April Celebrations!

Life has been busy and quite full which means I have plenty to blog about but not enough time to get it done.  April has been a month of celebrations for us. I thought it would be fun to share some of the highlights with you. At the beginning of the month we celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary! How can that even be possible? We were very young and in love back in 1979. I can truthfully say that we are still very much in love and we are young at heart!

Monterey/Carmel

For our anniversary celebration we went over to the Monterey/Carmel area for a few days of fun. The weather was fantastic! We attended a music festival, went hiking, drove on some amazing roads, ate delicious vegan food and had an incredible time! I made up a few foody things to take with us, lentil salad with spinach, hearty garbanzo bean flour omelets, fresh fruit, veggies and vegan snack bars, roasted edamame and roasted garbanzo bean snack packs. We took a cooler and booked hotel rooms that had microwave ovens and small fridges.

Vegan Food

I did a little (okay a lot) of internet research before we went on our trip to locate the best restaurants with vegan food to set us up for success when eating out. I found Yelp to be my best resource for finding vegan options. I took the time to read reviews and browse the individual web sites to get familiar with the menus. We had two multi course meals at a Vegan restaurant called Julia’s in Pacific Grove, CA and the food was amazing! We ate there two nights in a row. One night there was a guest chef who made a fabulous pasta dish. It was so nice to be able to order anything off the menu and not have to worry about it being plant based or not. The servings were so huge we were able to box up the leftovers for our lunch on the trail the next day.

The second night at Julia’s it was a set menu with a 4 course menu that was served family style. We could have sat at a long table in the center of the dining room with other guests but we opted for a small private table off to the side.  It’s so much easier to find good vegan/plant based food over on the coast for some reason. We  enjoyed a wide variety of foods like pasta – veggie stuffed raviolis, salads, butternut squash enchiladas, vegetable curries, fake chicken drumsticks, veggie spring rolls, stir fries, vegan chocolate cake, vegan ice cream and a vegan spice cake. Believe it or not I didn’t gain any weight eating out so much. We hiked or walked every day so we worked off all those extra calories.

Vegan Food
Nutmeg Notebook

Since hubby Tom still likes to have some meat, fish or chicken when dining out I also searched out a nice restaurant for dining out on our anniversary night. I called the restaurant Passion Fish in Pacific Grove, CA a week ahead to make our reservations and to talk to them about my dietary needs. They were very helpful and willing to provide me with a variety of options for a whole foods plant based meal. The only thing they couldn’t make me was a dessert. I was fine with that since we were having other dinners at vegan restaurants where I could order desserts. I started our anniversary dinner off with a hot bowl of vegetable soup with pesto, my entree was a warm whole grain tabbouleh with an orange spiced gastrique topped off with almonds and served with roasted carrots and onions. Elegant and flavorful. I loved it. At one of the restaurants we ate at, even though they didn’t have an all vegan menu they had a few vegan options for entrees and even had a vegan ice cream sundae complete with a chocolate sauce! It was so easy to eat plant based/vegan food while vacationing.

Nutmeg Notebook

After a few days in the Monterey area we drove on down to Cambria CA. There were lots of beautiful spots along the way to stop and enjoy. With the recent rains the hills were lush and green. The beaches had lots of elephant seals to watch – they were quite entertaining and provided awesome photo opportunities.

Cambria / Hearst Castle
Nutmeg Notebook

One day we went to the Hearst Castle and took two different tours of the amazing mansion. We got to see the main house, the bedrooms upstairs as well as the main floor rooms. Everything is decorated over the top! Amazing what you can do when you have an unlimited amount of money. After the guided tours you get to roam around outside and take your time to look around and enjoy the gardens and the views. It was a relaxing fun day. The entire trip was a wonderful getaway and we enjoyed every minute of it. Then it was back home and back to our real life. You know laundry, grocery shopping, chores, cooking and cleaning. Sigh.

Well that was just the first celebration this month. In my next post I will let you know what else we have to celebrate!

Happy Healthy Trails!

Tami

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