple fritter to go (which was a great idea, since it later became my supper).

In New York City, I had several excellent lunches — pho and Indian — and some amazing dinners — veggie burgers (Two Tablespoons) and Ukranian food (Veselka).

We found a coffeehouse near our hotel (Black Cat LES), where we had a late teatime while waiting for my friend to join us after work.

I also ate Japanese artisanal toast (mine is cream cheese and jam, while Rudi’s is red bean paste):

We also ate more yuppie doughnuts, bought a bonfire bar (a cookie bar with pretzels and marshmallows, at the very least), and wrapped up the day with slices from Joe’s Pizza, a classic to-go joint:

Thanks for joining me for some terrific meals!

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is a Thanksgiving freebie. I’ve decided I’d like to share ten bookstores I’m personally thankful for:

1. Politics & Prose: A D.C. institution, this now trio of shops bring authors to the District on a daily basis. And they have a music buyer on staff, making them pretty much the only place in town I can buy new cds still.
2. Kramerbooks: A mainstay of my Dupont Circle neighborhood, this bookstore, cafe, and bar is open until 1 a.m. weeknights and 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday (and was very handy this year when I realized I didn’t have any cake for Rudi rather late on his birthday this year).
3. Powell’s: This Portland, Oregon, megastore is like a beacon for booklovers, being pretty much a block wide and several stories tall. Do not plan a trip to the Northwest without stopping, and do not stop without several hours to adequately explore.
4. R.J. Julia Booksellers: This was the first bookstore I ever joined as a member. Located in Madison, Connecticut, it has long hosted great author talks and provided hours of entertainment. It also took over the bookstore in Middletown, around the corner from my old house, after I moved.
5. Whitlock’s Book Barn: This is one of Connecticut’s great used bookshops and one of two (that I’m aware of) in the state housed in barns. Located in Bethany in the Housatonic Valley, you can find both antiquarian titles and used paperbacks in this rural paradise that my parents used to drag us to kicking and screaming when we were kids.
6. Capitol Hill Bookstore: This rowhouse near Eastern Market in D.C. is filled to bursting with books. While the fire marshal has clearly vetoed the piles of books that used to sit on each stair tread, they are still in stacks in the bathroom and on every other flat surface. Plus, they are deliciously cranky both in person and on their Twitter.
7. The Strand: New York City’s answer to Powell’s (although don’t tell a New Yorker that), the Strand is home to 18 miles of new and used books. When I win the lottery and am ready to purchase my unabridged copy of the OED, they have a copy of all 20 volumes on hand.
8. The King’s English: This Salt Lake City, Utah, shop is one of my favorite stops when we’re visiting Rudi’s mom.
9. East City Bookshop: This Capitol Hill-area bookstore has quickly built a loyal following, and not just because of their stroller parking area and photo wall of dogs. They boast an extremely knowledgeable kids/YA bookseller and run a plethora of bookclubs, including W(h)ine and Angst, a YA bookclub for adults.
10. Mahogany Books: This tiny bookstore, located in the Anacostia Arts Center, is the only bookshop East of the Anacostia River in D.C. and delivers Black-centric books for “readers in search of books written for, by, or about people of the African Diaspora.” It was this bookshop that introduced me (literally — she came in to pick up a book just after they hand sold me her poetry collection) to Elizabeth Acevedo.

Local runners-up you can visit here in D.C.: Loyalty Books, Solid State Books, Bridge Street Books, Second Story, Lost City (formerly Idle Times), Sankofa, Wall of Books, Carpe Librum, The Lantern, and more.

How about you? What bookstores are you thankful for?

Have you signed up for the Virtual Advent Tour yet? We’d be excited to have you join us!

I forgot I hadn’t added last weekend’s Coffeeneuring ride until I went to copy the details for this week’s. So you get both rides for the price of one!

Ride #7: Saturday, Nov. 16, evening
Friendship Café (2434 18th St., N.W.)

I decided that while I wanted to get ride #7 in, I also didn’t want to go especially far. I’ve been curious for a while about Friendship Café, which is located on the main drag in Adams Morgan, across the street from the bar where I sometimes go after one of my volleyball league’s games. (more…)

Rudi and I spent the day in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan, but the best location we stopped by far was our very own Burrow back home.

Rudi has come up to the city, so we can spend a day bumming around NYC.

He got in some time in the Village while I was wrapping up work, and then we checked out a local coffeehouse.

My roommate joined us for dinner & we ended up at a Ukranian diner, where we stuffed ourselves full of pierogies, borscht, potato pancakes, and the like. The walk to the subway was definitely needed after that.

Tomorrow I’m hoping we have time to check out the Christmas window displays (Macy’s is already out, at the very least) and maybe one of the other Christmas markets. I suspect Rudi might like to go to Brooklyn to do some music shopping, as well, before we catch a bus home.

It’s been a good trip, but now I’m just looking forward to getting home to my cat.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. On the flight to Kansas City, I had an entire row to myself.

2. My college roommate works in NYC, so she and I got to spend this evening catching up.

3. For both work projects I’m traveling for (both of them video projects), everyone involved has been super nice and very kind and giving of themselves. It makes the work I do feel valuable in a real sense, rather just in the theoretical, and that is a huge gift.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?