Monday 11 July

Rex picked me up at the Seattle/Tacoma airport after 7pm and we headed to his and Rebecca's place in Des Moines where their vegan friends were waiting for us for Games Night to begin. Every other Monday a Games night is organised with various vegans in the Seattle community taking place at various houses. Tonight we played Shadows over Camelot that I won't even attempt to explain the rules for, but it ended up being a lot easier to play than it first seemed. We all ate pizzas that Rebecca had bought and heated in the oven along with some vegetables and dips. Then we played Scattergories which was a lot easier than Shadows over Camelot! The last time I stayed in Seattle I also stayed with Rex & Rebecca and it was probably my favourite place to be, probably a lot to do with the company!

Tuesday 12 July

Decided to sleep in and stay home to catch up on computer work until I didn't save the LA blog I was working on and lost it ;( grr. I was not impressed with myself so decided to walk to the local Fred Myers and clear my head for awhile. Oh my, now this was quite an experience! The store is huge and there is just so much stuff - everywhere - food, clothing, homeware products and more! I should have probably gone there for the first time with another vegan so they could show me what was and wasn't vegan, as I spent a lot of time reading ingredients lists of products I've never seen before. But it was fun! Organic bananas are really cheap here too - in Brisbane since the floods our bananas have been really expensive so it was great to be able to buy some bananas (organic at that) at a great price. My Directions & Help Tally score is now at 4 after another customer at the store asked if I knew where the eye drops were. Sorry, first time I've been here and all, but just so we're all clear the drops are the aisle behind where we were originally.

When Rex & Rebecca can home from work - Rex runs Button Makers and Rebecca is a professional photographer - I just made a salad with kale, raspberries and blueberries I'd bought at Fred Myers, plus olives, carrots, sesame and sunflower seeds and raisins:

As Rex is obsessed with vegan hotdogs, we had some of them with Dave's Killer Bread which is great, and watched Big Brother USA - a lot different than our Australian version in many ways.

Wednesday 13 July

Rex and I started the morning with a lovely stroll around Saltwater State Park:

where we saw some seaweed and crabs

Then we had lunch at Thrive Cafe. I ordered a Longevity juice with apple, beetroot, carrot and cucumber 9oz US$4:

Rex ordered the amazing Buddha bowl US$11:

I ordered the Oh Pastadora small US$9 with sweet tomato, Pomodoro sauce, fresh thyme, oregano and basil over raw, organic, spiralised zucchini noodles. Topped with brazil nut parmesan cheese, red bell peppers and nutritional yeast. Also with Bella Burger meatballs made from sundried tomatoes, walnuts and sunflower seeds:

Rex also ordered a takeaway shake for Rebecca, the Oh My Wonka 16oz for US$7 made up of mint house-made almond milk with cacao powder, cashews, dates and pink Himilayan sea salt. They had some great raw options including a Coconut Quinoa dish and their raw cakes look amazing! After lunch Rex and I headed to the Button Makers store where Josh Harper who runs Conflict Gypsy now works. Rex and I wandered around the street and hung out at Georgetown Records where Rex bought some obscure LPs. I was flicking through various magazines and newspapers in the shop when I can across a local magazine called City Arts. I opened the magazine on a random page to find my face staring back at me with one of Rebecca's photos from the Chocolate Shoebox photoshoot we did last year:

Bizarre but cool. Later on Rebecca and I headed to visit Chocolate Shoebox where I bought a couple of shoes and owner Sadaf said that the advert would also be featured in VegNews magazine later in the year, so keep an eye out for that! I also found a great mostly second-hand book store where I found two astrology books.The below photo is of a few of Rebecca's photos from the shoot that are hanging up at Rex and Rebecca's place:

Rebecca and I then drove to a lovely lass, Jenny's house to meet her and see the wedding cakes she makes as Rebecca does a lot of wedding photography and no-one she knows makes vegan cake for weddings. Jenny runs Vegan Cakes by JennyMac and has only recently started her cake business, but with cakes such as the one below I'm sure it's only a matter of time until she's well known in the Seattle community:

The wedding cake has 3 tiers, the top tier is a gluten free spice cake, the second is vanilla cake and the bottom tier is raspberry mocha cake. The cupcakes are lemon lime with butter cream frosting and coconut garnish, plus flowers from Jenny's garden that are edible.

Here's some of Rebecca's photos. When driving to Jenny's someone asked for directions which brings my Directions & Help Tally score to 5. Rebecca and I also went to Side Cart for Pigs Peace a local all-vegan grocery store and went to a few op-shops (thrift stores) where I bought a great red and white dress and a some vintage jewellery. Some of the local Animal Rights gals from Seattle were meeting at St Dames for dinner: Faith, Holly, Lisa and Rebecca and I. I ordered the black bean and roasted vegetable Quesadilla US$6.75 with grilled corn tortillas, house-made sauce and cashews:

Along with the Tofu Ceviche which Lisa also had US$8.25 consisting of marinated tofu, hijiki, avocado, tomato, cucumber, onions with corn tortilla chips:

Rebecca ordered the mushroom risotto cakes with spicy renoulade and braised kale for US$10.25 (I really like my photo below)

Faith ordered the Bahn Mi Salad with greens, cilantro (coriander), red cabbage in a lemon-tahini dressing, topped with seasoned tofu, carrots, cucumber, pickled onion, jalepeno, sprout and cashews US$12.75:

I also couldn't go past the Chocolate Raspberry cheesecake on a Almond and Oat crust US$6.25:

Thursday 14 July

Rex and I went to brunch at a great thai-style restaurant that has been open in Seattle for years, Arya's that has an all-you-can-eat buffet for US$8.99 with a lot of Thai-style food including stir fried vegetables, green curry, fried rice, salads, noodles and black sticky rice with coconut cream for dessert:

 

Then we had to go to Side Cart so that Rex could buy some more hot dogs before it was off to Mighty-O Donuts for a chocolate covered chocolate donut:

After the sugar hit Rex and I went back to Button Makers where I made myself useful by making some mirrored buttons for Rebecca's Art Exhibition that night - to use instead of business cards. First you cut the images out:

Then you place the metal, plastic and paper parts onto one side of the machine and the mirror onto the other :

To make:

Rebecca has recently started a website, Paunchiest.com in which she has posted an extreme workout video that Rex filmed and edited from a fitness programme at X Gym. Rebecca has also taken some great closeup shots of some of the gym members and their muscles. Tonight was the opening night for her photographs as well as an art walk around Alki beach. Here's a photo of Holly from Vegan Shortcake, Rebecca and I - see some of her photos in the background:

Food for the night was catered by Delicious Planet who have a great Detox Guide. They're not vegan and spoke a bit about "happy" meats but they did make some great vegan food. A broccoli salad with pine nuts and sesame oil, Coleslaw and Mexican nut patties made from wild rice, nuts, sunflower seed, cumin served with a mango salsa:

Followed up with the lovely Holly from Vegan Shortcake's raw, no GI cheesecake bites. Lemon blueberry with macadamia and almond crust and dark cherry chocolate options. Hope you like the cake display that I initiated:

Most unusual person and moment of the night was a pig farmer who brought by some packaging of his product, salted pig back fat, and tried to offer it to the vegans there, we were not impressed obviously! Below is a photo of a sign up at X Gym (about 500mL) that I really love:

Here's some of Rebecca & Rex's photos from the launch. After the lauch, Rex, Rebecca, Holly and I had a late dinner at El Chupacabra a restaurant and bar that has vegan options. Holly ordered the Veggie Tacos with rice, pinto beans, Daiya cheese, lettuce, onions, avocado, black olives, Gardein with soft white corn tortillas US$4.99:

Rex ordered the Nachos consisting of corn chips with refried black beans and Daiya cheese, pico, olives, avocado and Gardein US$8.99:

Rebecca ordered the Chimichanga US$7.99 Deep fried tortila filled with Gardein, refried black beans, rice, onions, sour cream and Daiya cheese:

I ordered vegan Enchiladas consisting of 2 flour tortillas smothered with red enchilada sauce and Daiya cheese (additional US$1) plus refried black beans, Gardein and rice on the side US$8.99 plus guacamole additional US$1:

One of my aims for this trip is to eat more Mexican food, unfortunately they gave us the vegetarian mock meats instead of vegan for all of our meals and we had to get them all replaced. Other than that, the food was great but I think I've had a bit too much Daiya cheese for awhile...

Friday 15 July

Holly and her partner, Rick met up with Rex, Rebecca and I at Chaco Canyon for lunch. Rebecca had the Blue Greener blast 16oz US$5.95 with bananas, blueberries, apple juice,vegan vitamin green powder. I had the Swamp Monster juice with carrot, pear, golden beet, apple and kale small 10oz US$4.45. Rex had the Peachy Keen 10oz with peach, bananas and vanilla hemp milk US$4.95:

Holly ordered the Tempeh Bowl with tempeh, bok choy, vegetables and brown rice:

I ordered the Cilantro Pesto Pizza that was raw, gluten free and soy free for US$11.95. Raw crust of sprouted buckwheat, sunflower seeds and flax seeds, topped with classic oregano sun dried tomatoes. The pizza sauce was made from housemade cilantro and pumpkin see pesto, marinated red onions and herbed ricotta with a side salad:

The pizza was great, here's a close up:

Here's a great piece of artwork outside near Chaco Canyon:

Then Holly, Rex, Rebecca and I went to Jodee's Raw desserts for some cake. Holly and I had the tiramasu US$7.25:

Rex ordered the Pecan praline pie US$6.25, Rebecca ordered the frozen banana dipped in chocolate and walnuts US$3.95. Here's a couple of photos of myself, Holly and Rex at the front of the shop:

Then we went to Green Lake park where I saw SQUIRRELS! 

Holly's dog friend, Ani (after Ani di Franco!) joined us for a walk around and Rebecca kept her entertained while I interviewed Holly and Rex filmed.

Here's a great photo of Ani, Holly and Rebecca:

How many takes do you think it takes to get a great photo of Ani?

This many:

   

Rex made some noises to finally get the photo we were after:

Here's a photo of the Space Needle in Seattle when we were driving home:

For dinner we had some Tofurky pizzas from Fred Myers cut with Rex's favourite pizza cutter:

Rex, Rebecca and I watched Big Brother with their cat friends, Gaget:

and Gizmo:

Saturday 16 July

Breakfast was at Wayward Cafe where Rex & Rebecca shared a cinnamon roll:

Rex ordered the special - BBQ omlet - fluffy omlet stuffed with BBQ soy curls, cheddar cheeze, red onion and mushrooms drizzled with ranch dressing and served with home fries US$9:

Rebecca ordered the Lost Souls scramble US$8 with seasoned tofu scrambled with green peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli and carrots:

I ordered the short stack pancakes (2 cakes) for US$6 with margarine and housemade maple syrup:

The three of us ended up heading back home and I caught up on some computer work. As we'd eaten a lot for breakfast, we had a light dinner. One of my favourite snacks this trip is organic bananas, on Dave's Killer Bread toasted with Earth Balance margarine:

Rebecca also made a Gardein chicken scalopin with Kale, zucchini, onions, green peppers and BBQ sauce:

Sunday 17 July

Brunch was organised at Plum Bistro as part of the Seattle Breakfast Crew who meet every Sunday at various places for vegan breakfast. Rex and Rebecca as well as Tyler and Michelle (who I'd met the other night at Games Night) both ordered the roasted garlic sweet potato fries US$5:

I ordered an amazing Mexican drink, Fresh lime zest Horchata which had rice milk, pecans, lime juice and zest US$4:

Rex had the Rice french toast US$11:

Michelle ordere the Mayan blue corn pancakes US$13:

Tyler ordered the Chocolate waffles US$10:

Kyle and I ordered the Strawberry maize crepes - I don't think I've had crepes since becoming vegan over 14 years ago! They were made up of maize flour with creamy vanilla custard sauce and strawberries US$9:

Rebecca had the Tres Taquitos US$6:

Anika had the Quinoa nachos US$9:

After brunch we walked in the rain to Healeo's where I'd had soft serve ice cream last time I was in Seattle. This time I was too full. Rex and Rebecca went home and I caught up with a FaceBook friend, Susana (and her partner Chris) who I would be rooming with at the AR Conference in LA this weekend. We went to visit her daughter's place where she had a great vegetable garden and these amazing trees out the front of her purple house:

As Susana had to work and I was waiting for Peter from Voice of the Voiceless to pick me up, I hung out at Susana's place in Alki where I met her dog and chicken friends and had some food made for me by Susana. Peter then picked me up and we went to Bamboo Garden a Chinese establishment that's been operating for quite some time in Seattle. Peter ordered the Szechwan style Fried chicken US$9.95:

I ordered the Imperial style Japanese noodles with udon noodles, mock chicken and shredded vegetables US$8.95:

Then we went for an adventure to Mercer Island where Peter used to go to school and live when he was younger. Here's a photo driving from Seattle towards Mercer Island:

Here's a photo of one of the vantage points at Mercer Island looking towards Seattle:

Here's a photo of a great tree near where Peter used to live:

And here's another Mercer Island photo:

Peter then drove me back to Rex & Rebecca's place where we had forgotten to organise me to have the spare key. So at Rex's instructions, I proceeded to try to fit through the cat-flap. I thought if I can get past my hips and my breast I'd be fine, but just after getting my hips through the cat-flap I felt a bit claustrophobic as I had my scarf and some layers on and freaked out a bit about gettting stuck in there. So Peter then used his long arms to open a door from the inside and get us into the house.

Monday 18 July

You should see my bruises from yesterday's attempting-to-climb-through-the-cat-flap mission! Here's a great photo of a slug outside Rex's place, he was sort of furry, I don't believe I've ever seen a slug like this:

Rex and I went to the Button Makers store where I caught up on computer work, ate my leftover Japanese noodles from last night and waited for Peter to pick me up for my next adventure: A road trip with Peter & Sheila from Seattle to LA!