Vacation Day

I have this week off of school, but since yesterday was a holiday, today felt like my first day of vacation.  I celebrated with brunch with Kate at Bongo Room, which was so much fun.  In addition to not doing housework or laundry during the first trimester, I did no socializing of any kind.  Seeing Kate and catching up was wonderful.  So was breakfast.  I love enjoying eating again!  

This afternoon, I decided to check out our brand new Whole Foods.  

The one closest to home on North Avenue (the one with rats) closed and just across the street opened the third largest Whole Foods in the world, behind only Austin, the flagship store, and London.  The new Chicago store is over 75,000 feet- that's enormous!  It includes 4 or 5 restaurants and more prepared food and salad bars than in one of those all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet restaurants.  (Dad, just check out the coffee bar photo below!)  Just as important in the city, it has free parking.  In addition to my food purchases, I picked up two tomato plants and some herbs to plant in my patio garden.  I'll have to do the planting later this week though, since it started to rain by the time I got them home.  Overall, I have mixed feelings on the new giant Whole Foods.  I'm excited for a larger selection, but I'm nervous that because it's big and shiny and new, everyone and their 12 brothers will be there every weekend.  I might have to keep stopping at the Whole Foods in north Chicago on my commute home to find a better combination of selection and crowd control.  For a Tuesday afternoon, though, it was a fantastic trip.