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Thanksgiving California!! With 2 hours sleep I was up and surprisingly energized for the next part of my adventure. My shuttle came at 4am and took me to the airport along with about 8 other people. I can't explain how good I was feeling; not sure why but most likely because I am getting closer to home. It was zero degrees outside and with just my light sweater I spent the two hour wait at the airport freezing to death. Check-in was a breeze and 2 amazing things happened which included the lovely girl at the counter giving me a free upgrade to exit seats with extra legroom and not getting charged the departure tax/Mexican visa fee when leaving. The airline was very well organized and we boarded on time, were given breakfast and snacks and arrived 30 minutes early at Los Angeles international airport. Getting through customs and immigration was another story and ended up taking nearly an hour and a half. Roselle, Dave and Dave's father John arrived about 20 minutes after I had got out of airport so timing was perfect. It was so nice to see them all again and they both looked fantastic with their new vegan lifestyles. Dave's Dad John is a really interesting guy also following a vegan lifestyle for 20 odd years and I had a great chat with him on the way to Rancho Park where our thanksgiving lunch was taking place. We arrived at the park around midday and there was already around 100 people there with various food tables, activity areas and other things setup. People continued to arrive; all bringing foods and plates of vegan food which means no meat, dairy, egg or honey containing foods. We setup our little spot with blanket, deck chairs and started chatting with other attendees. At 12:30 we had a big circle and welcomed guests, listened to a few speeches and then blessed thanksgiving. It was then time to eat and like a kid at a candy store I rushed to the raw vegan table and started piling my plate with wonderful looking salads, purées, vegan cheese cakes and my absolute favorite the pumpkin pie. The food was out of this world but we all struggled to enjoy as we were more engaged on getting around and trying everything. It blew my mind that the dishes didn't contain any animal products and the flavours were twice that of any meat dish you can imagine. I must of gone back 4-5 times trying my hardest to sample as many things as I could - only stopping in fear of what was to come with stomach pains. The amazing thing was that the stomach pains never came but I definitely had eaten to much. The rest of the afternoon we periodically sampled more foods and chatted with what turned out to be a crowd of about 500 people in the end. The amount of food left was unbelievable and people continued the meal for about 3 hours. Mid afternoon we headed back to Dave and Roselles and on the way they stopped at an incredible vegan supermarket to show me the range of what's available for vegans in LA. I couldn't believe the variety and alternatives for vegans; literally everything you can imagine comes in a vegan /animal friendly way. We had a few hours to kill before my flight so Dave and I went to the gym whilst Roselle prepared a delicious vegan dinner. For dinner we ate this vegetable meat called satarn along with quinoa and guacamole salad and just as it sounds it was to die for. I really didn't want to leave and am kicking myself I didn't organize to stay a few more days with Dave and Roselle and learn more about this lifestyle and hang-out with them both. At 9pm we headed to the airport and I said my goodbyes again and made my way to check-in. Luckily with no luggage I was quick to go through all airport procedures and just as I arrived at that gate boarding was commencing. The flight was full of Taiwanese as the first stop was Taipei and I sat next to a strange old lady and a Taiwanese guy that made the long flight quiet entertaining. Dinner was served around 12:30am and I certainly didn't need it but as we were only being fed twice in next 16 hours I thought it best to eat. I managed to get a vegan meal which was delicious and included stuffed egg plants, tofu salad, noodles, fruits and various vegetables. After the meal I tried to watch a film but fell straight to sleep.
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