Washington and Oregon

I'm back!

We had such a great time on our trip! Labeled our "womantic" holiday, we weaved our way through Washington to Oregon and back in a bubble of self acceptance and wonderful female energy. I can't imagine having gone on this trip with anyone else. As promised, here is a breakdown of our trip.. mostly about the food I ate, but I will also sprinkle in what we did as well :)

The first night we spent in Lacey Washington, stopping just after we witnessed a beautiful lightning storm (and crazy downpour which was a bit of a 'white knuckle' drive.) Since it was late, we tucked in for the night and had a good sleep. Breakfast was continental at the hotel which had waffles, eggs and milk based products, so I had a large Vega shake. I'm very happy I brought some as it was a nice staple between being able to eat my special diet.

From Lacey, it wasn't that far to Portland. Once we were there,we had a short list of 'must dos' and then basically just wandered around .. getting lost a few times here and there, but isn't that what makes an adventure? Because of getting lost, we got to meet some very friendly people. Oregon seems to be the nicest state I've been to. Everyone was incredibly polite and willing to help. It was amazing.

This was a great little art store.

If you go to Portland you MUST go to Sock Dreams!! You can shop online, but the store is fantastic :)

Our first night in Portland we ended up going to Andinas Restaurant. They have separate vegetarian/vegan and gluten free menus! (Oh, and I forgot to tell you...I have also gone gluten free. Just another restriction for me, but at Andinas they were very accommodating in all of our crazy dietary needs. This is also another reason why I love Portland so much!) My main course was Quinotto "Chisaya Mama" which was a quinoa “risotto” with golden beets, local mushrooms and market fresh vegetables, laced with truffle oil. It's originally a vegetarian dish, but they just held back the cheese at my request. I wanted to take a picture, but was a bit shy because it was a bit of a fancy restaurant, so here is one from their website:

I think this picture is a different version of the dish, but it looks quite similar to what I received. It was DELICIOUS!

After dinner we wandered around the Pearl District of Portland and window shopped. It was a very nice evening!

The next morning, after sleeping in a bit, we made our way to Mother's Bistro for brunch. I had the tofu hash with gluten free bread. It was also delicious and had juuuust the right amount of oil.

After brunch we wandered around the Pearl district again (but this time in the day!) and then eventually took a cab with a crazy driver to Mississippi street where a lot of cool shops are. After perusing the street, we walked to Alberta street, which was quite a far distance.. my feet still remember the walk ;) - if you do this, take a cab!

After shopping a bit more, we stopped at a nice little pub (ish) place called The Hilt. We ordered the hummus with veggies (instead of pita), the felafel plate with pickled onions and a beet and endive salad. Yummers. Oh, and I had some gluten free beer!

 After dinner we dropped into New Seasons Market, which is similar to Whole foods, but a bit cheaper. We picked up some snacks for the next day and headed to Kennedy School, which is a hotel and bars converted from, yes you guessed it, a school. I didn't take too many pictures inside, but here is a picture of one of the art pieces.

 We had another drink (Omission Gluten Free Beer!) and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we were on a few missions... buy Omission beer to take home, go to Powell's Book store (I bought 'The Gluten Free Vegan", "Artisan Vegan Cheese", "The Alchemist" and "The Prophet") and the VEGAN MINI MALL. Oh yeeeesssss. It is mini, but it was really exciting. I bought a few things at Herbivore online before, but being there in person was just so great! I bought a purse and a tank top that says "Only Kale can save us now" - cheeky and I love it. After that we headed to Food Fight Grocery to look around. I would have liked to buy some stuff, but traveling always makes it a bit hard to buy yummy things that spoil. Next time! I did, however, get a great picture of these guys:

I recognized them from their facebook page that I stalked..(I mean looked at) and couldn't resist asking for a picture.

After this we were on the road again, this time heading to Breitenbush.  I have mentioned Breitenbush a few times on this blog. If you are ever in Oregon, I highly suggest getting your butt to these natural springs! Not only is it a physical break for your body, but it is a wonderful place to just relax the mind. There are no phones, no computers and all love. It's quite a beautiful place to 'just be'.

When we got there, we were just in time for dinner (they provide a vegetarian/vegan breakfast, lunch and dinner in a buffet style setting). The last time I was there I learned how to pile my plate high with foodie goodness, as you can see below!

The meal was dahl, gluten free pekoras, eggplant curry gluten free naan bread and salad.

After dinner we went to the sanctuary and did some stretches and movements and even had an impromptu drum session.

Later that night we made our way to one of the natural pools and watched a meteor shower while we soaked and chatted with other people. You lose track of time in this place, but I think we were in there for about an hour.

The following morning we headed to breakfast at 8am.

Miso soup, oatmeal, tofu scramble and fruit.

After breakfast we headed up to the gift store to take a peek at what was there.

this is looking down toward the main house from the gift shop

And then packed up our stuff and headed out on a nice hike through the surrounding forest.

When we got back the girls headed for another dip in the pools while I sat in the shade by the main house and read one of the books I had bought at powells. It was quite relaxing and nice to just gaze around at all the friendly people that tend to go to such a place. About an hour later the lunch gong went off and we had our last meal there.

Rice, rice noodles, tempeh, seaweed salad and a huge green salad.

We were on the road again and back to Seattle for our last night in the States! Because of getting there quite late we only had a light dinner.

This was lima bean, tomato, asparagus salad.

Quite tasty, although they put some liquid smoke in the dressing. It took me off guard for a moment because I thought I was eating bacon ;)

After dinner, we tucked ourselves in and had a great sleep. The following day we did some more shopping and then headed home sweet home to BC. So there you have it! Our wonderful Stateside adventure. If you end up going to the places we did, please drop me a line and let me know how you like it! (In Portland and Seattle we stayed in Pineapple Hotels)