My encounter with Seitan

Another one bites the dust! Walk the entire outlet trail has been checked off my bucket list! It was a fantastic hike with Jessie through the wilderness of Penn Yan and Dresden.  At the beginning of the hike I felt like the first 30 seconds of this clip, but then at the end, I felt like this. Overall though, the dehydration and bugs were totally worth it to see all the cool ruins and animals. The path follows a route that used to be a canal with 28 locks, and then a railroad track. Apparently at one time there were many thriving mills and towns along this tract of land. The remains that we walked through were part cool and reminiscent and part spooky. The pictures are of  a ghost town we walked through...creeeeeeeeeeeeeeppy. There used to be all kinds of factories and mills, a tourist information center, a tire store...and all the windows were left open, like someone left in a hurry....

On a less creepy note, we also saw 3 blue herons, 2 cardinals, a yellow bird of some kind, a bunny, some frogs, and a whole bunch of turtles! It was super cool.

So that was yesterday. Today I had my first encounter with seitan. Not Satan, but seitan, a meat substitute kind of like tofu. Jessie and I took a mini roadtrip to Syracuse to meet Maddie and eat at this all vegan restaurant they have there. It was cool because Jessie got to order anything she wanted off the menu (which is rare, because she usually has to get a salad when we go out to eat) and I got to try something new!  I got the cajun seitan, which was very good, and super spicy!   The only bad thing was that at first I bit into the sandwich expecting meat consistency and toughness, but the seitan was much softer, so I ended up clanking my teeth together like an idiot (kind of like when you're walking down the stairs in the dark and you expect another step but there isn't one and you end up stomping the ground like the hulk). Luckily though, no one noticed.  Also they have like 6000 different kind of milkshakes at this place, all named after famous people. I got the Roberto Clememte, and it was like liquid peanut butter heaven. Not only was it freaking delicious, but I could also convince myself that it was healthy because it was vegan! Double points!