Ancestral Health Symposium

I’m off to the Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles Thursday morning, and while packing, I realized that I was super-stupid excited. Number one, I’m going to be among the giant brains who figured all this paleo stuff out so we can just eat. Second, Austin was 107 F today and will be the same tomorrow and the day after that; LA is around 80 F during the day and 65 F at night. I’m taking a jacket. Just the thought of the word ‘jacket’ makes me smile. And (C): I haven’t been on a vacation since Prague last September. I’M ON VACATION!

I’m Going To Feed My Brain
The Symposium sessions run all day Friday and Saturday. They’re 45 minutes each – plus shorter presentations during the lunch break – which means I’ll be attending somewhere between 10 and 12 presentations each day. That is a lot of thinking! The line-up is spectacularly impressive, and although I haven’t finalized my schedule yet, I’d really like to see Robb Wolf, Melissa & Dallas of Whole9Life, Gary Taubes (author of Why We Get Fat), and Melissa McEwen of Hunt. Gather. Love. (because she has my same name and I’m 8 years old and like to meet people with my same name. Plus, she’s wicked smart).

My plan is to take copious notes, synthesize them into “Things I Learned,” and share them with all of you when I get home. It looks like you’ll be able to view slides from the presentations on Slideshare and eventually see stuff on Vimeo.

I’m Going To Feed My Body
I can’t even adequately express how thrilled I am to explore restaurants in LA. Austin is THE place for BBQ and Tex-Mex, but even a dino-chow girl like me sometimes needs a little something more. Thursday night, we’re going to Animal (and I’m over the moon about the whole experience), then Friday night, I’m delighted to be dining with a group of paleo food bloggers: Nom Nom Paleo, Diane of Balanced Bites, Bill & Hayley from Food Lovers’ Primal Palate, and Julie & Charles Mayfield of Paleo Comfort Foods, CaveGirlEats, and Patty from Chowstalker. Should a meteorite drop on the restaurant, paleo food blogging as we know it will cease to exist. (And yeah, I just named-dropped all those peeps. I’m going to LA, after all.)

Later in the weekend, Dave and I are making a pilgrimage to Philippe’s, established in 1908 and the originator of the French Dipped Sandwich. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be eating the bread, but the last time we were there (about 8 years ago), we learned two things: they make the only mustard in the world that I like, and the lamb with bleu cheese will make you weep with joy. So a definite yes to the meat; we’ll see which way I go on the roll. (It has occurred to me that there’s something VERY wrong about going to a paleo conference then eating bread. Thinking, thinking…) We’re also spending an evening at The Magic Castle, courtesy of Dave’s cousin. What could be more awesome than a members-only Victorian mansion called THE MAGIC CASTLE?! There’s a dress code and everything! Fashion and mystery; I’m SO in.

I’m Going to Play
When the conference is over, Dave and I will be officially-officially in vacation mode. We’re going on a bike tour in Santa Monica, running on the beach, shopping on Melrose, and paying a visit to the best low-brow art gallery/trinket shop ever: Las Luz de Jesus. The book section alone will keep me busy for hours.

I won’t be blogging while I’m gone, but I’ll be thinking of you!  I’ll take lots of photos and notes to share on my return. Watch Twitter for real-time updates, and I promise if I decide to go full-gluten at Philippe’s, I’ll share the dirty truth with you.