Blisters and Bowls

August 11, 2014

Right now, it is 9:35 p.m. and I am sitting in a hotel bed, worn out from a long day of ambling along the streets of State College PA. This is the last week of living at my grandparents house until my family will move into our new house finally. My dad had a course to take at Penn State for his new job, so it was a great chance for my mom, brother and I to get to go somewhere new and explore for a few days. So today, day one out of two and a half in the small town outside of Penn State, our first stop was a cute coffee shop called Saint's Cafe.

We hung out there for a little bit, I had some tea and a vegan ginger cookie, which was very good. In my opinion, definitely better vibes than Starbucks.

Above: At Saint's, with my tea and new thrift-store denim vest. 

Next stop, we walked about a thousand blocks to get to this cafe for a little snack/breakfast at a place called Aardvark Kafe. It's an original pizza place with a whole separate vegan menu that features things from shakes to tofu to falafel. I sat right on the first stool on the left and split a tofu sandwich with my mom. 

This was the tofu BBQ sandwich-it was very good, even if it doesn't look that appealing. 

The atmosphere at Aardvark was...interesting. There was random vintage stuff everywhere! Every table had cards or chess sets or other antique game. The picture above is the main seating area. 

There was a few mirrors sitting on the ground, so heres the bottom half of my outfit today. (and these sandals are where the blisters come in.) 

After Aardvark, we walked around for a while, stopped in a bookstore, searched for bubble tea (which we did not find), went to Urban Outfitters, a few other stores, and the above art store called Uncle Eli's. I got a new pen/marker sketchbook and eraser-both I am very excited about!

Quirkier side of Uncle Eli's.

After shopping at the art store, we did much more walking, which I acquired more blisters from, and also got hungry again. We stopped in a restaurant a friend had recommended to us called the Green Bowl (this is where the bowl part comes in) For lunch, it was really cool! So first, there is a whole buffet full of raw vegetables and tofu and noodles and sauces, which you load onto a bowl, then give to a guy who stir-fry's it on a big stove-thing right in front of you, then voila-you have a bowl full of yummy stir fried foods! It was so quick and good, the only thing is that even though it is all you can eat, it is still a rip-off for dinner since the price rises from 9 dollars (lunch) to around 14 for dinner.

(my bowl) 

Plus, the walls in the Green Bowl's bathroom were bright purple!

The next half of the day was less exciting, but we did walk about a hundred more blocks down to a Goodwill, and the walk was definitely worth it, since the Goodwill was full of great stuff! I got a pair of jeans, a notebook, an American Eagle skirt, and a  Free People jacket. The only bad part was after we left the thrift store, when we got lost in a neighborhood we'd never been in before, far from our hotel. Luckily my dad, after driving around for a bit, found us and took us back. So that is the end of day one!