Chicago and Amtrak

In my last post I told you I was going to NYC. I like to promise I'm going to blog soon because I think if I say it, I'll have to make it come true. But who are we kidding? I'll just quit saying it. I wanted to blog every night during my trip, but my head couldn't wait to hit the pillow at the end of each day. (Sorry about this long post; you can read it in bits. And this would have been posted two weeks ago, but my html has been driving me bonkers. I still can't fix all of the spacing...but I'm going to give up.) It was a fun, successful trip, including lots of great vegan food and so forth.

This was my first journey with Amtrak, and only these two guys accompanied me. I had decided to take each of the big kids on their own little adventure with Mom (and baby, my extra appendage for the next year and a half or so). My 7 year old was up first, and although NYC might not sound like the most logical, laid-back place to take two kids, I really wanted my trip to include no driving or carseats. (Baby HATES the carseat.) And my 2nd child hasn't been there as many times as my oldest child. And I'm familiar with NYC enough to get around. And it just makes me happy.

We booked a sleeper car (above: two seats that turn into twin bunk beds) on the way out, but we didn't get one on the return. We saved money that way, and I was curious to find out the difference for the sake of future trips with the whole family. I think that although the sleeper car was definitely the better way to go (very cute and fun!) if it's ever possible, a regular coach seat would suffice just fine.

One part of the sleeper car that my son particularly enjoyed was the dining car. Meals were included, and I was too cheap to pay for meals on the way home, much to his dismay. (We had plenty of food packed to eat.) I think it's entirely possible to eat vegan on Amtrak for a several day journey, even if you didn't pack food. Now, would it be possible to become full if you were also heavy raw or gluten-free? Eh, probably not. I brought my own oatmeal packets (above) and enjoyed the grapefruit. (They did offer oatmeal; I just preferred to use my own with built-in sweetener.) They also had soy milk.

For the lunch and supper meals, they offered veggie burgers and pasta, etc. My son ate those, although I'm pretty sure the burgers were vegetarian, not vegan. (During travel and eating out, etc., although my eating habits remain exactly the same, I am not a picky label reader with my kids. As long as it's vegetarian and not overtly non-vegan, I'm fine with it, if that makes any sense. This is not my ideal, just the way it is.) I mostly just ate as much dry salad as I could stand since it was free.

They DO, however, sell a Vegan Burger in the lounge car on most trains. I didn't end up purchasing one because the list of ingredients was way too long (and included sugar, etc.) for my OCD healthy standards, but I like knowing it's available for my kids and Ryan on future trips. The lounge car also sold chips, salted nuts, oatmeal (with sugar) cups, and maybe even fruit, etc.

You could always bring a small cooler if you weren't worried about the amount of luggage you were carrying. That's another bonus, if you ask me, about Amtrak. You can bring more "stuff" with you, as opposed to flying (even your bike, it seemed). We, however, tried to keep it light because I did not know what to expect, getting on and off so many times. We brought a tiny stroller, two small backpacks, and one very small pull bag.

It was a surprise to me that they seat strangers together in the dining car booths. At first, my social anexiety disorder was not impressed, but I quickly learned that this can be another great aspect in the Amtrak experience. We always sat with really nice, interesting people. I had to smile and nod a lot to one lady who said things like, "Well, I guess being a vegetarian is okay...as long as you get plenty of protein...now WHERE do you get your protein?" and, "I think homeschooling can be okay...if you know what you're doing." She also kept trying to offer my son bacon or yogurt, etc. AFTER I told her we didn't eat it. "It would be okay if he had a piece, wouldn't it? I'd love to give him a piece." Me: "No, REALLY - he's never eaten meat. We DON'T eat it."

 

We had a layover, around 3 hours, in Chicago on the way there and back. Our next stop on the way to New York was D.C. We were really looking forward to this 4 hour layover because my son had learned a lot about the different monuments and such this year and had never seen them (and I hadn't been since I was 17). We were able to hit most of the main ones by walking and then taking a pedi-cab. And I'm sure Chubs here was overly fascinated to be in our nation's capital for the first time, as well.

Because it took so long to get across town (Duh, it was Memorial Day Weekend; why didn't I realize this?), my dreams of hitting up Sticky Fingers before jumping back on the train were dashed. That's okay, though; my son's education comes before my gluttony.

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Besides, I was still happy from our jaunt to Native Foods (all vegan!) in Chicago. This was my first time to sample one of the THREE newish locations in the area. (I have been to N.F. in California multiple times.) The one on South Clark was in walking distance from the train station! (We always paid to put our bags in a locker during layovers.) I was happy to see the line going out the door during this visit and the one on our way back home (and happier that we arrived before the line grew). There were a lot of business people coming in for lunch. This says to me that hopefully Native Foods will continue expanding, eventually to a city near you! Our Native Foods' eats (and I'm not going to write much other than the descriptions to avoid saying, "It was sooo good!" over and over again):

Pizza Fingers and Steamed Broccoli

He also ordered the Native Chicken Nuggets with vegetables and ranch dressing for dipping, but I didn't get a picture. I thought it was fine, but as my pickiest eater, he wasn't a fan.

  Freddie's Mac and Cheese
  Quinoa super pasta with a cow-friendly cheese sauce and broccoli trees. Soy and GF.


Classic Deli Reuben

Thinly-sliced deli-style Native Reuben Seitan piled high on grilled marble rye. Topped with homemade sauerkraut, Native Horseradish Cheese, and a slather of Russian dressing. 

The pink color is kind of freaky, no?
Was very tasty.

Chili Cheese Fries 
Seasoned potato fries smothered in our homemade 
Native Chili. Topped with Native Cheese and diced 
red onions. 

I like that these chili cheese fries felt much healthier/less greasy including light, homemade cheese.



Chimi Chop Salad

Chopped romained, crunchy grilled veggies and corn kernels, sweet roasted peppers, garlic croutons, warm shaved Native Peppered Seitan, tossed with chimichurri sauce, and drizzled with ranch.

I realized with this salad HOW MUCH I prefer chopped salads. It's just so much nicer to eat a salad when the lettuce is the same size as the rest of the salad ingredients. Don't you think?

Oklahoma Cheese Burger

Thinly sliced Native Original Seitan, melted cheddar, caramelized onions, and crispy Native Bacon on a bun slathered with BBQ sauce and ranch dressing, romaine, carrots, onions, and tomato. Topped with crunchy battered dill pickle chips!!!

 

Let's get another look at this bad boy. 

There's just so much going on here.

Strawberry Shortcake Parfait

Moist vanilla cake layered with almond creme and fresh sliced organic strawberries.

Light and not too sweet.

Cheesecake

(above and here, on another day - one of our fave desserts the whole week)

A rich cream cheesy filling, ginger granola crust, 

sweetened just right and served with blueberries on the side.

Good Luck Cupcake

Made in-house using the finest ingredients including  fair-grade cocoa powder and trans-fat free veg shortening.  Flavors include Chocolate, Vanilla, Cardamom Rose.

We also got a brownie that wasn't photographed. It was good but not my favorite here; when unwrapped, all of the chocolate chips fell off everywhere.

NOTE: I know by now you are thinking, "Didn't you just go TWICE? Wasn't it just you and a 55 pound boy? Aren't those big portions? Don't you have 30 pounds to lose?" Yes, yes, yes, and yes, BUT we always ordered extra food to take back onto the train for the next meal, which is why it might seem like a lot.

Lavender Lemonade

French lavender steeped with fresh lemons. 

Sweetened with organic sugar.

Free refills!!!

We had plenty of time during our second layover to head up into the Skydeck of the Willis (Sears) Tower. It is located in walking distance between Union Station and Native Foods.

A passing shot of the Shenandoah River in honor of our friend, Shen.

I will try to blog about the rest of our cross country trip soon...

oops, there I go again.

Until then...

stay cool, dudes.

Chicago Vegan Weekend

Cary's birthday weekend in Chicago:

We stayed at Hotel Felix, which is where we stayed during our last Chicago trip.
It is an eco-friendly boutique hotel. We like it a lot.

One of the reasons we like it so much: Whole Foods is about a block away.

I kind of wish I lived in those condos/apartments on the right.

We also like Hotel Felix because it's in walking distance to one of our favorite restaurants, Karyn's Cooked. We got the fried zucchini/cauliflower/broccoli basket. For the record, I rarely ever eat fried foods, mostly only on trips like this.


For our main course, we ordered the stuffed eggplant (with garlic bread) and a pizza. Clearly, this is too much food for us. I do this everytime, though, on my first night in a big city. If I lived here, I would be used to it and not feel like I was trying to make up for months of neglect. We didn't quite finish everything, but it was too tough to pass on Karyn's pies, which we got to go.

We walked back to the room and ordered New Moon to watch. In bed with our pie. Really, it was the life.

The next day we met our friends, Sarah and Chris, at Delicious Cafe. This was a new, random place we wanted to try. I liked it and would definitely go there again. I ordered a grilled cashew cheese sandwich with un-bacon. I only picked at the chips that seemed like an afterthought. I would have preferred different chips or fruit or something else on the side instead.

But more important than that, it was great to spend time with Sarah and Chris. Sarah is one of my oldest friends (when I say oldest, I mean longest-enduring). She was one of my first friends when I moved to a new school in the 3rd grade. We wrote tons of letters to each other throughout college, and she was in my wedding. She's one of my favorite people in the entire world, and luckily, she married someone I like a lot, too!

Cary and I shopped that afternoon in the Bucktown/Wicker Park area. Some of my favorite stores in this area are Mojo Spa, Una Mae's, Buffalo Exchange, and my new favorite place is Rudy's Roundup. I wanted to buy almost everything in that store.


We also got a snack at Veggie Bite, another major draw to the area. Personally, I think Cary's choice spelled m-e-a-l, rather than snack, but she can get away with it. The chili cheese fries are always our favorite thing on the menu. My tofu stix were okay. I would have preferred mustard over the soupy, ranchy-type dressing that came along with them.

I like going to Veggie Bite because it is vegan, fast-food - a novelty. However, there's something a little strange about this place; I can't quite put my finger on it. I'll borrow a few quotes from yelp:

"Ambiance...standoffish." "It is depressingly empty...noble effort...could thrive if they moved into a smaller space, offered green smoothies, etc." "Place needs focus."

I've gotten some really good chocolate milkshakes, though. (I ask for them extra thick.)
Later that night, we got to try out another new restaurant, Karyn's on Green (another in the Karyn's repertoire of wonderful dining). It was upscale and modern.

We took this picture to show Andy that Cary was indeed catching the Duke game, which happened to be on at the bar behind us.

Cary chose the beets as an appetizer. I don't think I would ever choose beets personally, but these were tasty. We felt like we needed to pick something light and healthy, after the day we had. My oldest son would devour these.
I finally gave in and ordered a caesar salad, which is what I always want to order at restaurants. I just love them. But I eat them at home all of the time so it seems silly to order them, too. This one tasted different (but great!), though, and included different things like dehydrated olives and herb croutons. I was also a fan of how it was served on a long plate.

Cary ordered some type of avocado-sprout pita. I was a big fan of the fry placement.

On the way back to our car, we got completely lost. We walked two blocks this way, three blocks this way, back to where we started to get our bearings - we tried street after street in every direction. I think Cary was starting to get a little panicked. I wasn't too worried, but it was clear I had no idea what we were going to do if we couldn't find our car. (Call a cab and have him drive us around until we found it?) And it was getting late, and it was rather desolate. I was starting to become convinced my car had been stolen because it made no sense that we couldn't find it. Fortunately, Cary had her iPhone out, leading the way, which helped a little. This is the picture of us finally finding the car.

The next day, we ate breakfast at Whole Foods and made a quick swing over to the Ikea in Schaumburg. It was my first Ikea trip, and I was enthralled. I didn't buy much (a little toy for the boys and a cool "junior chair" for Sis), but my mental wish list was adding up.

My audiobooks purchased off iTunes helped me with my late 6 hour drive home from St. Louis.

Thank you, Emily Giffin. I was sleeep-yy.

Girls' Chicago Trip '09

My mom drove my sisters and I to Chicago last weekend for a celebration of Cary's 30th b-day, which was in April. It also worked out perfectly that it was Mother's Day weekend, and we were able to spend that time with our momma.

Cary had prepared gifts for us all to open,

one every hour during the drive from STL to Chicago.

My gifts included a $10 gift certificate to Whole Foods for snacks during our trip, my favorite gum, chap stick, a headband, and earrings she purchased at her friends' jewelry show.

You can check out Mia Sorella Designs here.

Clearly, Tracy was very excited about her Kombucha drink, which she loves.

We stayed at Hotel Felix, an eco-friendly, hip, boutique hotel.

the lobby

Karyn's Cooked was in close walking distance from our hotel.

This is probably the best vegan food in Chicago I've eaten up to this point.

It's a great restaurant all around.

I ordered the jerk tofu sandwich, which came with potatoes and coleslaw.

Tracy ate half of my sandwich...

and I ate half of hers. I think this was the Philly "Cheese Steak" if I'm not mistaken. Both were very good. I think I liked mine the best, but it was really spicy. Hurt so good. What I did not get a picture of was the fried basket combo - zucchini, tofu, and cauliflower. I don't remember the last time I had anything breaded and deep fried. It was delicious (the cauliflower was my fave), and it was served with ranch and barbeque sauces. (plus I tried some of somebody's wonderful macaroni and cheese.) My meal was so good, but I was so full. When I said I didn't think I could finish, Cary urged me on.

"Yes, you can. You just have to focus. You have to let your mind go someplace else."

Mom and I took dessert back to the hotel to eat with our in-room movie. She ordered bread pudding, and I got the coconut cream pie. That cream on top was amazing, and I can't believe it's vegan. I really wanted the chocolate pie, but I ordered that last time I was in town - and I was trying to be different. I only managed to eat half of my pie because I was so full. I saved the rest on ice and had it for breakfast.

Does anyone else out there choose their hotel due, in part, to its proximity to Whole Foods? We made a few trips here.

For breakfast, I drank the rest of my acai smoothie drink and coconut pie from the night before. Then we walked over to Whole Foods, and I ate some watermelon and one of my latest favorite snacks - Sea's Gift Roasted Seaweed Snacks. I love these...but I admit, they may not be for everyone. No one wanted to try it as it is green, sounds like you're eating paper, and well, it's called seaweed. I think they're great, though - salty and just a few calories.

Sitting in the hotel lobby, preparing for a big day on the town...we (southerners) did not adequately prepare for the nippy Chicago weather. By late afternoon, it had warmed a bit, and the next day was nice and warm.

One of my best friends (since the third grade), Sarah, lives in Chicago, and she met up with us for lunch and a little shopping in hip, artsy area of Wicker Park/Bucktown.

lunch at Handlebar Cafe

I had been to Handlebar before and had the best Buffalo "Chicken" Wrap. I wish I would have ordered that again because I loved it - but again, trying to be different. Tracy ordered that as a sandwich, didn't like it, and let me have half. I liked what I ordered - I think it was "Vegan Diablos"- it just seemed too much like something I would eat at home.

We had an afternoon "snack" at Veggie Bite, which is also in the Wicker Park/Bucktown area. (We all accidentally called it Veggie Bites all day, much to Cary's annoyance.) I'd never even heard of this place, but I will be back. I might go to Chicago again just so I can come here. The milkshakes were delectable, and they were very nice about making mine extra thick for me. Tracy got a chili cheese combo plus a taco for her "snack," heehee.

This might have been my favorite thing all weekend. Sarah ordered these chili cheese fries, and we split them. If I had seen those, I wouldn't have ordered my boring plain fries. I loved Veggie Bites, and I wish we could have eaten a whole meal there. (ha, Cary, as I was proofreading, I realized I just called it Veggie Bites again...I'm going to leave it.)

Okay, so I did order another milkshake for the "road." There, I admit it. It was like fate as we were walking down the street and passed a bit of graffiti art. It seemed like all signs were pointing to it, reassuring me of my two-milkshake decision.

I never shop. I really hardly ever do. I would say this was my first real shopping trip. Usually, I don't buy much on vacations because I feel like I already spent too much on everything else. I became a consumer this weekend, though. And it was fun! My complaint about stores is this...nothing opened until 10 or 11. And almost everything closes by 8. It's really hard to maximize your time. Stores, please lengthen your hours!

Mojo Spa smelled delicious. It seemed like most/all of their products were pretty natural. I got the lemon body scrub. I wanted to buy this delicious smelling yellow cake with chocolate frosting soap. I was afraid Dash would try to eat it, though. I did get the kids these fun little soaps.

My favorite store, apparently, was Una Mae's Freak Boutique because I bought a jacket, this hat, earrings, necklace, and another sweater, not pictured. I made three different purchase transactions because I kept seeing something else that I wanted.

Got this vintage shirt from Buffalo Exchange.

I bought this scarf from Free People. It was on sale (I think I am mentioning that to justify my consumerism.) They use shopping bags made of cute fabric, which was such a little bonus. I'm going to give it to Sissy as one of her gifts.

Cab ride back to the hotel, after a long day of shopping...we literally "shopped til we dropped." (I'm sorry; it hurt me to type that as much as it may have hurt you to read it.)

Back out for supper at Pick Me Up Cafe...I gave Cary a b-day gift during every meal.

For some reason, we had so much stress in deciding where to eat supper that night. Cary and I were secretly trying to get reservations at "Rosebud" on Rush Street, which is apparently Mom's favorite place in Chicago. She had been so giving and supportive in eating at all vegetarian places, and I wanted to do that for her. We couldn't get a reservation until 9, and we were all just kind of tired. Yet, it was too early to call it a night.

Anyway, we ended up at Pick Me Up Cafe. It was fine. Not my favorite (It wasn't all vegetarian, and it probably wasn't a place I would have chosen to take Mom) but lots of vegan options to choose from so much better for me than going to a normal restaurant. I ordered the Moo-free Pizza.

the next morning at Chicago Diner for breakfast

It always nice to go to Chicago Diner, my first love. Wish I could have gotten one of their delicious sandwiches or entrees while we were in town, but it's hard to pass up a vegan breakfast. I do love breakfast food. I had a sausage patty, bacon, french toast, fruit, and two pancakes with berry sauce. In my defense, I only ordered one pancake, but they mistakenly made two. Bonus. It was all very yummy.

I wasn't going to get another milkshake. Honestly, I wasn't. But I did.

Chocolate/chocolate chip cookie dough. That's all I need to say.

We made reservations at Karen's Raw

after shopping the little area of CB2, Crate and Barrel, Land of Nod, etc.

We really needed to get on the road, though, as we were already looking at an a.m. arrival time. When we got there, we realized it was a $30/person buffet. The food on the buffet looked really fun, and I wanted us all to try it. However, no one really felt like we were $15/person hungry, let alone $30.

Cary and I got these slushies that were delicious. Mine was acai berry on the bottom, goji berry on the top. I could have drank three of those in a row. I also got a walnut pate/sprouts/tomato/avacado/onion sandwich and a coconut/carob raw "cheese" cake for the road home. They were both pretty good. Not to mention my Acqua Panna water. I am pretty picky about my water, as it is mostly the only thing I drink. I am not too fond of spring water normally, but this kind doesn't have that weird spring water aftertaste. Plus, it comes in a glass bottle, which tasted, well, less plastic-y.

There was plenty of singing going on in the car. You need to maximize this picture to truly appreciate Cary's effort. After much debate over which was the quickest route (it is so clear where we girls get our stubborn, always-think-we're-right personalities), Mom drove the entire way home. (Did I mention how stubborn she is?) I think we got home between 2:30-3:00 a.m. I had a lovely little Mother's Day card (not to mention, the house was very picked up) waiting for me on the counter. It was so good to kiss my sleeping little ones who I missed dearly.