I write this as I’m currently sitting 30,000 feet above ground on a flight en route from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. It’s a bittersweet flight because although I’m returning home (yay bed!) it also means leaving my honey buns. The lovebirds sitting next to me are not helping me feel any better. Please stop making out. kthanks. Benjamin left home about a month ago and won’t return until Christmas. I keep telling myself: it’s only 5 months! You made it through the first month and you’re still alive! But god, Christmas?! That just seems light years away. Hell, summer hasn’t even hit Southern California yet. I still have all of summer, fall, and winter to get through. If you’ve lived/been anywhere near the beach in Southern California in the month of June you will know the awful phenomenon known as “June gloom”. It’s like the world said, “hey, San Diego we know you’re great and all and you moved here for the sunshine but June is going to be the most overcast, disgusting month of the year.”
But, as with any year it eventually clears sometime in July and summer finally hits. It’s a strange feeling not being on summer vacation. My first year out of college and I’ve done a decent job adjusting but I have been getting far antsier than usual at work pretty much every day after lunch. I’m happy to have work and plenty of activities outside of work (including but not limited to barre workout classes, nordstrom rack hunting, and cooking elaborate meals and yes sometimes cookies for myself). In case you’re wondering why Benjamin would just up and leave our life you have to know it wasn’t out of choice. He’s at the point in his career where he needs to complete 6 months of officer related training at a school in Virginia, just outside of D.C. So he packed and off he went in June. Thankfully, I will have the opportunity to visit him a few times while he’s out there so it won’t be quite as miserable as a deployment but it is somewhat similar.
This past holiday weekend his parents offered to fly me out (thanks Karen and John!!!) and allow us to spend the weekend together. We had an absolute blast in a whirlwind of 2 days. I hopped on a red eye Thursday night and after a 2.5 hour delay ended up landing at about 8 am Friday morning. I have no shame in admitting that I’m a 3 year old living in a 25 year old woman’s body and brought my down blanket on the plane with me. And yes, that sucker did take about about two thirds of my luggage. Don’t judge me.
We ended up grabbing bagels for a quick breakfast before checking in to the hotel and passing out for over two hours. Feeling refreshed we got dressed and headed out to explore the city; we were in the nation’s Capitol on the 4th of July after all! Thanks to a few missed google searches and statements of “oh, I think this way looks good…” we ended up lost looking for the metro station. Not to worry, we soon found our way. Metro passes ended up being a great buy as ended up traveling a little more than anticipated. By late afternoon we made it to the Capitol, Supreme Court, and the botanical gardens. Like a cat in the lazy afternoon sun we sat and soaked it all in from a bench in the gardens. It was that time of day where the sun is sitting low and all you want to do is close your eyes and smile.
We left around 8:30 to head to Chinatown where I had found a fantastic restaurant. Unfortunately I didn’t account for the holiday and we walked up to find the place was closed. So we went for option 2: a tapas restaurant, my first actually. We had raspberry mango sangria, duck, bacon wrapped dates, lambchops with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, salmon stuffed with shrimp and a green asparagus purée, and topped it all off with a dessert concoction served in a martini glass. While the service left much to be desired the food was delicious. I’ve come to realize that eating is one of my/our favorite pastimes. Haha. We were so busy eating that we missed the fireworks! I managed to see a few as we were walking back to the hotel but we missed the grand show. The next day we took advantage of the hotel’s free breakfast before heading to some shops in Georgetown. All I can say is wow! I ADORED the neighborhood and the Main Street having all of my favorite stores was the cherry on top. Benjamin checked a real estate listing to find a 10 bedroom home in the area going for a whopping $22,000,000. Ha, dream on Viktoria! After Georgetown someone talked Benjamin into checking out a sale at nordstrom rack (additional 25% off all clearance!). We then changed and headed out to our last dinner which was an absolute blast. Great food, fun atmosphere and excellent service. What more can you ask for?
I can’t say enough good things about this trip it was such a welcome vacation. I know the next few months will be tough but at least I’ve got my blog to keep me company. Right??? 🙂
the little bits 