What better way to spend a rainy Saturday than driving to Seattle with friends Mark and Jan Thompson to attend Coffee Fest as their “son” and “daughter-in-law” (who were originally scheduled to go)? Mark’s fairwagecoffee.com makes sure the coffee growers he buys from get a fair wage for their beans. But a businessman needs to connect with others in the roasting business, which was his draw to Coffee Fest. As a home roaster, Mauri’s draw was interest and curiosity. The promise of tea and chocolate was the draw for me. And for both of us, spending the day with people we like a lot.

Well, yes, and the opportunity to eat interesting food! Here we are ordering our crepes (see me in the picture, taking the picture?)

We were thankful it wasn’t raining while we watched our crepes being made.

It was tasty!

Once inside the show, it was hard to not lust after all the cool gadgets.

I might have purchased this one on the basis of its color alone!

Which one will he choose?

As a point of reference, this is Mauri’s current (and satisfactory) coffee roaster.

Some of us settled for the samples offered by most of the exhibitors.

Lo and behold! There were Maureen and Bill Rogers, owners of the local coffee/book shop Chapters.

And as it turned out, my man “settled” for a shot of Malabar Gold espresso.

Time for a little breather before heading south to Portland.

And a nice shot of the father and “son.”

Another “lo and behold” happened at Marie Callender’s, where we stopped for yet another meal. Other Newberg friends Debbie and Gary Routon were as surprised to see us in Seattle as we were to see them.

Back home again, checking out all of my loot. It felt a little bit like Halloween, and I went disguised as Mylinda Thompson.