So, ummm, yeah.

So, spending nine glorious days and nights in Portland hanging with a bunch of wonderful vegan bloggers, friends, entrepeneurs, and, of course, my sister and Kurt, has had its consequences.  You see, my husband and I both have business to tend to in Oregon each summer, and we do it separately for a couple of reasons.  Mainly because we live with three dogs and a cat.   who would watch our little lovelies while we were gone?  But also because I go to visit friends, family, and go vegan crazy.  He goes to visit family.  When we have gone together, we just argue over where we are going to spend our time, so we've just agreed to vacation separately.  Only a few short days after I returned, Dan left.  Now I am tending to the babies, and working my day job.  This left little time for much else, including tending to this blog.  It's pretty ironic that my week spent in PDX was to attend a vegan blogger conference, yet today, 3 weeks later, I am finally blogging about it.  So, ummm, yeah. Sorry 'bout that. So here it is, my first of several, blog posts about my week in Portland and my wonderful, amazing, inspiring, educational, and just about perfect experience at the first ever Vida Vegan Con.

This post will focus on the mini mall.  Yep.  Portland has its own mini mall comprised of only vegan businesses.  For realz.  From left to right, we start at Sweetpea Baking Company.  Sweetpea is more than cookies and cupcakes...way more.  Below, a picture of my breakfast on more mornings than I care to admit right now.


Everything Bagel with Bacun Scallion Schmear and Iced Almond Milk Latte from Sweetpea

Not being much of one for sweets, I always get the bagel and schmear.  So good.  But they also have soups and sandwiches too.  If sweets are your thing, there is certainly no shortage of choices.  Donuts, muffins, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, bars, you name it.  There are also plenty of gluten free options too.  Freshly made on premises by a hugely talented staff of bakers, no matter what you choose, you won't be dissapointed.  It made me so happy to have to wait in line to order.  A line is a great thing for a vegan business.  The longer the better.

Moving on to Herbivore Clothing Company.  Tshirts, books, hoodies, handbags, wallets, stickers, buttons, belts, posters, and more.  All vegan, all the time.  I stocked up.  I got three new tshirts, a bunch of stickers and buttons, and a new purse made out of recycled plastic bottles.  Bonus: I finally got to meet Michelle and Josh.  The past 4 or 5 times I came to visit, the stars did not alighn and we never were able to meet.  Both are lovely and wonderful, so please support them.  Either in person, or online, buy from them.  Oh, and did I mention they stock all four of Celine and my cookbooks?  How rad are they?


Michelle modeling the "Bacon had a Mom" tshirt (from Herbivore's website)

Next door is Food Fight Grocery.  Greeted by a sticker on the door that read "Open Every Fucking Day" I was ready to stock my hotel fridge.  Man, this place has so much goodness packed into one little tiny store, if I lived in PDX I would do all of my shopping there.  Produce, breads, junk food, frozen food, toiletries, totes, books, candy bars, chips, dips, bulk stuff, ice cream, soy curls, anything you need to be a good vegan.  ANYTHING!  I was lucky to meet both Emiko and Chad and thank them for what they do.  I certainly did a number as I packed up my totes with goodies for my hotel room.  Coconut Creamer for my morning coffee, 2 books, some incidentals, snacks, drinks, a coupla candy bars, and a new tote.  Saturday night there was a pop up sandwich shop with Upton's Seitan, but I'll talk about that more in the "food" post.


Cookbook shelf at Food Fight.

And last, but not least, Scapegoat Tattoo.  An all vegan tattoo shop.  The perfect spot for you to permanently commit and finally ge tthat circle V no matter how tiny.  This beautiful studio has some awesome artists on staff and from the work I've seen, it is all amazing.  I have yet to have the honor of getting any tattoos from these guys, but it's definitely on my to-do list.  My soon to be brother in law got an awesome tattoo of Ralph Nader on his arm by Ryan, so I'm definitely sold.


Ralph Nader Tattoo by Ryan Mason at Scapegoat (from Kurt's Flickr)