I cannot believe it is already May 2016, which means that it has been a year since my last undocumented travel adventures. And so, because I promised myself I would, I’m providing a Giant Recap. Because if I let too much more time pass me by, I’ll forget about all the fun I’ve had and I do not want that. So here it goes–a recap of my visits to Washington, DC and Portland, ME.

Washington, DC
One of my goals for 27 was to visit Washington, DC, so Memorial Day Weekend 2015, I decided to drive down and visit Kevin.
Here’s a tip–don’t drive down New Jersey back roads in the dark night with zero cell phone service and very little gas in your tank unless you’re looking for a frightening evening. Obviously I made it though, and Kevin was a great host. I slept on the coziest couch and awoke to Kevin-made pancakes each morning.
He was living in Rosslyn at the time, so each day we’d head out and walk into Washington. It was hot and sweaty but we did all the touristy things, like visiting all of the monuments, watching a Nationals game, and eating treats from Baked & Wired.

Washington, DC (again)
I hadn’t planned on this, but it just so happened that my older sister and her family were spending Independence Day in DC, so upon her invite to join them, I found a good flight deal and returned to our nation’s capital for the weekend.
We took a Big Bus tour and hopped off and on as we visited a few museums. I got to spend time with my niece and nephew, which is always fun.
At one point during the trip, I went and explored on my own. I ended up at Shake Shack, because that place just has a magical pull on people, and later visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum. I ended up getting stuck there due to a ridiculous downpour of rain, but I finally caved and bought an umbrella from the gift shop for my swim back to our hotel. (That umbrella has since outlasted many rain storms, so it was overall a successful purchase.)
For the 4th, I got the watch the National Independence Day Parade, which made me feel very patriotic. In the evening we all met up to watch the fireworks.
We were obsessed with the elevator ceiling mirror, and had to take a selfie every time we rode it. Forget city tours, just give us elevator mirrors!

Portland, ME
Callie, Joey, Misael, Rachael, and I decided to visit Portland that following weekend. Turns out that I’m actually the one who is super into mirror selfies, as we see here, where I made Callie and Joey pose with me before we set off. We visited the ever-popular Portland Head Light, then went to Old Port and stopped in at The Holy Donut for the best donuts and Bard Coffee for nitro cold brew. For someone who says she doesn’t like donuts, I’ve been eating my fair share of holy donuts lately. It’s the potato base–I can’t get enough.
We walked around the docks, ate lobster rolls at Andy’s Old Port Pub, visited Sumner Park, and walked along old train tracks.
The next day, we hung out at the beach and I swam in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. It was pretty cold, but very refreshing. Later on we enjoyed dinner at Hot Suppa. We ended our trip by stopping in Portsmouth, NH on the way back to Boston, playing with Snapchat, and singing along to all the songs.

And there we go. Now I’m caught up through mid-July 2015, haha.