What a great summer! In July I spent a week in CT with my husband, a weekend in Pennsylvania with my aunt, and I played “tourist” when hosting my niece in NYC. In August my husband and I spent a long weekend in Vermont and then I headed to San Diego for a girlfriend weekend where we dined out and we dined in.
My final summer getaway was another trip to Pennsylvania, this time with my husband.
We found ourselves very hungry a couple of hours into the drive. I couldn’t find vegan/vegetarian options on my Happy Cow iPhone application so we just relied on Greta (I named my Garmin GPS “Greta”) to point us to a restaurant. We found ourselves at The Ugly Mug where I had a below-average glass of wine (I knew what I was getting myself in to when I ordered it)
and saw a vegan option on the menu that I couldn’t resist
Which was very tasty!
I love the drive on 80 through PA.
Just beautiful!
We arrived at the B&B at about 4:00 p.m.
We loved the room and they even had a bottle of red wine waiting for us! A storm came through and we simply lazed around, enjoying the amazing view, and rested.
Later than evening we headed out to Amici’s Restaurant and Bar for dinner. I spied what I thought I might be able to order for dinner
but after a conversation with the server (I begin by asking about vegetarian options…I like to ease them into it…and then explain this means no eggs, cheese, milk, etc.), who then had a conversation with the chef, the only vegan option was spaghetti with marinara sauce. I knew I was planning to run 10 miles Sunday, so, SOLD!
We started with an appetizer
Caprese salad, but I had them put the mozzarella on the side for my husband. The tomatoes were lovely.
The spaghetti and marinara sauce
was so, so good! (Major comfort food after a long day of driving).
The next morning I was off for a five-mile run, but not before taking a picture of this cutie
a baby fox, playing in the front yard of the B&B!
Later we made our way to Pittsburgh. We visited the Andy Warhol Museum
grabbed a drink downtown, and then headed to Abay Ethiopian Restaurant, (my second visit this summer!) It’s a BYOB joint so we brought a Cline Zinfandel, deemed vegan by Barnivore.
We ordered three vegan options for the main platter and they kept my husband’s meat dish separate.
Lentils, cabbage and a cold chick-pea salad. Triple YUM.
We walked over to Oh Yeah! for ice cream after dinner. Dave had vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and grape jelly.
Oh Yeah! has vegan options! I enjoyed the soy vanilla bean with coconut and ginger
and shared a bite or two with my new friend, Mira (with her people-parent’s permission, of course.)
A great carbo-load meal deserves a good long run the following morning!
Ready for a 10-mile fun
A couple of miles into the run I had to tackle this hill
and had to go back up it at mile 7-ish as I ran a 5-mile loop twice.
After a 10 mile run I wanted a big a** meal. We decided to find a restaurant with lots of vegan options along the drive home. Dave did some research and found Mad Mex near Penn State.
We started with fried tofu
and for lunch/dinner (because who could eat again after this???)
A chickpea-chili burrito with vegan cheese and vegan sour cream.
By 8 pm we were home, sweet, home.
I deem summer over. Bring on the fall running season!
