I managed to get from my AirBnB to the airport in Chicago on public transport, which I was super happy with. O'Hare airport has a few vegan options, and I stopped by CIBO to pick up a few vegan snacks made by Vegani Gourmet for lunch on the plane. I got a Vegan Jerlusalem Steak Roll and a Carrot Tuna Salad. The tuna salad was actually quite nice, even with some red capsicum as an ingredient, it was blended well, and was an unusual base for a vegan tuna salad. Sorry about the slightly blurry mid-flight photo.
Landing in Seattle, I caught the Link to the Westlake Center and then went straight to the downtown Veggie Grill for afternoon tea and to wait for Helen, who is my Seattle bestie and was very kindly letting me stay at her place for my visit. To sustain myself I had some of Veggie Grill's delicious mac and cheese and also the Grilled Street Corn, which was super yummy.
Dinner was another VVC reunion with the Seattle crew, Anika, Jean and Britt. My friend Jess from Melbourne was also in Seattle, so he also joined us. We went to one of my favourite places in Seattle, Wayward Vegan Cafe. It was my first time eating off the breakfast menu, and I knew I was going to have the Club Sandwich (with a side of coleslaw). This was huge and delicious! Helen and I also shared a serve of the Smoky Bacon Cheesy Fries.
Helen got the Bikini Bowl.
Britt got the Spirit Burger. Which makes me think of Bring It On and the Spirit Stick.
Jean got the Dirty South, which was seitan ribs, potato salad and kale.
Jess and Anika both got the Country Fried Chicken, however Anika got the breakfast sized one and Jess, not knowing about different sized ones, ordered off the dinner menu and got this huge plate! The potato cake here was amazing!!!
Wayward also had a dessert menu, with a ridiculously large selection of pies. I didn't get a photo of any, but I did get a bite of the Chick-O-Stick Pie, which was insanely sweet but yummy in small doses!
The next morning I woke up early with the early rising sun, but it was OK because Helen's kitty Zeno graced me with some pretty serious and intense snuggles. Breakfast found me heading back off to Wayward, of course! I got the Benedict with a side of garlic kale. This had a really nice sauce, and was very tasty. Though I must remember that I need to sub homefries for hash browns because US hashbrowns are not the hashbrowns I am thinking of.
Wayward does not have chai, and I was feeling a need. Just a few blocks away is the vegan-friendly Wayward Coffeehouse, which is nothing to do with Wayward Vegan Cafe. Unfortunately their chai was pre-honeyed. Nope. But I was heading into the main part of the U District anyway and I knew I could get a nice one (and some free wifi, Wayward's was being spotty) at Chaco Canyon Cafe.
Every year since 2013 I have visited the Henry Art Gallery at UW and enjoyed the thesis artwork presentation of their art and design students, and this year was no different. There are some great pieces here, including this series of gorgeous paintings that I just loved. They are by Maria Rose Adams. There are kitties in most of them! Reading the bio on her webpage, turns out she is a plant-eating, cat-loving yogini, so no wonder I gravitated towards her paintings! I also did a half an hour mindfulness meditation in the beautiful sky space there, which was lovely and calming before lunch.
For lunch I went to Araya's Place for an amazing vegan Thai all you can eat buffet. This is just a photo of my second plate because the photo of the first plate is so blurry! But I did eat spring rolls, pad thai, red curry, steamed vegetables with peanut sauce, stir-fry, mixed cabbage and mushroom, fried rice, salad and yet more peanut sauce. Their peanut sauce it the best! I was so full I couldn't quite finish my second plate, so I didn't have room for the black rice dessert.
After lunch I met up with Jess for a visit to Vegan Haven to do some vegan shopping. So many choices! I stocked up on some goodies to bring home with me, and some gifts as well.
It was pretty hot, so we stopped back at Chaco Canyon for some iced tea.
We were meeting up with Helen for dinner. After a slight mishap (we were chatting and missed our bus stop and ended up almost no where and had to slightly illegally jump on a Link to get back), we made it to El Borracho for food. I had heard so much about this place, so I was excited to finally try it! Though pretty stressed from the ridiculous trip there. We shared a plate of their amazing nachos. I had been hearing about these for years, and all the talk was right. They were great! Very well layered and a good chip to topping ratio. We also had some adorable little happy hour tacos, including the soyrizo (a bit too spicy for me) and the potato poblano.
After dinner Helen had got a ticket for me to go and see the opening night of Jurassic World in 3D. This movie was so much fun! Though I spent the entire time either shaking me head (why, why you idiots, why are you doing that, do you want to die, why are you so stupid?) and hiding behind my hoodie in the scary parts. The cinema had vegan chocolate popcorn, which was pretty nice (I am normally not that into popcorn), though we didn't eat much because we were so caught up in the movie!
Cute Kitty Photo of the Post
This is Zeno! He is Helen's boy, and he is extremely handsome. :)
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