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Our Florida visit was not as jam-packed with activities as our time in CT, but we did get some quality family time and some fun adventures. We spent a day at Discovery Cove (luckily the rain held), a controlled, limited number of people interactive sea world situation. They only allow 1000 people in a day and they are very concerned about the animal’s health so they do not provide lids, straws, or paper towels (cloth hand towels in the bathroom). They give you special sunscreen that won’t clog the filters or hurt the animals, but it was a little hard to apply and soak in. All day you’d see people with white paint all over their bodies, we were quite a clan from our name tags to our matching wetsuit vests. Matt and I were signed up to a dolphin swim so for about 40 minutes we were part of a group in the water feeding, touching, kissing and interacting with our buddy, Rex. There’s a lazy river that goes through the aviary, which was fun to enter and exit via a waterfall. There’s a staff: guest ratio of 1:4 but since it was the slow season; it was about 1:2. By doing the Cove experience, we had a free pass to Busch Gardens for the next 7 days. I think 1 day was plenty; we got to ride one of the top 10 roller coasters in the country, Kumba and experience a 90-degree drop on SheiKra. It was fun to go on roller coasters again and I’m impressed Busch Gardens is making a visible effort towards conservation, animal education and environmental awareness. Something good can come out of crappy beer (oh, 2 free beers for everyone at Busch Gardens).

We spent some time on the Gulf Coast visiting my other grandma (we brought lightening to her town, too). We spent the remainder of the week at my parents, relaxing, watching movies and getting ready for Peru. There were also thunderstorms almost every day at my parents. When it wasn’t raining, we got in some swimming and the obligatory stop to Ritter’s for some frozen custard. It’s much creamier than ice cream so Matt and I had to share a small scoop. I think my addiction to ice cream is diminishing. I don’t crave it as much (it’s been almost 10 years since I was eating ice cream every day at my high school job as a scoop-tress). It’s weird, I never could imagine life without ice cream but I think it has just transferred to dark chocolate. Mmmm, Dagoba.

Our last few days in the US were spent with Matt’s aunt, uncle and cousin who live in Fort Lauderdale. It was fun to see them all and see southern Florida. There were lightening storms our whole bus ride down to see them, but luckily our first day with them was sunny and beautiful so we spent it at the beach, bobbing the waves and walking on the beach. I haven’t spent much time at the beach since I moved to Seattle, where it’s a couple hours away and not as warm or swim able. So it was fun to have a Florida lazy beach day where you can spend all day in the ocean. We had quite the exciting experience at Jaxson’s ice cream parlor, all old school homemade ice cream in a building filled with tons of antiques and monster sundaes. They have a sundae called the kitchen sink. When someone orders it they turn on a siren, light sparklers and it’s a party. We didn’t get to see one, but heard the siren. Minimum of 4 people to share this monstrosity. Matt and I shared the Chocolate Peanut Gargantuan, which we finished with a bit of a stomache-ache…but it was yummy. We visited the Calvary Chapel and a home-church with them, shared a lot of meals, good stories and walked around Miami and the beaches together. Matt and I visited Natural Vibes on our last day, a vegan Jamaican take-out style restaurant and that was lots of fun. Everyone that worked and ate there was Jamaican except us. We shared some soy chicken stew, yams, green bananas and dumplings, collala? (a collards dish with okra and peppers) and a bean dish with beans I’ve never had before. It was all hearty and full of flavor. We had some home made soursop juice, which was quite thick and refreshing. We also had irish moss smoothie, with irish moss, pumpkin seeds, hirish walnuts and so many ingredients I can’t remember. It tasted like a thick pumpkin shake. The owner said the sour sop was good for the nerves and the irish moss was good for the irishand he pointed at Matt with a knowing smile). I’m not 100% sure how it will help Matt, I’ll keep you posted.

Off to Peru!

I guess we’re at that age now where everyone’s getting engaged, buying houses and having pets and/or babies. I’m not ready for all of that right now, so it’s good that we’ll be escaping/exploring/volunteering to South America and I won’t feel any of that pressure since our lifestyle will totally change. I enjoyed having a house and obviously having my own kitchen, garden, space but it’s time for a change. We can go always go back to it (I’m already missing not having a home or my kitchen..I hope someone is enjoying my spice rack!) There’s nothing like turning your life upside down to get some perspective on it. But it was so nice to visit my friends on the east coast and see how they are carving their lives out for themselves.

We got a lot of grandma time in this week. It’s hard to believe she’ll be 92 in a month. She’s still got plenty of spunk and is aiming for 100. We spent a day visiting her sisters and seeing the homestead they grew up on.

Two friends bought houses in the past year and two friends bought houses the year before, so there was much to see. One of the new houses included moving with two cats, a dog and a baby. I don’t know how people can move, let alone do major construction projects with an infant. They moved the basement stairs from one end of the house to the other…amazing. Miss Bedilia is now a year old. She’s so beautiful, calm, happy and balanced. So much development happens in a year-I remember spending a week with them when she was three weeks old and slept in my arms. I hope I can be as good as a mommy as she is; she’s so patient and relaxed and HAPPY. Another friend got a puppy with her new fiancé (congratulations my bouquet toss diver, it was not in vain J). Not just any puppy, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, my dream dog. After a day with Miss Savanna, I still want to have my own ridgeback. They are amazing dogs. Loyal, independent, laid back and a bit stubborn. Their hair is short, so the shedding is not insane and somehow they don’t smell like dogs, they smell like seaweed. That’s not unpleasant, considering my backpack stinks like skunks.

We went to Ithaca for a day with friends to see the gorge-ous #1 Most Enlightened Town in the US. It is also one of the most culturally liberal, lesbian-friendly and vegetarian friendly small towns in the US. We brought the thunderstorms there with us as well. It rained while we were driving in but stopped before dinner so we were able to squeeze in a little swimming and rock scrambling in an unnamed gorge and a stroll along Treman State Park. We ate dinner at Moosewood (my review is on the food blog), ran in the rain to snag yummy desserts at the ABC café and hear live music (J-San, dancy reggae dub tunes) at the Chapter House bar, where there were lots of yummy beer on tap, especially the Cascazilla! We did randomly come upon the farmer’s market, which was huge and was open-air with roofs (thank goodness because it was pouring rain while we were there as well). I was surprised at how much ethnic food was available at the farmer’s market…especially since it’s upstate New York, but there was Japanese, Cuban, Thai, Caribbean and a lot of other foods I can’t remember. It was a fun visit, but a bit short so I think I may have to return to get a better feel for this highly rated small town.

After stuffing our u-haul, husband and I headed east and spent a relaxing, in-lawed week. I think I slept enough to balance out the shortage of sleep during the hectic school year. We spent a lot of time in the sun, catching up, reading and enjoying the dry hot summer of eastern Washington. We had a really nice thunderstorm one day and the sun was out immediately afterwards. I was just thinking about how much I missed hearing thunder and seeing downpours of rain and we got our fill. We took a side trip to see Tofu Phil, of Small Planet Tofu. His headquarters is in husband’s hometown and I met Tofu Phil once upon a time at VegFest in Seattle. I mentioned my in-laws to him at the food fest and of course he knows them; small town. Who would have thought a town on the border of Idaho would have a fabulous tofu factory? Phil was nice enough to give us a tour one day and we got to see all the machinery and mini assembly lines. I can’t believe he pumps out all that tofu in such a small place. It seems like a LOT of work. He has a handful of employees and the equipment was really neat, a lot from old dairies and defunct soymilk/tofu factories (hooray for eBay). He used a pneumatic press to press the curds together, that must be the secret in his dense, cheeselike tofu. Phil used to be an engineer and it really showed in his design of the plant. I really liked seeing the factory, and it reinforced my desire to not start my own tofu factory. Too much machinery to keep track of and the details of everyday production to marketing. I think I could work for a place like that, but I’d hate to be responsible for all of it alone. How would I make time for circus? He did have some labels on a table for new flavors to come, but I think we need to petition stores to carry them: Lemongrass Ginger and Green Tea excited me the most.

We had some quality in-law time. We played some Euchre, drank some of my father in law’s homebrew and had two family picnics. Luckily, brother in law was between climbing trips and stayed with us for a few days with his girlfriend. I enjoyed getting to know her better and catching up with my new extended family.

Husband and I have successfully moved out of our little trendy apartment on Capitol Hill and packed what we thought necessary as storage material in a little u-haul and hauled ourselves across the state.

Moving is difficult. I understand why it’s easier to stay in the same place for 50 years, never throw things out, box stuff and storing it is easier than releasing your attachment to it and passing it on. I know I am a recovering packrat and still have many attachments to items that have memories or stories. I found in the Seattle apartment my UConn outing club secretary notes from 2002! Proudly, I lightened my load and recycled. We reduced our file cabinet into a little box and a binder. Who really needs to save the utility bills for the past 4 years? Not me. Otherwise, I’ll hold onto it forever.

I was able to reduce my clothing collection (it helps that I don’t shop much anymore) because it’s basically 3 categories: wear all the time, wear never, save for circus performances/fancy events. I had no idea how much clothes I had until I filled buckets of clothes to donate. Same thing goes for gear. But it’s hard to get rid of gear…and kitchen stuff. Those are the tuffies for me. I definitely sold/donated my gear that I don’t use anymore (I now have 2 pairs of climbing shoes instead of 5 and 1 harness.) I gave away all the kitchen utensils I don’t use or could easily find at a Goodwill another day. I was able to get rid of most of my kitchen stuff, but the hardest was my spice collection. What a sad day. I spent 4 years building up a spice rack Isa Chandra would be proud of to only put it all on the free table in my building. I tried to give my spices to friends that cook, but no one was interested. Well, at least I have all the cupboards empty and can enjoy putting together another spice rack one day in the future and have it be only spices that I use.

After the illegal yard sale (we got in trouble by the management but continued to have it-we sold our bed, futon, dressers, bookshelf, tables and more…so much easier than posting each item on craigslist), multiple donation visits to the Aids Alliance, computer donation to Re-PC, selling most of our books and cd’s to Half Price Books (and donations to Eco Encore), somehow I feel like I still have too much stuff. Which I know is a good feeling. It encourages me to let go of more attachments, live with less “stuff,” and most importantly, the burden of accumulation has been lifted. Not fully, but enough for me to feel freer. I would love to be able to live out of a backpack, but I definitely have a lot of interests that pull me in many stuff directions: cooking, circus, hiking, climbing, knitting. As long as I make an effort to not be a packrat again and have shoeboxes of rubber bands that cute boys flung at me, movie stubs, and rocks from every body of water that I visited, I feel like I’m moving in a good direction. I know I can’t get rid of all the notes and letters from friends starting from 2nd grade on, at least not yet.

Matt introduced me to a really interesting (short) essay on stuff and how we view it/live with it in our society today. Check it out, perhaps it will inspire you as well.

Husband and I recently spent a weekend in Portland to visit a friend and experience a new city. Portland has been touted as the “old Seattle” or what Seattle used be like before everyone got dependent on cars and yuppified and decided they didn’t want to make friends with outsiders. I’m not bitter There’s plenty wonderful about Seattle, but this post is about Portland. It seems the average age is more mid-20′s in Portland. It may just be my view, but Seattle seems very early-mid-30s.

Portland is the second greenest city in the WORLD, just behind Iceland. It’s got parks, trees, light rail, buses that are numerous and used, bike lanes and it’s pretty flat compared to Seattle. Which means more people could handle the bike riding. I saw a lot more people out on bikes for joy rides at all times of the day, which seemed like fun. I guess you can always feel like a 12 year old on a bicycle in Portland. We didn’t ride bikes on our trip, but walked a lot, checked out all the mini-neighborhoods and played frisbee and took a nap in Washington Park (which has an amazing Arboretum, hiking trails etc. And it’s on top of a big hill with views of the city).

Portland is also the #1 vegetarian large-city in the US, and I believe it. FoodFight Grocery has a vegan foodie’s guide to Portland, which I printed out and we visited a bunch on the list. We ate at Blossoming Lotus (which has it’s main restaurant on Kauai, HI and I’ve been cooking from their cookbook lately) and I had an all-raw dinner there. My body felt the difference eating raw in just one meal; but I’m not ready to go all Woody Harrelson on ya. I’m still excited and learning about the vegan cuisines. It’s amazing. I’ve always said that by becoming vegetarian I’ve never felt like I’ve been denying myself food. In fact, I feel I eat a greater variety of grains, protein sources and produce while being a vegetarian. Back when I was ignorant and had not been introduced to Vegan with a Vengeance, I thought vegans were the ones denying themselves food, oh those extremists! But the more I learn about the dairy industry directly connecting to the veal/hamburger etc etc and the more I cook vegan somehow, someway, even MORE doors have opened for me that I didn’t think possible. I’m really enjoying cooking my way through VWAV and husband agrees that vegan food is tasty. Enough of that rant, we ate WELL. I was very surprised to find 99% of the restaurants we went into proudly stated on their menus they can make most items vegan on their menus. We sampled some amazing biscuits and almond gravy, microbrews galore and vegan soft serve ice cream. If you want a rundown on the food experiences in detail, come to the foodblog.

Our friend had a dodgeball tournament that weekend as well, so we checked out a few games. Apparently dodgeball is HUGE in Portland, but not as big as kickball. There’s more than one division. Being 12 is really where it’s at.

We considered joining the mondo croquet party but we didn’t have any wonderland clothing nor a sledgehammer nor bowling balls. It was a giant croquet party in the Pearl District and we stopped by and checked it out, but I enjoyed more than anything just walking around the city, through the Saturday market, people watching, and just getting a vibe of the city.

And the vibe seems good and friendly. I estimate that 50% of the people have dogs and walk them a lot–we saw a lot of dogs in restaurant cafes, especially in Alberta. There’s doggie water dishes everywhere. I love all the unique buildings converted into bars, restaurants, movie houses (thank you McMennamins!). It was definitely strange having most buildings one story tall and all the large victorian houses (mmm, turrets!). I’ve gotten used to Seattle’s bungalows and high-rise condos. It still felt big to me because I didn’t really get a lay of the land, but it is smaller than Seattle, which is nice. I definitely am ready for something smaller than Seattle–4 years in the Emerald City has worn me out from city-living, especially all the driving. I look forward to the change of being in a rural place without all the noise, crowds, and intensity that pulses in cities.

Portland also touted as the most breweries in a city in the US, at 28. I have visited 2. I think I shall return there to drink more beer and enjoy their vegan fare another day. And another random fact: Portland has possibly the most strip clubs per capita of any us city. How does such a little city have soo many “mosts”?

To sum it up: if you are a dog-owning, beer-drinking vegan stripper, you better head to Portland!