On the Road again - Trip to Santa Monica

We recently spent a few days in Santa Monica. Prior to the trip I sought out restaurants with vegan options. There were many! They even had a few 'vegan only' places. I had to try one of those. For the road trip down we prepared a couple of veggie sandwiches and packed an ice chest. We included fresh fruit and some hummus with pita chips. This prevented us from having to hit the fast food chains on highway 5.

The first night, after picking our son up in LA, we met up with my cousin, Jake, who lives in Santa Monica. He brought us to the Library Ale House. This is a pub/restaurant. I ordered a veggie burger with sweet potato fries. It came with a whole grain bun, avocado, onions, tomato, lettuce, lots of Dijon. It was quite satisfying especially with a pint of golden ale.

Jake then buzzed us over to Hotel Casa del Mar for a night cap. You talk about swanky, WOW! It was quite lovely indeed. My dessert that evening was:

·         A nice glass of buttery Chardonnay

·         Time with my loved ones

·         Live jazz in the lounge    

·         A wonderful ocean view through lighted palm trees with the Santa Monica Ferris wheel in the distance.

Now that beats a slice of chocolate cake any day! :)

The next morning the hotel we stayed at offered, like many do, a continental breakfast where I could get whole wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh fruit.   In the past I would have been all over the bagel and cream cheese and the pastries! We also had brought down in our cooler a small soy milk creamer to use in coffee which worked out very well as the hotel only had dairy cream.

It was a beautiful 80 degree day on the Santa Monica Pier with lots of beach goers.  We stopped off for lunch at an outdoor cafe in the Promenade where I ordered a large spinach salad and an ice tea.   I had plenty of carbs the day before so my body was screaming for greens!

Later that evening we decided to try the vegan restaurant, Golden Mean. Now I hadn't been into eating meatless meat, but this restaurant was all about that, so I tried the chicken and cheese tacos. I'm sure it was made with soy and natural flavorings to make it taste and texture like chicken and cheese and to my surprise, it really did. It was very good. It came with a side of seaweed salad (I'm not quite feeling that yet. It looked like translucent worms)   :-/

There is another restaurant, Real Food Daily, that we will have to try on our next trip down.

I only wish vegan would become more main stream. These modest establishments do not offer wine or any 'non healthy' options. They are purists. All you can order for a beverage is organic tea. Now that is all fine and good, but I'd like to see a 'Mostly Plant Based' restaurant. In fact that is what I'd call it. It would be for those that aren't going to wig out if a veggie burger shared the same grill as the turkey burger. That does not bother me. AND you would be able to order a glass of wine, for goodness sake! What enjoyment do us vegans have if we can't order a glass of wine! I'm on vacation! The more I think about it, a 'real' vegan, would not consider me a vegan. Oh well, I'm a 96% vegan, and sticking with it!

For the trip home we stopped off at a Whole Foods. If you have access to one of those, you are good to go! We ordered some veggie sandwiches for the road, packed our cooler, and off we went!

We had a great time on the trip. We got to visit our youngest son and see where he lives in L.A. I shopped at Bloomingdales the first time ever and bought a sun hat. We saw an amazing concert (my son performed in) and got to visit with family. The food is only a small part of the adventure and I'm starting to get the hang of making vegan work on the road.