Plan B

After the recent drama of losing the birthing center and midwives, it appears we are now set to birth at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Though it was a rough time getting here, we are now very happy with how things worked out. We saw a high-risk obstetrician (2 blocks from the condo) who gave me the ok to be co-managed by the midwives in the hospital (3 blocks from the condo).

We met the midwives Tuesday, saw the labor and delivery area, and had an initial consultation with an anesthelogist...just in case. The head midwife is wonderful. She answered all of our questions, told us everything we would need to know about birthing in the hospital, including the ways that the midwives support natural childbirth and breastfeeding! Jason and I both sighed a huge sigh of relief with all that.

We feel extremely comfortable now that everyone is on-board with this arrangement. There's no more doubt about how my heart condition (though no complications are expected) will be handled. We saw the cardiologist for the last prenatal visit today. Everything still looks fine with the condition and she doesn't want me to come back again without little Sagey! She even gave us hugs before we left.

The universe definitely threw us a curve ball with all of these changes so late in the pregnancy. It's been a learning experience. It showed me that not only do Jason and I work well as a team under pressure, but that you can trust the universe to provide for you and that sometimes the best path is not always the one you chose in the first place.

Healthy Birth Options

We have just two meetings left for our childbirth class. I'm so happy to have found it. It's located at The Healing Path in Federal Hill. I was having trouble finding any natural childbirth classes in Baltimore. Luckily, the director of the The Healing Path, who is also expecting next month, ran into the same problem and decided to create a class of her own!

The instructor, Helaine, is great. The class is called Healthy Birth Options and is largely based on the Bradley Method. There are three other couples in the class. We've learned a lot so far. We have to give a presentation at the last class on the topic of our choosing. Jason and I decided to do Attachment Parenting. We had heard much about it (mainly through our favorite parenting magazine, Mothering). We started reading up on it and it definitely seems to fit us well! We plan on incorporating many of the ideas with Sage!

The instructor is also a car seat safety inspector and will be checking our car seat next class. Hooray!

Surprise!

We had a wonderful time at the surprise baby shower on Saturday! Of course, being the non-traditional couple that we are (for instance deciding, planning, and having a wedding in just 2 weeks), we had a non-traditional baby shower….minus many of the traditional baby shower games and rituals, plus lots of guys!

For us, it was just a time to celebrate the excitement of Sage’s arrival with family and friends. The weather was just right for a great cookout and lots of pool time. I just love being in the pool. It always feels great to be in the water, but especially now while I’m pregnant! I get to feel light and graceful for at least a bit. I jump at every chance to go swimming now.

Thank you everyone for coming. We received so many wonderful gifts for Sage and it was so nice to see everyone. And much thanks to Dad, Robin, and Kelly for planning and hosting the whole thing!

La Fiesta at Lafayette

We checked into the hotel room at the Lafayette, where it was apparently 'Bring your young friends for a party' day. The room next to ours had no fewer than 5 young men and 3 young ladies in it at one time (most of them probably went back to their own rooms to sleep), and they found it necessary to open the door to their room no less frequently than once every 30 seconds. (They let gravity do the work of closing the door, which is pretty smart, because it means less work for them, but also pretty inconsiderate, because it's LOUD!!) The clerk has unsympathetic to our request for a new room, which probably would not have helped much, as the hotel was full of such kids.

Frustrated, we headed out to dinner, only to find that the restaurant we had chosen, Spread, was closed. Their website has their correct hours of operation, but the website that referred us to them, vegsandiego.com, did not. Hmmm, things did not seem to be going well for us. No WiFi, no peace and quiet, and no restaurant. We stopped in at the nearby Rancho's Mexican & Vegetarian Cuisine #3 for some "Mexican" food instead. (Amalio is fond of saying that, as a Mexican, the first burrito he ate was in Canada.)

We went back to the hotel, only to discover that the gate for the parking garage sits right beneath our room, and that it makes a sound like a sick, tired whale looking for a mate whenever it opens and closes, and that it opens and closes frequently. What could we do but laugh, and curse, and laugh some more? Surprisingly, we slept pretty well.

Downtown LA and San Diego

We left the hotel early to pick up the rental car (a PT cruiser.) We arranged it so that we could pick the car up near M Cafe. Yes, the food was that good. Unfortunately, they hadn't yet made the chocolate tart for the day, so we ate our breakfast in the restaurant and picked up a couple of wraps to go. (Jason's wrap had seitan salami on it, which we had never seen before. It was very tasty.)

We spent a little time in downtown LA before leaving in an effort to beat the traffic. A few hours later, we found ourselves in San Diego!

Mmmmacrobiotic

Perhaps the only food choice less appealing to your average American than a vegan diet is a macrobiotic diet. We actually had tried some macrobiotic food once, and it supported our belief that it was as bad as it sounds.

With that in mind, we headed out to M Cafe de Chaya for a highly recommended breakfast. Wow! The food was amazing. Shel had the scrambled tofu; Jason had the exquisite Cranberry & Walnut French Toast with Cranberry Compote. The food was very tasty, and the presentation was very pleasing, too. We finished the meal off with a decadent chocolate tart. If you are ever in the Los Angeles area, you owe it to yourself to stop by for the dessert alone. Maybe they'll ship some to our home?

It was also at M Cafe where we caught our first (and last) glimpse of the Hollywood sign on the Hollywood Hills.

Afterwards, we made our way back to the pool for a little s-w-i-m-m-i-n-g (in case Sophia is reading?) and some R&R.

The Average Shower Head Height in Southern California...

...appears to be about six feet high, based on our recent investigations. The shower head in the Ramada stands about five feet high, and the shower head in the Lafayette stands about seven feet high. So, we have lies ("That haircut looks very nice on you"), damn lies ("Iraq was responsible for 9/11"), and statistics.

A Flavor of India

We tried heading out to a restaurant for dinner, but it was closed. So we tried going to another restaurant, but it was closed, too. We settled on Indian food. Ordinarily, when we're traveling, we like to eat at places we could not find at home, and so we tend to stay away from ethnic food, which you can easily find in Baltimore and DC.

This restaurant was special, though: Keanu Reeves had eaten inside once. No, really! We saw his picture on the wall, along with ZZ Top, Debbie Parton, and Nicholas Cage. (We were in WeHo, after all.)

We hadn't gotten very far away from the restaurants with our leftovers before someone had asked us for them. Whenever someone on the street asks us for money, we always try to offer them food instead. They always decline. This guy actually wanted our food. Our hotel refrigerator was already filling up with leftovers, and so we gave them to him. He told us that he people give him their leftovers all the time. Try that on the East Coast!

Vegan Chinese Delivery

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to have vegan Chinese food delivered directly to our hotel door. We called up Kung Pao Bistro and ordered a couple of dishes with mock meats. A little over a half-hour later, the whitest Chinese delivery person brought us our meals, which included brown rice! The last time we were in California, we got food from a vegan drive-thru, and this time, someone brings the food to us. We're getting spoiled!

Complimentary WiFi?

The Ramada in West Hollywood is supposed to have "Free High Speed Internet" and "Complimentary Wireless Internet." (As it so happens, it costs money.) Hmmm, where have we seen that before? Oh yeah, NH Hotels in Mexico City pulled the same stunt.

It turns out they're not the only guilty party: Lafayette Hotels did the same thing. (To be fair to Lafayette Hotels, though, they do have free "wired" in-room Internet access...it probably would have helped to have brought an ethernet cable.) Maybe "complimentary" means something different the further South one travels?

Real Food Daily

We walked over to the Real Food Daily for dinner. We had been to their Santa Monica location on our last visit and really enjoyed the food, so we didn't pass up the opportunity to dine there again. We started with the Lentil-Walnut Paté, which was even better than we had remembered. Shel had the Salisbury Seitan; Jason had the Shiska My Bob (Barbeque tempeh and vegetable skewers).

The entrées were decent, but at that price point, we had been expecting the quality of food you would find at Gobo in Manhattan or Millenium in San Francisco.

What you won't find in either of those restaurants, though, is Mitch Pileggi, who you might remember played Assistant Director Walter Skinner on the X-Files series. We're surprised we didn't see his picture on the wall of the restaurant, as WeHo restaurants are prone to putting pictures of famous people on their walls. (Oh, Keanu Reeves dined at your restaurant. Whoa.)

We finished up dinner and walked back to the hotel.

This Ain't No Country Club

This is LA. Our class at the Healing Path ran a little late, which ate into our precious sleeping time. We managed to sneak in about four hours of sleep before we woke up and made our way downstairs to the Light Rail, which literally stops right in front of our building. How convenient!

We took the first Light Rail train of the morning towards BWI, where we learned that our flight was delayed for two hours. The flight was much longer than the flights to and from Florida (about five times longer, actually.) Shel managed to sleep a little on the plane, while Jason read some more of Life of Pi, which he had borrowed from his sister in Florida. (Thanks, Cheryl!) The best description we have read of the book is that it's like The Old Man and the Sea with a tiger, an orangutan, a zebra, and a hyena. It certainly helped to pass the time.

After we touched down, we picked up a Super Shuttle towards our hotel in West Hollywood. (That's WeHo for those of you in the know.)

The Healing Path

We had our first birthing class at The Healing Path in Federal Hill. (We also signed up for acupuncture appointments when we arrived. We'll be going in for our consultations on the 20th!)

The class was on a window-y second floor that overlooked the streets of Federal Hill. We discovered that the manager of the establishment was also a client. She and her husband had been looking for a natural class based on the Bradley Method. (That's the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth, and not the Bradley Method of Bush Regeneration. Who knew such a thing existed?) So, they decided to host an instructor from Columbia, who taught us various poses and exercises, and addressed some of our fears and questions. The teacher has been instructing couples on childbirth for the past six years.

We'll be attending the class every Thursday night for the next seven weeks. We'll keep you posted on our progress.

Last Day in Florida

We went out to the Book Lover's Cafe for breakfast. Shel had the Tempeh Reuben sandwich, and Jason had the sun-dried tomato pesto sandwich; we split a smoothie. The food was yinny, a nice balance to the yangy foods we had been eating. It was also very tasty!

We stopped in next door at Mother Earth Market for some food for the trip home, and drove our rental car over to the mall to meet Cheryl, Shane, Sophia, Camden, and Shane's mom for lunch. Afterwards, we said goodbye to Shane, drove back to their home, and packed up our bags, which were now much heavier due to the overwhelming amount of baby clothes Cheryl had given to us. (Thanks, Cheryl! Now we will be able to clothe an entire army of babies!)

After saying our goodbyes, we drove to the Jacksonville airport, where we nearly missed our flight! There was exactly one line for security. Oh, sure, the airport was filled with at least ten x-ray machines, but for some undisclosed reason, only one was operational. One of the TSA agents liked to pretend that the problem was that we had all arrived at the airport too late, and not that ONLY ONE LINE WAS OPEN! They delayed our flight by ten minutes to allow people to get through security.

We arrived at the airport in Charlotte only to find that our connecting flight was delayed by two hours. Doh! The delay would make us miss the last Light Rail train home. We eventually made it to BWI, where we waited a half-hour for our luggage before catching a taxi home. The Light Rail would have cost $3.20; the taxi cost $40 with the tip. Ouch! We didn't make it home until 2:45 am. Double ouch!!

More s-w-i-m-m-i-n-g

Later, we drove over to see an old colleague of Cheryl's from her teaching days and her husband, Rick, who happens to be a dentist. They also happen to have their own pool, and so we went swimming again. Jason got to try out his sister Kelly's joke. She had gone to the dentist, and was sitting in the dentist's chair while he prodded at her teeth and asked his assistant for the instructions. Kelly said, 'Ummm, why do you need the instructions? Don't you know what you're doing?', and the dentist replied, 'Oh, those instructions aren't for me. They're for you, so you'll know what you need to do when you get home!' That joke is always good for a laugh. Thanks, Kel!

Jason played around with their german shepherd, who loves snapping at the water and also swimming in it. The couple had rescued the dog from a neglectful neighbor. Their other dog had been rescued from a dog fight. People can be so cruel. Love animals: don't eat them or starve them or force them to fight!

Sophia showed us what she had learned from her swimming lessons. She would disappear underneath the water, except for the top of her head, which just broke the surface of the water. Then, she would wiggle her little limbs and propel herself across the pool. It was a little scary seeing her put her head underneath the water, but she knew what she was doing!

After we finished swimming, we bid them adieu and headed back to the house.

Lemon Corn Waffles and Butterflies

The next morning we made everyone Lemon Corn Waffles with Blueberry Sauce, out of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's fantastic cookbook 'Vegan With a Vengeance.' We substituted soy milk and cornstarch for the soy yogurt, and cornstarch for the arrowroot powder. Once we figured out how to work their waffle maker, we actually made some really good waffles. Thanks, Isa!

Afterwards, we stopped by Moe's (Welcome to Moeeeee's!) for a couple of Triple Lindy's (minus the cheese, plus the tofu.) Mmmm, Moe's. It's a shame we don't have one near the condo. We have a California Tortilla a block to the south, a Salsarita's a block to the west, and a Chipotle at the Power Plant, but no Moe's in Baltimore. =( Cheryl and Shane spent another meal apart trying to occupy the kids. We see now why they try to avoid eating out!

After we filled up on burritos, we stopped by the Florida Museum of Natural History, where we saw the incredible Butterfly Rainforest. Jason took a lot of great pictures (we'll post them soon!). The butterflies like it hot, which made us all a little tired, and that provided a great excuse for another siesta!

There's Got to be a Morning After

The next morning, we packed up the car and made our way over to La Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant in Gainesville. Jason ordered the tostadas, and Shel had the fajitas. The food was good, but the focus was on the kids. Poor Shane was busy trying to keep Camden happy, and barely had an opportunity to scarf down his food before we headed back home. Cheryl, meanwhile, was keeping Sophia occupied, trying to explain to her that she couldn't play with the 'moroccos'. Cheryl, being a teacher, politely corrected her English (or is that her Spanish?)

We went back to their place for a siesta before going s-w-i-m-m-i-n-g. (We learned it's best not to say the word 'swimming' in front of Sophia, lest she get the idea that we'll find ourselves in a pool in the next couple of minutes.) We picked up a couple of pizzas (again, their treat: thanks, guys!), and drove over to Cheryl and Shane's friends, Melissa and Bo. (On the way, we listened to Laurie Berkner; we're still singing 'Hot Commodity' and 'I've Got Choc-o-late in my Pock-o-late'.) We discovered that they like their pizza burned, and that the four of them had met in a childbirthing class.

We ate pizza and swam in the community pool before heading home for the night.

Arriving at Florida

We've got some catching up to do on the blog. We haven't posted since May! We haven't really got an excuse, either. =( We did get a couple of requests to update it, and have taken it as a sign to pick it back up. We'll cover some of the recent highlights of our lives in the next few posts to bring everyone up to speed.

We flew down to Florida to see Jason's sister, Cheryl, her husband, Shane, her two kids, Sophia and Camden, and her dog, Nessa. The kids are adorable. Sophia answers in the affirmative with an 'o-kay', and when she's excited about going somewhere, she says 'go go go'. What a cutie! And Camden must be the most mild-mannered baby we've ever seen. He's hardly ever fussy (at least around us), and has the cutest open-mouth, nearly toothless smile.

We arrived at their house near midnight; Shane greeted us at the garage door, helped us with our bags, and showed us to our room. We crashed!

The Skywalk at Prudential Tower

After our well-deserved rest in the Garden, we walked over to Prudential Tower to see the Skywalk, which is located on the 50th floor of the building. Once at the Skywalk, we took in the beautiful views of the city, including the many nearby islands and parks. We never would have guessed that Boston was so blue and green.

The tour was full of many interesting facts and anecdotes, like the fact that Boston is home to over FIFTY colleges and universities, or that the North End featured what is probably the largest molasses tragedy in the world.

We had hoped to ride the Ducks, but we didn't have enough time, as we needed to eat dinner and head out to see the Blue Man Group.

Beacon Hill

After leaving Harvard Square, we made our way over to Beacon Hill, with its narrow streets and brick sidewalks. Now this is what we expected Boston to look like!

We looked around for the old Bull & Finch, which provided the exterior shots for the Cheers bar. We also looked for Acorn Street, commonly billed as the most frequently photographed street in the country, although it is only a block long. We never did find the bar, but we did find Acorn Street, and took a few obligatory pictures from the top and bottom of the street. (The top is much more picturesque, in our opinion.)

Tired of walking around hilly Beacon Hill, we stopped for a rest in the Public Garden, and watched the people playing frisbee and wiffleball.

Yes, we DID go to Harvard

We slept in a little late and headed out to Veggie Planet for brunch. It's located in Harvard Square. Jason had the scrambled tofu, which is much different from the scrambled tofu one might find in Baltimore or DC. It had large chunks of tofu, alongside a generous portion of broccoli, butternut squash, and chunky, homemade salsa. Shel had the raspberry and chocolate waffles. We also split a large glass of freshly-squeezed OJ, and got a piece of coffee cake to go.

The portions were generous, the food was delicious, and the entertainment was, er, entertaining. We heard three fiddle players perform a number of jigs, ranging from Bach to self-composed numbers. Apparently, the fiddlers were part of a larger troupe which would be playing until 2 am the next morning!

We settled our check and made our way outside, where we were beset by any number of beggars. I offered one of them our uneaten coffee cake, and, as expected, my offer was declined. "There doesn't happen to be any money in that package?", the man asked.

Buddha’s Delight

We relaxed in the hotel for a couple of hours before heading out to Chinatown to eat at Buddha’s Delight. We were dismayed to see restaurants with aquariums in their windows, advertising the fish, lobsters, and eels that would soon meet a very unfortunate and very grisly end. ('But for the sake of a little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light and that portion of life and time that it had been sent into this world to enjoy. -Plutarch) We took a moment to express our sorrow for the animals, and made our way over to the vegetarian restaurant for dinner.

We ordered the Crispy Fried Dumplings as an appetizer (they were, indeed, very crispy, and delicious.) Jason ordered the "Chicken" with string beans and onions, and Shel ordered the Sweet & Sour "Pork". The food came out quickly enough, but the service quickly deteriorated.

After we finished our entrees (which were decent enough, but the mock meats could have been larger and less like lunchmeats), we tried to let the waitstaff know we were ready to order dessert. We're familiar with the universal 'bring the check' sign (its use is compulsory in Mexico City, at least for us.) But, how does one indicate a desire to move on to the next course? We kept smiling at the staff until the waitress brought out...the check. We asked to see the dessert menu, and ended up ordering the banana with sweet rice and coconut milk on banana leaves. It was tasty, too. We ended up paying at the counter and walking back to the hotel for a good night's rest.

Scallywaggles

We walked over to the Haymarket station and took the Green Line B Train out to nearby Allston for lunch at T.J. Scallywaggle's Vegan House of Pizza and Subs. (According to the restaurant, a Scallywaggle 'is someone who acts to transform the world, and has a good time doing it.') Jason had the very realistic Chikhin Parmesan, while Shel opted for a cold sub, the Cold Cut Combo (with hamm, blowney, & turkee). We split a Mango Passion smoothie and a piece of Capt. Jazelda's Baklava. We also got a Carlita's Cookie to go.

The restaurant seemed a hotbed of vegan activism. Books had been left by other patrons, and were available free of charge to a good home. We even saw a book we intended to buy in the near future, but we thought we should leave it for someone else. A flyer advertised a veg*n (that's shorthand for 'vegan' and 'vegetarian') children's playgroup, and a support group for parents; the group goes by the name of 'Sprouts.' The restaurant was looking for a vegan collective to operate a Sunday brunch inside of the restaurant. We hadn't seen any arrangement like that before visiting the restaurant.

The food was great, but we scarfed it down quickly in order to leave as soon as possible: the restaurant was so hot! It felt refreshing to step outside into the hot Boston streets. We took the train back to the hotel, where we were surprised to see that the maids had seemingly failed to observe our "Do Not Disturb" signal. (It turns out that the signal automatically shuts itself off after so many hours of being on. D'oh!)

The North End

We tried to pick up tickets to hear the Boston Pops perform, but they were all sold out! =(

Disappointed, we walked over to the stunning Christian Science Plaza on Huntington Avenue and took some pictures with our new camera. Hopefully, we'll post the pictures soon!

Afterwards, we made our way over to the North End. Jason had been meaning to see it since reading about it in Jane Jacobs' fantastic magnum opus The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It didn't look very promising initially, but we made our way south of the metro station and found the heart of this lovely neighborhood. It's little wonder that Jane Jacob's wrote so lovingly of the area.

We stopped by a little shop with a sign advertising lemon slushies. Everything you needed to make your own lemon slushy was hanging right outside of the door. We figured we would make one, walk inside, and pay for it. So, we took out a cup and started filling it up. It wasn't long before the proprietor came out, saying 'You're shortchanging yourself; your shortchanging yourself.' He took our cup and deftly fashioned a beautiful lemon slushy for us. It was very hot outside, and the slushy was very cold and very tasty.

Of course, no visit to the North End would be complete without a stop by the Old North Church, where the 'one if by land, two if by sea' lanterns were hung.

The Espresso Royale Caffe

We headed out to the Espresso Royale Caffe for breakfast. We took the inbound (towards downtown Boston) red line out towards Park St., and then caught the outbound green line to Symphony. We took a brief walk to the cafe, where the very-friendly staff took our orders. (People in Boston are very friendly!) A lot of the customers were either students or teachers at the local music schools, or performers at the local music venues, or both.

We both had the Joy of Soy on whole-wheat everything bagels (tofu spread, roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomato, and cucumbers. Shel forgot to order hers without alfalfa sprouts, which aren't recommended for preggers, and so she had to scrape them off.) We split a Berry Blast Naked Juice and a green tea latte. (We like Java Green's latte better. By the way, how are you doing, Cheewoo?)

Why don't more cafes serve the whole-wheat everything bagel? It has the tastiness of an everything bagel, and yet still has whole-grained goodness, too.

When is a heated pool not a heated pool?

We got back to the hotel, changed into our swimwear, and hopped into the heated pool. Yikes, that's cold! We swam around in a near-futile attempt to stay warm.

We showered and headed out to dinner at Spike's Junkyard Dogs, where you can substitute vegan hot dogs/hamburgers for their animal-based counterparts. Jason had the Junkyard Veggie Dog and the Spike Veggie Burger; Shel had the Mutt Veggie Dog. We split an order of poodle (curly) fries. It was decent and cheap.

We walked back to the hotel in lieu of the subway, which we had taken to the restaurant. We walked by the huge Boston Central Library in Copley Square, stopped by the Boston Public Garden, and strolled through the Boston Common, the oldest city park in the country!

We eventually made it back to the hotel and crashed.

Burritos at Boloco

We left the hotel and headed out to Boloco for burritos. Jason had the BBQ Burrito with tofu; Shel had the Bangkok Burrito with tofu and steak. Well, she didn't intend to have steak on her burrito, but some careless burrito maker had found a way to slide a piece into her burrito anyway.

We left Boloco and made our way over to the IMAX, trying to stay cool (it was a record high 94 degrees.) We saw "Deep Sea 3D". It was a fun movie. Have you ever been disappointed with IMAX?

We stopped by Faneuil Hall before heading back to the hotel to check-in. We saw the Cheers bar. Well, it's not actually where the interior of the Cheers bar was filmed (that would be at Paramount Pictures Stage 25 in Hollywood). And, it's not actually where the facade of the Cheers bar was filmed (that would be the Bull & Finch, which has been since been renamed "Cheers Boston Beacon Hill"). No, it's just a bar which was modeled on the inside of Cheers. It's almost not even worth mentioning, right? ;)