Here is a link to the entire article:
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-what-happens-to-your-body-during-a-flight-2016-6
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Are Airport Security Scanners Safe?
I am a big fan of Dr. Andrew Weil. I think a guy who has a medical degree from Harvard and is now the guru for Natural and Alternative Medicine is the kind of healthcare professional I was to listen to. I’ve read many of his books and taken a lot of his advice in the past few decades and I feel as if I live a healthier life because of it.
In one of my favorite books of his, “Natural Health, Natural Medicine” there was an interesting fact I read years ago that I always remember. In Chaper 11, titled “How Not to Get Cancer” he lists sixteen things you can do to protect yourself from getting cancer. The heading of Number Three on the list is “Avoid Exposure to Harmful Radiation”. In this section, he discusses the journey radioactivity and X-rays have taken in western medicine from the 1940s until now, and how much we have learned since the early days (1940s and 1950s) when shoe stores used to X-ray your feet to see how your shoes fit! He goes on to explain how radiation in X-rays leads to cancer by causing malignant transformation of cells, and goes on to mention all sorts of household items that we may not even realize gives off some radiation such as smoke alarms and electronics. But two main bits of advice he mentioned in that section really stuck with me. 1) “There is no such thing as a safe dose of radiation”, and 2) “Do not let doctors and dentists X-ray you without good reason”.
I thought this was VERY good advice and I go to great lengths to evaluate all the necessary and unnecessary X-rays in my life. EVERY YEAR I have a heated discussion with my dentist about skipping my annual X-rays when it really isn’t necessary. Just because it is covered by insurance, isn’t a good reason to add to my accumulation of radiation. I get dental X-rays every 3 years maximum. The same with other medical X-rays. I can’t say I’ve never had one but I give great thought to whether I really need that CatScan of my head to see if I have a sinus infection (yes, that really happened to me!). Uh, no I didn’t.
So here I am at the Airport watching everyone in the Security line going through this, well, X-ray, called a ProScan and I started to think, “I don’t really want this radiation, do I have to go through?”. The answer, of course, is “No” I don’t have to go through and neither do you. You can “opt-out” of the ProScan line at any airport in America. That sounds like an easy option but TSA agents are not happy about the “opt-out” crowd because it means extra work for them to have to stop what they are doing and come over and pat you down. Many times I have been “punished” by an annoyed TSA agent who has made me and my kids wait for ages before they called someone over to pat us down, just because they were bothered by the fact I did not want to go through the ProScan. Sometimes there was a legitimate wait, like when they needed to find a female TSA Agent (Pat downs have to happen with same sex agents), but usually they just don’t want to do it. While I am waiting for an Agent to come and pat us down, I usually have at least one agent give me a hard time about opting out. They often laugh and say, “You know, there is no radiation in these machines, why don’t you want to go through?” Time and again they taunt me by reminding me the ProScans aren’t X-ray machines. When I inquire exactly what they are, I have never had an agent answer me. Frankly, I am always shocked that the Agents go to so much trouble to make me feel foolish. But, of course, we are all at the mercy of the TSA Agent when going through Security, and I rather not argue with them, but at the same time I wanted to understand what the ProScan was exactly so I could at least respond to any snide remark with an educated replya. So….I did my homework and researched it, and guess what? The ProScans sure do give off radiation.
There is a lot of information out there about the scanners, but if you don’t want to do the legwork, a good, simple article to read is a CNN article I found called, “Airport Security Scans: What would your doctor do?”. In the article the writer interviewed several medical doctors and asked them if they themselves actually go through the scanners when traveling. The answer is…most of them don’t. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Doctors who say "no" to the scanners
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, takes a pat-down instead of going through a scanner when he travels. He says he's concerned about whether the machines are calibrated and inspected properly.
"USA Today did a piece on how badly TSA maintained their X-ray equipment for carryon bags, and this gave me little confidence," he wrote to me in an e-mail.
Brawley's deputy concurs.
"I do whatever I can to avoid the scanner," Dr. Len Lichtenfeld wrote to me in an e-mail.
He says as a frequent flier, he's concerned about the cumulative effect of the radiation.
"This is a total body scan -- not a dental or chest X-ray," he wrote to me. "Total body radiation is not something I find very comforting based on my medical knowledge."
Lichtenfeld says it doesn't necessarily give him great comfort that the TSA says the scans are safe.
"I can still remember getting my feet radiated as a child when I went to the shoe store and they had a machine which could see how my foot fit in the new shoes," he says. "We were told then that they were safe, and they were not."
(At first I thought Lichtenfeld was making this up, but you can actually see one of these foot scanners at the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices at the Science Museum of Minnesota.)
Another doctor who opts for the pat-down is Dr. Dong Kim, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' neurosurgeon.
"There is really no absolutely safe dose of radiation," says Kim, chair of the department of neurosurgery at the University of Texas Medical School. "Each exposure is additive, and there is no need to incur any extra radiation when there is an alternative."
This was echoed by several other physicians, including Dr. Andrew Weil.
"All radiation exposure adds to the cumulative total you've received over your lifetime," Weil wrote to me in an e-mail. "Cancer risks correlate with that number, so no dose of radiation is too small to matter."
Doctors exposed to radiation at work are particularly sensitive to this issue, as I learned when I got through security that day in the airport and chased after the doctor who'd opted out.
I learned his name is Dr. Karl Bilimoria, and he's a surgical oncology fellow at M.D. Anderson. He says this is a frequent topic of discussion among his colleagues.
"If we can avoid a little radiation in exchange for the two extra minutes needed for a pat-down, then we will," he says.
Please read the article for the full details:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/31/ep.airport.scanners/
After hearing that many doctors choose NOT to go through the scanners, I felt better about my decision to always Opt-Out. I noticed that this past year (2014) I have been surrounded by a lot more travelers who are standing beside me and my kids at the ProScan stop asking to Opt-Out. I feel in good company now!
Remember, radiation is cumulative, and, as Dr. Weil says, no dose is safe, and no dose is too small to matter.
So, next time you travel, leave a little extra time to go through Security, and Opt-Out of the ProScan and wait for a pat down. You may live longer!
MORE INFO ON AIRPORT BODY SCANNERS:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a6353/the-truth-about-tsa-airport-scanning/
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Healthy Travel Review: Half Moon Bay, California
Half Moon Bay
In my endless search for great beach towns in Northern California, I recently discovered Half Moon Bay, which lies about 3o miles south of San Francisco. It is a relatively small beach town with a nice, but tiny main street that spans about three blocks and has some cute shops and restaurants.
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| You never know what you'll find in Half Moon Bay! This ship was in a cute courtyard with small artists booths around selling their creations. |
I went to Half Moon Bay for the first time 2 years ago in 2013, where we decided to stay at the Half Moon Bay Lodge because it was reasonably priced, near the beach, and located next to the Ritz-Carlton, so I thought it would be at the best spot in town. It was a nice hotel, nothing special and more like a Best Western, but comfy and somewhat reasonably priced. The bad news for me was although it was on the beach as the crow flies, it was a 25+ minute walk on a narrow paved road to actually get to the beach access point, which was really too far from the beach for me! Plus, none of the rooms had a beach view. We ended up having to drive to the beach and fight for a parking spot along with every other beach-goer that weekend.
☾
We went back to Half Moon Bay this year in January 2015 and decided to stay at the only hotel (from what I can tell) that was ON the beach, The Beach House.
The Beach House
My kids and I headed out to Half Moon Bay on a beautiful Sunday morning in January to celebrate my birthday and made great time getting there until we got into the actual town of Half Moon Bay, where we hit an absurd amount of traffic. We were only 15 minutes drive from our hotel, but we were stuck in traffic for over 1-1/2 hours. I learned from the locals that this is typical traffic in HMB, especially on a warm, sunny beach day, like the one we had that day. Frustrating. I was hoping to get to the hotel early so we could have the day at the beach and enjoy the pool and jacuzzi as well, but we didn’t arrive there until late afternoon. But I was so thrilled to finally arrive there I just about danced into the lobby excited to check-in, only to be greeted by a lukewarm front desk person. He checked us in without a smile and when he learned it was my birthday, I didn’t even get a friendly happy birthday. Bad start.
Our room was on the second floor overlooking the beach and seemed nice and roomy. We had a little balcony with a table and two chairs and a small kitchenette, which I love to have when traveling, which had a small fridge, two burners, and a sink. I tucked a bottle of organic champagne and a beautiful vegan chocolate birthday cake into the fridge and we headed out to look around and enjoy the beach before the sunset.
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| Our ocean view room facing the balcony |
The view was lovely from our balcony but I must warn you, there is a nearby foghorn that goes off every 10 seconds DAY AND NIGHT. It wasn’t really a problem for me because I travel with a white noise maker for night-time, but the constant noise of the horn might cause a bit of stress for some, especially at night.
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| The view from the hotel rooms are not ocean FRONT, because there is a little bike path between you and the ocean as well as some beach grass and shrubs. But it is only a few minutes walk until your feet feel the ocean water. |
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| The moon on the nights we were there was not quite "Half Moon" yet, but lovely just the same |
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| You can view the sunset from your balcony at The Beach House |
I found The Beach House a nice place to stay but WAY overpriced for what is offered. It was really nice having a little kitchenette but it wasn't mentioned when I booked the room so I did not bring any food to cook, which would have been nice for breakfast so we didn't have to run out of the room hungry in the mornings.
As far as the hotel's "green initiatives" I did not see that they had any, after checking both the website and the literature in the room.
For LOTS more info on our hotel, The Beach House, please read my VERY LONG travel review on Trip Advisor:
MOONSIDE BAKERY and CAFE
On our way to our hotel we stopped at the MOONSIDE BAKERY AND CAFE in the center of town. Before our trip I did some research on healthy veg eating options in Half Moon Bay and this Cafe seemed to have a few nice veggie choices, including a veggie burger, so we stopped in for a late lunch. It was a bit more casual than I expected and more a Bakery than Cafe. There was a long line leading up to the bakery counter where you can order sandwiches, salads and wood-fired pizzas from a small lunch menu and they give you a number and bring it out to you.
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| The Cafe is really a long bakery counter/case where you order your food and it is brought out |
The tables are few and scattered and more like a cafeteria than a nice cafe and not a very relaxing place to dine, but fine for a quick meal. Moonside Bakery is attached to a small indoor mini-mall, and the table we found was out in the small, somewhat dingy indoor courtyard, which was quite noisy and uninviting. Not what I expected after looking at the website (don’t you hear THAT alot!).
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| The Cafe is small so our table was out in the indoor courtyard |
The food menu was quite pricy for a non-server cafe, but HMB is expensive in general, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. One of my son’s ordered a kid’s mac and cheese which was made from a box with powdered cheese and was so unappealing, he did not eat much of it.
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| Not so fresh Mac and Cheese |
My other son ordered the Garden Vegie (that is how they spelled it) sandwich, which had avocado, tomato, lettuce and sprouts on your choice of bread, he chose french, and is served with a side of fresh fruit. My son said the sandwich was good, nothing special, but some of the fruit was a bit too mushy to eat.
I ordered the Vegie Burger (yep! spelled like that) which was a homemade patty, which was impressive, and was topped with carrots and cucumbers on whole wheat bread. It was nice, again, nothing special, but I was VERY appreciative to find a vegan option.
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| Vegie Burger on Whole Wheat |
There were no vegan bakery items but lots of vegetarian options so my sons got a few meringue cookies and a crescent moon butter cookie. The meringues were stale but the butter cookie nice and fresh.
The bakery items looked really cute and, if you are looking for a lovely treat and not on the healthy side, this could be your place!
Even though our experience wasn’t wonderful, I might come here again because there are some veggie (or “vegie”) items on the menu and eating choices in this small beach town are quite limited. Next time I will know what to expect.
http://www.moonsidebakery.com/index.html
China House
The last time we came to Half Moon Bay in 2013, we found an awesome chinese restaurant that delivered to our hotel room, The China House. They had a fantastic variety of vegan/vegetarian times on their menu that included vegetarian Bao, which is soooo hard to find, since traditional Bao is pork-filled. For those unfamiliar with Bao, it is a doughy bun with filling, often a sweet pork filling as I mentioned, but China House has a veggie version which I LOVED. You can also find Bao's with a sweet red bean paste filling, which is REALLY yummy and usually served as a dessert item.
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| Our array of yummy veggie dishes. The veggie Bao is first on the bottom. |
The China House had a separate Vegetarian menu, which makes it easy to make selections for healthy eaters.
We went a bit crazy, ordering the Steamed Veggie Dumplings (Bao), Sauteed Broccoli with Asparagus, China House Vegetarian Deluxe with Tofu, and rice. It was hot, delicious, and reasonably priced. The best!
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| We loved everything but I think my favorite is the broccoli and asparagus dish. We ask them to add some fried tofu. |
I was thrilled to find that they were still in Half Moon Bay and they still delivered!
Saturday, February 28, 2015
UNITED AIRLINES Vegetarian and Vegan In-Flight Meal Review
Summer 2014 San Francisco to London
Here we are again on our semi-annual journey abroad and once again, we booked with United Airlines. As always, we asked for special in-flight meals. My kids ordered the vegetarian special meals this year and I tried to order a vegan meal again but they did not have that on offer. So instead, I chose something called a Vegetarian Asian Meal, hoping it might be as close to vegan as I could get. I couldn’t think of much dairy used in Asian meals so I thought it was a safe choice. As I have mentioned before, my kids and I always have a big, full meal at the airport before we board our long haul flight (see separate posts on our fav healthy veg-friendly restaurant choices in airports) so we not terribly hungry during the flight and tempted by the in-flight meal. But the journey is quite long, 11 hours in the air if we leave on time, and an hour or two on both ends, so many times we get hungry. We do try to bring a lot of snacks with us but often one of my sons and I will try some of the in-flgiht meal. I limit myself to the items that are wrapped in their original packaging, often bread buns, buttery spreads, jams, etc and I like to try to taste a bit of the entree to review it here, if it doesn't look too frightening. One of my sons often eats a lot of his meal, and my other son refuses to eat any of it at all and just sticks to the snacks we bring.
Since we left in the evening, we were served dinner right away and had the breakfast service hours later before landing. The Vegetarian Special Meal and the Vegetarian Asian Meal (vegan) were exactly the same, except the Vegetarian Meal had a container of plain yogurt on the tray and the Vegetarian Asian Meal replaced the yogurt with a whole grain bread bun wrapped in plastic.
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| The vegetarian meal included a tub of plain yogurt |
The entree was an Indian dish, with a small helping of Saag Paneer on one side (spinach and cheese--so much for no dairy on the Asian Vegetarian meal!), some Aloo Matar on the other side (potatoes and peas, often with curry sauce), and some Basmati Rice in the center. It was quite tasty, although I decided not to eat more than a bite of my entree. One of my sons ate most of his entree and found it fine. He even ate some salad and thought it was fairly fresh. I did eat the whole grain roll because it was protected in a plastic packaging and I had some plant-based butter spread on my tray too, which I spread on my bread and that was good for me! For dessert we were given a packaged “sugar-free” lemon cookie, which my sons both ate and I took a bite of, but it had quite a bit of an aftertaste from the artificial sweeteners used, so I did not finish mine.
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| The Asian Vegetarian meal did not include any yogurt but instead had a packaged whole grain bun. |
For breakfast the Vegetarians had a VERY light meal. We were given a container of Mott’s Apple Sauce, a whole grain roll, and some Smart Balance spread, which is vegan. Nice! All three were factory wrapped, which made me happy! I just could have used a lot more of it! Two rolls perhaps? With some jam as well? In any case, we ate our morning snacks and it was really just perfect.
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| Breakfast before landing was perfect. |
If the plane is delayed at all, I believe it is always best to skip the in-flight meals, since the food often has already been delivered to the aircraft and is sitting in racks on the plane at less than optimal temperatures to keep it fresh for long.
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| Our luggage and meals being delivered to our plane before take-off. Our plane was on-time on the way to London but delayed 4 hours on the tarmac on the way back. We finally got off the plane and had to spend another night in London. |
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| My perfect airline snack! Some roasted almonds and water. |
TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT (the in-flight meal...)
Some claim they died from eating an in-flight meal
Some blame the bacteria lingering all around us on a flight. There was a recent study done blaming the bacteria on the tray table and arm rests (among other places) for making passengers sick:
"The Tray Table
A study from 2007 found methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, on three out of three planes tested for the "super bug." Specifically, it was found in highest concentrations on the flip-down tray table in front of each seat, with a whopping 60 percent of tray tables testing positive.
“The tray table according to our study had the highest prevalence of MRSA,” said Jonathan Sexton, research specialist at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, and lead author on the study, in an interview with Healthline. “The tray tables are not commonly cleaned and get used heavily. Travelers eat and sleep on them, which allows for bacteria and viruses to transfer to the table and get passed along to the next traveler in that seat. MRSA can be isolated from many different environments so it was not surprising to find it on the plane. This is a much higher rate of MRSA than in most public areas (save for hospitals). “Other studies that I have conducted found that 3 percent of personal vehicles, 3 percent of work offices, 37 percent of home offices, and 6 percent of public restrooms had MRSA,” said Sexton."
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
HEALTHY TRAVEL REVIEW: Santa Monica, California
My kids and I were headed to Southern California for the Thanksgiving holiday, and it was going to be a beautiful, sunny week, and I really wanted to stay on the beach. So I did a lot of research on hotels and wasn’t surprised to find they were all very expensive. Malibu Beach Inn was my first choice but their prices were way out of my budget, with rooms starting at $425 and went up to over $1000 a night. I’d love it but not a reality, nor does it seem worth it. So I checked out several of the nicer resort hotels on the beach in Santa Monica. They too were very expensive, but their prices started at $250.00 so we were getting closer to something possible (yet still a splurge). I have always loved the Loews Beach Hotel. I was in a wedding there years ago, and I remember how light and cheery the hotel is and it is ocean front, so it was my first choice. When I checked their website I found out they were renovating their lovely pool, and room prices were a bit lower than usual. So I booked it for 3 nights. A week later, they had a special on Travel Zoo (my favorite travel deal website), so I re-booked at an even lower price!
Loews Beach Hotel
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| You can beat watching the sunset over the ocean from your own balcony! |
We arrived at the Loews Beach Hotel on Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. The lobby was light and airy as I remembered it and there was a VERY cool real time video screen of the beach that fills the wall behind the front desk. Nice.
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| Loved the real time screen behind the front desk when checking in |
Upon c heck-in, we were greeted by Michele, who was cheery and efficient and she kindly upgraded us to an ocean front view room. WE WERE VERY EXCITED! Our room was on the 5th floor and the view was beautiful….EXCEPT it overlooked the construction crews working on the remodel of the swimming pool area. That was kind of a drag. Also, the noise from the jackhammers during the pool remodel were unnerving, but I knew they would quit by 5:00pm. and I really looked forward to the days end when it was quiet and I could look out at the sunset over the ocean.
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| Beautiful view from our room (if you don't look down at the pool construction!) |
The room was great with 2 very comfy double beds, and the bathroom was to die for! There was a beautiful deep bathtub, that I took full advantage of every night! I always bring some Epsom Salts when I travel so I can soak out the stress of long and stressful travel days, if there is a nice tub in the hotel room, which there certainly was here!
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| I couldn't resist this lovely, deep tub! |
The shower was nice and roomy and in a separate little room from the sink and tub. The GREATEST thing was there was a little TV in the bathroom, that faced the sink and the tub! It was fabulous relaxing in the tub at night watching my a fav show on TV, and my kids loved getting ready in the morning and watching something while brushing their teeth. It was really fun.
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| Watching "Hawaii 5-0 while brushing my teeth! |
There is no fridge in the room but I requested one and they brought one up for us to use free of charge for the week. On the way to the hotel from the airport, we stopped at Whole Foods Market and got some healthy treats for a quick breakfast snack, so we could relax in the room in the morning, and didn't have to rush out too early in the morning because we were hungry. They also had a Kerig Coffee Maker, which I know isn’t very "green" because of the plastic waste of all the pods, but I found it a bit more convenient and sanitary than a regular hotel coffee maker. Hotel coffee makers are usually pretty nasty and the pot always has a strong coffee smell and taste. It was really nice to have the nice Kerig machine. I don’t drink coffee so the staff brought up several green tea pods for me and I enjoyed them all week long. The hotel was perfectly located ocean front at a nice beach and also walking distance, to the Santa Monica Promenade, lots of nice restaurants, shopping, movie theaters and the Santa Monica Pier. We didn’t have a car and didn’t need one. That was a plus on the “green/eco-friendly” scale. The bath products were sadly low-end and I’d love to see them upgrade sometime soon to Aveda Products or something a little more natural and eco-friendly. The housekeeping staff and concierge were very helpful, friendly and efficient.
As far as eco-friendly practices, the Loews website states that they use environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, practice trash recycling as well as several other green initiatives. I didn’t see any evidence of this but you should check out their “green” initiatives on their website: http://www.loewshotels.com/loews-initiatives-en
Real Food Daily
In the 1990s, when I worked in Malibu, my favorite vegan/macrobiotic restaurant was Real Food Daily in Santa Monica, and I went there often. So for our first night in Santa Monica, we went there for dinner. Real Food Daily started as a small macrobiotic-friendly restaurant in the early 1990s and still has many macro dishes on the menu. They have expanded the restaurant since then, so now it is twice as big as before, they have also raised their prices, and have added a vegan bakery on-site. Their menu is a little more mainstream than the old macrobiotic menu from a few decades ago, but everything on the menu is vegan and a lot is organic. They have daily specials that are always fresh and tasty. My old favorite though, is the Basic 2,3,4, or 5 where you pick 2,3,4 or 5 different items from a long list of choices to create your own balanced plate. There is a list of grains, beans, proteins, greens, pressed salads and house-made dressings. The house dressing is my absolute favorite and I wish they sold it in a bottle so I could take it home! I ordered the tempeh, greens (collards that night), and rice. My son had the basic two with mashed potatoes and tofu (the white plate!). My other son ordered a special, a seitan club sandwich that he said was tasty and filling. Both my sons ordered a milkshake, one vanilla one strawberry, that they both liked at first but eventually started to have a bad aftertaste and neither of them finished it. The milkshakes are made with Hemp Milk, and if you are not used to the aftertaste, it may not be the right choice for you. I ordered a fresh carrot/orange juice, which was room temperature, which is a little off-putting, but still tasted good. We couldn’t miss out on dessert, which, of course, are all vegan, so we ordered a few to share. One slice of coconut pie, chocolate tofu mousse with cashew creme (a nice version of whipped cream, but thicker and vegan), and a chocolate chip cookie, all which were very nice. The food is always good but I find that it is way overpriced now, but for a splurge and a nice, healthy, vegan meal, you can’t go wrong.
BTW, The Real Food Daily Cookbook is my go-to vegan cookbook, and I love every recipe! I got a signed copy at the restaurant when the book came out but you can get one on Amazon.com, of course
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| All vegan cookbook. Some of my favorite recipes are the Tortilla Soup, Corn and Bean Salad, and the BEST chocolate chip cookies! |
and I just heard that Ann Gentry, the owner of Real Food Daily and author of the book, has just written another cookbook that is available now. I'm going to get one for sure!
Another exciting tidbit... Real Food Daily is the first vegan organic restaurant to open a place at the Los Angeles Airpor!t (or any American Airport as far as I know!) YAY, for healthy airport food! I haven’t tried it yet, but the next time I am in Terminal 4 at LAX, that is my first stop!
Real Food Daily
514-516 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 451-7154
Back on the Beach
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| Back on the Beach is wonderful for breakfast or lunch. It is located right on Santa Monica Beach and serves fresh, healthy food. |
Our first morning in Santa Monica was a warm, clear and beautiful beach day! We were so lucky to be staying on the beach! I really wanted to have a walk on the beach and my kids were really hungry for breakfast, so we decided to combine the two and have a nice walk along the water down to Back on the Beach. Back on the Beach is a lovely restaurant right on the beach in Santa Monica, and one of my favorite places. My family from all over California used to gather here every year to celebrate the winter holidays and we would have a lovely brunch together before we opened presents and then had a winter-time walk on the beach together. So I was anxious to take my kids here during our visit and I’m so glad I did! It was wonderful! The walk from the Loews Beach Hotel to Back on the Beach took about 25-30 minutes, but what a lovely walk it was.
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| A lovely walk to the restaurant and you can't beat the view! |
You could rent a bike at the hotel and bike down to the Cafe, which would get you there in half the time, but I was anxious to sink my feet into the sand and feel the ocean and enjoy every minute of the beach walk on a warm, fall day, so we meandered up to the Cafe! We arrived around noon and were seated right away. We decided to eat inside by a window rather than at one of the outdoor tables because, believe it or not, it was quite hot!- and we thought we would be more comfy indoors.
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| There is plenty of outdoor seating at Back to the Beach |
I was ready for lunch so I ordered the beet and black bean burger, which came with cashew cheese and smoked ketchup. Yum! My sons both had egg dishes, one a cheese omelette and the other had a “make your own scramble”, where you pick from a wide variety of veggies, cheeses, and herbs to put in your scramble to make it the way you want it. They both had smoothies too, which were a big hit. We all had a great meal. BOTB is NOT a vegetarian cafe, they have several meat dishes (grass fed beef, cage free eggs and Mary’s free range chicken), but they have a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes and their cooking is clean and fresh. We loved it!
Back on the Beach is a certified green business in Santa Monica, CA
Back on the Beach
445 Pacific Coast Highway
Santa Monica, CA 90402
310 393—8282
STAYING STRESS FREE: Walking or Biking
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| Palisades Park is great for walking during the day |
Exercise to stay healthy and stress free. Beach Bike path from our hotel runs for miles up and down the coast and it is a wonderful way to get in some exercise and take in the spectacular view at the same time. If you want to get your feet wet, you can stroll along the sand instead. If you don’t want to get your feet wet, or dodge bike riders on the path, there is a lovely walking path above the cliffs in Palisades Park, right on Ocean Avenue. The windy path goes through a grassy, well-maintained park that overlooks the Pacific, with beach access (steps and bridges) in a few places, and plenty of benches to sit and watch the sunset. Be warned that Palisades Park has a fair amount of homeless people, but is patrolled regularly by SMPD on foot, on bikes, and in patrol cars.
PF Changs
PF Changs is my favorite chain Asian Restaurant, and always one of our fav restaurants to go to when we travel. Their food is consistently tasty and fresh, and they offer a wide variety of vegan and vegetarian items. They even have a Vegetarian menu. So it was definitely on our list of places to eat, during this trip. We headed to the PF Changs in Santa Monica for dinner our second night. It is walkable from our hotel, but a good 15-20 minute walk. The route to/from the restaurant goes through the Santa Monica Promenade, so it is a fun, busy and entertaining walk. This PF Changs is always very crowded but we were lucky and were seated right away. We ordered some hot tea, veggie dumplings and edamame to start. There were four of us for dinner so we then ordered the Buddha’s Feast with baked tofu and mixed veggies, Ma Po Tofu with steamed broccoli, veg sauce, ginger and chili paste (it’s a little HOT), vegetarian fried rice, a side of garlic spinach and a side of green beans.
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| Ma Po Tofu with broccoli is one of our favorite dishes |
All were hot (temperature hot!), tasty and reasonably priced. You can’t go wrong here, especially if you are vegetarian and looking for a nice, healthy meal when dining out. YUM!
P.F. Changs
326 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 395-1912
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