PNW Trip: Day 10 - Bellingham

Our day started at Bloom Organic Cafe in Bellingham, which offers all-vegan fare, plus some raw options.

It's such an adorable restaurant! And it's much bigger than I expected; they have a big stage in the back and they often have musicians and dancers.



Okay, let's bring on the food. L ordered a cup of the tortilla soup.

Neither of us were too crazy about it. I thought it was just too brown, too mushy, and the tortilla chips at the bottom were pure mush.

I ordered the Bloom Burrito.

This was great! It was positively BURSTING with curry-dill quinoa (!!!), their Supergreens mix (kale, collards, cabbage), tomato, carrot, and avocado, served with cucumber-dill "yogurt" sauce. I loved it!

Knife & fork required.

L ordered the nachos.

Wow -- this was a MOUNTAIN of tortilla chips piled high with spicy-rice-and-lentil "taco meat," spicy red sauce, avocado, and drizzled in nacho cashew-cheese sauce. I tasted (of course) and it is GOOD.

L's sister ordered the grilled "cheese" (cashew-based) with tomato.

She said she liked it, but wished it was bigger or more substantial in some way.

This was a lovely dining experience, overall. As we were getting ready to leave, I couldn't help but order a raw orange cinnamon roll to go when I saw it mentioned on the board.

Wow! There was a whole lotta orange going on in this little roll!

In fact, it was a little too orangey for me. I let L's sister finish it.

Next, we took my first ferry ride.

It was a small ferry, but still fun and strange. (You know, being in a car ON WATER.)

Then we were introduced to some geoducks (pronounced: GOOEY-duck). They're big in Washington, and they are STRANGE.


Gross, right? They look like nasty wieners. (And I don't mean hot dogs, obviously.)

I poked one, and they feel ALMOST as weird as they look.


We cruised around the island a bit, stopped at a grocery store for some last minute dinner ingredients, then headed back to the cabin to just lounge around. L's sister cooked dinner for us: a delicious coconut curry with brown rice.


Made mostly with local veggies from the nearby farmers market.

We stayed in for the evening, watched a movie, played with the dogs, chatted, ate peach sorbet, and played with the iReverse app on L's iphone. A good way to end our time out here.

PNW Trip: Day 9 - Last Taste of Seattle

We slept kind of late (10, I think), but not late enough to recover from our late night in downtown Bellevue. I felt pretty groggy for my last chance to experience Seattle on this trip.

We went to the University District, which is a very cool, veg-friendly neighborhood, as you'd imagine. It's also dog-friendly, which was great because L's sister's dogs had been cooped up in the car all night. We strolled around for awhile, and then stumbled upon Flower's, an all-vegan Indian buffet that I had read mixed reviews about online. L and his sister were really excited about the offerings, and heck, I can't turn down a 100% vegan buffet.




Check out the spread!








My first plate:

Favorites of the plate: the yellow noodly dish, roasted cauliflower, roasted broccoli, and the spinach-tofu "paneer". I pretty much liked everything on this plate. I want to try and recreate some of this, especially the yellow noodly dish. The sauce tasted like it was made with Vegenaise, turmeric, mustard, and curry. Hmm...

My second plate, which wasn't as good. I wanted to taste all the other options, and I didn't like most of them, especially the cold eggplant dishes.


I hear the selection at Flowers changes often, so there's always an element of surprise when you hit up the lunch buffet. I'd say the offerings are pretty equal with hits and misses, but for $8, you can't go wrong.

We walked around some more. L & his sister stopped for ice cream at Full Tilt, but I didn't like their vegan flavors. I peeked inside Chaco Canyon, just to see what kind of things they carry there.

I was really impressed with their atmosphere, their dedication to sustainability, and their menu, of course. They have many raw food offerings that all looked so good, but I was plenty full after the Flowers buffet. Since Chaco Canyon offers vegan ice cream, I went ahead and got a taste. The flavor on tap that day was cookie dough. It's as if they knew I was coming. (Cookie dough is my favorite flavor.)

As you'll see in this picture, I forgot more than halfway through to take a picture, but I did remember eventually, so this is what you get.

Creamy vanilla ice cream with chunks of their "Cowboy Cookie," which is made with oats, nuts, coconut, chocolate chips, and banana. Good stuff!

L's sister got a smoothie and I loved the "cup" it was served in.

Chaco Canyon is the kind of restaurant I'd love to open someday. Charming and cozy, sustainable and delicious.

I also poked my head in Sidecar Pigs for Peace, an all-vegan store in the U District, but I have to say, Food Fight! in Portland is way better.

Then we all loaded ourselves (puppies, too, of course) back into the car and made the 2 hour trek back to L's sister's cabin. The dogs ran around for awhile, then the three of us headed out to a showing of "Inception." (I recommend seeing this movie more than once. It's amazing how much I missed the first time I watched it.)

After the movie, we went to Nimbus in Bellingham, a classy little restaurant on the top floor of the Bellingham Towers building, which is the tallest building in B-ham. We were lucky to get a seat right in the bay window, so we had a lovely view of B-ham at night.

I ordered a drink ("Spring Fever") and a half-portion of their "housemade fried tofu." Quite possibly the best tofu I've ever eaten, and I love tofu, folks.

It was very dark inside Nimbus, so pardon the bright photo.
The tofu had a crispy, flaky tempura crust. It reminded me a little of the Tofu Filet at Local Burger in Lawrence, Kansas, but thicker and heartier. It was served with arugula, chantrelle mushrooms, and stuffed zucchini wheels. SO AMAZING. I'll be dreaming of this tofu.

We headed back to the cabin, still wiped out from the long weekend. The dogs were ready for bed, too.


Up next: a full day in Bellingham.

PNW Trip: Day 7 - Waking Up in Washington

After getting in pretty late to L's sister's little cabin in the woods (complete with composting toilet!), we still woke up early for a hike at Mount Baker. We loaded up the dogs and drove for about an hour.


I expected it to be cold on the hike since there were patches of snow on the mountain, but I ended up ditching my hoodie shortly after we began the hike. The hike itself was a little challenging due to loose rocks, but I survived! We only hiked for about an hour because we were meeting up with their brother and sister-in-law soon.





Some action figures didn't survive the hike.

This is pretty much how every midwest winter is for me.


L & I dozed off in the car for much of the return drive. We stopped at Trader Joe's to grab something fast for lunch. I was very disappointed to find that none of their "Grab & Go" salads are vegan, or even vegetarian! They were all smothered in cheese and/or chicken, mostly. I settled on veggie sushi, the only "Grab & Go" option not coated in cheese or meat. I don't have a picture of it because I was starving, but it contained spinach, tofu, and carrot. The rice was pretty mushy, but it was better than nothing! I also ate some dry Total that I snatched up from the hotel in Boise. (First rule of veganism: Always be prepared.)

After some speedy showers, our whole group migrated to the nearest beach, which was very rocky, which encouraged lots of stone skipping. L's sister made this little stone man (with a CENSORED bar, for your protection).


We had dinner at a lovely little southwestern restaurant in Bellingham called Pepper Sisters. I found them on Happy Cow (a very handy site for traveling veg*ns) and it seemed like a good option for everyone (I was the only vegan in the group, everyone else eats meat, this restaurant caters to both).

I ordered the garlic-potato enchiladas, mostly because it came with posole, a hominy stew that sounded really good on the menu. It also came with a little side salad and pinto beans.

A very filling meal! I want to experiment with hominy at home now.

We strolled around Bellingham for awhile, which is an ADORABLE city. Very clean, eco-friendly and green, plenty to do, lots of local shops, and very vegan-friendly (more than I expected!). I immediately became quite smitten with Bellingham.

L's sister convinced us all that ice cream at Mallard's would be a good idea, even though we were all quite stuffed from dinner. I had no intentions of ordering anything until...

What's that? On the far right? Under the "NON DAIRY" heading?

Chocolate-Coconut? Well, maybe just a taste...

Yeah, the taste turned into a scoop. I couldn't help it. It was so smooth and creamy and chocolaty! How can I say no to chocolate?! This was especially nice after that delicious, savory meal at Pepper Sisters.

Once our ice creams were gone, we parted ways to our respective hotels. L, his sister, and I are sharing a room in Bellevue (between Bumbershoot and Labor Day weekend, all of the Seattle hotels were totally booked), while his brother and sister-in-law are staying in Seattle (they booked awhile ago). [I should mention that his brother and sister-in-law are from Virginia; they're in Seattle for a wedding. This whole trip is a "sibling reunion," of sorts.]

Made to two hour trek to Bellevue, checked in around midnight, and crashed!

Tomorrow is our big day in Seattle!

PS. There's still time to enter the $35 CSN Stores Gift Card giveaway! Enter HERE.