Two Foodies, A Baby, and A Major Roadtrip :)

Last month was spent up in Oregon having some quality time with our family. We are so lucky that my husband's job allows him to telecommute when need be. It was a two day trip from the bay area to the suburbs of Portland where our family lives. The car was loaded with baby gear and plenty of snacks to keep us energized for the long trips. Aiden did amazingly well on the road on the way there and back. We were so very lucky for that. 14 hours in 2 days on the road is enough to make anyone a little crazy let alone a 10 month old baby :)

On the way home we decided to take a detour to the coast and through the redwoods on HWY 101 which I had never been. We stayed the night in a beautiful Hampton Inn in Crescent City, CA with an ocean view and it was extremely affordable! Crescent City was a quaint little coastal town with only a few restaurants and a Safeway thank goodness! I'm always hopeful of at least one good supermarket when traveling to new places in case we find ourselves needing some baby Tylenol or Pedialyte at 2am. In the morning we used our UrbanSpoon app on our iphone to find the best restaurant for breakfast in this new town. Our goal was to eat organically the whole way down the 101 that day, just for kicks not because we are the kind of people who ONLY eat organically but we thought it would be fun to seek out the healthiest options of road food on this trip. Good 'ole Urban Spoon led us to the Good Harvest Cafe which was a great pick! The avocado, bacon, and cheddar omelet was to die for and the french toast was just crispy enough to withstand the heaping amounts of maple syrup I drizzled on. Mmmmmm I am starting to salivate just remembering it. Considering some late night french toast maybe...
We continued on our journey driving along the coast with the windows down, the new Norah Jones album turned up, breathing in the salty sea air mixed with the scent big, green redwoods. The ocean water sparkled that day and Aiden slept most of the morning drive.

Our next stop was Arcata, home of CSU Humboldt and more hippies than I'd ever seen in my whole life! Wow there were so many hippies! And not even the kind of preppy REI hippies you see in most parts, I'm talking the red-eyed, dreads, incense-saturated, just rolled out of bed hippies! And the OLD hippies like my parents age. The ones who probably followed the Grateful Dead and then never went on to do anything else with their lives except move to Arcata, sit on the sidewalk outside a store and sell friendship bracelets. Since we were in hippie-ville we made sure to dress our little hipster baby accordingly...

About 12 miles down the road from Arcata is the gorgeous, Victorian-inspired town of Eureka. We decided to eat there for lunch because I found this awesome new North Coast CO-OP with an amazing selection of organic foods, wines, a full service deli, fresh baked breads, the BEST prices of teas I've ever seen and a HUGE organic health and beauty section. I wanted to shop all day! We got the yummiest free-range turkey and avocado sandwich on a fresh baked whole wheat roll and I was in heaven. We even found Aiden some Earth's Best gourmet baby food that he scarfed down. It was a variety that I hadn't seen anywhere else-chicken risotto with mango...
If there's one thing those hippies have got right it is the way that they eat. All along our drive that day on the 101 were some awesome looking Natural food stores and Co-ops. The demand for good food must be high around there because I have never seen such a high concentration of quality grocery stores and organic restaurants than down the 101.

On to view some of God's most fantastic natural wonders...da da DUM.....The Redwoods!

A "Breast-Stop" and then on to Ukiah for dinner. I found this restaurant in one of those free tourist magazines I took at one of the redwood parks we stopped at earlier. What caught my eye was, "...the first organic brewery in the nation..." Sweet! An organic brewery. There's always great food at breweries so we went for it. The Ukiah Brewing Co. lived up to the hype. I had an organic greens pear salad with walnuts and endives and a scrumptious viniagrette. For my entree I had the chicken strips which were crisped to perfection and cajun french fries. YUM. Organic ketchup and mustard sat on every table and when we asked if they could heat up Aiden's food in the microwave, (which we avoid at home) the waitress politely replied, " Oh we don't HAVE a microwave. Microwaves are bad for your food." Right on girlfriend, RIGHT ON! LOVE it! So she brought us a cup of boiling water instead to heat his food. Live music filled the air and a beautiful 1930's-looking bar gave us something fun to look at. If you ever find yourself in Ukiah, check it out.
It IS possible to eat well on a roadtrip. If you have an iphone use the Urban Spoon app, if not than do your research before you get in the car but when there's a will to avoid nasty Mickey D's, there's probably a natural foods store right up the street. Well unless you live in middle America then you're screwed. When we drove from Wyoming through Nebraska there was nothing but greasy spoons called Perkins. NASTY old people food. If driving in the midwest where they haven't yet discovered healthy eating then pack your own lunch. The End :)