A Mini Reunion

Last night Derek and I had some good laughs reminiscing about our good ole days at FSU over dinner. We traded off old roommate and dorm room horror stories (admit it – we all have some!) and tried to share some of the good ones too. It was during one of the good stories – when Derek’s dad asked who I roomed with in college – that it clicked that my old roommate Erin lives in Atlanta.

Erin and I were random suitemates at Sally Hall our freshmen year and continued to live together the remaining three years of school (minus sophomore year). She moved back home to Jacksonville after we graduated and just recently started calling Atlanta home. We don’t get to see each other as often as we should, but we do talk on the phone regularly and I miss her to pieces!

After a quick text during dinner, I discovered Erin lives about a mile from our hotel and was free for a very quick reunion before we had to call it a night. It’s crazy, even though I hadn’t seen Erin in person in nearly two years, it was as if nothing had changed. We still had so much to say to each other and our hour-lonng chat fest went way too fast. I think that’s the sign of a good friend – when you can go so long without seeing them, yet have no trouble picking back up exactly where you left off. Even though so much has changed since we were both roommates at FSU, it felt as if nothing had really changed at all.

During our chat, Erin assured me it was safe to run around this part of town. She helped me mentally map out a route and told me to watch out for the hills. It would have been fun if we could have run together (like we once did in Tallahassee), but Erin had an early doctor’s appointment that she had to fast for. Dratz. I’ll just have to come back to Atlanta so we can try it again!

I wasn’t really sure how far I wanted to go this morning. All I knew was that I wanted to run – I figured I would see where the roads would take me. I brought my phone and really relied on my maps app to see me through. Thanks to the maps app I was able to do more of a loop around the area, instead of being forced into an out and back with a fear of somehow getting lost along the way.

It was a GORGEOUS morning to run.

Once the sun started to rise, I was able to get a good look of all the beautiful flowers that are currently in full bloom around the south. Everything was so full of color and life, spring has definitely sprung around here.

The flowers were a great distraction from some of the fun hills I had to face along the way. They weren’t terrible, but I could definitely feel the difference between running here and super flat Florida. I guess I can say I got my hill training in for the week.

In the end, I returned to the hotel with just over 6.5 miles done for the day. Not bad for being in a new area and so far from home. Not bad at all.

I snacked on some dried mango to hold me over until our late brunch with Derek’s Papi. We had a 10:00am date at the Flying Biscuit and I knew I wanted to arrive ready to eat.

I’ve read great things about The Flying Biscuit from other bloggers, but this was my first time paying one a visit. It was just as vibrant and colorful as I was expecting. Such a fun and happy place to eat.

By the time we did sit down and were ready to order, I was more than ready to eat. I couldn’t decide if I wanted savory or sweet, so I went with a little bit of both.

The two scrambled eggs and whole wheat biscuit were my savory.

And the berry parfait was my sweet.

Everything was just as delicious as it looked. My favorite was the whole wheat biscuit. It wasn’t your dry run-of-the-mill biscuit. It was doughy and faintly sweet. I loved it and could have easily ate two or three.

The parfait + biscuit + eggs filled me right up. Here we are, 4 hours later, and I still feel stuffed. So. Good.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Derek’s Papi.

Papi has quite the stories to tell from his 80+ years on this earth. For instance, I already knew that Papi originally hailed from Honduras, but I didn’t know he met Derek’s YaYa (grandmother) when he was 25 and YaYa was 31 – a full 6 years older than him (I kept joking that he caught the original cougar). They moved to the U.S. after they were married and settled in Florida for the next thirty-somethin’ years. He still has a slight honduran accent and Derek had fun speaking a little spanish with him.

We did a little shopping with Papi after brunch, but have now settled back in the hotel room for some afternoon naps. While they nap, I’m going to take advantage of the free time by getting some work done.

It’s a beautiful day here – I hope the sun is shining where you are too!