That was the theme of my weekend. I love my family, but spending time with extended family members can be stressful. But they’re family so you gotta love them. Even if they make you want to pull your hair out.

Moving on.

Friday after work my mom, brother and I hit the road for Spartanburg, SC. My other brother had to work, so my dad stayed home with them. Lucky. I should explain that we only went Spartanburg to see my grandfather. There is nothing in Spartanburg. That’s a lie. There is nothing to do in Spartanburg with your 86-year-old grandfather. It was good to see him though.

Lunch on Friday was Jimmy John’s on the way out of town. I. Love. Jimmy John’s. They are hands down the best sub chain anywhere. You are not allowed to argue with that point. I got a vegetarian sub with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado spread(!) in a lettuce wrap. They were out of sprouts, which I was highly upset about, but it’s Jimmy John’s so I’ll forgive them. No pictures because I was hungry, and lettuce wraps require two hands.

Fast forward 4 hours of driving time and we stopped for some outlet mall shopping. I hit the jackpot at the Gap Outlet with a $4 sweater, $6 yoga pants, and $12 sleeveless shirt for work and a $15 workout top. I cannot turn down a good bargain.

Speaking of bargains, what is even the point of this sign? I’m so glad I drove all the way to the outlet mall to save $0.41 on Reeboks? How could you pass up that steal?

Dinner on Friday was Moe’s (we’ll pretend like I’m not a terrible food blogger and forgot to take a picture, again). A naked burrito with black beans, tofu, no rice, lettuce, pico, cucumbers, olives, and jalapenos. And an excessive amount of salsa from the salsa bar, always.

Moe’s was followed by a trip to Wal-Mart. That was an adventure. There were a few good People of Wal-Mart moments. A Wal-Mart trip in the deep south is never an uneventful one.

Saturday we met up with my aunt and uncle for lunch at Wade’s. I should preface this by saying that Wade’s has beaten out Paula Dean’s restaurant for Best Restaurant in several southern magazines. Now place a vegetarian, gluten-free, health-nut in a restaurant that out-southerns Paula Dean, they don’t mix so well. But the place is a family tradition, and I hear it’s really good if you’re into fried southern food.

However the one thing Wade’s has going for it is it’s creamed corn (and rolls, but I abstained this year). Maybe I’m just an old lady, but I could literally eat their creamed corn by the gallon. I’m sure it’s full of all kinds of heavy cream and butter and other horrible ingredients, but it tastes like soft clouds of corn-heaven. Maybe that’s a long way of saying lunch was a tossed salad and side of creamed corn.

Then we had a mini car show.

My uncle bought one of the newly released all-electric Ford Focus. He’s actually one of the first people to buy one, and the only person in the region that owns one, which is pretty cool. You actually can read and article about it here. We got to drive it around town and it’s so cool. The motor is so quiet the only way to tell the  car is even on is the light on the dashboard. The only down side to the car is the battery range is only 100 miles, but it works for him because he lives in a metropolitan area and mostly uses it to commute to work.

We also got to see my aunt’s motorcycle. It has three wheels instead of two and it’s a little larger so it’s much safer and sturdier than a traditional motorcycle. My grandpa still wasn’t a fan.

Dinner on Saturday was at Mellow Mushroom. Word of advice: don’t take your conservative 86 year-old grandfather to a hippie-themed pizza restaurant. Even if he says he’ll be okay, he won’t get it. At all.

Luckily he didn’t read the drink menu. What could possibly sound more appetizing than dirty bong water? That’s what I thought. That drink does actually sound pretty tasty, none for me though.

I got a salad with tofu added on. It was pretty good, but a little bland, but not their fault because I opted for plain tofu instead of BBQ tofu or tempeh. The whole tofu situation baffled my poor grandpa, I think he thought it was some sort of strange chicken.

I needed some fro-yo therapy after dinner. 

We’ll pretend like that’s not a recycled photo. I had greek yogurt and honey flavored with fruit and cashew on top. Sooooo good. I haven’t seen the greek yogurt flavors anywhere else, but it amazing, so hopefully they pop up somewhere local. I was upset to see that the frozen yogurt place also had a green smoothie on the menu and missed it! But my yogurt was delicious so I couldn’t stay mad too long.

There might have been two other fro-yo trips this weekend. Let’s not talk about that.

Other things we won’t talk about:

Sunday morning breakfast. So gross. The waitresses were extremely nice and had all their teeth, which I appreciate, but my food was covered in butter and the coffee was weak. Not good morning fuel. You do what you can though. At least I had my first Waffle House experience? But I’m okay with not having a second one.

We left around noon on Sunday to get back to my own dad for some Father’s Day celebration. We went out for Japanese food at a place called Yuri. The restaurant is tucked away in a shopping center, so I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. The decor was nice without making you feel like a bum for wearing jeans, and the food was awesome.

I started with a side salad with ginger dressing. Ginger dressing can’t be bad, it just can’t and it totally made this salad.

I got the Vegetable Maki sushi which included cucumber, avocado, yamagobo, and oshinko. I have no idea what those last two ingredients are, but they looked like some sort of pickled vegetable.  It was all very delicious, crunchy, slightly sweet and creamy from the cucumber. It was been too long since I last had sushi. Oh, and I dominated that pile of ginger. I’m a ginger addict. I can’t get enough of the stuff.

Dessert was a trip next door to Skinny Dip for frozen yogurt. We won’t talk about how it was the third fro-yo trip in 2 days. We won’t. I got a small bowl of vegan cinnamon hazelnut yogurt with granola and bananas. So good. I like getting vegan flavors whenever I can, but sometimes they get a little out there, but I like making vegan choices when I have the opportunity.

So this post has some how turned into a novel and it is past my bed time. Good night!

How did you celebrate Father’s Day? Eat at any interesting restaurants this weekend?

Going out is always a fun treat, but I’m glad to be at home with a kitchen and my own food. My body is much happier that way.