drinks, dogs and DC

The DIY floor construction project had begun at home, which was my signal to pack up and get out!

With a suitcase filled with way more clothes and shoes (6 pairs to be exact) than one girl needs for a weekend trip, Izzy and I began our journey to Washington DC Friday afternoon. The drive took a little longer than I expected due to the rush hour traffic out of Pittsburgh and the nice site-seeing tour my GPS took me on through downtown DC but we finally arrived at Lisa and her boyfriend Adam's place in Arlington, VA.

 After hugs, catch-up story telling, watching Izzy steal all of Daisy's toys, and a bottle of wine later, we decided to venture out to the local watering hole, The Liberty Tavern. This place is pretty cool.
In typical fashion we start talking to randoms about Pittsburgh sports, everyone has a connection to the three rivers somehow. We were just about to interrogate the quiet guy in the group for every last detail of his planned wedding proposal when we decided it was a good time to head home and spare mercy on him. Why is it we love to hear details about a proposal for someone we don't even know!

Saturday morning while we anxiously awaited the arrival of Rebecca and Jess, we took our furry babies for a walk around the neighborhood. It was the perfect Fall day and several people were out decorating their houses and yards for Halloween.

Many had the traditional pumpkins and gourds lining their steps and walkways but others took it to the extreme! This house actually tows a hearse from 3 hours away to put in their yard! They decorate their front and back yards with all sorts of goblins and ghouls. Last year they had over 700 trick or treaters!!

Can you imagine how much candy they have to buy?!












We made it back to the house just in time for the girls to arrive! Laughing so hard tears were coming down their faces, we thought they were just really happy to see us but no, they were actually cracking up from this news video that went viral featuring a lady named Sweet Brown. The way she describes her escape from the fire is just incredible. Thank goodness she is OK!

From then on the the phrases "the smoke got me!" and "ain't nobody got time for dat!" were part of every conversation this weekend and probably will be for many months to come!

For brunch, Lisa made reservations in Georgetown at place called Clydes. Anyone that has been to G-town knows it's pretty crowded and on a gorgeous Saturday, it felt like the entire city was out and about! I ordered a Midnight Mimosa which was a delicious twist on a regular mimosa with champagne, chambord, pineapple juice... yummm and the Eggs Chesapeake (poached egges, petit jumbo lump crab cakes on an english muffin topped with old bay hollandaise sauce)... SO GOOD!
I highly recommend this place if you are ever in DC.

Once our bellies were full we decided to do some window shopping checking out lots of cute specialty shops. Being serenaded by a homeless man and a bag pipe wedding parade provided the perfect sound track to this little adventure :) 

After a few hours of walking around, we were getting tired and figured it was probably a good idea to relieve Adam from watching the two dogs. So we headed home to chill out for a bit before we hit the town again later that night for drinks @ Circa.

Sunday we all went to the Leesburg outlets since it was on our way back to Pittsburgh. I was really excited when I read online that they were "dog friendly". Shopping! and with Izzy!! And while it is true you can bring your dog and walk around outside, I discovered you cannot bring them inside.
Bubble burst.
I'm confused, wouldn't this make every shopping center dog friendly?!?!

Anyway, that cut my shopping trip short which was probably a good thing since we're trying to save money for this house we're going to buy some day... Sigh. So it was back to Pittsburgh for me, which I was super excited about to see my new floors! (Stay tuned for my next post!)

Ok so I know you are waiting for the wild and crazy part, and if this was a few years ago, my girl trip stories would probably be a little more exciting to read, but the fact is we're growing up.
And I am OK with that.

Don't get me wrong, we still have our wild and crazy times, but they are becoming less frequent.
Just hanging out with each other and catching up over wine and cheese is just as fun.
Often times a lot of wine and cheese!

Life is just so busy with everything else that finding the time to unwind with our friends seems to take a back burner but it's so necessary!
This weekend we spent hours laughing until our stomachs hurt, re-hashing stories from the good ole days and sharing dreams of what is still to come. Quality girl time is good for the soul and sanity!
I realize trips like this will become less frequent as everyone settles down, starts having kids, and continues to grow up so I'm going to enjoy it while I can.




Years from now we'll be looking back on these days and wishing we could do it again, but we'll be saying "Ain't nobody got time for dat!" 

Thanks Lisa for an awesome weekend!
Hopefully we'll be back soon!