Happy Tropical Storm Memorial Day!

I'm back home and enjoying having all of my personal belongings in the room with me.  There's nothing like realizing you used all of your clean clothes and don't have the time to make the trip back home to get more.  Or forgot your ballet shoes and have to teach 3 ballet classes.  Or forgot your phone charger at home.  I guess I'm not a great packer?  I either pack nothing... or this happens

Yeah...

I have nothing planned for today and it is wonderful!  I work most weekends which means I rarely have a whole day off.  Originally, I wanted to do something OUTSIDE like beach, pool, long bike ride, some trail walking/bike riding, etc BUT all of my outside plans have been derailed by Tropical Storm Beryl.  It's not always fun living in Florida.  Hurricane season is upon us which means lots of rain. 

Rainy day means I've spent a good deal of time in bed, slept in, finally woke up to make it to circuit training.  Ran a couple of treadmill miles after class and have basically done nothing else but lay in bed reading and drinking coffee.  My kind of day :) for one day anyways.

Last week I had a great time getting in my daily walks cause I got to walk on this beautiful trail

I love running alone but I get out of my mind bored while walking by myself, but not when I get to walk trails

I did not enjoy running last week though.  I thought it would be great, since I was closer to where I work, I thought I would have time to run outside and I was really looking forward to it. 

Well, I found out that when I run unfamiliar routes the miles seem much longer to me.  So, a 6 mile run feels more like 8.  I think maybe that's why races seem so much harder to me even though I usually run slower than my training pace.  

After my crazy week I was SOOO looking forward to this long weekend to just kind of rest and recuperate.  Saturday was my birthday and I had a nice, low key day.  Birthdays are one of the few occasions where I can convince the family to come with me to fun local restaurants.  We tried out a place I had never been to before called Civilization. 

Everyone decided to get something different so we could try a little of everyone's dinner.

I ended up with two appetizers:

Pakora Chickpea, fresh spinach & onion
fritters."Served with cilantro chutney

And

Chole! (Chō - lay) Curried chickpeas & tomatoes
with fresh cilantro and flatbread.

The pakora was soooo good.  I really liked the chole too but would probably not order it again.

My sister, Rachel, got the sweet potato enchiladas.  I think her meal was my favorite of all the meals that we ordered. 

Sweet Potato Enchiladas Sweet potato,
spinach, avocado, cheddar, & rice baked in a flour
tortilla. Topped with tomatillo cream sauce &
served with black beans.

My dad ordered one of the specials for the night so I don't have a description but he ended up with Pumpkin Lasagna.  It had a mixture of pumpkin and butternut squash as the filling.  The dish had cheese so it was not vegan but I'm pretty sure if we go again and they are offering it as a special I should just order it and pretend it doesn't have any cheese.  It was mouthwatering delicious.

My mom ended up with roasted veggies and fried polenta.

Roasted Vegetables with Fried Polenta
Fresh vegetables marinated & roasted in olive oil,
balsamic vinegar, & herbs over crisp fried polenta
cakes. Topped with house made tomato caper
sauce & broiled mozzarella cheese.

Very very good.  Difficult to choose what you're going to order if you don't get to sample some of everyone else's meal.

I will definitely be back.

Good food, good company = good birthday :)