This morning, after a quick bowl of Special K fruit & yogurt (with a sliced ‘naner on top), I headed out for a run on my usual 5-mile route. Besides the occasional “misting,” the workout went well. Thanks, Rascal Flatts & Lupe for powering me through it! I’m hoping to build back some speed this summer, as well as endurance. Let’s see if I can manage that, k?
After a quick shower and prepping myself to not look like a sweaty hot mess, I got picked up by my hot lunch date: Julie! For those of you who don’t know, I roomed with Julie for 4 months in Rome last semester when we studied abroad. We saw each other a lottttttt, but after almost 2 weeks apart, we were missin’ each other and decided to get together for a lunch date (good thing we live less than 2 minutes apart by car).
Per Julie’s mom’s smart recommendation, we dined at Restoration Gardens, a cute garden/cafe combo with plants to peruse and dishes to devour.
The interior of the cafe isn’t all that large, but the atmosphere is comfortable and relaxing. Quaint & cozy — and that’s all I need!
Like my friend Liza, I have the tendency to check out the menu of a restaurant online before I go out to eat, so naturally, I headed to their site earlier today to see what caught my eye.
I decided quickly I’d get the Chicken Salad Sandwich — and that’s saying something since it usually takes me ages to finalize my order at a restaurant! (“Um…can you come back in like 5 minutes? I just need a little bit more time…”)
Chunks of tender chicken combined with cranberries, pecans, red onion, celery, and mixed greens, all resting atop eight-grain bread. Not only was this sandwich delicious, but the portion is generous — even enough to take home for tomorrow’s lunch, in fact 🙂
Oh, and just when I thought this couldn’t get better…I discovered the unbelievably crunchy kettle chips underneath the sandwich halves. Why hellllllooooo there! I know I just said yesterday the only chips I really like are Sun Chips, but can I please add extremely crunchy (with tons of folds, if ya know what I mean) kettle chips to the list?
Julie chose the California Turkey: shaved turkey with guac, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, provolone cheese, mixed greens, and applewood smoked bacon on French Bread.
After hearing great things about this place, it definitely lived up to its expectations. We both loved our sandwiches and would recommend this place in a heartbeat.
Sandwiches make me happy!
After catching up on our days apart, Julie and I headed outside to look at the flowers:
While there were still some pretty geraniums (see Jules? I know a flower type), the disgustingly cold Wisconsin weather (even in May!) has prevented the flowers around town from really being their most gorgeous. Oh, well. I’m sure they’ll bloom sometime this summer — like around late July, perhaps? 🙂
A perfect lunch date with one of my favorites. Don’t you just love when fun things pop up during the week…and not just on the weekends?
Now, I’ve gotta go clean up all my junk lying around and see if there’s anything my mom needs help with before the relatives come over tonight.
Lata gatas!
ciaotochow 
Both of those sandwiches made me salivate (is that too much info?). I need to bring sandwiches back into my life