Moving Tiny Mountains

Being a regular at a coffee shop in Seattle has it's benefits. Your baristas know your name, sometimes they know what to make you before you walk in the door, and when you go vegan...they take note!

I used to order a soft boiled egg and toast every morning when I came to this cafe. Occasionally I get a killer craving for eggs (that could have been a terrible pun). Anyway - my new regular breakfast is toast with kalamata olive tapenade. Not a bad replacement!

And today, they made **lentil soup and made special note that it was vegan.

Please excuse my shitty phone camera.

If you're a regular anywhere and you've made the transition to veganism, let them know! They might be really helpful with your transition. I found that the more people that you tell, the less likely you are to slip-up. More than most of the time, people want to help you/be respectful of your lifestyle. 

_______

I feel really fortunate to live in Seattle because of the abundance of vegan options around me. The closest vegan restaurant is a short 8 blocks from my apartment (Highline, for all of you Seattleites). All of the cafe's carry some sort of milk alternative and most people don't look at you like you're an alien when you tell them that you don't eat meat. 

I've done a fair bit of traveling in the United States in the last few years (Every state in the continental U.S. and 145,000 miles on my toyota worth of traveling). Most of the larger cities seem to be pretty vegan friendly. However, smaller towns are really difficult for vegans. I'll do a post later on about how this works out for me. 

Have I mentioned that I'm a touring musician? (www.sammywitness.com) My band usually goes on 3-4 day stints of smaller town gig playing. So far, finding eats has been pretty challenging. Fortunately, my boyfriend/guitar player is also vegan and usually helps us find ways to cheat the meat system. 

Another transitioning vegan in my life is my mother. She's made a couple attempts at veganism in the past but she was always alone in it. I think having at least one person to make the jump with you is really helpful. She's coming up to visit me here in Seattle, in a week or two, from Florida. Hopefully we can help her find some good alternatives to the foods she's having a hard time parting ways with!