Wednesday, October 12, 2011

A Day at the Beach

Sunday morning was a French Toast morning. Dema had drooled over Kieran's French Toast lunch at Chicago Diner on Saturday and we told him we'd come back for French Toast soon, but Loretta is super sweet and made two kinds of French Toast Sunday morning. David was sweet too for cycling to the store (twice) before Loretta got up to buy bread, berries, and almond milk. If the physics thing gets to boring for them, they should open up a vegan bed and breakfast. My kids were ready to move in with them by the end of the weekend.
Vegan Brunch Pumpkin French Toast
Parker happily eating Loretta's French Toast
After breakfast, we decided to enjoy the perfect weather at the beach. It was a beautiful day for a walk/scooter. I'm guessing the the water temps were in the fifties so we figured the kids wouldn't really get in the water. My boys wore their swimming trunks with shirts, but we didn't bring bathing suits for the rest of our gang.  We underestimated our children.












Lake beaches have never been our thing. We like hot beaches where we have to run to your towel because the sand is so hot on our feet, where Rob can surf and we can ride the waves without wearing a wetsuit to keep warm. I like to sit under a beach umbrella and read until it is so hot we need to go in and take a nap before heading back to the beach for more fun until the sun goes down. I love the ocean and always have, but I have to admit our beach day at Lake Michigan was pretty fun. I promise I will never stick my nose up at Lake Michigan beaches again.
Loretta and I walked to Whole Foods to pick up a variety of food for our soon to be hungry posse. I didn't get a picture of the food haul, but it was plenty of salads and snacks to keep our families happy and energized to climb the rocks farther down the beach. Some of the favorites were the mac and cheese from Soul Veg, the Unreal "Chicken" Wraps (also from Soul Veg), beets from the Whole Foods salad bar, kale salad, crackers/bread/carrots/celery with hummus and artichoke/spinach dip, and broccoli salad. Too persuade the kids to leave the beach, we lured them with heavenly Hilary's Cookies. These cookies are probably the best pre-packaged vegan cookies I've had. We tried the Oatmeal Scotchie and another oatmeal and fruit combo which I don't see on their website. They are moist, but not too crumbly, but they do stick a little too each other in the package. Sweet, but not overly so and are real cookie size, unlike ABC cookies which are the brand we have in our college town at all the coffee shops (not complaining, I'm glad we have an option). I wish we had Hilary's Cookies and Soul Veg wraps here, but we'll just have to make another trip north to get our fix.

All in all it was a lovely visit with wonderful friends and beautiful weather. We were exhausted on the drive home, which is always a sign of a good trip. Parker and Josie were asleep before we were off Lake Shore Dr. Dema wanted to give you all his traveling tip for the day. "When your mom unthinkingly puts the water in the trunk right before entering Chicago traffic and you are super thirsty, I mean about to pass out from lack of hydration. Eat an apple. It works." There you go. Never travel without apples.

2 comments:

Emily said...

VWAV'S Fronch Toast is such a crowd-pleaser, isn't it? My omni family adores it.

Your kids are adorable and it looks like you all had a great beach day... even if it was at the lake!

vegan.in.brighton said...

TWO kinds of French toast? Amazing!