Vegan Month of Food 2016 - Day 12 "Dream Destination"

This post started out a little differently, but then something happened mid-post so I had to stop, and now just getting back to it. For anyone wondering, the "something" was the other happy vegan dropping 144 (mini) cupcakes that were on the way out the door for delivery. Trust me when I say you really have to love the person you're with if you want to work with them, live with them, and volunteer with them. Trust me again when I say one of the last people you would wish you were tonight is him.

Back to the original writing.

I used to want to be a flight attendant. That was my dream job growing up plus even after I ended up in a job (career?) I stumbled into during my late teens which lasted almost 20 years. I perceived it as glamorous (air travel was different back then trust me) as well as a great way to see the most exotic places, meet the most interesting people, and experience so much of what the world was about.

What happened to me, and how did that dream never even come close to happening?

Today's Vegan Month of Food prompt is essentially what is your dream destination, and what would you eat on your dream holiday. Here's some thoughts, a video, and a poem at the end.

If you went back to read much older posts here, you'll find stories of this place before it was ours. I was vegan, the other happy vegan was not (yet) vegan. Our first trip here was interesting to say the least, I felt like a stranger in a strange land.  He brought me here because I'm a beach girl through and through, he thought I might like it. It was a bed and breakfast, non-vegan style. I was not accommodated or considered for eating at all, but this was a long time ago, most people hadn't a clue what vegan meant, let alone even meet a vegan in person. I fell in love with this place, truly I did, so much so that at times when people say "go to your happy place" in your mind, you know.... during a freak out like if someone drops 144 cupcakes or something.... this was one of the happy places. It still is (sadly I couldn't muster up any "happy place" at all as I was scraping frosting off 144 cupcakes tonight).

We visited here for quite a few years, sometimes 3 or 4 times a year. My how things have changed.

Despite the fact back then no one cared to ask or consider my food, I would be happy to grab a banana for breakfast then leave the communal breakfast table. Deer Run became one of my most favorite places on Earth. The other happy vegan (not so happy at this moment, referencing cupcake incident above) would take me to the Good Food Conspiracy natural food store on Big Pine Key every day after breakfast so I could stock up on my provisions.... they had, and still do have, delicious vegan food that was lovingly prepared and packed for me every day. After, we'd come back here, spend the day on the beach baking in the sun (the present me apologizes profusely to the past me for my skin's sake), have cocktails, eat the lovingly prepared food from the health food store, watch nature, and relax.

I remember while living and working in a totally different world, a totally different lifetime ago. reading an article about a vegan bed and breakfast in Virginia called The White Pig (hi Dina!) and thinking something along the lines of holy s***, people actually run businesses that are in line with their ethics???? Who knew? The seed was planted.

We eventually bought this place from the non-vegan, banana providing, prior owner who became our friend through the years and created our own vision of a dream destination in our vegan Deer Run Bed and Breakfast. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say this was everything I wanted desperately as a traveler, but didn't seem to exist seaside.

If you build it, they will come.
If you build it, I will live there.

The whole banana thing when I used to stay here was suitable for me back then, but no longer. This place is my vision, ask the other happy vegan and he will confess this truth. He wanted to move here, I was not quite ready to take the plunge. The "concession" was I will move here IF we run it as vegan (remember, he wasn't yet vegan).

My dream destination is my home, my backyard, this ocean, this sky, these miraculous beautiful endangered Key deer, the butterflies, the dragonflies, the jumping fish, the palm trees, the heat, the rains, the sun. All that set to abundant vegan food. If it's vegan and if it's by the sea, that is what is for me.

Here's a snapshot of the "why" of it all:

My Dream Home (an original and copyrighted poem by poet Anoucheka Gangabisson)

A home is where I run to, after a roam

Under blue skies or starry ones

Made of majesty, as found in Rome

I become there, as calm as the white swans

A home made of love

Where are hear songs of comfort

Found over the bridge of pain and above

I find in it my own strong fort

A home ecologically clean

Showing no harm to Earth

Bearing no grudge to the mean

Living is simply a matter of pure breath!

My dream home, one in a million, without any fear

Shall I build, along with my chosen peer!

(even though he drops the cupcakes, he's still the "chosen.") xo