Camille Labchuk

Apologies that it’s been awhile since my last post — I’m officially on vacation until law school starts in September. The past couple of weeks have been busy — I’ve moved from our nation’s beautiful capital and I guess I’m now a Torontonian. Our new place in the Annex is only a short walk to campus — and oodles of health stores are nearby, including Whole Foods and an amazing raw food restaurant.

At any rate, right now I’m in sunny Santa Monica, California, where I’m staying with my good friend Mike Feinstein, the former Green Party mayor of this beautiful city. As we explore Santa Monica, I can’t help but notice the big Green fingerprints all over town — like renewable energy for city operations, great public transit, pristine beaches, public spaces, community gardens, and a top-notch boardwalk for pedestrians, bikers and rollerbladers. Santa Monica (and LA in general) is also extremely vegan-friendly. In fact, while Mike was mayor, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. opened a location on the Santa Monica pier. Because the pier is city-owned space, Mike helped ensure that the city wrote into the lease agreement a requirement that Bubba Gump include vegan menu options, in an effort to ensure that veg-types (a growing segment of the population) aren’t excluded from enjoying this public space. I love LA.

The past couple of days were spent camping and hiking in the breathtakingly-beautiful Joshua Tree National Park, a few hours east of LA. Just to make it authentic, transportation/accommodation was a 1970 Volkswagen van. My mom, who traveled all over the States in her hippy days in her old VW, was envious. At any rate, it was an incredible trip, filled with hiking, moon gazing, photography and roasting in the sun.

I’ll leave you with a couple of photos, and promise to post new content soon.