HI everyone,
Greetings from the desert land of Las Vegas, Nevada. We are here for a week-long conference and have found the 108 degree weather just wonderful. A bit dry, but overall, the warmth is a welcome to our bones.
We have had a great time at the Doubletree Hotel, which is away from the Strip but still affords great views of the majestic mountains and is only a short drive to our favorite eating place Sweet Tomatoes! If you have never eaten at this restaurant, make sure you put that on your list of places when you travel to areas that are blessed to have one of these restaurants. We sure do wish Charlotte would get one!!
While on the 4 plus hour flight, we enjoyed our very own bottled water, raw kale chips, cassava chips, plantains and banana/date bars. Everyone else had the standard American fare of chex mix, peanut butter crackers and white bread sandwiches. It took a little planning to ensure we were prepared, but at the end of the trip we felt rested and ready to walk into this hot, dry climate.
The first day we arrived, we went searching for health food stores and raw vegan restaurants and found many of both!! What a wonderful blessing! From the bottled coconut water and the yummy kale chips to the fresh cherries and cucumbers, our little room refrigerator is set to keep us hydrated and well nourished. It is easy to ignore that other fridge in the room, when ours has such tempting and tasty alternatives.
Another place we had to go was to a Target. We grabbed our Tribest personal blender from the garage and found out when we arrived that it was the one meant for international travel, meaning, the prongs won’t work in the electrical outlets in our room. So, since a small blender is a large part of our daily existence, whether we are drinking BarleyMax, or making blended smoothies, we knew better than to just forget that idea. Fortunately, Target had a nice variety of small blenders and we easily picked one up for under $30. It has a pretty nice size motor, a large basin for smoothies and a thinner one for our BarleyMax. Bottled water was another must have we picked up there as well.
We never eat at buffets—not because of the foods that we shouldn’t eat, but rather, there are too many tempting foods that we probably can eat, but shouldn’t eat so much of them. We are better off, paying a little more and eating the right portion size, rather than find what is good on a buffet line.
With our healthy sunscreen, and our filtered hand held shower, we are confident that our week long trip here and our subsequent week in Wisconsin to see Ann’s family will keep us healthy--both inside and out.
Whether you are going on a three day outing or a month long journey, keep in mind these things:
- Be prepared—bring your supplements, your BarleyMax and your small blender. You will be glad you did. There are times when you just don’t want to leave your room and you will find great comfort and sustenance in a newly mixed glass of juice. Not only will it taste refreshing, but also you can continue on for hours with great energy.
- Be mindful that cheaper is not always better. Bring with you, the foods that will keep you from making poor decisions. Spend a little before you leave so you can save a lot on your health and likely other ways later.
- Search the area that you will be visiting for good quality restaurants and health food stores. They will be a Godsend to you!
