Raw Adventure Take 3: The Planning Phase

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Sometimes when I travel, I just like to wing it: pick a destination and then just stop wherever you want a long the way, no schedule, no plans, just discovery. At other times, I like the structure of knowing exactly where I'm going to stay, and what I am going to do, just to feel more secure. And hey, when I get to my destination, sure, I can still amend my schedule and take things as they come. Recently, I've kind of found my traveling comfort zones, I like to mix structure with spontaneity, I want to know where I'm sleeping and have a rough idea of the places I should scope out, but the rest is up the Universe.

Being on a raw diet has put minor constraints on spontaneity though. Now, I simply feel I need to look up a new place to see if there is anywhere we can actually eat: do they have raw food? organic food? etc. It definitely has never stopped me from going somewhere, but it does make things just a tad more challenging. At the same time, because of that, I can now totally justify caving in to my secret A-type personality or OCD, and look up vegan food/travel websites (I love you HappyCow.net), or blogs, and review sites in general to plan out exactly where I'm going (and often spend hours pouring over menus).

Our first raw food trip took us to NY, where we visited Quintessence half a billion times, High Vibe, and checked out One Lucky Duck, Stogo (vegan ice cream!) and what it's like to shop at a Whole Foods in downtown Manhattan. Our second adventure took us to Boston & Salem, namely to a couple visits to Grezzo, and looking for sustenance in the organic raw-food desert of Salem (though the Gulu Gulu saved our lives). Before being raw, our first vegan food trip took us to the lovely White Pig B&B in Virginia (best vegan breakfasts EVER and is a sanctuary for the cutest pot-bellied pigs), strawberry picking at a local farm, and to other much needed non-urban locations and activities.

Next stop for rural goodness: Pennsylvania. Not your world's most exciting place to some, but nature and farmland excites me. While Lancaster County will be the focus of our trip, I'm probably most excited about checking out Arnold's Way, in Lansdale as I've heard so many wonderful things about it and its owners. So, if you've been there, any recommendations or must-haves?

Also, I found an amazing vegan-friendly B&B in Lancaster, Speedwell Forge, that also happens to be a wolf sanctuary. I've already scoped out a bunch of other places I want to go around Lancaster, constructing our very own agricultural foodie tour of the Amish country: we might check out a Annual Mud Sale in Quarryville, the Central Market in Lancaster, the Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market, Cherry Hill Orchards, and the Green Dagron Farms Market & Auction.

Most importantly though, please, if you are a native Pennsylvanian or just have a say in any things PA-related, feel free to let me know! Who best to take a recommendation from than a fellow foodie, someone from the area, or whoever mind just want to put in their 5 cents? All suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

Workout of the Day
30 minutes of endurance training on treadmill (didn't vary the speed as much as during HIIT)
1 minute plank
5 minutes stretching

Recipe of the Day:
Made Alissa Cohen's Easy Pizza Crust (mine took a lot longer to dehydrate than the recommended time), the tomato sauce and cheddar cheese (I crossed her cheese recipe from the eggplant parmesan and her pizza one), and topped it all off with pineapple, red peppers, black olives, and broccoli florets. Our place actually smelled like pizza when I came home from class, it was divine!

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