Sinéad’s Visit to Florida – Part 1

I am so behind on posting this, and that sort of happens a lot. I normally feel bad about it and offer a short apology or reason, but this time I’ll just be up front about what it is: I have a pretty terrible anxiety disorder, and it sometimes allows me to convince myself that the things I would write or share or post aren’t things people want to read or see or hear. I convince myself that I am awful and that everyone else thinks so too, and I struggle a lot with maintaining friendships and relationships with people because of it. I’m not saying this is something that happens all the time or that I need to be flooded with reassurances that I don’t suck (although sometimes I definitely do) – but it is something that often prevents me from doing normal things like making lunch plans with friends, leaving my apartment in general, asking for help when I need it or even something as personal or self-dictated as posting a blog entry.

With that admission, I will say that my anxiety is something I’m very aware of and work every day to overcome and be better than. It doesn’t always work but there are days – like today! – where I feel okay enough to write about the things I like and that make me happy, so now that that’s out of the way, here we go! 🙂

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Back in January, my wonderful friend Sinéad came to visit me! She and I met online over 10 years ago on a website called GreatestJournal, and we bonded over our love of books, Harry Potter, dyeing our hair and furry creatures. Back in 2011, she flew all the way from England to stay with me for a week and we had an amazing time baking cupcakes, listening to Britney Spears and visiting Harry Potter world. When she left it was with promises of returning, and I planned to eventually visit her as well!

2016 would be the year to finally reunite us, and I was so excited to pick Sinéad up from the airport again! We made plans to visit several nearby restaurants specializing in vegan food, a lifestyle change Sinéad made between our visits. I was really excited to try things I wouldn’t normally have and made it a point to have a vegan alternative to whatever I picked wherever possible! I’m going to break her visit into three parts since we took so many photos while she was here – I’ll start with the food first! 🙂

Vegan grilled cheese with sriracha and jalapenos @ Toasted – Crafted Grilled Cheese & Burgers in Winter Park

This sandwich was so good! It was super spicy and my stomach isn’t great with spicy things so I ended up not finishing the whole thing, but the taste was amaaaazing!

Snacks for theme park days from Trader Joe’s!

These snacks came in handy during our time spent out and about, and I also had some leftover after the trip so that I could have healthy stuff on the go for a few days longer!

Chipotle has a vegan option called sofritas which is shredded tofu marinated in spices and peppers. It’s really good, would recommend! If you like things spicier, you can add the hot or medium salsas. 🙂

All American “Burger”, tortilla chips & mango salsa @ Ethos Vegan Kitchen in Winter Park

Ethos is a restaurant I’d been wanting to try for awhile but never got around to actually visiting – when Sinéad suggested it, I jumped at the chance!

I got a vegan burger that legitimately tasted like any other normal burger and she got a chickpea salad sandwich that inspired a recipe post I’ll be sharing soon. 🙂

We also got super lucky and ended up going to eat there on their anniversary, so we each got a free craft beer as well as an in-house bakery made vegan sugar cookie (which was a lot of sweetness after our delicious sundaes!).

I’ve been to Ethos twice since and each time I’ve gotten something different and it hasn’t disappointed!