Food Friday: The Pancake goes around the World

 Vancouver, Canada

How to bring two of your favorite hobbies together? 

Travel & Food?

Cook for your dear hosts and friends 

to show some gratitude :)

My plan was to bake bread for them, but as you might already know from my previous travel posts: No planning is the best travel advice! Find something else what everyone, yes everyone loves: namely P-A-N-C-A-K-E-S! As a foundation of all my pancakes, I take this recipe of my vegan banana pancake with almonds. Then, I would just see what kind of ingredients my friends would like to have. The result is a big improvisation, maybe a challenge but always with a super yummy outcome and happy tummies :)

Pancake #1 served in Vancouver was rather a non-vegan cheat-pancake because the dough included: white flour, white sugar, milk, bananas, chocolate-chips, blueberries and almonds. What a lovely treat for breakfast *.*

North Vancouver, Canada

Pancake #2 served in North Vancouver was healthier because it included flax & spelt flour, bananas, almonds, chia seeds and goji berries, therefore tons of superfoods. We enjoyed it with Matcha Latte and good old fashioned Canadian Maple Syrup. Never had it before, so yummy! ♥

 San Francisco, California

Pancake #3 served in San Francisco was a real challenge!!! Carla's boyfriend is on a special diet and is not allowed to eat many things.. such as banana, almonds, chocolate, mango, tomatoes (not that I would put them in the pancake) .. but all the good stuff! :O Clearly, for a foodlover like me, I answered with: Challenge ACCEPTED!

This specialty, which made it to the healthiest pancake, included: not sticky coconut flour, coconut milk, peaches! yes, he can eat peaches! tapioca, and I think that was it! Although the pancakes looked more like burgers or patties, the judges aka my friends liked it. I thought it was so-so since this coconutty pancake can definitely be upgraded! Anyone interested in a small experiment with me? :) 

Enjoy your weekend guys! ♥

I'm off to New Adventures, 

New York I'm all yours now!

Last Stop in San Francisco ♥

 Beautiful view

 A bit of sightseeing out of the car

Hello San Francisco!

My one-month trip ended in San Francisco, where I met my dear friend Carla, who I got to know in a hostel in Miami two years ago. How come? Well, we stayed in touch and since I was already on the Westcoast in Canada, I took the flight down south to see her! It wasn't planned, not at all.. but when we skyped on my last days in Vancouver, I wanted to see her even more. 

We spent some real quality time together and I got to know her lovely dog Jazzie and some of her friends. One day, we went for a nice walk in Tiburon, had lunch at Sam's Anchor Café and finished the day with a beautiful sunset in the Crissy Field Park.

 Tiburon, San Francisco

 Where are the apples coming from?? :)

 Crissy Field, San Francisco

On our last day together, Carla took me to this amazing hike to Claremont Canyon in Berkeley. Also, it was International Dog Day and Jazzie seemed pretty happy to spend the afternoon hiking.

Carla! Thank you so so much for everything! You still inspire me and I cannot thank you enough! I am definitely coming back and if not to San Francisco, I am sure, we are going to travel and hike together somewhere else.. 

Hugs and love to you & Jazzie ♥ 

Vancouver Island // Long Beach // Tofino

Finally! Again, I am super excited to share another little adventure with you! This trip was definitely on my to-do list when going to Canada and Vancouver, but since I only had three weeks here and already spent two of them in the Rockies, it was hard to find accomodation and then, I thought: Hm, maybe next time.

Strike a Pose, or two :)

We had a very nice little break!

Back on the road..

But wait, the weekend before, I stayed with two wonderful girls, which I got to know through a dear friend and they were like: You know what, let's do it! It will be short, but we'll have lots of fun and you have to see the beauty of Vancouver Island. Last minute, we packed up our stuff, booked the ferry, and there we went...  

 To the Surf Shop!!!

Sunset at Long Beach

It was already later in the afternoon when we arrived at Long Beach, but we were still super excited for our very first surf session! My dear friend Dasha (in the middle, picture underneath) learned surfing in New Zealand and gave us some tips and tricks. This was my first time surfing and although I ended up not taking any classes both days, it was tons of fun!

Rough water, salt, mother nature at its best!

Thank you for showing us, Dasha! ♥ 

Luckily, Dasha had some friends out in Ucluelet, south of Long Beach, so we had lovely dinner altogether, pitched our tents in their backyards and they went surfing with us!

Lunch after the Surf, right before going to Tofino :)

On our second day, we went surfing again! This was really the main point by going to Vancouver Island :) I was so happy that everything worked out, that I got to experience another part of Vancouver and its surf culture! After an hour of surfing and nice waves, we explored Tofino and Tonquin Beach, which was just amazingly beautiful!!!

A few thoughts I wrote down in my diary:

Everything was perfect, the whole road trip with the girls, my first surfing experience, the stay with the guys, the wonderful finish at Tonquin Beach. This moment right now, this is my life and I feel so at ease. Everything feels right and I am so grateful for this. Always stay curious, believe in life, do whatever you want and never stop dreaming.

I had to say Good Bye to the lovely Westcoast of Canada. Bye Bye Vancouver, I am definitely coming back because I just fell in love with you. Thank you Meghan and Dasha, I had a remarkable time, thanks for having me! ♥