Castle Rock Park + Lunch at Café Gratitude

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That, my friends, is a vegan chocolate chip cookie dough cinnamon bun that I got from a bakery in Berkeley named Cinnaholic. Holy amazingness in my mouth. Of course I had to eat it in three separate sittings over two days to prevent the onset of a sugar coma but it was totally worth it. That was only one of the many (like 40?) options they had plus the story behind the owner of the shop is pretty cool too. You can bet I’ll be going there again.        

Okay, let’s back track a little bit and talk about life before Cinnaholic. Saturday was consumed by watching the first A&M game of the season which started at 10:00am our time but I convinced Brandon to record it and watch it at 2:00pm so that I could get a few things done first. I knocked out a five mile run, made cookies and loaded nachos, and then settled in with an ice cold beer to watch the game while Coco stared at me with this face.

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I just love her little grey eyebrows.

On Sunday, we decided to head back to Castle Rock Park (where we did our 5k trail run) to take Coco hiking for a little while.

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The park is right behind horse stables and we spotted a cute little baby horse in one of the stalls.

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It’s tail was so long that it dragged on the ground. So cute.

Even though it reeked like horse manure, it still felt good to spend time with nature for a while.

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We decided to take Coco on the same trail we ran a few weeks ago which starts on a relatively steep incline that continues for about a quarter of a mile.

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After that, the trail is shaded with a few small hills here and there.

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We saw a few trees along the way that had what we suspected to be walnuts growing from them.

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Walnuts…Walnut Creek. Makes sense.

There are also good views of the surrounding mountains and we spotted a few climbers at the top of one.

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It took us about an hour and a half to do three miles because of our frequent stops for Miss Coco.

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She also made friends with a little girl who was out there hiking with her grandfather so that slowed us down a bit too.

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I think Coco enjoyed the company though.

By the time we finished the hike, we were ready for some lunch so we took a drive to Berkeley to eat at a vegan restaurant named Café Gratitude.

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Cafe Gratitude

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We’ve been to Café Gratitude once before and loved it so it was only a matter of time before we went back.

This time, I ordered the I Am Pure; a mixed green salad with grilled peaches, roasted almonds, and cashew herb cheese, tossed in a balsamic dressing.

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Brandon ordered their BLT with maple coconut bacon (ermagerd…so good) and we split a side of garlic roasted organic potatoes topped with spicy cashew nacho cheese.

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From there, we walked about a half mile to Cinnaholic which is right across from the UC Berkeley campus.

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On the way back the car we passed a Ben & Jerry’s and Brandon got the bright idea to take a picture with me as Ben and Coco as Jerry.

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Her complexion is surprisingly similar to Jerry’s, don’t you think?

Alright, I’m off to get ready for a short (woo hoo!) work week tomorrow.

I hope you all had a nice weekend!

 

What’s the best dessert you’ve had recently?