On Saturday morning (around 5am), I left for a girls weekend in Washington DC with Kelly and Cari while Chris stayed in NC working on a little project of his own (more about that later). It only took me 4 ½ hours to make the trip to Tysons Corner where our hotel was located so I was there by 9:30am. Kelly and I had requested an early check in and surprisingly our room was ready for us! We had breakfast at the hotel and then took the Metro into the heart of DC to the National Mall (think US Capitol Building, Washington Monument and the Smithsonian, not shopping). When we got off the Metro it was hot, really hot so we took advantage of the free AC in some of the 17 buildings of the Smithsonian! We were able to enjoy the Hope Diamond and plenty of art (both contemporary and traditional). My favorite stop was to see the giant Alexander Calder mobile in the lobby of the I. M. Pei building. I’m always amazed at the balance of his work as it seems to be free floating and light while made of brightly painted metal.
After Kelly and I had enough of the art and the heat, we boarded the Metro to U Street, a historical neighborhood that is being revived with lots of unique shopping and restaurants. While there, we stopped for made from scratch cupcakes at Cake Love Bakery and walked around the neighborhood enjoying the vibe and great architectural details in the row houses. I brought two cupcakes home for Chris to enjoy as his trip treat (I always buy him a little gift when I go out of town).
We returned to our hotel shortly after Cari arrived from Japan so the first thing we did was run to her room for hugs, after all we hadn’t seen her in almost a year! Then we caught up, showered and all three of us went out to dinner at Brio Italian Restaurant in the mall. I had a delicious shrimp risotto and we planned our excursion for the next day, shopping! After dinner, we went back to the hotel and talked until we could barely stay awake which was around midnight…remember Kelly and I had been up since 4am and Cari just completed a trans-Atlantic flight.
On Sunday, we met for breakfast and Kelly and I packed our bags then we hit the mall. Cari doesn’t get many opportunities to shop in Japan because she lives on a relatively small Navy Base so we caught her up on all of the newest trends and our favorite new products. Kelly and I were completely surprised to find a LUSH store in the Tysons Corner Mall. LUSH is an all-natural beauty product company that we fell in love with in London a couple of years ago and they are now branching out to the USA. Their signature product is a “bath bomb” which is the size of a tennis ball and completely dissolves in the bath to make a soothing soak. In true Sonya style, I bought three pairs of shoes on the trip….mainly for work! After a very productive afternoon of shopping, we grabbed a late lunch at a Thai restaurant and then parted our separate ways, Cari to a work conference at the hotel, Kelly home to Pittsburgh and I returned to NC. The trip home went pretty fast, I spent most of the time on the phone catching up with my friend Jen (who will be down to visit this summer) and then hit a massive rain storm about an hour from home but I got home safe and sound by 9pm.
The weekend reminded me how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends that will always be there for me, even if we only see each other every couple of months or years! I truly enjoyed spending time with Cari and Kelly and can’t wait to do so again….next summer in Italy!
And if you’ve been wondering what project Chris worked on while I was gone…he bought a 2008 Fat Bob Harley Davidson motorcycle in Pearl Blue. It is currently being customized at the factory and he is looking forward to riding it in a month or so when it is completed. He had the camera for the weekened for motorcylce comparison so photos will be added when I get copies from Kelly.
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