The highlight of today was grocery shopping, which is remarkable coming from me. I normally hate grocery shopping but the Whole Foods Market in Austin is definitely one of the exceptions. This place is amazing.

Eleanor has a culinary arts degree and I like eating good food, so the combination can be dangerous sometimes. This was one of those times. We went nuts, trying samples and buying all kinds of things. I grabbed some terrific nectarines and “pink navel” oranges while Eleanor shopped wild mushrooms and peppers. Then we bought smoked salmon, seafood paella (rice with seafood), kung pao tofu, fresh cut pineapple, watermelon, potato latkes, olive & artichoke antipasto, French boule bread, and a pint of chocolate gelato. That was our smorgasbord dinner. Yum.

Halfway through our Whole Foods Market dinner

We also bought ingredients for Eleanor to make something Mexican for the potluck dinner this Saturday, since that’s the theme the “campout” organizers have announced: tomatillos, chipolte peppers, corn, bell peppers, onions, limes, and various Mexican spices. She’s making a roasted corn salad.

We also bought a lot of other things we love: Maytag blue cheese, chocolate milk (something I don’t digest well, but I can’t resist), dried cranberries, Turkish apricots, roasted cashew butter, freshly roasted coffee beans (still warm!), a chocolate truffle dessert, china black rice … mostly stuff you can’t find at the remote grocery stores we usually shop at out in the boonies.

This is the key to traveling well. You’ve got to try to have fun even in the mundane errands. It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a shot for the times like this when you succeed. Shopping at the Whole Foods Market was an evening’s entertainment (and that’s not even counting the people-watching, which was some of the best since California…)

So we’re stocked with goodies for a while. Between the staples we bought before going to Big Bend and the Whole Foods spree, this Airstream is loaded with enough food to keep us in gourmet heaven for weeks. It’s not just weenies and beans when we travel!