honey, i’m home!

you guys! i am back! well i have been back since last night, but now that i am finally having the chance to post it means i am really back.  and i am real happy about it.  vacations are nice but so is the comfort of my own home and all things familiar.  call me crazy, but i was looking forward to a lazy monday night full of blogs and dogs.  i am just super exciting like that ;)

before i dive into a long recap of my trip i think i should announce the winner of this little giveaway that i thought up while i was in seattle.  you all guessed what my reader would be up to by the time i got home last night.. some of your guesses made me laugh.. like the people who guessed numbers in the 100’s? wishful thinking!  you guys don’t realize how many blogs i read.  the actual number was:

to which i quickly pressed this:

and then did this:

ahhh.. much better.  i am sure i missed A LOT of stuff in those 600 some odd posts.. if there is something super ultra important that i missed while i was gone, like if you got engaged, or if you are pregnant, or if you ate oatmeal for breakfast please let me know and i will go back and read the news!

so the person who guessed closest was emily, she guessed 592!  good job girl, send me your mailing address and i will send you some random TJ’s loot that i picked up in seattle :)

and just so you know, the reader has already crept up to above 50 today so i am going to go ahead and start fresh tomorrow.. no hard feelings? <3

moving on!

i hope everyone enjoyed the guest posts while i was gone.  i would like to thank the five lovely ladies that took time from their day to write them for me.  i think each one was really unique and i hope you all gained something from them!  in case you missed them, you can check them out by clicking: holly’s, angharad’s, susan’s, julie’s and emily’s.

and while i usually would be posting about monday’s eats today, i took a day off from food photography and am going to recap the trip instead.  for the record, when i was at the original pancake house this morning for my work meeting and i did not whip out the camera.. everyone was confused and wondered why i was not taking photos of my breakfast.  hah, i am glad that getting a close up of my egg white scramble has now become the norm and if it does not happen then something is wrong!

mmmk, i think all the business shtuff is taken care of, now onto the fun things.. adventures in seattle!

thursday!

marshall and i did not go to bed until 1:30 AM on wednesday night so when the alarms (yes, i set 4) started going off at 5:15 AM i was not a happy camper.  yawn. times infinity. i scrambled to get ready and we were out the door and off to the airport, with a pit stop in bountiful to play musical vehicles and for my mom to take us to the terminal (thanks mom!)

so there was not much time for eating and who in their right mind can eat at 5:15 AM anyway? not me. so when we were waiting to board the plane i munched on this:

and drank this:

and then in the air i had this: (which happens to be my favorite flavor of luna bar)

and lots of water!

we arrived in seattle and had no idea how we were getting anywhere but it turned out that our friends were waiting at the airport to pick us up.  now that is some quality service!  we then had to drive to the bride’s house.. in some nearby town that i have no idea the name of.. and guess what i ate while driving?!

yes.. and i don’t know what you all think of this gem but i definitely agree with all the hype.  it was all i expected and maybe even more.  i definitely am SO glad this bar is now available for purchase in the SLC.  i loved every last bite of the PB&Jness.

once we got to said casa there was a lot of sitting around and tummy grumbling.  we were with the vegan dudes and they were hungry as well so we tried to find a good place with vegan eats they had heard of called the globe or something like that.  well, after much confusion and looking at the iphone gps..

we realized the globe was no longer in existence. sooo, we ended up at, what else, a different vegan restaurant. 

it was called "teapot" and it was by no means BFL friendly.. i think it was then and there that all BFL standards were thrown out the window for the remainder of the trip.

it was super cute inside! but it was right above a subway so the whole place smelled like baked bread.

one of the dudes ordered the big appetizer platter thingamajig (i love how firefox recognizes "thingamajig" as a real word) and it was basically 5 types of deep fried bites of this and that

with 3 different sauces.. a sweet & sour sauce, a peanut sauce and a spicy soy sauce.  they were all sinfully delicious.

 

i loved the little flame that you could toast the faux beef skewers over! 

adorable to say the least.

i ordered the "basil nuggets" (number 12) which consisted of some faux meat made with compressed mushrooms and a basil-onion sauce which was epic.  plus, let’s face it, anything with “nuggets” in the name is going to get my attention.

it came with corn chowder to start

   i am a HUGE fan of anything basil so this dish was a winner.  i paired it with brown rice.  the only thing i wished it had was some sliced mushrooms.. but that is only because i am a firm believer that mushrooms make everything better.

marshall got the deluxe fried rice.

nick got the faux beef mushroom stroganoff.

dave got the seafood platter.. it is crazy they can throw some seaweed on a vegan dish and it instantly tastes fishy.just like nick’s fish face.

the dudes were telling me about their desire to start a blog, they are always asking about mine and i guess they feel inspired.  when i asked them what their blog would be about they declared that it would be a travel blog where they would eat at vegan restaurants all over the world and review them.  i told them to go for it, i am sure people would read it!

dave got some cherrified dessert..

after lunch we met up with some of the other homies who were hanging out by pike’s place market.  we did some shopping. 

marshall’s dad is into harleys so we had to snag him a tshirt at the harley store.  it was the perfect chance for some modeling!

dave bought me a humungo juicy peach at the market~ i loved the sign under the peaches ;)

it was juicy and deeelish!

we messed around at the shops and looked at all the fun stuff around the market.  it was good times. here are some photossssssssss..

around 3 i had to tell marshall goodbye because he had to go do groomsman stuff.  those of us who were not in the wedding went to the hotel and i checked in and chilled out for a bit. i wanted a bottled water so i bought one from the vending machine for 75 cents.. check out how big the bottle was! what a deal!

i also ate this sometime during the afternoon

before getting ready for… the bachelorette party!

we got to the bride’s friend jessica’s casa and were greeted by all things penis.  typical bachelorette party fashion, no? 

there were penis cupcakes..

penis chips and dip..

penis straws in the mojitos..

and pin the penis on the poster!

we went out to a little italian restaurant that was awesome.

 

i loved the ambiance and more importantly i loved the food!

  we ordered a bunch of different pizzas and salads and wine to share.

  

they had the silliest shears used to cut the pizzas!

after dinner we went back to jessica’s place so the bride could have a prime gift opening sesh.

 
although most of these ladies were strangers, we all hit it off and had a blast.  and judging by some of the camera phone photos marshall sent me from the bachelor party, it looked like they had a blast as well.  successful night for all!

friday!

we woke up and put our faces on and headed out to see the world and some breakfast. 

we headed to the U district and decided on a little coffeeshop cafe type dealy called cafe on the ave for breakfast slash brunch since it was already almost noon.  P.S. there are a bazillion coffee shops in seattle.

this is where i did my yoohoo post from. 

marshall had some pre-breakfast tiramisu. that is normal, right?

  

i ordered a scramble with cheddar and veggies and ham with a side of wheat toast.  i didn’t know it came with potatoes, i didn’t eat them and wished i had ordered some fruit in place of them. ah well.  it was super delicious!  i love cheddar cheese melted into scrambles.  cheese and eggs are meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend for sure.

i downed a couple bowl-sized mugs of coffee as well, i needed my energy shot for the day!

we then went to ANOTHER spot to eat.. not me this time.. the dudes had to eat.  sometimes it is hard to travel with vegans.. you either find a place you can both eat or you go to two separate restaurants.  they picked a place called hillside quickie which had lots of vegan comfort food.. and there was nothing quick about it.  but the water was vegan.

 

about two hours later they were done eating and by that time marshall and the guys had to go to the rehearsal and the four of us who were not in the wedding set out on some adventures!

first stop: the troll under the bridge. apparently this is a must-see in seattle.

strange? yes. absolutely awesome? definitely. i wish i lived next door to him.

we dilly dallied around fremont for awhile..

 

hit up a vegan bakery that lisa told me about called the flying apron..

  

i snagged a couple pastries for the dudes. 

we then decided to go to do that underground tour of the city or whatever..
we got a little bit lost and discombobulated when trying to find the place that holds the tours.  we did ask some random transient for advice, she had a bird living on her head and poop all over her shoulders, it’s casual.  we were a little skeptical of her directions as they had us wandering down a secluded creepy alleyway where some homeboys and a homegirl were hitting a crackpipe in broad daylight, also quite casual.  it did get us to where we needed to be though!  it turned out that we were 10 minutes late for the tour starting so we bagged it and wandered around some more. 

this trip had a LOT of wandering because we were constantly waiting for the plans of the wedding party to actually go.. well.. according to plan.  and they never did.  things always happened about 2 hours later than the were originally supposed to. 

i ate this in the car while navigating. ew, it had raisins! never again.

so while we were waiting to go to the rehearsal dinner, which was originally at 6, we hit up a marshall’s, the store.. not to be confused with MY marshall.. and i bought a scarf and two beanies.  i am so dang excited for winter! 

we got to the rehearsal dinner around 7:45 and it was a pretty set menu.. which meant white carbs and lots of them.  oh, and no lean protein.  i once again threw my BFL standards out the window and went with a pasta dish that was spaghetti noodles, mushrooms, spinach, garlic and olive oil tossed together.  i also ate more than my fair share of garlic bread.  i didn’t take photos of the meal because it was crap lighting and not really something i would consider worth documenting.  the cake, however, was definitely something to make a fuss about!  the owner of the restaurant is a friend of the bride and groom and they had their wedding invite put onto a cake!  how rad is that?

i didn’t eat any of the cake as i felt a little nauseous from all the food i had just consumed, but it was definitely something cool to look at!

after the dinner we headed to the get up kids show!  yaaaaa.  i heart the get up kids.  they played lots of my favorite tunes and although it was a sauna inside the venue, i still enjoyed myself thoroughly!

  

ick. sweaaaty. i look like a boy, marshall looks high yet he is straightedge.. you know.

  
we ended up back at the hotel at nearly 2 AM and i crashed.. so sleepy.

saturday!

 

sigh. start the day of horrible eating.  i still want to throw up just thinking about it so i hope i don’t need a barf bag as i recap the events. no, i am not exaggerating!

we had great weather both thursday and friday.  sunny skies, warm temperatures and beautifulness all around.  go figure that the day of the wedding we would wake up to raaaain.  that is what seattle is all about though, haven’t you heard? apparently that is what they say.  whoever "they" are. 

so do you guys watch man vs. food?  good show.  turns out that beth’s, home of the 12 egg omelette, was just down the road from our hotel.

well.. not having a car of my own meant that i had little to no say in where we ate.  beth’s it was.  it was a short wait out in the rain and eventually we were seated in a corner booth.  the atmosphere was typical for a greasy spoon-type diner.  i did like the fact that they had crayon drawings hanging all over the walls.  they were entertaining to look at while we waited for our food. 

nobody took on the 12 egg omelette challenge but my one friend did order the 6-egger.

i got two eggs over medium and some french toast, which i ate sans syrup. (and sans that butter cup in the photo, ew) 

the older my palette gets the more i realize i really don’t like adding sugary syrup to my breakfast breads.  i like them dry or smothered in egg yolks ;)

the food tasted fine, it wasn’t anything to write home about but it was not horrible.  but after this breakfast i felt like my stomach had been run over by a bus.  ugh.  my poor tum.. so used to clean eats.. it was so mad at me!  and i just started chugging water like it was my job. 

we hit up the puma store, something marshall has to do no matter where we travel.. he is addicted!  i followed him around the store, trying not to hurl.

then it was time for the space needle, another must-see attraction in seattle.  by the time we got to the space needle i was starting to feel a bit better.  the sights from the top were rad but i was wishing we had gone friday when the skies were clear!  it was a little too overcast to see much further than the tip of my nose. =/

here are a few photooos…

marshall, rocking his new purchase from the puma store already.
after the space needle marshall had to get to the photo taking sesh for the wedding.  apparently he was already supposed to be in his tux, so he did what any normal person would do and changed in the middle of a parking lot.
it was hilarious.

 

he cleans up pretty nice!

we dropped him off and then it was time to eat again, although i was not excited because i knew what was next on the eating list.. another man vs. food attraction.  red mill burgers. 

 

i tried to keep it semi-healthy with a grilled chicken sandwich on wheat sans mayo.. but the grease was as heavy as a rock in my stomach.

i was craving vegetables like nobody’s business.  we stopped at a gas station and i went in searching for a veggie tray of some sort but had no luck.  ugh, i felt disgusting.  it shocks me that people eat this kind of food on a daily basis and feel totally normal afterward.  i honestly felt like i had food poisoning.  but i know that i didn’t since nobody else seemed to feel ill.

it was back to the hotel to clean up for the wedding.. and that is when the pukefest 2009 began.  ick.  it did make me feel a bit better to get some of that garbage out of my system but really, throwing up is never a good time.  i hate it. 

once we were all dolled up we cruised to the wedding which ended up being amazing.  despite all the stress and commotion leading UP TO the wedding, the actual event itself went off without a hitch and everyone looked stunning.  the venue was awesome, it was a room that had two huge glass walls and was sandwiched between two buildings.  it really was an epic location.

after the ceremony there was the typical wedding events.. cake cutting, dancing, the whole nine yards.  they had a candy bar but since marshall & i don’t eat candy (giving it up was our new year’s resolution) we only munched on some nuts (TWSS).  i especially loved the houndstooth cones that they had to hold the treats! 

 

here are some photos from the wedding/reception!

he was grabbing my bum. that explains the face.

 

marshall hates any shoes but pumas. these shoes he had to wear for the wedding and then left them at a bus stop for a bum to pick up!

CAKE!

 

 
since they had to be out of the venue by 10 PM, we took the party to a nearby bar where the groom used to work.  marshall and his fellow straight edge friends pretended to get boozed up.  we hung out for a few hours and celebrated with everyone before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night. here are some photos from the bar!

nick was the best man

see that statue on the wall above me? it was on sale for $200.. and marshall knocked it off the wall! this was his face right after that happened.. hahaha

we laughed afterward.

they did some pretty rad photos in the bar..

they have no idea.  

sunday!

we actually got to sleep in until 9:30 on sunday which was nice, i finally started to feel a little better although i did have a couple false alarms sunday morning when i almost barfed again.  ugh.  i am so glad that i am used to clean eating!  even though it sucked to be sick, i can’t imagine being accustomed to eating like that on a regular basis.  no thanks.

everyone had already bailed to drive home and marshall and i were the only ones flying back to the SLC.  our flight was not until 3 o’clock so we took a cab to trader joe’s!  i am a space case and forgot to take any photos while AT trader joe’s.  oh well!  i snagged some delicious items that you will see later in the week as i begin to devour them. 

after my shopping extravaganza we decided we needed to eat.. but had no idea where.. and we were on foot.  so we started hoofing it.  there were always SO many places to eat when we were wandering around before so we assumed we were sure to run into something sooner rather than later!

marshall was a sport and carried both of our bags and i carried my purse and my TJ’s loot.  and we walked. and walked. and walked. we walked across a drawbridge and i got excited and wanted to take some photos while on it. 

and then i heard some honking and didn’t really pay much attention.  but then marshall yelled at me to hurry because apparently they were honking at ME to get off the bridge so a sailboat could get by!  woops.  sorry mister sailboat :P

turns out that we found a place to eat LATER rather than sooner.  we walked pretty far. from point A (trader joe’s) to point B (where we ate) was 1.53 miles.  i told marshall this and he asked, "are you sure it was not 15.3 miles?".. haha, yeah, felt like it! we passed a couple places to eat along the way.. and by a couple i mean two.  there was a red robin, which i vetoed because i do NOT like to eat at places that exist in utah and there was some bar & grill to which marshall pointed out the fact that there would be nothing for me to eat there.  good call, boyfriend.

we ended up running into a cafe called louisa’s bakery & cafe..wow what a find!  it was for sure a place i would seek out and we ended up running into it.  such luck!  and to our delight they were still serving breakfast.  double score.
i ordered an iced americano and "the westchester" which was a scramble with eggs, caramelized onions, avocado, spinach & sun dried tomato coulis.  it came with potatoes, which i once again did not realize, and was wishing i had ordered fruit instead of potatoes because they went uneaten.

marshall ordered a coffee and the huevos rancheros which came smothered in chile verde.  i had a few bites and it tasted nothing short of exquisite!

after our lovely breakfast we called a cab and headed to the airport where we waited for our flight home.  i won’t go into detail but let’s just say i won’t be having any screaming babies any time soon and i think people who spill over into my lap when sitting next to me on the plane should be required to purchase two seats.  and people should shower before getting onto a teeny tiny plane.  i am not being a hater, i am just being honest, i am claustophobic and that WHOLE situation did not help one bit. 

once we got home i was SO GLAD to see the dogs. and to see my bed. but all in all it was a glorious trip and it was nice to have some time off work and to spend time with friends.  minus the whole barfing from greasy food experience, the trip was a total success.

OH and for the record.. you probably noticed i did NOT mention a workout.  nope, didn’t squeeze one in even though i had my gear with me.  i figure we probably walked 3+ miles thursday, 5+ miles friday, 2 miles saturday and then the 1.53 miles sunday.. so that was good enough for me :D

back to the grind today though! i have been eating clean all day, chugging my water and got my workout in.  weird thing though, my appetite seems to be missing.  and i could not workout hard for the life of me.  i just feel barfy.  i think it was all the food i ate while on vacation.  hopefully i will be back to my normal, hungry, non sluggish self soon! 

i missed EVERYONE and if you made it through this NOVEL of a recap, props to you! i will be back tomorrow for my regularly scheduled meals & moves postings.. but i wouldn’t leave you all without some

Qs!

1. what is your favorite thing to come home to/to do when you get home from a trip? definitely the dogs!! but my bed is a close second.

2. what is the most exciting thing that has happened to you since last thursday? i need to catch up with you all somehow!! :)

and a bonus Q.. if you have been to seattle, what was your fave part?

xo. janetha b.