Hey guys! I hope you had nice weekends! Matt was out of town on his annual canoe/camping trip with his buddies, so it was just me and the dogs. One of my best friends from college, Turner (real name is Laura… that’s her nickname), was in town for work last week, though, so she stuck around until Saturday afternoon which was fun!
On Friday night after work, we enjoyed some pizza al fresco at Faccia Luna in Clarendon.
Plus starter salads!
We hung out at home after dinner and watched “Me Before You”… cheesy but pretty good. I read the book awhile ago which was really good!
On Saturday, we took the dogs for a nice long walk (it was nice and cool out – what a treat!) and then hit up a yoga class before grabbing brunch at Café Kindred in Falls Church. Love this place!
I had their deconstructed avocado toast with fried eggs (and I added some sauteed spinach). Delicious! Plus a half decaf latte. 🙂
I was sad to say goodbye to Turner that afternoon – until next time, my friend! Also, next time we need to remember to get a photo of us – oh well!
I took the dogs to the dark park for awhile in the afternoon and then my mom and I had a fun girl’s night out planned, starting with dinner in Georgetown at a cute spot called Ristorante Piccolo. I had their mixed greens to start which were really good – yummy balsamic dressing! My mom had a fun fennel, apple, and walnut salad which was also great.
I really wanted the lobster ravioli for my main course but they were out – noooo!!! So sad. So, I went for the lasagna bolognese, which was MASSIVE but yummy. Plus another side of sauteed spinach to get in more greens – I love sauteed spinach with pasta.
After dinner, we walked over to Halcyon House, a cool incubator for social entrepreneurs, for a special event: a screening of the documentary Somaliland, which my good friend from high school, Ben Powell, co-directed. He has spent years working on this film and I was so thrilled to finally be able to see it.
Somaliland is a feature-length documentary about five Somali students applying to U.S. universities from the unrecognized country of Somaliland. They seek the best educations in the world in order to develop their nation in the future, but for over 30 years, no students from Somaliland have been accepted to American universities. The students all hail from Abaarso School, a new American-run high school founded by a former hedge fund manager with no experience in education. My friend Ben first found out about the school because his friend Harry (who co-directed the film with him) taught there awhile ago.
The documentary was amazing – really well done and extremely inspiring. They hosted a panel following the film which included a couple of the Somaliland students featured in the film, as well as both of the directors and the founder of the school. It was really interesting to hear from them. I hope this film spreads far and wide – its message is so important.
On Sunday, it was an absolutely beautiful morning so I decided to brave taking both dogs out for a solo hike! We hit up a pretty trail along the Potomac River in Virginia that I know is not very crowded – perfect.
The weather was in the 60’s – what a treat! All of us were much more energized as a result. 🙂
We made it farther out on the trail than we have in the past, in part because I was in the mood to do a little trail jogging and the dogs were happy to oblige! You guys – it felt sooo good to run and bit and get some nice endorphins in the mix. Surprisingly, the running felt good – I don’t know if the baby has moved and is in a less awkward position for running, or if it was because I was on soft trail vs. pavement, or if it was the much cooler weather – or maybe all of that? But for whatever reason it felt good and I might try to incorporate a little more jogging on trails into my weekly routine, because I’ve been missing running SO much. Nothing else compares as stress relief – I was literally smiling at one point while out there jogging.
We did a mix of jogging and walking, depending on the terrain. At one point near the turnaround point it was really overgrown but we had nice views of the kayakers – cool!
When we were almost back, though, Ashe must have stumbled into a nest of some sort – I think it might have been hornets, or wasps? Whatever it was, they DESTROYED us. I saw Ashe start to flip out and then all of a sudden all 3 of us were swarmed – I was screaming and trying to run away while calling the dogs to come with me. It was total mayhem. I think I got stung 6 or 7 times – man those things hurt! They still sting a bit today, and are getting kind of itchy, too, but thankfully I’m not allergic. I definitely spent some time Googling “wasp sting while pregnant” and “wasp stings on dogs” when back at the car, though, just to be safe! Yikes.
After I got home and got the dogs cleaned up I threw together lunch – some leftover quinoa lentil salad atop greens, plus some yogurt and peach.
We all spent the afternoon relaxing – here’s a photo of miss Zara enjoying the nice weather from the open windowsill for those of you who are cat fans! The dogs and Zara are officially cool now, which is really nice. She can come and go and they don’t really bother her anymore. Whew!
As for last night, Matt didn’t get home until late, so I had one more girl’s night – this time with my friend Jackie! Jackie saw my recent craving for nachos noted in my 24 week pregnancy update post and offered to help me crush said craving – thanks girl. 😉 We hit up Screwtop in Clarendon – their nachos are soooo good.
We started with the nachos and then got salads to round out the meal. I was really excited when I saw an arugula, feta, and watermelon salad on the menu, but sadly this salad was not good – it was just a HUGE pile of arugula with basically no dressing and like 4 pieces of watermelon. Bummer! I didn’t eat much of it – oh well.
The dogs and I were so excited when Matt got home last night! He left super early on Friday (before we were awake) and was out of cell service all weekend, so it feels like it has been ages. Good to have him back. 🙂
Have a great day guys!
