Travel and food - leg 1, Pasadena

We just arrived home from an eight-day trip.  We drove to St. Louis, flew to LA, took a shuttle to Pasadena, rented a car (and a U-Haul cargo van for one day), helped move John's things to a U-box, attended John's graduation from Caltech, visited family in Temecula, CA, visited with friends and found John an apartment in Tempe, AZ, dropped off our rental car at the Phoenix airport, flew back to St. Louis, and drove home.

The travel was hard on this aging body, and finding food that wouldn't increase my discomfort was a challenge.  Fast food restaurants I've found things I can get away with eating include McDonald's (Egg McMuffin with no cheese, hamburger with no ketchup, decaf coffee) and Subway (Italian white roll with meat, no cheese, allowed veggies, and oil & vinegar dressing - also Fritos).  And there is a salad I can eat at Denny's.  The motels we stayed at had complimentary breakfasts, and I found it pretty easy to eat at those (especially if I brought my own almond milk to put on cereal).  I suspect I got some soy with the bagels, and who-knows-what with the scrambled eggs, but mostly fine.

There was a fancy Senior Banquet dinner at The Athenaeum  https://www.athenaeumcaltech.com/  the night before graduation.  Registration for it included providing information about special dietary needs, but that information did not always make it to the staff at The Athenaeum.  So several of us had the staff scrambling a bit to find things for us to eat.  I loved the fruit plate they brought me for dessert!  And got to try a couple of new fruits - Star Fruit and Dragon Fruit.

A real highlight of our visit to Pasadena was getting to meet many of John's friends, and having the opportunity to spend time with some of them.  One night we had dinner with John's friends Jesse and Dughi (or Matt, as his family calls him) and their families at The Counter http://www.thecounterburger.com/.  The Counter was terrific, having food that accommodated both my dietary requirements and Jesse's very different ones.  He ate French fries and their grilled cheese trifecta, but with only American cheese.  I had a burger on a gluten-free bun with bacon and avocado and a side salad with no tomatoes and Dijon balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Brent, Jesse, and John.

Nancy, John, and I, after the graduation ceremony.

Another place we ate in Pasadena was the Fish Dish 

http://www.fishdishgrill.com/.  It was very tasty - probably not totally successful in avoiding trigger foods, but not too bad.  I had scallops and sweet potato fies.