Leaving Utah- Oct 14th: Lunch in Las Vegas But Seriously Let's Get to L.A.

First, a confession- I will go out dancing all night long, shut down the club, I don't care if I'm the only one on the dance floor, and I will get on a table if it presents itself. But I don't drink, and I don't gamble, and I don't like cheesy shows, so Las Vegas is pretty much useless to me. Plus, I saw Las Vegas three years ago for the first time-but I had already partied in Tokyo and lived in Japan for a year, so the aesthetics of the lights and such were kind of inherently lame in comparison. That being said, Bobby and I perfectly timed our pass through Las Vegas to coincide with lunch time, and had looked forward to it for one reason- the food.

First, we hit up Ronald's Donuts- totally vegan, completely awesome, world famous probably.

Delicious.

We had also heard about this revolutionary cheese that was whipping vegans into a frenzy- daiya cheese made from cassava root, the same thing you use to make tapioca. The enormous Whole Foods Las Vegas served it on made to order pizzas!

Perfect weather to eat outside, stare at all the orange tanned girls in short skirts and long boots, and tuck into a basil, tomato, and roasted garlic vegan pizza with natural cola and vegan donuts for dessert.

Before:

After:

Happy and full of food- although the daiya was weirdly sticky, it was still damn good- we headed out of town. Some random Vegas...

After that it's pretty much 4-6 hours- depending on traffic once you get close to L.A.- of Mojave Desert interspersed with those trippy acres of Joshua Trees. We were road weary and just wanted to be there, and we ended up hitting L.A. on the 101 right at rush hour. On a Friday night. And my friend lives right off of Hollywood Blvd. After a two week tour of camping, national parks, and wide open spaces on deserted back roads I felt like an Amazonian villager who had never had contact with Western civilization- I was overwhelmed and cranky and instantly decided I hated L.A., it was a shithole.

But after sleeping 12 hours and waking up and walking outside to blue skies and palm trees and people jogging about and walking their dogs, I completely changed my mind.

The little room I would be in for the next two months...

Bobby stayed for a week, during which time we ate out approximately 4 times a day, gorging ourselves on all the yummy vegetarian/vegan options in L.A. Coming from Dallas, where we literally have less than five vegetarian/vegan restaurants in the metroplex we were in heaven. Sleeping in, watching movies, going to the beach, walking everywhere, and reveling in sleeping not in hotels or tents were all thoroughly enjoyed :)

After Bobby left I had about three weeks to hit my thesis and the job search hard, and also continue to explore L.A. and play with my friend Jess, who I was living with, because then...

we were off to Seattle!