For almost three decades City officials have worked with local residents and merchants to stimulate investment in an area known as the Burnside Bridgehead; today’s riders, C and H, were tangentially involved with a few of these attempts.  Today, with three relatively new structures overlooking the Cup and Bar shop just south of the Bridgehead, we feel a bit disoriented.

The Cup and Bar is a quirky shop, and we’re suckers for unexpected quirks: exposed big beams and pipes; indoor racks on the wall for customers to hang their bicycles indoors; stools rather than chairs; having the manufacturing facilities for Trailhead Coffee Roasters and Ranger Chocolates in the back, and serving as a tasting room for each; and views of Trailhead’s fleet of delivery bicycles.  Of course, the stools aren’t comfortable for extra long hanging out, but we survived.

With C in Denver for the past two months, we spent most of our time catching up: C’s dad is in the last stage of his life but refuses hospice or outside nursing assistance;  his step-daughter is doing well in her last month of pregnancy; her stepson’s family in Port Townsend, however, doesn’t have all the money that’s needed for Feb’s rent so K and he are providing them a line of credit; and his brother-in-law is still without work.  H’s brother, meanwhile, still has sleeping problems and can’t get comfortable with the CPAP machine; and there’s still no firm diagnosis for his daughter-in-law’s auto immune syndrome, even after 2+ years.

118 NE MLK Jr Blvd.          cupandbar.com