Caffeine is a Parent's Best Friend: Drive-through Coffee

I think most parents of young children will agree with me when I say that sleep is a precious commodity. In fact, I think much of the sleep that I think I've had in the past few years was in fact not sleep at all, but "liquid naps" in the guise of coffee and other caffeinated drinks. Yes, coffee and tea in all their forms keep many of us moving through the day.

Often, it's impractical to drag the kids into a coffee place, or perhaps you want to pick up a latté when they're asleep in their car seats. This is where the amazing phenomenon that is drive-through coffee comes into place. There really aren't too many drive-through coffee joints in Marin, perhaps because we're less into the whole suburban drive-to-Wal-Mart culture, but they can be found at convenient locations throughout the county.

Here's a list of the ones I know of, from north to south (I haven't actually tried all of them). If you have a favorite that we've missed, or if you want to give a shout-out to one on the list, leave a comment!

Novato

• Coffee Roasters (formerly La Coppa and Daily Grind), 1551 South Novato Boulevard, at Center Road

San Rafael

• Java Detour, 836 2nd Street, at Lindaro Street. They have a variety of different beverages and food, too.

Fairfax

• Java Hut, 760 Center Boulevard, at Fair-Anselm Plaza

Mill Valley

• Cable Car Coffee Company, 773 Redwood Highway. It looks sort of like a cable car; located just south of Goodman's Lumber opposite Strawberry shopping center
• Buckeye Coffee, at the Buckeye Roadhouse, 15 Shoreline Highway. While not technically a drive-through coffee place, you can drive up and park just a few feet from the coffee stand. Good coffee, and my husband tells me their homemade muffins (hot from the oven in the morning) are really, really good.

That's pretty much it, unless someone wants to fill us in on another one. Sonoma County actually seems to have tons of drive-through coffee stands, for some reason (including local places and the dreaded Starbucks), so Marin has some catching up to do in this department. Of course if you're in a pinch, there's always McDonalds...