Hey friends! I had a special treat this weekend: my grad school friend Lauren was in town visiting me and our other grad school buddy Steph! It’s been so fun having her here! 🙂
We kicked things off on Friday with a fun dinner out, just the 3 of us, at Cava in Arlington. We got a billion things and shared them all – my favorite was the fried chicken with yogurt and honey – sooo good!
On Saturday, I woke up a bit earlier than Lauren so I had a waffle with some PB and banana while reading an interesting article in Today’s Dietitian magazine about sports dietitians who work with elite athletes/sports teams.
Then, it was workout time! Steph and Lauren wanted to go to Soul Cycle, which worked out well because I had plans to get in a long run (my last one before the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler next weekend)! So we divided and conquered. 🙂
I dropped Lauren off at Steph’s place and then met up with my college friends Sarah and Kathleen for our run date, starting at the Georgetown waterfront!
Our mission: check out the cherry blossoms! We headed straight over there and when we arrived around 9:30 it wasn’t too crowded yet, so we took advantage by getting some pictures and walking around a bit. Yay!
The blossoms aren’t quite as gorgeous this year as usual because the snow/freezing temps last week killed some of them, but they still look pretty and were worth a visit. 🙂 Running the cherry blossoms is one of our favorite traditions!
From there, we ran all along Hains Point to get in some extra miles. It was pretty warm out so it didn’t feel super easy, but having two of my faves by my side still made the miles fun. 🙂 By the time we made it back to the tidal basin quite awhile later, it was sooooo crowded. Yikes!
It was not our fastest run due to the various photo stops and crowds, but whatever! 8 miles – check! Thanks for the company, my friends!
After the run, I said goodbye to Kathleen and Sarah and met back up with Lauren, Steph, and one of Steph’s friends for brunch! Since we had some time, we decided to try to brave the crowds and go to the epic brunch buffet at Farmers, Fishers, Bakers on the Georgetown Waterfront. Lucky for us, we didn’t end up having to wait too long! I was so excited – I hadn’t been there for brunch in ages!
I put together a massive plate of various salads, a ton of guac, chips, some buried pulled pork and Mexican-ish beans, and an omelette. Delicious!
But the highlight, as always, was their cinnamon rolls that they bring around to all the tables! I LOVE their cinnamon rolls – hit the spot. And lucky for me, one of the others didn’t want her half so I got a whole cinnamon roll. 😉
After coming home and cleaning up a bit, Lauren, Matt, our friend Shane, and I met back up with Steph and her husband Tom and all went for a low key hike! It was a lovely, warm day so we wanted to take advantage. We hit up Scott’s Run Nature Preserve, one of our local faves. Group selfie!
You guys know I never turn down the opportunity for a walk in the woods. 🙂
After the hike, all of us plus another friend, Matt, hit up Citizen Burger Bar in Clarendon for an early dinner. I’m obsessed with this place – their burgers are soooo good. And so are their sweet potato fries! I built my own burger which was grass fed beef + bacon + pickles + mushrooms + cheddar cheese + ketchup/mustard/bbq sauce + a truffled brioche bun. Perfect!
We spent the rest of the night enjoying some adult beverages on our deck!
On Sunday morning, we all slept in and then I made oatmeal for me and Lauren. It was chilly and gray out – perfect oatmeal day! This was my perfect microwave banana oatmeal but made on the stovetop (constantly stirred) instead of in the microwave, which was a nice treat. I topped it with some almond butter, slivered almonds, and berries.
Then, Lauren and I went to yoga at Edge Yoga, my local fave. We went to Rebecca’s 10:30 class – I hadn’t been to one of Rebecca’s classes in ages and forgot how much I liked her classes! Felt good to stretch after all the activity the day before. I wore a new tank top my sister-in-law sent me. 😉 (The pic is from Java Shack, where we grabbed post-yoga lattes!)
After yoga + lattes, we met up with Steph and walked to Clarendon for brunch at Le Pain Quotidien. I had a side salad and avocado toast with smoked salmon. (Speaking of, in case you missed it, check out my avocado toast recipes post from Thursday!)
As for the rest of yesterday, Lauren met up with her aunt for dinner, so I got some work done and then Matt and I had a low key dinner at home. Neither of us felt like cooking so we picked up food at Caribbean Grill, which is a tiny place in a little strip mall off Lee Highway that has really good Peruvian chicken. It’s one of our go-to takeout options. 🙂 We always get the “value family meal”, which is a whole chicken with 4 sides – normally we get 2 black beans, 1 rice, and 1 veggies, but this time we got 3 black beans and 1 veggie because we had some leftover rice at home to use up. Yum! Their veggies are just steamed veggies which isn’t the most exciting, but it does the job, and the chicken/beans are soooo good.
So there you have it! A really fun weekend. And yes, I realize we ate every single meal (except breakfast) out. 🙂
I hope you had a great weekend, everyone! Any other DC readers get in a cherry blossom run? And non-DC readers – tell me about the fun workout you did or the best thing you ate!
Lauren doesn’t fly out until later today (yay!), so I’m taking most of today off so we can hang. 🙂 First on the agenda is a re-do of the cherry blossom run (but a short mini version) so she can see them, too! Will be nice to see them with less crowds. 🙂
Have a great day guys!
