I hope you don’t mind if I take a lil break from recapping my international travels to share some local love. These past few weeks have been filled with many happenings that I’d like to share on the blog before this year comes to a close.
If you’ve been following this space for a while, you may remember Anna from either of theseposts. Anna and I met in undergrad while dancing in the same hip-hop troupe and have been friends ever since regardless of distance and time.
When it comes to the kinds of friends I have, Anna is probably my most adventurous one. She’s always down to travel, explore the great outdoors, try new foods, and do crazy adrenaline junkie stuff like go skydiving.
She also likes to run which is the one area we aren’t compatible because I strongly dislike running.
But anyways, I share all this because Anna is officially back from a 6-month deployment and, the moment I knew exactly when she would be in town, I booked her for a friend date.
She arrived at my place at 10am and I hopped in her car for us to head to Roosevelt Island, located on the Potomac River in between Virginia and D.C., for a nature walk and much needed girl talk.
We got a little lost at first trying to find the entrance to the island since it’s not accessible by car. The only way you can get to Roosevelt Island via a walk bridge on the Crystal City/Virginia side. It’s a bit loopy and we ended driving into D.C. and having to make a u-turn but eventually found the right parking lot that is closest to the walk bridge.
Once we got situated, we crossed the bridge, found the beginnings of the Swamp Trail and started walking and talking our way around the perimeter of the island. The whole way around is 1.5 miles. We passed through swampy woods and marsh area that luckily had a boardwalk path to walk through.
Below are photos from our nature walk. :)
^^ Self time fun :)
^^ I loved how this tree was so vibrant and still holding on to its leaves in comparison to its barren surroundings.
Once we made it around the island, we headed to the dedicated memorial for Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president who was a huge fan of the great outdoors and an advocate for the preservation of the United States natural resources and national parks. (unlike our current president…)
Overall, I thought Roosevelt Island was really beautiful in how it’s designed, with pathways leading all through and around the island’s natural landscape. It’s definitely a place I’d love to come back and visit in the Spring when all the flowers will be in bloom.
After our nature walk, we walked across the Key Bridge and headed to Ching Ching Cha for some tea and much needed grub since we had both skipped breakfast.
And yes, as you can see from the photos below, I ate meat because the chicken and potato curry at Ching Ching Cha was really good the last time I was there and I couldn’t resist.
Key word with my approach to doing a vegetarian diet this year is “transitioning”.
I’ve been really good about eating just veggies but, every once in a while, I’ve caved and eaten meat annnnnnd I don’t feel guilty about it lol. Would you be interested if I wrote a post about adopting a vegetarian lifestyle so far?
When was the last time you went on a (girl)friend date?
xo, Setarra
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