robert Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 Vegan Vacation Update! New Location! Since the summer is almost here, or pretty much here, I need to give an update for our Vegan Vacation. The dates remain the same, August 3-9, but the location has changed as you'll read below. As many of you know the Vegan Vacation was inspired by the the group over at VF.net who have yearly meet-ups. My former roommate Topher went over to the UK last year and had a great time and helped me decide to offer something like that here in the US. Basically it is a gathering of the forum members to hang out and meet in person. So I planned the Vegan Vacation for those vegans on this side of the world who may only have to make a short flight or drive to come hang out with us. Our location was decided on many months ago and it was Los Angeles, California. It proved to be too difficult for me to plan since I'm not a resident of CA and I'm not real familiar with the area. Therefore, I moved the location to Portland, Oregon. That is where I'll be living, which will make it very easy for me to plan and also pretty much FREE for anyone who can get themselves here. I will provide the places for guests to stay and I'll provide most of the food/entertainment, so little will be needed.....just book a flight and we'll even help you out with part of that payment as I initially promised. Why Portland? I'll be living there in 4 weeks and it will make it the easiest and most cost-effective destination to plan it all out and have our Vacation Portland is the #1 Vegan Friendly City in America Portland is one of the most beautiful and clean cities in America Portland is one of the fittest cities in America with all kinds of outdoor activities during the beautiful summer for athletes to take part in Portland is only an hour from the Pacific Ocean so we can still "hang out on the beach" Portland has more vegan and vegetarian restaurants per capita than pretty much anywhere Portland actually has vegan soft serve ice cream that comes out of the machines (kinda like a Dairy Queen, but vegan) There are already nearly 10 forum members in or around Portland so we are sure to have a nice turnout and lots of local tour guides There may be special guests attending such as artists from our movie soundtrack and some of the people featured in Vegan Fitness Built Naturally Portland has a few other attractions such as being located near Mt. Hood, Seattle, and rose gardens, rivers, mountains, and of course Food Fight, the ALL VEGAN 7-11 type convenience store I appologize for the short notice for the change of location, but it was the most efficient way of planning this event out. Pretty much all of the same activities apply.....training, eating, shopping, hanging out, traveling, etc. I'll copy and paste some of the activities lists later on. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here. Thanks, -Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveliberate Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 !!!!!AWESOME!!!!! You just made my day Robert! I think Portland is an excellent choice for all the reasons you mentioned and more! Plus there was minimal chance of me going to LA but I think I can swing Portland.... Ya mentioned VF.net - I assume you'll post info on this over there eventually? They have that new outreach forum for things like this. So far, I've met Robert & David face to face - it'll be great to meet a bunch of the rest of ya's! I can most likely provide floor space + a futon for some folks & I am always up for playing tour guide. Robert, please be sure to let me know what I can do to help! Here's my Portland testimonial: I've traveled through much of the US, plus a bit in Canada & Mexico. No other city I've been to comes close to offering such a great mix of so many things as does Portland. Besides being about as good as it gets for vegans, it is a very green city that is only a short drive from tons of wild and fairly wild nature. Robert didn't even mention the awesome hot springs we have in Oregon! Add to all that the fact that Portland is a city with some of the most socially & politically conscious folks you'll find anywhere. Did I mention the vibrant arts & music scene? Have I told you about Cascadia, our bio-region? I could go on and on... So me & mine are in. Who else is going to be here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daywalker Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 Thank you very much for putting so much effort in this, Rob. I still hope i can make it... I wish everyone a fantastic time there training, eating and chilling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert Posted May 31, 2006 Author Share Posted May 31, 2006 Yeah, it should be totally awesome. Of course I would have liked the Caribbean and I would have liked Southern California, but it was challenging to plan being so far away. But for the reasons mentioned above, Portland is the PERFECT place for something like this. It was one of the top 5 or 10 places we initially thought of, and we're glad to Now have our sights set on Portland again. Loveliberate and I worked at an event today promoting Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness on a college campus and we talked about the Vegan Vacation in Portland and how it doesn't really matter where it is, it's all about meeting and hanging out. It just so happens that Portland is the easiest for me to plan an event for and is it the most vegan-friendly city around. A number of the forum members in the area also said they would open up their homes for visitors, and of course some of you will be staying with me. We'll post more updates, but again...the same things apply as mentioned before.....I'll help out each person a little bit with travel, I'll provide places to stay for everyone, and I'll coordinate the week's events. Just show up and party on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 I will be there for sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 I'd love to go, and it's very tempting! I like the Portland location better, for all the reasons you mentioned. Right now, my diabetic grandpa kitty has his ups and downs, and I'd hate to have to leave him in boardiing at the vet, which is where he has to go if I'm out of town overnight or longer, because he needs his regular insulin shots (but I don't know if he'll be around in August anyway ). Maybe I'll be able to go, but I won't know until later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compassionategirl Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 **hugs to diabetic grandpa kitty**** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odidnetne Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 I'm going to look into what it'll cost to get out there, but if I went, it may have be a shorter period, like 3 or 4 days instead of 6, I'll have to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert Posted June 1, 2006 Author Share Posted June 1, 2006 Any amount of time is fine Some people will be there just for a weekend (coming up from Eugene), others will be there the whole time, etc. We'd love to see you if you can swing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveliberate Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Friends, I just posted info on the Vegan Vacation gathering over at VeganFitness.net - hopefully we'll get a lot of crossover interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystal Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 I still hope i can make it... Alex, if you can make it, then I'm there for sure . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert Posted June 1, 2006 Author Share Posted June 1, 2006 Excellent! We'd love to see both of you. We know it is far for some of you to come, but we wanted to make this available in the US since it has been so successful in Europe. P.S. that means more Builder bars Daywalker...........more Builder bars...... Did I mention more Builder bars? And as much Vega as you can consume Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveliberate Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Please do come Daywalker & Crystal! Nring Jonathan, JP, Fruitbat, Bronco,Buzz & all the Edinburgh crew with ya too! <- Hey look, a Scottish smiley! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveliberate Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Wait - did someone say ***BUILDERS BARS***? Not that long ago, I was able to pick 'em up for .40 cents apiece... Now, the best I can get them for is .80 cents... Life is hard here in Veganland! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odidnetne Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 And as much Vega as you can consume That was another thing I wanted to do too, was to get a few cases of raw food bars while I was out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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