Recession Road Trip

one world

2009-12-30T20:45:00.001-08:00

When we got a bit, er, sidetracked we did managed to discover a truly outstanding place to eat. Before we reached the more-happening-than-anywhere-else-around city of Spokane, Washington we haphazardly researched places to eat. Impatient, hungry and desperate to be in Seattle already, we went with the first decent-sounding place on the search. We barely cared what or where we ate, but One World Spokane nourished us in more than one way. We were heartened and enchanted by what we found in this small community-run kitchen. The concept is so simple: one world is a non-profit organic community kitchen where chefs and volunteers cook up delicious and mostly vegetarian meals for anyone who is hungry. It is like being at a big family dinner or event, the menu is a small compared to a restaurant, but there is plenty of food and all options are delicious.

The hearty lentil soup with fresh mango slices, lime and cilantro on top was so delicious we had to go back for second helpings. Chels sampled the fish dish and Zach tried out the corn medley. All were tasty and served by friendly cheerful people. The whole place had a very connected feeling about it, children flitted around from table to table and then back to the kitchen to where a parent was working, people greeted one another like they knew each other well, lively conversations went on around the room and everyone worked, ate and enjoyed together. Those who were working the “kitchen” a buffet-style line of tables, also took turns sitting down and eating or clearing plates. We happened to hit One World on the right night (Friday) to hear live music . The band was pleasant and everyone clapped appreciatively . We polished off the whole pleasant experience with a fruit strudel and homemade ice cream. Yum!

Then our bellies full and spirits restored, we felt ready to take on the road again. As we went to pay we were once again pleasantly surprised by One World. We found that it is “pay what you can”. They have a list of suggested prices for reference, but it is not rigid or you can volunteer with them and earn meals. We all wondered at the wonderfulness, paid what we knew we could easily afford and hoped there are more places like this, preferably in the next place any of us choose to live, wherever that may be.

must haves on the menu:
the whole place!

must learn how to make:
that lentil soup

De Borgia, Montana? Coeur d’Alane, Idaho?

2009-12-08T20:28:00.001-08:00

Yes. We did make a few unexpected stops before we made it to Seattle. Our trusty Frida, who carried us so far so willingly and so happily, broke down. And since we now know that everyone has an idea, opinion or suggestion about car troubles, we’ll leave the mechanical details out of it. We had been attempting to drive through the night in our eagerness to get to Seattle and Frida fried just before midnight and just before we made it out of Montana in De Borgia. We decided to check into another hotel and face the music in the morning.

The next day after a morning in O-Aces, a nice little restaurant/bar/casino, where we were taken care of by Robin the kind and helpful owner, we called a tow truck. Robin lent us her laptop and wireless internet, accommodated our vegetarian needs and gave us lots of great advice about where to stay and where to drink the evening away (since we weren't going to be driving anywhere) in Coeur d’Alane Idaho, the closest place with a Subaru mechanic. It was clear that we would need to spend the night in Coeur d’Alane since it was already early afternoon and there was no way we’d get there and get our car fixed by end-of-business that day. Hoping not to have to get our third hotel room in four days, we got on CouchSurfering.org again and wrote to all of the three people listed as offering couches in Coeur d’Alane who and described our predicament. We thought It unlikely that anyone would respond on such short notice, but it was worth a try.

Soon the truck arrived and Frida was loaded. We said our grateful goodbyes to Robin and loaded ourselves into the extended cab of the plushest tow truck we’ve ever been in. For once, all four of us (the three of us and Frida) sat back and enjoyed the ride as we made our way west once more.

Once we arrived in Coeur D’Alane to drop our dear Frida off, we realized Zach’s car keys weren’t there. You see, we had started off with a chipper young teenager as our driver and given him Zach's keys so he could load the car, but when they found out we wanted to go to Idaho, they switched drivers because apparently the kid couldn’t drive over state lines. Soon we were on the road with his much less talkative, salty grandfather (it’s a real family business). After we had driven the hour and a half he turned to us slowly and said gruffly “I probably should have asked this before, but you have the keys right?” He called his grandson, but seemed to be having trouble communicating, he seemed a little hard of hearing, so we just gave him another set of keys in the meantime. (In the end Zach’s keys were a casualty of the whole fiasco. We called several times later that week and they always maintained that they were “in the cup holder” only Frida’s cup holder couldn’t hold a set of keys if it tried and we searched the car and never found them.)

After we settled Frida in at the shop, they offered to drive us to a hotel, and having not heard from anyone from couchsurfing or knowing what else to do we had them bring us and our packs to the hotel that Robyn suggested. We had just barely checked in and set down our backpacks when we got a call from Jamie, who offered us her futon and couch for the night. We couldn’t believe it. We decided to try and see if we could get out of the room as we had literally just walked in the door and the kind, friendly man who we had chatted with when we checked in was very nice about letting us off the hook for the room. However since Jamie couldn’t pick us up until after her daughter’s violin concert, we were nomads for a few hours and we decided to go in search of food with all of our packs and riffraff.

It was startling how incomplete and lost we felt without Frida. Even though we’ve stayed in homes and with friends and family, the car really has been our go-to space. She’s been our storage unit, our closet, our pantry, our living room, our space. We wandered along until we came across a little Mexican restaurant, Rancho Viejo, where we ordered an array of food and a pitcher of sangria. We were so grateful for a place to be and we stayed there happily enjoying sangria, chatting it up with our charming waitress (Iris dabbled a bit in Spanish) who wanted desperately sell Chelsea on the idea of the waiters as primo boyfriend material.

When we finally met Jamie she was nothing short of amazing. She instantly welcomed us in to her household that already contained two of her own kids (with another off for her first year of college), an exchange student from Brazil and three cats. We have no idea how she managed it all, working and studying for her masters all as a single mom. We nestled in there while we waited, watching the coming and goings of the bustling household and when we got the call from the shop late in the afternoon we thanked Jamie profusely and took a cab to pick up the car. Frida was the talk of the shop with her turtle shell and all the bikes on back. So we told them about our trip and they wished us luck.

Frida functional once more we embarked west without delay. We stopped in Spokane (spo-can not spo-cane!), Washington for some food at an amazing restaurant. Afterwards not knowing what to do with ourselves (and trying to time it so we didn’t arrive in Seattle at 4 in the morning) we puttered around a local food co-op. Then, snacks in hand, we co-opted some internet in the parking lot and all three of us lounging in the back, we caught up on some television and attempted to get some Zs.

But sleep did not come easily, we were a mere 5 hours away from Seattle so we decided to continue on into the night. Now just to lend some perspective, for several days we had been hearing about the “tricky mountain passes” between Spokane and Seattle. We were to be cautioned not to drive them at night or in any sort of weather ( and we had checked our weather fastidiously) so as we started off into the night we were cautious. Several hours later we were getting sleepy we stopped at a rest stop in the mountains to sleep some more. In the early light of dawn we set off again and crossed over the trickiest mountain pass, Snoqualmie, before we even realized we were on it. Thankfully we made it in to Seattle without further difficulty and surprised Chelsea’s aunt and uncle in their pajamas!

the bean counter
miles driven: 590
miles traveled by tow truck: 88
lost: two days, zach’s keys, sleep
mail sent: are you kidding?
mullets: 0

Two National Parks

2009-12-08T00:38:00.001-08:00

One would assume that three travelers from Boston would be prepared for the snow, if you are thinking of these three travelers, you would be assuming wrong. We were thinking by taking the northern route on the way out we’d be at places early enough to be facing fall weather at most. Before leaving SLC, we got a personal weather update from Margret who warned us that a storm was going to be hitting the whole northwest, so while we were intending to drive all the way to Bozeman, MT we decided to call it a night early in Jackson Hole, WY, on the south side of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. In Jackson we stayed in a hotel for the first time on our trip but not without shopping around town for the cheapest one and pulling some shenanigans with only two of us checking in (Chelsea and Zach are a natural couple) and the third sneaking in the back. We basked in our hotel glory by enjoying some nosh from a grocery store, vegging in front of the TV and long hot showers. The next morning we awoke to a snow-covered Frida, but by the time we packed up and headed out the light snowfall had melted on the car and the roads, while still beautifully coating the trees to match the snow capped mountains.

First we scoped out the quaint little town of Jackson Hole, in the town square we discovered four large elk antler arches. Apparently the antlers are gathered every year from the National Elk Refuge by the boy scouts(they fall off naturally in late winter), auctioned at the antler auction in town and woven by local craftsmen. Jackson is a bit of a gateway town, heralding in people who wish to visit the national parks (Grand Teton, Yellowstone and the National Elk Refuge) with a sizable visitors center. While in the center, absorbing some of the information available, we happen to hear one of the rangers warning other travelers about the road closures and snow tires. We surreptitiously listened in and made our way up to the counter to get the scoop. A local expert, Jim, (who informed us when we asked where he was from that he’s from Jackson and “ne’er been east of the Mississippi”) talked us through our options.

Most of Grand Teton was open, although hiking was off the table for us when we learned that many of the trails had anywhere from 4 inches to 2 feet of snow and we only had our sneakers. Yellowstone abuts Teton to the north and we had been planning on meandering up through both parks to Bozeman which is north of Yellowstone, but we found that the road in the park that connects to the northbound highway was closed (and apparently the whole park was closing for the season in just 4 days). To get to Bozeman we’d have to exit the park to the west and then head north. We decided to go for it, Frida has snow tires and four-wheel drive and Jim reassured us our extra load(the upstairs, and bike rack) would only help our handling in the snow, not hurt it. Jim showed us which roads were accessible and pointed out where we might sight moose, elk and bears. Bolstered by Jim’s encouragement and bundled snug in Frida we ventured into the snow-covered national parks.

We spent most of the visit to the park inside Frida, but we gladly pulled over and ventured out whenever we saw lovely looking nature. We would bear the cold and the snow to take in the trees, misty mountains and lakes that comprised the parks. It was was our first time driving Frida in the snow and we were glad to discover she handled well even over the winding mountain roads and falling flurries. The parks were beautiful, well worth the trip. We practically had the place to ourselves and we were warm and happy in Frida looking out upon lovely snowy scenes. We even gave ourselves a (quick) self-guided tour of the Cunningham cabin in Teton.

On our way out of the park we headed over to see Old Faithful. As we got close to the hot springs the road became a mini highway. In the heat of the summer we suppose it is packed full of cars, minivans and SUVs full of families and tourists, but we were ones on the road. We arrived at massive amusement park esque parking lot but had no trouble getting a close spot as we were the only car there. Zach and Iris ran out in the cold to see Old Faithful. We found her steaming quietly in the cold of the falling dusk. We could only stand being outside for a few minutes, so we had little hope of seeing the gush of water which only occurs every 90 min or so. We snapped a few photos as it grew colder and darker and then ran back the warm car.

We left Yellowstone knowing full well there was a lot more that we hadn’t seen but content to have been able to witness it at such a rare, quiet, snowy time. We drove into the darkness towards Bozeman, and arrived late in the evening. In Bozeman we were taking in by Todd, the brother of a friend, who was hospitable despite our late arrival time and having been convinced into hosting us by his brother. We bummed around Bozeman the next day, taking in the shops and a bit of nosh. We had planned on staying anther night, but we were antsy to get to Seattle with it’s (warmer) costal weather, family and friends. We left Bozeman early in the evening, ready to drive through the night and eagerly anticipating the relaxing respite of a week at Chelsea’s aunt and uncle’s house. The bean counter
miles traveled: Jackson,303. Bozeman, 242.
pieces of snail mail sent: Jackson,2 Bozeman,24
mullets: 0, 0

Salt Lake City

2009-12-03T20:26:00.001-08:00

Our stop over in Salt Lake City(henceforth SLC) was brief but beautiful. On our drive from boulder we stopped in Moab and lingered in the breathtaking arches national park until the sun set. The red earth at sunset was simply beautiful. As it grew too dark and too cold to appreciate the beauty of the place any longer, we packed back into the car and headed north up through Utah to SLC. Iris’s friend from high school, Margaret, was kind and accommodating our late arrival and was thrilled to have us be the first to try out the bed part of her new-to-them pull out couch!

We stayed with Iris's friend, Margaret and her husband in their cozy little box house. Margaret is a meteorologist and loves to bake (and blogs about it) and happily shares her talents and eagerly recommended activities for us not only the SLC area but also for our trip on the whole. She asserts that she’s just trying to add things from her to-do list to ours. Part of her enthusiasm for traveling, and national parks specifically comes from her new-found love her National Parks Passport, a little book where you can stamp each park you’ve been to right into your book. Now when Chelsea got wind of this little passport, she caught the bug “What? You mean I could have been doing this all along?” Needless to say, Margaret was a very engaging and inspiring host during our short stay in SLC.

For our first and only full day in SLC we headed up to visit, well, the salt lake. As recommended to us by Margret one of the best places to see the lake is on Antelope Island, a large island in the middle of the lake with a causeway road that attaches it. Shortly after arriving on the island and after a brief visit to the visitors center, we unloaded our bikes off the back of Frida and went on a two-wheeled exploration of the island.

Although the island is named Antelope Island, we were puzzled to discover its main inhabitant is bison. (and in the visitors center we learned that American bison and buffalo are two names for the same animal, buffalo a slight misnomer genetically speaking but has been in use in the US for considerably longer). While biking around we saw many of these amazingly large mammals (in fact the largest land mammal in the US). The island is desolate, not only because it is a state park and there are few buildings on it, or because the tall grasses are dry and barren, but because it is eerily quiet. Aside from the silent slow-moving bison, we don’t encounter any other living creature in sight or sound.

We headed down to the beach and it was as if we had arrived on another planet. The sand had a very different texture to it than what we were used to, crisp and crunchy as opposed to soft. There were deposits of dried brine shrimp creating a brownish hue where the water met the vast beach, salt crystals jetting out of the edges of puddles and the occasional remnant of a bird carcass. Adding the alien feeling was the fact that we were to only people on the entire beach. As we were leaving, we saw a buffalo, plodding lone and determined along the edge of the beach, a surreal sight indeed.

As the sun started setting we loaded the bikes back onto the car and headed back into the city. Curiosity brought us to the very center of the city and the foundation of SLC, the Mormon Temple. We discovered not only the temple, but a large compound called Temple Square that included several visitors centers, museums and significant buildings. Of course we were not permitted to enter the temple itself, but we were very welcome to walk around. As we walked through at dusk we were asked countless times if we wanted to take a tour by the many sisters roaming the grounds. We politely declined, preferring to self navigate as usual. The buildings were beautiful, but after a little while we were hungry and a little creeped out by the cult like feeling of the place so we headed out to find food.

Using Google SMS (a way for those of us with less than an entire computer for a phone to get google listings texted to us), a favorite tool of Zach’s, we found one of the only vegetarian/vegan restaurants in SLC: Sage’s Cafe. While the food was tasty as well as beautifully displayed in this all-organic, all-vegetarian place, the portions were too small to be satiating. Chelsea and Iris attempted to share an entree in order to compensate for the prohibitive costs, but the portions were pitifully small for just one hungry person, let along two even after we splurged for dessert. After having biked around all day, and wandered the temple all evening, we were not happy to be hungry. Luckily, when we arrived back at Margret’s we found a fresh batch of pumpkin cupcakes she had whipped up for her Halloween party at work. Of course there were a few rejects that the non-vegans among us were only too glad to take care of!

With our time in SLC concluded so soon, we got up early the next morning and breakfasted and planned at the very enjoyable and more haphazardly discovered Sugar House Coffee. After making some plans and arrangements, we began our journey towards Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Although no match to the ride we took from Colorado to Utah the ride up north was beautiful in its own right with rolling, golden hills and valleys.

The bean counter
miles traveled: 606
pieces of snail mail sent: 2
mullets: 0

Boulder Bites

2009-12-03T11:20:00.001-08:00

Soon after we arrived in Boulder Colorado we were looking for some eats and Zach decided to check the veg*n eaters resource Happy Cow. Happy cow is a website which lists vegetarian and vegan restaurants around the world searchable by location. Happy Cow led us to the amazing VG Burger! Now most healthy-minded vegetarians and vegans avoid fast food all together. There are rarely any offerings for us, the food is chemically tasting and unappealing and we've all read Fast Food Nation. However V.G. Burger in Boulder gives us hope that we can eat tasty fresh vegan food that is made in a relatively speedy way. All the homemade burgers along with everything else on the simple but enticing menu is is an all organic, all vegan and all delicious.

Their menu is simple, offering a selection of their own homemade veggie burgers, wraps, fries, onions rings, fresh salads and soup and selection of natural sodas on tap. The hemp ice cream makes dessert a must, but the sundae is more than generous and we do not recommend attempting it on your own! While the prices are definitely a bit higher than your average fast food joint, you can get combo meals and kid meals and we felt the delicious ends more than justify the means. The staff was enthusiastic about their food, friendly and genuinely interested in assuring our enjoyment of the food. And if we weren’t already sold on the place, when we cleaned up we discovered the whole place has a zero waste policy. Everything from the containers, the paper liners, (what food scraps?) and the corn utensils is either biodegradable or recyclable and the whole joint is run on wind power! What a stellar example of a sustainable, tasty, vegan business!

must haves on the menu:
any of the burgers
hemp ice cream!

-o-o-o-

Later when we met up with Peter and his wife Kate for dinner they suggested one of their favorite places, Sherpa’s. Sherpa's was started and is run by Pemba Sherpa who was in fact Sherpa (Himalayan mountain guide). Right away Iris liked the place because it is in a converted Victorian house. “I could do this…” she remarked as we stepped inside. The place was bustling and busy with tables in every nook and cranny of the rooms of the “house”. The fare was pretty standard for Tibetan/Nepali/Indian food, not necessarily remarkable of the dishes we sampled. The environment, however, with pictures of the great peaks of Nepal and Tibet and newspaper clippings and photographs of Sherpas was all quite intriguing and enjoyable.

must haves on the menu:
the sherpa!

-o-o-o-

On strong recommendation of a good friend and former Boulder resident, Alex Forster, we had to make a stop at Illegal Pete’s for a burrito before leaving town. We went there for breakfast. Apparently the southwestern food in Boulder is supposed to be good. While burritos are easily made vegan/vegetarian and have that satisfying combination of rice and beans, we can’t whole heartily recommend Illegal Pete’s to our fellow veggies for breakfast, because rice, beans and guacamole are off the menu and potatoes and a variety of meats are on! The staff was reasonably accommodating when we asked to rearrange the offerings to get something appetizing to a veggie, but not that pleasant first thing in the morning. Still the meal was satiating and with bellies full we headed off into the mountains for a day of driving

Must haves on the menu:
the breakfast menu itself was a pretty cool design…

Boulder,CO

2009-11-23T09:56:00.001-08:00

In Boulder we met up with Colleen, a friend we found using Couch Surfing. Couchsurfing.org is an international hospitality network that enables its members to make connections worldwide and “make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives.” We joined Couch Surfers based on the good experiences and strong recommendation of several of our friends. While this trip has demonstrated that we know quite a few people around the country, invariably there had to be a few places we wanted to visit that we just didn’t know anyone or have a solid contact for a place to stay. Boulder turned out to be one of those places. So we surfed Couch Surfing and found Colleen an amazing and kind person who took us in and put up with us for the duration of our stay in Colorado.
   We drove into Boulder late in the evening(what else is new?) in the rain and the cold. Apparently, Boulder gets over 300 days of sunshine a year, however our first night and day there was not one of them. So when we awoke to an overcast, chilly, drizzly day we decided on something free, fun, warm, and inside to do. We headed over to Sleepytime Drive to visit the Celestial Seasonings tea factory. We sipped on free tea and took in the “Celestial permanent collection” consisting of the paintings commissioned for the tea packaging, a range of artistically designed tea pots and a outfit crafted out of tea packets while we waited for our tour. Our tour began with a cheesy corporate video about the quaint, hippie origins of the company and all the amazing products the now corporate conglomerate offers. After the video we donned hairnets and a beardnet for Zach and feeling like visitors to the Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, walked through the double doors…
     Immediately, the dry, fragrant, musty smell of herbal tea ingredients washed over us as we walked through tall stacks of bundled herbs on one side and large whirring machines on the other.   On the day of our visit, they were milling blackberry leaves and our guide let us touch a sample of them before and after milling. Next we headed to the tea room, where they keep the actual tea… and we learned that black, green and white tea all come from the same camellia sinensis plant at different stages of growth. Next we stepped into the mint room, a filled-to-the-ceiling storage space for all the fragrant mints they use in their teas. The mint is so powerful that when you step into the room your eyes tear up and the menthol opens up you respiratory system! Zach and Iris quite liked the mint room, while Chelsea and other’s on the tour decided only to step in and out. Lastly we saw the packaging stage of production and learned the plant can produce as many as 1,000 tea bags a minute. Between the two of them, Chelsea and Iris, those lovers of tea, asked more questions than everyone else on the tour combined!
   Boulder is also nicely located near mountains. As we explored the town a bit and were amazed to discover you can see the small range that Boulder is nestled up next to, the Flatirons, from almost every street in town. Iris was quite taken with the mountains and the three of us decided to go ahead and check them out. We climbed one of the Flatirons and looked out over the city on a beautiful clear sunny day. As Iris and Chelsea descended with Frida and Zach took on the challenge of biking to the snowy top.   Even with the steep windy hills he made it to the top before the late afternoon sun was even close to setting!
   The next day our mountain exploration got bigger and more ambitious as we headed north to visit Rocky national park. It was our first visit to a national park and we excitedly purchased a national parks pass anticipating many more visits and headed in to enjoy the day in the “wilderness”. We hiked up to the snowy summit of Deer Mountain at 10,013   feet. It was really refreshing to be out in the wilderness and although it was crisp out we quickly warmed up with the climb. And as we walked we contemplated our futures and took the chance to talk to one another unfettered by our daily trappings.
     It was late in the afternoon when we descended, and we decided to head to another part of the park to see if we could see some the elk that we heard are particularly active and present around this time of year. Not only did we see elk, we witnessed the “bugling” when large groups of elk gather together and the male elk call out and strut their stuff looking for harem of females for the winter. We were enthralled by the up close and personal time with the elk!
   Before we left boulder we spent some time in the downtown area, discovered this cool shop Topo Ranch, hung out with yet another NMHer, Peter, and visited Iris Ave.   Early in the morning, we headed out to Salt Lake City. It was the most beautiful drive of the trip so far, winding over the Rockies and down into the beautiful red desert of Utah, with a stop in Arches national park before heading on up to the great salt lake. The bean counter
miles traveled: 641
pieces of snail mail sent: 19
mountains summited: 2
mullets: 0

KC eats

2009-11-17T11:27:00.001-08:00

Eden Alley was nothing short of astounding. Who knew a vegetarian, vegan, raw, local, organic, soy + gluten free* restaurant existed in the basement of a temple in Kansas City! From the very start they’re sweet talking us with complimentary multi grain and sourdough bread and agave butter (vegan margining mixed with agave. sweet. salty. satisfying.) On strong recommendation we tried the “tantalizing tasty triplet”, a combo platter that allows you to choose 3 items and try out smaller portions of all three, soup or salad and two entrees. sweet. We all opted for the soup, and devoured the delectable d’jour delight a yummy vegan lentil soup. Now who can remember exactly who got what off the appetizing menu, but we found ourselves feasting on a smorgasbord of dishes including but not limited to: humus and pita, spinach and mushroom loaf, sweet potato burrito, (vegan) garlic grilled cheese, regular grilled cheese, spinach balls (balls of spinach served with marinara sauce, brilliant) and whole wheat pasta. Oh it was a beast of a feast!

must haves on the menu:
lentil soup, spinach balls
*there were offerings of each, not every item on the menu was all of those things
**photo thanks to the Eden Alley online menu

-o-o-o-

Now, we’ve all had Chinese food in America, and while it is readily available, sometimes tasty and always quite greasy most of us recognize that it bears little to no resemblance of the food consumed in China. Blue Koi offers “undeniably artistic Chinese”. The dishes are fresh, beautiful and satisfying. They offer a selection “fine Chinese loose leaf teas” that of course Chelsea indulged in and when it came in a self, steeping 3 piece ceramic cup she received instructions on how to operate it: “Take it out when it is done steeping and not before, if to pull it out and then put it back in it will overflow.” So naturally, before the waiter who instructed her had even left the table there was a flood. The tea was tasty and entertaining too! As a party of 8 we got a bunch of dishes, veg*n and not and there was a lot of sharing. Particularly notable on the veg*n side of the table was the Ants on a tree, minced vegetables and tofu over bean noodles, and the vegetarian noodle soup a big bowl of savory both with crisp-yet-tender vegetables and soft, smooth noodles.

must haves on the menu:
ants on a tree and Archimedes displacement-discovering tea

KCMO

2009-11-11T07:50:00.001-08:00

We left one friend’s family for another's: Our friend Alea’s parents live in Lee Summit, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri(henceforth KCMO as the locals refer to it). We arrived early in the morning after driving all night, and while neither Carol nor Dean were home, they had left us all we needed to feel welcome: loving notes and bedding. We made ourselves at home and fell quickly into restful naps.

After satisfying one basic need it was onto the next: sustenance and society. We met up with Catherine, a friend of Alea’s and a vegan cook at her restaurant, Eden Ally, one of the few designated vegetarian/vegan restaurants in KCMO. If you ever have the opportunity to be led through a three course vegan meal by a cook/vegan/fan-of-food at the restaurant she loves to work at, we highly recommend it! With our bellies full but our appetite for KCMO still whet, we headed out to a tour (pronounced to-er) of the gay night life with Catherine. Our tour guide took us to three different bars: Outabounds the “sports bar”, SideKicks the “dive bar” and Toosties the “everything-goes-dancing-nightclub bar.” Catherine and her friends easily showed us up at pool at the first two bars, but when it came to dancing at Tootsies, the out-of-towners showed them how it’s done when they took over the empty dance floor and busted some moves.

Just when we had gotten comfortable in Alea’s bed, room, (green) house, area code, and with her family, friends, and cat (Pookie) we got a text from her: “can someone pick me up at the airport at 9:48 tomorrow AM?” And just like that Alea joined us for our stay in KCMO and made it exponentially more enjoyable. Joyously reunited, we celebrated and recovered (from her red eye and our tri-bar-athlon) with another nap. Later that day three well-rested traveling vagabonds, Alea, Carol, Dean, Marina (Alea’s sister) and her boy Bob all went out to dinner at Blue Koi. We shared a lovely meal with lively conversations all going on at once around a big table and generally enjoyed both Olson sisters home for the weekend; apparently this road trip fosters togetherness. After dinner we browsed in Prospero’s a funky, radical used bookstore. Just lovely.

The next day we took a little drive to go visiting in Lawrence, Kansas. First we stopped at the natural food store, where Zach was incredulous that such a thing existed in Kansas. “If you had told me about this place I would have come out here sooner!” he remarked to Alea. It was quite big and extensive and we flitted around for a bit. Then we went to Marina’s apartment and got to meet her roommate and their rabbits, Jesus and Mongo. We even helped her take out our her trash (and teased her relentlessly about it).

Alea invited us to meet and dine with family friends Marla and Alison and their daughters Katie and Charlotte. The whole bunch was delightful, and we passed a wonderful afternoon munching, reading books, creating math problems, playing hide and go seek, sharing stories with Marla and Alison, and generally having a wholesome good time. The girls were smart, entertaining and (as we found out later) infected with H1N9 (but don’t worry, we never showed any symptoms and the exposure hopefully strengthened our immune systems against it). The food was tasty and the company outstanding, a wonderful was to pass the afternoon. We rounded our Saturday off with another trip to Tootsies, this time with Alea!

On Sunday we toured downtown KCMO with Dean and Carol. We went to the Public Library, a renovated and repurposed bank, to check out the movie vault. Inside the old vault was a mini-movie theater! In the Library we also found some interesting art exhibits, including one about cowgirls with photos from the National Cowgirl Museum…so of course we looked it up and Fort Worth, Texas may be added to our itinerary so we can check it out. After lollygagging in the Library we headed to another renovated historic space: Union Station. This big old train station now houses touristy adventures such as a Chocolate Museum, Science City, a little toy train village display shops etc. We had fun just scoping out the space, people watching and chatting.

Our time in KCMO would not have been complete without Dean and Carol each sharing their interests with us. Dean performed an impromptu Japanese Tea Ceremony, a methodical, purposeful practice of making and serving tea that he has been studying for 12 years (and is 2/3 of the way through the program!) We were delighted to be served tea; How often does one get to participate in the Ancient Japanese Tea Ceremony? Carol was more than happy to share her silent talent of being a mime with Zach. She led him in the makeup technique. Amazingly, but perhaps not surprising, Zach was able to come up with a zany mime outfit out of his own cloths! Carol and Zach put on a small show for Chelsea. Chelsea gave the show two silent thumbs up!

Our time in KCMO was rounded out with as a soul food themed supper party at Catherine’s friend Amanda’s house. After food, a heated game of Trivial Pursuit began with the teams clearly polarized between in-towners and out-of-towners. It was a close, drawn-out game but in the end we claimed victory. Chels claimed her own victory in a drawn out battle with Connor the dog!

On Monday Alea returned to Arizona and we made preparations to move on. We left for Boulder the next morning at the record early time of 8:30am!the bean counter
miles traveled: 562
pieces of snail mail sent: 12
lost: zach’s cell phone
found: alea! winter coats for the girls, Zach’s inner Mime
mullets: our 1st mullet!

home away from home: Madison, WI

2009-10-28T17:08:00.001-07:00

Our main drive for visiting Madison was to see our good friend Kate’s parents Linda and Jack. We could not have asked for a more inviting welcome complete with hugs, stories and a big plate of home-made vegan cookies! In fact, they were so warm and welcoming and the weather outside was so dreary (wet, cold, grey) that we spent our first full day in Madison inside drinking tea, reading, relaxing and filling our ears with Linda’s stories. After being on the road for weeks, dashing from place to place, walking and biking all around cities, constantly locating and relocating places and things, not to mention freezing in Chicago, we were due for a little R&R and the Woodfords provided us with the perfect opportunity. Chelsea took the time to made friends with the illusive “Baby”, the Woodfords loveable but shy Kitty and even Frida made herself at home in the driveway,and got a little frosty one cold Wisconsin morning!

When we did venture into town, we discovered a busy little city full of friendly people, engaging shops and more“co-eds”. We explored State street and stopped in at a few of the hip places on the more residential “Willy” Street. Among other things we quickly noticed that Madison not only had a thriving bike community (especially the University of Wisconsin campus and surrounding area) but also an observably high population of (vespa)scooters!

On State street, the main drag reserved for people, bikes and the occasional delivery truck, we discovered several engaging places. At the Good Will we amused ourselves contemplating Halloween costumes and Zach got a cheap and stylish coat. In A Room of One’s Own, an extensive feminist bookstore we browsed at length. Iris picked up 10,000 dresses for her children’s book collection and Chelsea discovered Girl Drive an awesome feminist cross-country compilation. Next we stopped over at the co-operatively run Community Pharmacy, which was a thing of beauty. a dedicated space for natural remedies and products alongside information, books, an impressive female health section as well as a fully operational “traditional” prescription-filling pharmacy. A rare find, right on Madison.

Our visit to Madison was made complete by a couple conversations with the lovely Kate (currently living in Lima, Peru), a driving tour of the neighborhood she grew up in, and a question quenching supply of Kate stories from Linda. By the end of our stay we felt like part of the family. Reluctant to leave our home away from home we said our goodbyes and forged on to Kansas City.the bean counter
miles traveled: 131
pieces of snail mail sent: 12
number of vespas spotted: 107
mullets: 0

restaurant review: Chicago Chomps

2009-10-26T20:43:00.001-07:00

Frequently when we arrive in a new place we find the need to orient ourselves in one way or another. Often this involves finding a cafe and some wi-fi, browsing the local alternative newspapers, and generally getting our bearings. In Chicago when looking for a cafe for just such an orientation session we happened upon the local gem argo tea. Argo, a local chain with several locations around Chicago, offered a decent range of nosh: quiche, muffins, flatbread, little pre-made salads, parfait cups, etc. So nosh we did, because we were in need of nourishment, but the truly spectacular offering was the tea selection. You can choose from their enticing selection of their “signature blends” (autumn leaves, sangria and others) or you can choose or blend your own from dozens of teas available at their tea bar!

Must haves on the menu: a specialty tea!

-o-o-o-

On the recommendation of a good friend, we headed to The Chicago Diner for some brunch and were blown away by everything about this famous little vegetarian dinner. The diner was hip and cozy with a mix of customers from large family groups with young children drinking green veggie-filled smoothies to hip young philistines like ourselves. We perused the menu at length, finding it difficult to decide from the array of truly unique and tasty-sounding dishes! Our waiters were pleasant and patient with our indecisiveness on a busy Sunday noontime. In fact they were so attentive and appetizing some of us wished the waiters had been on the menu too!

In the end we ordered a Philly cheese steak, a sweet potato quesadilla and avocado tostadas. All three were delightful. The vegan version of the classic dish that we missed out on in Philly was hearty, creamy and messy(the bun falling apart halfway through greatly increased the instance of Zach-a-doo*). The use of sweet potato in a variety of vegetarian and vegan versions of classic dishes has always been pleasing to the Amato pallet, but she remarks that the sweet potato quesadilla was a particularly tasty example of this vegetarian ingenuity. The avocado tostadas were delightful mix of crunchy tortilla shells with creamy bean spread, seasoned quinoa and of course fresh avocado (Iris is a sucker for avocado) the zippy Argentine salsa tied together the whole experience.

With his meal the vegan also indulged in a peanut butter banana chocolate shake. When it arrived he gleefully dove in while the girls looked on longingly. Eventually they mooched a taste and were so moved by the decadence of it that they just had to order another one to split! While the shakes were polished off, two out of the three dishes provided leftovers enough for a second meal for the road. The Chicago Diner won a place in our hearts and our stomachs and is a guaranteed stop for any future visits we might make to Chicago.

must haves on the menu:
sweet potato quesadilla and a vegan shake!

*Zach-a-doo-the mess left behind when Zach eats. May included but is not limited to, crumbs, spots of sauce, food particles and stickiness.

The Windy, Chilly, City

2009-10-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Chicago was a bit of a shock for us, temperature-wise. While we did bring some winterish clothes most of them were stashed in the auxiliary or in the bottom of our backpacks, just stepping out of Frida in the driveway sent had us shivering in our thin sweatshirts and long sleeves. Maria, our host and another friend of Iris’s from NMH,was kind and accommodating of our late arrival, and relatively last minute plan to visit Chi-Town.

Once inside and warmer, we chatted it up with Maria about her studies, her brothers and the bowling league she recently joined. She and Iris could not resist reminiscing about NMH just a little bit (the joys of our old email system, SWIS!) while Chelsea and Zach marveled at her mother’s substantial collections, the most prominent and impressive to us being her DVD collection. With so many movies at our disposal we decided it might be a good chance to take in a film. When selecting from a collection comparable to a rental store, finding common ground and not getting lost in the choices was a challenge, but ultimately we decided on Gone Baby Gone, set in our familiar Boston.

The next day we bundled up and ventured into the cold, leaving Frida to relax in the suburbs we took the train into the city. Chicago was the first city in a while that we did not whip around town on our bikes, so pedestrians once more, we explored this new-to-us city the slow way. We spent the better part of the day inside “the loop” of the elevated train in the center of the city. We were delighted to find, without much effort, a good deal of things to do for free. The Millennium park offered us a wealth of visual stimulation in the form of outdoor sculptures and gardens. “It’s like an outdoor art museum” Chels remarked, and indeed it was, we all found something to amuse ourselves. Including Chinese sculptures, the oversaturated reflective “bean”, the face-fountains, beautiful sprawling gardens and an outdoor pavilion that makes the hatch shell look like a puppet theater.

When we could take the wind and the cold no longer, we crossed the street from the park and sought out the Chicago Cultural Center. We were astounded by how much the cultural center had to offer, several exhibits, in particular we drawn to the Barbara Crane 60 year photography retrospective and the Project Onward open studios. Later we stopped into the Lego Store, where Zach was like a vegan in a vegan candy store. We made lego people of the three of us…look for them in future photos! Afterwards we grabbed some food and made our way over to Hydrate on Halstead street. There we took in a fab drag/parody show: Annee Pocalypse and although they’ve got nothing on the professionalism of the Gold Dust Orphan productions we frequented in Boston, the writing and acting was hilarious!

In order to catch the last train back to Itasca, we had to leave Halstead (and the dance party that was brewing in Hydrate) earlier than we would have liked, so we revisited the fun area the next morning. You know you’re on Halstead street when you see the big, phallic, gay, beacons! We then spent a delightful few hours poking around the costume shops (Chels got a wig!) and eating at the famous Chicago Dinner. Chicago was good to us, despite the cold, but it was time to move on for the sake of moving on, and so we made the short drive up to Madison!

the bean counter
miles traveled: 457
pieces of snail mail sent: 1
number of people wearing shorts/sandals/skirts or otherwise inappropriately dressed: 7
wedding photo shoots witnessed: 3
mullets: 0

Autumn in Athens

2009-10-23T08:02:00.001-07:00

In Athens, Ohio Zach’s cousin Sara and her husband Roy welcomed us into their home and gave us a thorough and thoughtful orientation to Athens. They were delighted to have visitors and told us all about the sights and history in and around Athens. We were excited to hear the surrounding area offered a wealth of hiking and nature exploration, but many of the sites involved considerable drives to get there, so we opted to bike on the bike path and into downtown Athens.

Athens was a adorable little town, nestled in the crook of a diverted river. Home of the university of Ohio, it is pretty hip and happening for a town of its size, with youthful stores and bars and “co-eds” teeming the streets. Roy told us of the “court street shuffle” a challenge to go to all 12 of the bars on the main street of town: court street. We toyed with the idea, but decided we were content to just explore the town in the daylight and relax in the evening: a developing theme of ours.

With the crisp leaves on the ground, a little bit of a chill in the air (down from 70s-80s in DC), the and the wealth of college students, Athens reminded us of the allure of New England autumns. As we wandered the little streets we stopped into Farmacy, the local co-op; hung out at the Donkey, a hip little cafe; and perused Athens Underground, the funky thrift store.

The next morning glad to once again have use of a kitchen, we made scallion pancakes for a hearty savory breakfast before heading onward to Chicago. As we left Athens, we passed through Nelsonville, the next town over, and as Roy informed us, the home town of the lovely Sarah Jessica Parker! We were so glad to have a place to stay in Ohio and a nice little sojourn in the country before the Windy City.

the bean counter
miles traveled: 366
pieces of snail mail sent: 7
mullets: 0

moving right along…

2009-10-22T09:53:00.001-07:00

As of today we have been on the road for one month. Sometimes we get caught up in the day to day and forget how epic our trip is. Here are some stats to lend perspective.

in one month we have…
traveled 3224 miles.
made it as far as Boulder, Colorado (yeah yeah we know we’re behind on posts)
sent 95 pieces of snail mail.
been welcomed into 12 different homes in 11 cities.
stopped in 17 towns.
met 19 companion animals.
drove in 16 states.
met up with/met/reconnected with 38 people.
had two surprise visitors.
shared 37 meals.
stopped in 15 towns.
contemplated numerous publically and privately held art pieces.
browsed dozens of books.
took 1358 photos.
changed time zones, twice.
exchanged stories countless times.

"we don’t need a map to keep this show on the road!”

Quick and Dirty: Baltimore

2009-10-20T21:07:00.001-07:00

Our stopover in Baltimore was brief (less than 24 hours) but very enjoyable. We left DC late (after getting stuck at Sticky Fingers for a bit) and arrived in the neighboring Baltimore in no time. We stayed with Chelsea’s good friend Owen who appropriately refers to himself as “papa anarchy” for the large co-op style anarchist household that he lives in.
Chelsea, a frequenter of Bmore in the past, was glad to return and requested a visit to Paper Moon, which Owen happily drove us to in, get this, Frida’s identical twin! At one point when we were driving home in the dark, Iris even reached down for something in Frida, thinking Owen’s ride was her. Paper moon was delightful, for the visually stimulating decor,the food and the company. The only downside to Paper Moon was that it was a little heavy on the rules, unapologetically so.

Back at the ranch, we chatted the evening away with Owen and a rotating cast of housemates. We talked about a variety of stimulating subjects including: food liberation from dumpsters, their anarchist belief system, drag and gender non-conformity, the housemate who dwells in an under-the-stairs harry potter closet, methods of cross-country travel, the internal workings of their co-op and poked through their sizable Zine library on similar subjects.

Semi-early the next morning we packed out, said our good-byes and moved on. We had our longest and westwardest journey ahead of us. Next stop: Athen’s, OH.the bean counter
miles traveled: 43
pieces of snail mail sent: 0
mullets: 0

restaurant review: DC dishes

2009-10-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

The second rice was just as nice. A hip looking place on 14th st in Macey and Caroline's neighborhood, Dupont, this rice served up tasty Thai food. Enticed by much of the menu we decided to get a bunch of things and split them. Macey,the outnumbered meat eater, graciously went along with it. To start with we got the ubiquitous deep fried tofu, and tasty and “rice style” pumpkin empanadas, a delightful little surprise to find on a Thai menu. We moved on to an unintentionally mushroom-saturated entre selection: drunken noodles with mixed mushroom and tofu, green curry mixed mushroom and tofu and crispy tofu and ginger topped with mushroom sauce. All three dishes were tasty and satisfying. The best part, the second rice also served as a second birthday dinner! Sweet.

must haves on the menu:
sweet potato empanadas

-o-o-o-

And what trip to a college campus would be complete without a trip to the campus cafeteria? Too bad GW doesn’t really have one, a fact that Chelsea and Iris had a hard time getting over. After baffling over it with Macey and Owen, we decided the best way to understand it was to go to J street and see it for ourselves. It was basically a cluster of fast food restaurants, all of which were closed at quarter of 8 on a Sunday evening. Worried that there was no option for eating well, we went to the pay per weight cafeteria area which did have a surprisingly broad and healthy selection, including a “vegan bar”. While the selection was on par with other College cafeterias, which is to say, passable for food, the price for those of us without a GW bucks card it was rough on our wallets. Still, eating in and hanging out made for some fun quality time with both the Bros.

must haves on the menu:
QT with the bros

-o-o-o-

It might have been better had we not discovered Sticky Fingers Bakery, because it made us realize how lacking Boston is in the vegan delights department. Chelsea and Iris met up with the vegan there, and found him in a cute, hip, little Dinner-style seating area where some people were cozyed in with computers and others were conversing and chomping contentedly. The walk up counter offered a appetizing range of baked goods and a large selection of pre-made sandwiches, wraps and salads. When we arrived Zach had already devoured a grilled cheese sandwich which he raved about “it’s just like childhood, only vegan!”. Chelsea got a pre-made “Asian Salad” which was just alright, and Iris got one of the only other things on the hot menu, a vegan quesadilla, or as we coined with Caroline, a vegadilla, which was delicious and vegetable-filled with teese and vegan sour cream that could have passed for the real stuff. The sugar eaters among us polished off the meal with a slice of vegan peanut butter and chocolate cake and a lemon coconut cookie. Both were solidly “good”, but not out of this world, but then again our vegan standards are rapidly rising.

must haves on the menu:
anything from the hot menu

-o-o-o-

For space/time reasons we’ve been trying to keep these reviews to the three best places if we go to more than that, but for this one we’re going to have go ahead and rave about the Amsterdam for outstanding falafel. What really sets this place apart, and reminds Iris of her staple vegetarian dining option in Spain was that they give you a white or wheat pita with falafel and hummus and then there is a self serve bar where you can add any number of toppings, vegetables mixes and sauces. Making it your own is magnificent.

must haves on the menu:
the falafel!

-o-o-o-

honorable mention from the Chels Bells:
KramerBooks & Afterwords Cafe & Grill

the city of brotherly love

2009-10-14T20:21:00.001-07:00

…no not Philadelphia, we’re talking about the city that contains 50% of Iris’s brothers: DC. In DC we stayed with Macey and Caroline who are taking in their last month in their adorable place before moving on up to home ownership. With the two of them, the three of us, Olivia and Nico (their cats) and Chester (the turtle) sharing his patio/garden abode with our bikes it was a full house, but we were glad to be some of their last guests in their treasured home of 5 years. They doted on us accordingly: Caroline, a long-time vegetarian introduced us to her Levington specialty, hummus quesadillas (if it’s sans cheese is it just a dilla?), and Macey treated us to a vegan waffle party. Yum!

Located in Dupont Circle, with bike lanes right on their street, their place was well situated for city exploring and we were all excited to see the range of things DC had to offer. Having been on our trip for almost two weeks, we were glad for the opportunity to spread out a little bit and check out DC’s vast array of museums and monuments with a degree of autonomy.

After some solo and sola adventures we reunited (with Macey sporting his backpack like all the other kids) to bug up Owen in his new abode, Thurston Hall, the freshman dorm at George Washington University. It brought us all back a little bit, we got to visit the “co-eds” as Chelsea kept putting it. We had fun reminiscing it up and hearing the (tall) tales of college life. Of course no trip to a dorm would be complete without a good old fashioned public urination story. Classic.

On our last night in DC, we visited with Tara, a friend of Iris’ from her high school days at Northfield Mt Herman. We met with her and her partner Jen at a great falafel bar in their hip, eclectic neighborhood, Adams Morgan. The conversation and falafel were both stimulating and delicious, and we really enjoyed the feel of this off-beat neighborhood.

Before we knew it, we were saying our byes to the Bro’s and were off to Baltimore for a brief layover before heading west in earnest.

the bean counter
miles traveled: 123
pieces of snail mail sent: 38 (a new record, bolstered no doubt by our postal museum experience)
compliments on Chelsea’s hair: 7
mullets: 0

Museum Madness

2009-10-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

The American History is home to many artifacts from the past. Both Chelsea and Iris were excited to see the kitchen of cooking TV queen Julia Child. Julia had her Cambridge kitchen sent to the Smithsonian to be put on display. The exhibit is one of the most popular in the museum and it showed as it was pretty packed. Zach checked out many of the other exhibits at the American history including one about transportation. Fun fact: The first cross country trip by car was in 1903 and was done after one person bet the other that it could not be done.

The Air and Space Museum is considered one of the most popular in DC. It is fascinating to see the different crafts used to get into space. The museum feels very dated. The exhibit on the “space race” ends in 1983 where we hope that one day the Americans and the soviets can be friends together in outer space travel. There are no exhibits about space since 1983. So much has happened since the end of the Apollo missions. Fun Fact: Coke and Pepsi had their own space race for having their soda in space.

As you can see by the mail sent counter that we (or more like Chelsea and Iris) love to send snail mail, so it was no surprise that a good chunk of time was spent at the National Postal Museum. The exhibit on direct mail (don’t call it junk mail) was a mixture of fun and annoying as you go through different touch screens giving info on yourself. At the end you got a junk mail letter (I mean direct mail letter) with your picture and a coupon for 10% off at the gift shop. There was also an exhibit on the first postal route connecting (wait for it) Boston to Philadelphia. Chelsea and Iris ended the visit by going to the stamp shop. They were like two kids in a candy store as they got all different kinds of stamps. Fun Fact: In 1888 a stray named Owney was adopted by the Albany Post Office and become the first postal mascot.

photo essay: philly

2009-10-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

--Murals murals everywhere. this certainly is a decorated city. beautiful. however, learned a bit from Iris's friend Greg about the politics of murals- who gets to paint them where and how. the Mural Arts Program who paints the majority of them is run by the Anti-Graffiti Network. Most murals are painted over graffiti art, the program claims to involve young graffiti artists and the local community in the creation process, although we know of one neighborhood in west Philly where, funded by the University, they forwarded it's agenda and were less than respectful of the neighborhood's ideas, wishes and even individual's likenesses which are pictured in the mural without permission!

Mandi, fun and spunky young yogi in training, fellow blogger and nanny extraordinar, welcomed us into her home, her room and her bed. Plenty of cozy, tea, conversations and Glee.

bountiful breakfasts. Zach made delicious vegan pancakes which through no fault of his own may have set off the smoke detector early in the morning (sorry Morgan!) which caused Chels and Mandi to (wo)man the doors, using them to fan smoke out of the apartment. when Iris made a veggie, tofu scramble and sautéed apples the morning before there were no major tragedies. having use of a kitchen and people to cook for: priceless.

Chelsea has made a regular habit of changing her footwear on Frida. The Auxiliary might also be called "Chelsea's dressing room".

Philly also provided an opportunity for much needed haircuts for Chels and Zach. The barber shop open for business.

Chels discovers Jauque outside of Honey's.
Love at first sight.

Iris re-connects with Greg, a high school friend and inspiration 8 years later. Greg is dancing, living in a land-trust co-op in west Phily and generally being cool. plus he has a porch swing.

the road crew and our hosts all do a lot of biking around the city. ask us how Philly's public transportation is...we have no idea.
the vegan gives Philly 4 out of 5 bell rings for bikeability.

getting lost in the enchanting jungle of the City Planter.

Also business shout out to Art Star, a really cool little shop/art gallery with a bit of everything. Mostly smaller crafted items, unconventional cards, pins, jewelry etc.

Phenomenal Philly we leave you for DC, but hope to return some day at the very least for some more vegan treats!

where are we now? follow our progress and the break down of our route on our map!

the bean counter
miles traveled: 101
pieces of snail mail sent: 11
delicious vegan treats consumed: 5
mullets: 0

(sorry for the massive gaps and formatting issues, including photos is difficult and mysterious--even blogger is sure where the photos are going to appear until they do)

restaurant reviews: Philly food

2009-10-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

On our first night in Philly, Mandi, Asher and Morgan and the Road Crew (the name we coined for ourselves) all went out to A Full Plate. The ambiance, food and the people we went there with was a wonderful welcome to Philadelphia. Zach ordered the nutty and creamy vegan mac and cheese. The vegan reports that while it didn’t have a particularly cheesy taste, it was satisfying and delicious in its own right. Then nut and bread crumb topping was a particularly nice touch. I ordered a sun burger, homemade with crushed sunflower seeds, wheat germ and veggies. Luckily Chelsea ordered my second choice the homemade spinach and black bean burger. Instead of fries, the burgers came with a nice little salad of beans, onion and cucumbers, a lighter taste to balance with the hearty burgers. Both were delish.

To top it all of they served our drinks in mason jars, a little touch of home.

must haves on the menu:

a slice of the Elvis cake (banana, peanut butter and chocolate) at mandi's recommendation.

-o-o-o-

In West Philly, Chels Bell’s used her prior knowledge(Mandi and Asher lived in west Philly until recently) and general prowess to direct us towards, Satellite Café for a little nosh and atmosphere while waiting to meet up with Greg. And Satellite provided. We sat in the cozy café surrounded by warm rich warm colors, and split the “Bike Shop” wrap. Named for Firehouse Bicycles Satelite’s upstairs neighbors, the “bike shop” is a delicious warm wrap with cream cheese, pesto, spinach and roasted red peppers and is available on a bagel and/or with vegan crème cheese. The warm melty quality of the cream cheese nicely offset the fresh spinach and soft tangy peppers. For the vegan we got a chocolate peanut butter brownie which was truly a work of art, a rich chocolate brownie with a thick layer of peanut butter chunks and topped off with a drizzling of thin white decorative icing. The vegan gobbled it up later, quick to assert it as “the best vegan brownie [he’d] ever had, maybe even the best brownie ever. “

Must haves on the menu:
vegan chocolate peanut butter brownie
Chels say’s: “their coffee is good too!”

-o-o-o-

I can’t say enough about Honey’s sit and eat. It was recommended to us by Greg, a local vegan, and provided us with a lovely last meal in Philly. We got table outside and as we began to read, were wowed by the menu. It was a breakfast-anytime sort of place with a distinct jewish flair. The offerings ranged from enticing omelette's (for those who indulge), challa french toast, burgers and latkes. The guacamole side with homemade chips was the most satisfying portion of guac I've ever been served, even some to take on the road. The veggie "chicken fried steak" came with a gravy sauce that turned out to have dairy in it, but the accommodating staff was quick to make amends when we discovered it and the vegan seemed to enjoy it. Chels and I devoured the gently spiced and satisfying vegetable latkes with applesauce. Late in the meal we discovered that the patty in the chicken fried steak was the same as the vegetable latkes! double yum!

Must haves on the menu:
vegetable latkes and/or chicken fried steak, hands down.

the Magic of South Street

2009-10-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you mix a bunch of property, pieces of ceramic, pieces of mirror, a 70 year old artist and tons of mortar? The Magic Gardens of South Street.

As we were on our way out of Philly we made a lost important stop: South street. The street is full of many different shops and art galleries including one "Dumpster Divers" gallery made out of found objects. As we headed down the street we found a building covered from top to bottom with mosaic. The mosaic mixed found objects, homemade tiles, and mirrors to create amazing patterns and pictures. And then we found another one, and another, and a whole mosaiced ally, a garage, a store front and more.

The mosaics are the work of Isaiah Zagar. Isaiah and his wife bought dilapidated buildings on South Street during the late 60's. They would renovate the buildings and add mosaics to the walls of the buildings and rent them out. If only they had been our landlords!

In the early 90's Zagar started building what is now known as the magic garden. It is a labyrinth of mosaic and found objects. It was fun exploring the magic
garden there were so many different hidden images and messages in the walls. There were many bike wheels used like windows. While walking throught the maze we stumbled on a fashion shoot! Chelsea was on the look out for Tyra and Miss J while we hung around waiting for them to finish so we could get our own shot in since they were blocking the best spot of the whole gardens. Rude.

All in all the gardens, and looking at Zagar's work throughout the street was a very rewarding way to spend the afternoon. Putting his art in the street not only decorates the neighborhood but it makes art accessible. As Zagar reaffirms: "Art is the center of the real world". Those words are used as a sort of slogan and repeated throughout his work. He now teaches workshops and the non-profit organization that sprung up around protecting his work from destruction (for the creation of condos) runs community events with a focus on artistic collaboration and access. Pretty sweet.

restaurant reviews: eats in nyc

2009-10-02T05:12:00.000-07:00

Given all of NYC's dining options for ringing in a new year of Iris, we quickly and easily chose Red Bamboo. It's not a hard choice really, the place offers: a cozy environment, reasonable prices, a truly unique vegetarian menu and has two convenient locations (for easy last-minute plan changes). To substantiate the "unique menu" claim: the most delectable offerings of vegetarian and vegan soul food. A-mazing. Standard vegetarian cuisine can get a little, predictable to say the least, tofu stir fry, veggie burger, hummus, repeat.. This joint blows me away with its soulful and daringly delicious vegetarian food. There is a little bit of Asian-fuison going on on the menu, but we stuck mostly to the classic soul food--much of which we've never had vegan or otherwise.

must-haves on the menu: buffalo wings
honorable mention: collard greens with ham spring rolls

-o- -o- -o-

The next morning we were looking for a nice little cafe to eat, read, write, talk and generally hold up in for a few hours. We were staying in Chelsea (no relation) and looking for somewhere with WiFi. Zach did some googling and discovered Paradise Cafe. With festively painted walls, a cozy window, mosaic art on the walls and a friendly, accommodating staff it was a paradise for us on that gloomy Sunday morning. We had the veggie burritos substituting egg for avocado and a veggie burger substituting the burger for portabello and we all sat happy and content to eat, drink, read write and generally make ourselves at home away from home for several hours. Delightful.

must-haves on the menu: friendly staff

-o- -o- -o-

A day later (and a dollar or two shorter) we were down in Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in Brooklyn with the Amatos looking for a place to grab some food. For some reason on this trip we seem to be finding ourselves looking for food at the witching hours of 3-5. After scouting out several resturants that were closed and others that were quadruple "neesh" from Chels we wandered into Jacques Torres, the chocolate factory that came highly recommended by Grace, the 11-year-old we were staying with. And after we all drank in the sights and smells a little bit, Chels asked for a vegan and veg friendly restaurant recommendation and the nice chocolatier suggested Rice. Everything about Rice was just what we wanted: simple, mouth-watering menu; clever, creatively put together food and atmosphere; and tell-your-friends-about-it bathrooms. The menu included a number of veg*n options, we all went with the Tofu-steak, and each selected a dressing and a rice from the informative and appetizing selection of rices and specialty rices. When we ordered tea it came with a beautifully displayed and intriguing selection of honeys!

must have on the menu: the rice!

* Note: In the future I will try to take food photos before we devour it.*

end of 23 in nyc

2009-10-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

From open fields, clean crisp air and rolling hills we headed for tall buildings and traffic. We stopped in Ithaca, NY and arrived in NYC just after 11 on Friday night. We found parking in Chelsea, the place not the person (*note* for this post Chelsea L. Amato will be referred to as Amato so as to avoid confusion). With all our belongings on, in or otherwise attached to Frida we were a little worried about our security. So Amato chatted up a resident of the street, Michael, out walking his dog, Sasha, who reassured us of the niceness and longevity of the street with a lot of dog owners who are out and about frequently walking their beasts. “You’ve just got to chat it up with the locals” says Amato. Too true.

Close to midnight, looking like hobos with our bikes and backpacks, we arrived at Amato’s friend Andréa’s Chelsea apartment (yes it’s grammatically correct; go ahead and read that one again). Andréa was more than welcoming; she gracefully took all of us, our three bikes and our backpacks into her home, located just above the Unicorn. Soon after midnight, bikes stored in a stairwell, and backpacks and people all tucked into her cozy room, we broke out a bottle of the 2007 Riesling from KLV and drank to another year of Iris. Like tweens at a slumber party, we stayed up late into the night talking, laughing and swapping stories.

In the morning after sleeping in, we went in search of food and an open air market in Union Square. We found both and spent a lovely Saturday morning/afternoon walking around. We wandered into Strand and spent a good deal of time there preening over our books, even getting an addition or two for our library. We ended the afternoon in Washington Square Park listening to music and watching street performers. In particular we enjoyed the mini-battle of the bands that ensued when one man and his guitar was singing out soulfully and then a 4-man band plugged in on a stage-like space nearby and drowned him out entirely. Amato gave him some pennies for his trouble, and we turned our attention to the band which was pretty rocking (and we’re bummed because we can’t remember their name)!

The birthday night was spent delightfully at the Red Bamboo in the village, complete with a surprise guest: Emily made our three a party of four. The food was wonderful and we indulged and chatted the evening away. As we were leaving, it began to rain, and we wandered around hopping from store to store looking at the wares and stepping in and out of the rain.

Lovely.

By Sunday morning, we felt it was time to move on--to the other side of the river. First we all holed up in the lovely Paradise Café for a while, updating the blog, letter writing, reading and more conversing and relaxing. Hours later we traversed the Hudson to Amato’s cousin’s Brooklyn brownstone.

There we were welcomed by a full house of: Lisa, Paisley, Grace, Georgia, little Greta and Butter, Alfie (the dogs), Zeus and Hermes (the guinea pigs). With the convergence of so many people there were so many more stories to be heard and told over another homey dinner and more KLV Riesling. We heard about Grace and Georgia’s school, Greta’s eating patterns, Lisa's latest book and Paisley’s relative freedom from work and re-focus on family. After dinner, dessert and dishes cleared, we cozyed in with the girls and the dogs and enjoyed the quasi-feminist flick, Ella Enchanted with pillows, blankets and beds abound. There is something about this trip that is like one big ongoing sleepover vacation.

We love it.

Our trip to NYC could not be complete without a visit with the Amatos. So on a lovely Yom Kippur (day off for them) afternoon they came into the city and we biked the breadth of Brooklyn in beautiful September weather to DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).
Donna Jean and Dr. Lou both grew up in the city, but had never been to DUMBO: They loved it. We wandered around the small sometimes cobble-stoned streets of this semi-industrial, quasi-artsy area of the city. We strolled past a line of tourists waiting to get into Grimaldi’s, apparently NY’s best pizza, and heard stories about Louie’s days as a cab driver while DJ caught us up on all the gossip! There were great views of the bridges and the city from the park. We shared a lovely meal with them at the gem Rice and then said our goodbyes as it began to sprinkle.

We rounded out our NY experience with a bike ride in the pouring rain getting drenched to the bone in semi-summery rain--not quite cold, but cold. We warmed up/dried off and spent the rest of the evening playing a twisted game of Twisted Fish with Grace and Georgia and taking in moments with Lisa and Paisley in turn, sharing with them more about our plans and travels.

The next morning we packed into Frida and took off on our wild ride to the next destination: Philly!

the bean counter
miles travled: 262
pieces of snail mail sent: 5
mullets: 0

restaurant review: Moosewood

2009-09-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

The primary reason we went to Ithaca, NY was to eat at the famous Moosewood Restaurant. We, like so many others, have the cookbooks and have been enticed and inspired by their creative-without-being-complex, vegetable-filled recipes. Understandably we had very high hopes for the restaurant which inspired 11 cookbooks. Overall, we were disappointed. How could the restaurant that has become a hippy, earth-crunchy cooking handbook be so bureaucratic and boring? We arrived in Ithaca at 4, looking to grab some food, poke around a little and move on to NYC. While walking to find Moosewood, we came across an Apple Harvest Festival in full swing. The streets in the center of town were filled with entertainers, information booths, lovely wares and food vendors. We walked around for a while enjoying the spirit of the place, hungry to be sure, but saving our stomachs for Moosewood.

We made it over to Moosewood at 5 only to be told by a less-than-welcoming hostess that we'd have to wait until 5:30, when dinner began, to be seated. We were eager to get back on the road, but ultimately decided the mecca to Moosewood was important enough to warrant a still later arrival in NYC. While we waited we noticed that the atmosphere was pretty run-of-the-mill. Nothing you wouldn't see in a mid-range restaurant chain.

When we were seated, we perused the menu--it was a short read. Iris and Chelsea in particular, were misted by the lack of choices given how many recipes they knew to be in existence. While we can respect the choice for a simple menu, this one was beyond with only 2 appetizers, 2 soups, 4 entrés (only two "may be made vegan") period. Oh and then 5 pages of wines and drinks (KLV among them!!). Apparently their menu is rotating, which is wonderful if you have the luxury (and with the prices, we do mean luxury) of eating there on a regular basis. With a menu like that, our choices were made for us, we decided to get the two vegan options: Southwestern Stew over Rice, Stuffed Delicata Squash and an appetizer: Tofulafels. We played the system a little so they would not charge a fee (!) to split an entrés.

As for the food, it was EXCELLENT. The Southwestern Stew delicately juggled the flavors and cooked-but-still-crispy tenderness of the likes of three colors of bell peppers, red potatoes, baby lima beans, corn, tomatoes and zucchini all flavored with present-but-not-overpowering cilantro and chili peppers. The Stuffed Delicata was divine. The half squash was sweet and tender and the mushrooms and leeks that stuffed it were perfectly complementary. It was all topped off with a gentle tomato-roasted fennel sauce and served with a side of delectably marinated green beans. In all the dishes the medley of flavors was amazing--each spice stood out as unique and in the same bite blended with the vegetables natural flavor. The textures were perfect, each vegetable was gently cooked to it's own optimal tender crispness. And the vegan chocolate cake? set the whole meal over the edge.. .may even be better than McDougal's Zucchini Chocolate Cake.

the walk away lesson: keep the cookbooks.

food delicious food

2009-09-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

Aparently, people are eager to hear about where and what we've been eating. Before several requests, it hadn't occurred to us to blog about food, but now that it's been suggested, it does seem like a simple way to reassure all those who might worry that we are indeed eating well and often. So as head chef (and bottle washer) Iris is stepping up and donning yet another hat as restaurant/food critic for the duration of this blog.

Already we've had several delicious meals.

Dorathee, our host at the vineyard, is quite the farm chef and welcomed us in with a slew of garden-fresh and homemade meals including: just-wilted chard with sautéed onions, hearty bean and potato stew with brown rice, butternut squash and curd casserole, just-steamed corn-on-the-cob, fresh tomato sauce on spaghetti, cherry tomatoes ripe from the garden, oatmeal bread with butter and jam, granola and fresh-picked peaches and raspberries for breakfast, peach pie for dessert and plenty of fresh grapes all around.
We were more than well fed with such delicious foods and plenty of vegan choosings and delicious low-sugar desserts.

Oh an how could I forget, the wine! Mel kept our wine glasses well stocked with the full range of Keuka Lake Vineyard's offerings, guiding us expertly through our own private tasting and tour as well as carefully selecting among his wines for additional tasting with dinner. What at treat!

And then there were the grapes, grapes and more grapes!

We munched on them in the kitchen when we first arrived, we purchased some at roadside stand and nibbled them on a long bike ride, ate some for dessert after another pleasant meal and on our way out, we stopped with Dorathee to pick concord grapes to take with us for the road. Yum!

If all that wasn't enough, Zach and Iris discovered
the nourishment to be found in the wild. On a mission with Mel, we made our way up through tangled forests to an ancient, overgrown orchard and earned our keep by collecting bags full of fallen apples to make cider. Zach even discovered a few pears!

Who said this vegan doesn't know how to feed himself?

Farm Sanctuary

2009-09-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

If there were a vegan headquarters, the Farm Sanctuary would fit the bill. Located in upstate New York, the Farm Sanctuary rescues abused and neglected farm animals and give them a home in open fields with out the fear of becoming a meal.

Although though there were no tours on the weekday we still got escorted around by a lovely black cat that led and followed us all around the property.

The visitors’ center had facts about different animals and the lives they live on factory farms including actual cages and pens that are used by factory farms. Zach was quite disappointed that the gift shop was closed (no vegan treats!) and we all would have liked to see the rescued animals so talk had already begun of returning and staying at the vegan bed and breakfast right on the farm.

the bean counter
miles traveled: 15
pieces of snail mail sent: 0
mullets: 0