I had such a happy, busy few days this past weekend when I took a road trip with my roommate to Washington D.C. to catch up with some of our friends. The drive took us 6 hours due to the traffic we hit near the New Jersey turnpike, but the travel time was worth it.
We set out on Friday morning around 9:45am; Maeve drove from her house in Massachusetts to pick me up on the way to D.C. We spent the first few hours of the trip just chatting and catching up about our lives. Later on, we moved on to listening to hour long playlists that I put together on the spot with favorites from Spotify. The artists ranged from old Taylor Swift to Chance the Rapper, SZA, Lorde, Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator, Clairo, Billie Eilish, Daniel Caesar, Kehlani, and many more.
When we arrived in D.C. around 5:30pm we were exhausted. We went straight to my grandparents house in Bethesda, Maryland to set down my stuff and recuperate for a few minutes. From there, we drove a short ways to my friend Emaan’s apartment in Maryland to pick her up for dinner. We brought her sunflowers as a surprise and headed to Maggianos to eat pasta: our first real meal of the day. I felt so happy to be with them since Maeve and Emaan are two of my closest friends. We had the best time at dinner and ate a ridiculous amount of bread haha. Emaan and I had spaghetti with sauce and Maeve had pasta with alfredo.
Afterwards, we picked up Maverick, one of Maeve’s friends from crew and headed to her friend Sophie’s house in Virginia to hang out with some more people. At Sophie’s we met up with one of our other friends: Julie and met some AU ambassadors who Sophie was friends with, as well as her brother and his friends from work at Georgetown Cupcake. We left around 11pm, so Maeve could drop us all off at our respective houses/apartments. I went right to bed that night.
The following morning, I had my grandparents drop me off at Open City at The National Cathedral at 11am after having morning coffee with them to meet my Big and GBig from my sorority for brunch. I felt so warm and happy getting to see them and hear about their summers, since I feel like we are all kindred spirits and have a lot in common. We decided to start a book club over breakfast and brainstormed what would potentially read. I ate an acai bowl, Anying had avocado toast, and Emma had French toast with avocado, tomato, and bacon on top. The food was all delicious and I loved spending the first few hours of the morning together.
After we parted ways, I walked down Macomb Street toward AU’s campus in search of friends. On the way there, I spotted my friends Gus and Jeremy at Cactus Cantina, so I stopped to chat with them after they ate. We went to the nearby Giant after they finished and I helped them grocery shop. Maeve met us there and we went back to their apartment in her car to hang out awhile longer. Past 2pm, Maeve and I departed back to Open City to meet my good friend Akosua for coffee. I loved seeing her and hearing about her post grad life and new job at a law office.
Once the three of us went our separate ways, Maeve and I met Sophie and Julie at Julie’s apartment to figure out the plan for the rest of the day. We decided on a Georgetown trip for Kung Fu Tea and cupcakes. Finding parking in Georgetown took us awhile, but we ended up in a space near the waterfront. Kung Fu Tea was very busy since the day was so hot and humid. I got an iced green tea, less sweet without bubbles or anything in it. The other girls got bubble teas of different varieties. We then walked over to Georgetown Cupcakes and cut the line to get free cupcakes of our choice because Sophie’s brother is an employee. I got my favorite: a red velvet. We carried the cupcakes down with us to the waterfront and ate on the grass looking out at the view. We stayed there for quite sometime soaking in the beautiful day and talking.
People started getting hungry around then since it was past 6:30pm, so we drove to pick up Emaan at her apartment and go to Sakuramen for dinner. The wait for ramen was pretty long since Sakuramen is popular and it was prime time for dinner, but we eventually got all 6 of us a table. I ordered beef ramen and it was delicious, exactly what I needed after a long day. Maeve dropped me back at my house before taking home the others. It was around 10:30pm at that point and I went to bed almost immediately.
The following morning I woke up with plans to meet my friend Eliza for breakfast. I had my grandparents drop me off on AU’s campus at 10:30am and from there I walked down to her apartment nearby. We ended up ordering food from our favorite vegan place: Shouk (I got the vegan burger and she got a salad) and eating on the floor of her living room. We caught each other up on our lives and even watched Ratatouille for awhile (a classic animated film). 
I spent my last few hours in D.C. before my flight having coffee with Emaan, Maeve, and Julie at Politics and Prose, a favorite coffee shop in Tenleytown area. I caught a flight home to CT that day around 5:00pm and was home by 7:30pm to see my mom and sister.
This past weekend left me feeling revitalized and excited to go back to school. I forget how much I miss the city and my friends from school. This summer has been relaxing and a wonderful break for me, but I’m itching to do more and get back to the hustle and bustle of college 🙂
The Bucketlister 