Sister Weekend in DC!
About 2 weeks ago my sister Steph visited me for a long-weekend in DC and it was probably my favorite time spent with her in the last couple years!
She showed up at our door on Thursday night in her tie-dye sweatsuit and sherpa coat, ready to take on DC.
Friday
Peter spent the first part of the weekend at his grandma’s which meant Steph and I explored on our own! I made us reservations for dinner at Succotash, an aesthetically pleasing downtown spot with flavorful southern food that completely lived up to the hype.
Steph turned 21 in October, and being that we live in different states, we haven’t spent much time in bars together, so being able to cheers our cocktails and savor adulthood felt surreal. Of course, we opted for fried green beans and deviled eggs to start, followed by salmon for Steph and charcuterie for me.
Saturday
We leisurely headed towards Georgetown, making our first stop of the day at Blue Bottle Coffee where I eagerly watched Steph enjoy her first sip of the New Orleans iced coffee with oat milk, arguably my favorite coffee in the world. She gave it an 8.5/10!
Unfortunately the chilly temps were more bitter than expected, a problem that we solved with a quick stop at H&M where we picked up sweaters and jackets to layer beneath our outfits. The security guard dubbed us “Real Housewives of Georgetown” on our way out.
Ever since Peter and I found the best hole-in-the-wall gyro in the city (District City Chicken & Gyro), it feels so wrong to visit Georgetown and bypass the shop. Almost disrespectful. So, after stopping in a few more shops, we needed to swing by the gyro place - I say needed because again, it would just be wrong not to. We split a gyro and sat in the windowsill of this tiny restaurant (if you can call it that lol) chatting about Lord knows what.
The good thing about Georgetown is that on a nice day, it’s easy to walk towards the iconic DC stuff like the White House, National Mall, etc. After about 40 minutes of meandering past old homes in Georgetown, we walked alongside the White House towards the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. I don’t think I can explain the chilliness of the day in any other way than bitter, which was ultimately our reasoning for Ubering back to my apartment to warm up (well and to watch reruns of the Kardashians).
It’s so funny how casual Steph is. I had fully anticipated an evening out with drinks and expensive food, but once she put on her comfies and curled onto the couch, it was game over. Peter got back around 8 PM and the two had quickly talked each other into picking up pizza and wine for a game-night at home. We devoured the greasy pie from Matchbox, paired with a couple bottles of red wine (well, they enjoyed the wine - I stuck with my sparkling drinks) and played Heads Up, a game my sister is impossibly bad at - well when it comes to pop culture references that is.
Sunday
Day light savings hit me like a ton of bricks when my 8 AM alarm struck for church after heading to bed five hours earlier. We ended up missing church and heading to Alexandria, enjoying the sunshine that warmed our skin. We sat at the waterfront of Vola’s Dockside, and brunched as the locals do, with cocktails and fried food, then spent the following hours walking up King St. Steph and I got matching rings, a tradition on our trips that I hope continues for the rest of our lives.
The combination of full bellies and warm sun peering through our living room quickly eased us into a mid-day laziness, awakened a few hours later to grab ingredients for pasta dinner courtesy of Steph’s chef expertise. We should’ve known that the pasta would go awry when we didn’t have any vodka for our ‘penne vodka’ and had modify it into sort of a gin pasta. I know, odd. Of course we went with it though, Steph cooking the sausage and me focusing on the noodles. After about 40 minutes, we had about 3 pots boiling, sauteing and cooking on our stove almost ready to plate the meal when I accidentally dropped the pot full of simmering sauce on the stovetop. GAS stovetop. Splattering red sauce across the floor, cabinets and burning my arm. Oh yeah, and catching fire on the gas because well, there was still gin in the sauce. It was a MESS. Steph was shouting, I was shouting, Peter was gaming and there was a fire forming on our stovetop. In my mind I played it cool, but Peter was quick to assure me that I in fact wasn’t. Steph being unfamiliar with gas stovetops struggled to stop the power, twisting from high to low heat rapidly as Peter ran over. He eventually stopped the fire and I got the sauce off my arm without any serious damage. I was actually astonished at what had happened.
Monday
Monday’s are normally a work day for me, but I had an outing for the day and Steph was able to tag along! It was fun having her help me shoot content for work and getting to see behind the scenes of my job. We went to the best murals in Shaw, stopping at Union Kitchen to fuel up on a pesto mozzarella sandwich that I have dreamed of every night since - seriously it was that good.
Like most of America, Monday = Bachelor night. We Facetimed my parents between every commercial break to catch up on the drama (Bob is BIG fan) and share our theories for the series finale. It was probably the most Forsha activity ever, the only thing that would have made it more us would be a spread of brie cheese and apples.
It was sad spending the last night with Steph, realizing she had to leave tomorrow, but I couldn’t be more thankful she came. I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve had quality time together. With me living across the country from my family, it seems like the only time we get to see each other is over holidays, and as I’m sure most of you know, holidays are usually crazy. Actually most of the time that my whole family is together, it’s crazy. I love that crazy! But it’s nice having one-on-one time together where we can connect like we did back in the days of our shared bedroom growing up, where our confined quarters and nightly slumber parties naturally kept us close. Now that we are adults it’s interesting to see her in a new way, full of spunk and compassion, and to choose to be friends. I’m thankful she wants to spend time with me, fly across the country to see me and just be together.