Hello from the road!  We are on a trip to the Twin Cities to visit the Mall of America, the Minnesota Zoo, and the Science Museum.  Even if this is a vacation from our normal lives we still have to be good eaters as much as we can.

First things first.  We dropped our dog Rascal off at boarding.  The Groom Room was a surprise.  Local and kind.    The dogs are out of their kennels playing most of the day.  I told my kids that our dog will have as much fun as we were going to have.  That made them very happy. 

After two hours of driving we needed a break to stretch our legs.  We stopped at a gas station and quickly eyed their pastries.  Pastries looked good but we were Zen to leave them behind.  My husband and I were satisfied getting a large Farmer Brothers Columbian coffee that was actually smooth and tasty.    My kids got a pizza (we haven’t scaled them off truck stop pizza yet) and a berry flavored Naked Juice. (Wow.  I didn’t even crave a sip of that. It looked good.  All blueberryeeeee!!)

Back in the car (By the way, we have a 2007 Ford Freestyle.  I like its roomy layout.  It seems to be made for traveling.    My kids feel independent sitting in the far back seats 🙂

Where was I, oh yes, back in the car my husband and I ate the food that I packed for the hotel.  Salami (uncured, nitrate free) that we wrapped around cheese sticks (Bakers brand, I buy them at WalMart.)They are my favorite for their salty taste, firm texture, and the fact that they are not somewhat damp like other cheese sticks.  To better digest all of this fat and protein we ate spinach.  It’s our favorite way to eat spinach, just right out of the big box.  I stack the leaves up in a pile and feed them over to my husband so he can drive.  I packed carrots for the kids.  Organic baby ones so I didn’t worry much about washing them.    

For drinks the kids got a Naked Juice, my husband and I drank a Farmer Brothers coffee and a “pop”.  These days we call flavored sparkling water our soda.  We have convinced ourselves that a can of sparkling water is all we need to replace soda drinks.   We are recently enjoying the Target brand of blueberry sparkling water and cherry lime sparkling water.  Even the kids accept this as our movie night pop where we used to enjoy root beer and colas.

After driving a bit I got suddenly nauseated.  I realized that I was twisting and turning in my seat trying to hand out snacks and feed everyone.  That put unwelcomed pressure on my gallbladder and made me feel ill.  I just sat back and went quiet for a few minutes while pressing my thumb into my gallbladder.  That nauseated feeling soon went away.  I wondered if car sickness was just a simple master of a pinched gallbladder solved by acupressure.

We are well on our way to a great family get away!  I am thankful that we got off to a good healthy start.