Eating Vegan in Ft. Lauderdale, Days 5-6

Here's the final wrap-up post from my week-long trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida! You can see what I ate (and what we did for fun) on the first four days in my last two posts. But tonight, I'm focusing on Day 5 (Thursday) and Day 6 (Friday). We were actually there all day Saturday as well, but we literally spent every waking moment sitting at the beach and only ate our leftovers for meals (because we wanted to waste as little food as possible!).

Paul and I had the first couple days to ourselves, and on Wednesday, our friend Nicole flew in from Chicago. On Thursday, our friend Misti flew in from Memphis. We picked her up from the airport Thursday morning. She was hungry, so we had vegan deli meat sandwiches with Violife cheese on the beach rental porch before heading to the beach.

We spent most of the day at the beach, but that evening, we decided to go on a group run! Before I left, I posted on the No Meat Athlete Pulse Facebook page asking for suggestions on places to eat in Ft. Lauderdale. Turns out Esther of the NMA team lives there! And she suggested we check out her Thursday group run, the Funky Fun Run put on by the Running Wild running store. It's free and starts at 6:30 pm at the store every Thursday. It was close to our place, so we took the rental car out and joined the group. Here's me and Esther, both sporting our No Meat Athlete shirts.

And here's my crew — Paul, Nicole, Misti and me!

After the 3-mile(ish) run, the group meets up for FREE local craft beer on the roof of the Westin resort. Yay!!!

After the run, we caught a shuttle back to the running store, and we made some friends from the Funky Fun Run group! They invited us our for burgers at Burger Fi (where Funky Fun runners get a discount on run night!). I had another Beyond Burger and Fries (we ate at Burger Fi on our first night in town, but I was more than happy to eat there again!).

See that birthday cake in the background? Paul's birthday was Friday, and when one of the runners found out, he ran over to the next door Publix and ordered a super fast cake (and even had them scribble "Happy Birthday Paul" on it!!!!). Paul was so touched that he cried.

We spent the rest of the evening chilling at the beach after the sun went down, watching the waves crash on the shore under a full moon. And yes, we brought a box of wine!

The next day, Friday, we decided to take a quick trip to nearby Miami since we had the rental car for one last day. The drive took about an hour and a half, but that's because we got lost a few times. Oops. We finally found South Beach, where we lucked into a great street parking spot and settled into a bar with GIANT cocktails! It was Paul's birthday on Friday, and he wanted a Classic Margarita. Nicole and Misti picked a Miami Vice daiquiri. We all shared two drinks. They were big but not very strong.

After cocktails, we checked out Miami Beach before heading back to Ft. Lauderdale. 

For Paul's birthday dinner, he requested Thai food, so I found a vegan-friendly spot in Ft. Lauderdale called Thai Spice. They can make any dish veg with tofu! Misti (also vegetarian) and I split an app of Veggie Spring Rolls.

And for my entree, I ordered my favorite Thai dish — Pad See Ew with tofu!!

So good! And man, those leftovers were amazing on Saturday. We had a great trip, but I'm so glad to be back at home. My parents house-sat my pets while I was gone, and they went on a bit of a home makeover spree! So I came home to a newly painted guest room, new blinds in the living room, sparkling clean bathtubs, and so much more. I seriously have the best parents in the world.