My Weekend In LA for the Vegan Food Festival! (TONS Of Pictures!)

At the end of May, my family and I took a quick little weekend getaway trip to LA/Anaheim, California to attend the annual Vegan Food and Beer Festival. I have been wanting to go to the this festival since I learned about it while living in Los Angeles two years ago, but our schedules were never free during the times that had it the last two years. So this year was our year to go! While the Vegan Festival was in Los Angeles, we stayed in Anaheim, CA which is nearby. I meant to blog about our trip sooner, but I did not realize how many pictures I had compiled from the trip, so going through, editing, and deciding which pics to post took a lot longer than expected. But this post comes at the perfect time anyway, because I have another upcoming trip to Dallas, Texas this weekend, where I am going to visit my older sister and nephew, PLUS see one of my good friends, Brittanii, who is having a birthday party at her house! I will definitely write a blog post all about that trip when I return next week, because I know it will be a long weekend full of much-needed girl time and FUN!

But back to our fab weekend in Cali; it was a quick weekend 4-day trip, and I will share what I wore, what we ate, (except for what I ate at the actual Vegan Fest; you’ll get to see all of that on my next vlog on YouTube when it’s ready!), and how much fun was had!

For a brief geography review, Arizona is a neighboring state to California, and the actual drive there was a little under 6 hours. (Well, we stopped for bathroom breaks twice, so the trip of course was a bit longer.):

For the road trip, I wore a onesie of course (that’s my favorite thing to travel in. If you read older posts you’ll see that onesies always reign supreme whenever I travel.):

I packed up our favorite snacks, brought our cooler with ice and plenty of water, and we were off! Babe drove the whole way there, so I was in charge of important things like doling out the snacks, getting as comfortable as I could get in the passenger seat, and taking selfies: (I had my priorities in order right? ha!)

On the drive there, I was in full tourist mode, snapping pictures of the some of the sights on the way:

We arrived to our hotel that early afternoon, and just relaxed and ate the food that I had packed. When I tell you I even packed hot sauce, a knife to cut up fruit and avocados, a vegan chickpea dish that tastes bomb on sandwiches, AND my own seasonings! (Hey listen, the world hasn’t caught on to this whole vegan lifestyle yet, so one ALWAYS has to be prepared when hunger calls.)

After we rested and ate in our hotel rooms, the kids and I explored the hotel. It was packed with people for the weekend, and lots of wedding parties were staying there, so it was bustling with people everywhere. After exploring and letting the kids run around for a bit, we then went back to our hotel room and showered and got ready for dinner. For dinner, I dressed the kids in black in white, with their matching Vans sneakers. (They had a hilarious photoshoot in the hallway:

And for dinner I decided to wear a colorful print maxi wrap dress, complete with a killer slit, and black strappy sandals that lace up around the leg. And of course my choker and accessories are from my store www.fabandravenousboutique.com:

We went to a vegan restaurant that was close to our hotel, and while they had the most delicious gourmet vegan pizzas, they also vegan desserts, vegan candy, vegan calzones, and so many other things. However, some of their menu items were soy-based, and we do not eat soy whatsoever, so we opted for everything that was soy-free! (Their chocolate candy bars were soy free and the kids were obsessed!)

 

Typically vegan restaurants are low-key and super casual, but that never stops me from wanting to dress up!

The next day was the actual day of the Vegan Fest, but we were not taking the kids with us, so we wanted to make sure that they had something fun to do as well. That early afternoon, we took them to an indoor playground/bounce house, where they pretty much had the time of their lives:

They ran around, played, made new friends, and had a ball! For this outing, I wore a comfortable jumpsuit, jean jacket (it was sunny but still chilly there at times), and flat sandals:

After the kids had their fun, we headed back toward our hotel, but not before stopping at that same vegan restaurant to pick up a pizza for them to eat with their babysitter while we were gone. (Sidenote: When we lived in Los Angeles two years ago, we had the most wonderful babysitter, Malindsey, who babysat Zé and Vito often, which allowed Honeybee and I to have date night/date days. Two years later, we’ve kept in touch and she and her sister, Courtney were able to watch the kids for us so that we could attend the Vegan Fest, thus having our first official “date day” in almost a year and half! Lawd!)

Anyway, we picked up our pizza, then headed back to change and get ready for the Vegan Fest!

Once we got back to the hotel, we changed and got ready to head to the Rose Bowl Stadium for the Vegan Fest! Y’all. I felt like a kid who was excited about their first day of school! Ha!

To commemorate the occasion, of coursed I snapped selfies on the way hehe:

For the vegan fest, I wore a comfy grey two-piece knit cropped hoody and matching legging set that my sister, Diamond, got me for my birthday. I paired them with mint green sneaker wedges, and my favorite camouflage trucker hat:

As I mentioned before, the food, sights and sounds of the Vegan Fest was all captured by our videographer, Bryan “Flashy” Armstrong, so stay tuned for that vlog!

And more pics from the Fest:

I’m dying to show you guys all the yummy food, but you will have to wait until the vlog drops! 🙂 But I will say that we had an awesome time, and I ate everything that I possibly could. I also copped a cute “Gangster Vegan” t-shirt, and we bought some yummy dessert in the form of brownies and donuts to take back to the kids. Me and babe both agreed that we want to do the Vegan Fest every year, and definitely take the kids next year too!

After leaving the Vegan Fest, we stopped by Target to get juice, and some fans recognized hubby after we checked out, and of course my paparazzi ass snapped a pic:

It was such a fun-filled day!

Our last and final day, we woke up, ate fresh fruit for breakfast, then headed down to the hotel pool so the kids could splash around a bit. The weather was a bit chilly, but that did NOT stop Zé and Vito from wanting to get in the hot tub. I opted to cozy up on the lounge chair and listen to my music:

After the kids spent a few hours in the pool, we then headed back to our hotel room, showered, and prepared to checkout of the hotel. After checking out, we then went to have lunch before hitting the road to head back to Arizona. We stopped a cute vegan spot called Healthy Junk, which happened to be a vendor at the Vegan Fest! We ordered all kinds of food for lunch:

After we stuffed our faces, we loaded up the truck, gassed it, and hit the highway to head back home. We had an amazing weekend there, and the kids have been begging to go back ever since haha! 

Of course I will let you guys know when the Vegan Fest Vlog is ready to post, so stay tuned for that! But for now I have to finish packing for my upcoming trip to Dallas, Texas which I am SO excited about! I can’t wait to see my sisters and friends! I’m only bringing 75 outfits, 25 pair of shoes, and just a few accessories. ;p Just kidding. But not really. 

Have a fabulous rest of your week Fabbies!

xoxo