41°31′36″N 70°39′47″W

I spend every Fourth of July on Cape Cod, and it may just be the most wonderful place on earth. Hot days, brisk nights, Jimmy Buffett on the radio, Cape Cod League baseball games, and not a worry in the world. It's an easy way of life and going back every summer helps remind me to enjoy the little things and never forget to stop and smell the sea spray.

On days when we aren't waking up early to go fishing, my family and I love to take a morning run to Woods Hole. Well, my sister and I run while my parents and brother take a longer route cycling through the winding seaside streets.

Like any good Italian family, we all meet up for a bite to eat and a cup of coffee at Pie in the Sky, a small bakery and coffee shop in Woods Hole (prounouced Heaven), before turning around and heading back to the house. Woods Hole is a small seaside village and home to one of the world's finest oceanographic institutes. More than that, it is the most easy going place where the big event of the day is watching the small draw bridge lift to let boats pass. It is a tiny part of town with not much to do, but I never seem to be bored when the ocean is in sight.

Now to be completely honest, while Pie in the Sky has ultra AMAZING baked goods, smoothies, and sandwiches, the coffee is mediocre at best. What usually happens is my mom and I grab a coffee from Coffee Obsessions next door, which has a fuller and stronger coffee flavor, and then head back to Pie in the Sky to indulge in the world's best popover.

This brings up an interesting point which I mentioned in my very first post more than a year ago: "Each cafe draws in a different crowd of people, but is it the coffee shop that draws them in, or is it the coffee?"

When I mention to folks that I write a coffee blog, they often ask, "do you review the coffee, or the shop itself?" I tell them both. Coffee drinking has become a social funtion of our socirty and people don't just do it for the kick anymore. Drinking coffee has become a part of what is thought to be a typical American morning full of relaxation, reading, or catching up with old friends. For these reasons, it is near impossible to review ONLY the coffee or ONLY the cafe.

In a blind taste test, Pie in the Sky would have coffee no better than store bought grounds brewed in a french press at home on-the-go. But, because the... cafe (if it can even be called that - more like harbor-side coffee joint) is such a staple in the morning routine of Woods Hole visitors and locals alike, the feeling of just being there early in the morning - packed with bikers, runners, and church goers - brings such a sense of community that even if the coffee is weak and bland, a smile is sure to spread across your face.

I'll be back in DC soon to review more of the District's finest, but for now the sea is where I'll be.

(My cousin filmed and produced the video of his friend's band in Woods Hole. Enjoy.)