gf4life's Blog

I am busy packing to leave town. We are heading south to LA, mainly to see the King Tut exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We are all excited about it, but I still get a bit nervous when we travel. You know...the food issue. We try to stick to safe restaurants, and we take snacks with us EVERYWHERE, but what is a supposedly safe restaurant has an uninformed chef, or server. They could always mess up and we'd end up sick on vacation. I try to be very careful, but accidents happen.We are only in LA for a few days and then we have to come home for dentist appointments for the kids. I would have rescheduled, but it is a new dentist for us and it took two months to get the appointments. I mean, gosh, some of us celaic/gluten intolerant people have horrible teeth problems and need to have them dealt with or they get worse. My oldest has a spacer in because two of his permenant teeth took over a year to grow in after the baby teeth fell out and now that one of the teeth is growing it needs to be removed. In fact the previous dentist was going to remove it last May and now it is way past due. If I hadn't found out that the previous dentist was ripping off us and the insurance (by doing some unneccesary work and charging for cleanings that were never done!) then I would have no p[roblem taking him back there, but as it stands it ain't gonna happen. So the new dentist...After that we head to the Monterey Bay. I love it there. I was born and raised there and it is always fun to go back. But it is only for two days and my nieces b-day party. I would love to have more time to visit. We haven't had much luck in the eating out department where my sister lives, but we'll find something. The food she is serving at the party isn't gluten-free (except the fruit, veggies and ice cream) but she is having the party at 2:00pm so we have time to eat lunch before hand. She cares about us and knows about our diet, but she was strapped for time (she works too much) and ordered sandwich platters from Costco. She actually probably needs to be gluten-free. She knows it, but gave up trying to get her doctors to test her for it, since she says there is no way she would stick to the diet anyhow. Too bad. I would live for her to know what being healthy is like. She has so many symptoms. We get to be home for one day, but only to pack for camping. We are going to Yosemite. Another of my favorite California locations. We used to camp there a couple times a year, but the past 7 years we have only been there twice. This is also our first time since going gluten-free. I am so happy with the food service staff there already and we haven't even got there yet. I sent an email to the food service company that handles the park (and many other places) and they got back to me right away that they forwarded my request for gluten-free food to the staff at the park. The next day a guy called me to discuss our menu options for the various places to eat. I was in the middle of a bible study group, so he called back the next day. He told me they can provide us with gluten-free meals at any of the restaurants that we want to eat at. It helps them to be prepared if they know you are coming, and also if you pick which places you are going to eat at on any given day. That way they can make sure there are plenty of gluten-free choices available to you. So I need to call them a day or two before we go and tell them where we will eat the first day. They will have someone there to go over our choices in person. I think it helps that so many foreigners travel to the national parks. So many europeans are also gluten free and so they have learned how to handle the diet. For this I am grateful. One of my other celiac friends went there last June for 4 days and said they served her Tinkyada pasta, steamed fish, etc. and her son got to eat a gluten-free bunless hot dog and fries, which of course made him very happy. They are going back at the end of August! I hope our trip is as good, in regards to the food. The scenery is always excellent!Well I am off. I love to travel and I am not going to let gluten get in my way.