Black Bean Burgers & Goodbyes

Vegetarian Black Bean Burger with seasoned thin cut fries

Before heading off to the airport on Monday, Tia Sarah drove me to another sweet restaurant called Wynberries (I'm not sure if I spelled it right).  For the first time ever I ordered a vegetarian black bean burger, and it was actually pretty good. I felt like Sarah Stanley (sarahstanleyinspired.com) while munching on the medley of mushrooms, grains, and beans.
Random burger eating fact of the day: As with most of the burgers I consume, 2/3 of the bun remained uneaten, as well as the pickle.  Just thought I would enhance your life with one of my idiosyncrasies.

Tia Sarah navigated me to the security checkpoint at the airport before we hugged goodbye. :(
Legally an adult, I walked to the gate by myself for the first time. My lonely walk was prolonged by the fact that my gate was like a mile away.
Unlike my flight to Chicago, which had 30 empty seats, the flight to Florida was jam packed. During the last hour of the flight I was able to enjoy a symphony composed of crying infants and excited toddlers. Thankfully, I was sitting in the middle of the plane instead of the back, which as I learned last summer, is a war zone.

After landing in Florida, I was hit with the post-stellar-weekend-vacation blues. I am totally thankful that my parents were able to buy me the plane ticket, but I was saddened by the fact that I had school the next day, as well as 120 days after that. Three and a half months. I can do this.

Before I end this blog, I would like to give a SHOUT-OUT to Tia Sarh for her total awesomeness. Thank-you for feeding me delicious food, taking me to Trader Joe's for the first time (I have been dying to go there), listening to my rambling, buying me a sweater and gloves from North Face so I wouldn't die of hypothermia, not dropping me off at the train station to fend for myself, walking me through the train commuting process, visiting Columbia College with me, buying me a super cute shirt from New York & Co., the list goes on and on.
I would also like to thank Tia Alicia and Tio Arturo for cooking me some delicious food :)  and Daniel for being so intellectual at the age of two.
Hopefully I won't be recovering from an injury next time I come up to IL, so that I enjoy the beautiful running trails and routes up there. Chicago is known as a running city after all.



View of the sunrise from Tia Sarah's balcony