summer lovin'

even though last weekend was memorial day, i really feel like this was the first "official" weekend of summer. maybe because i didn't spend it in my kitchen preparing food for 15 people (which i loved doing!!), maybe because i left my house in the middle of a torrential rainstorm to see a movie (rain in the winter keeps me in hibernation mode and it would take a MIRACLE to get me to leave my house on a cold rainy night), but whatever it was, it finally, FINALLY felt like summer is here to stay.

saturday was a perfect day for a pet therapy visit, and lincoln and i had a great time with our friends at dc autism buddies (although he was slightly less than thrilled with the girl who thought shooting him over and over with a watergun was quality entertainment), but the highlight of my day was actually spending 90 minutes in a 113 degree room in dupont circle doing bikram yoga. it was only my second class (although i've been practicing yoga for almost 7 years, doing it in that kind of sweltering heat is an entirely different ballgame), but i have decided that i think i might belong in the desert. i LIVE for that kind of heat. i mean you can feel the heat before you even walk in the room and i sort of get giddy when it's so hot you're sweating before you even get a chance to work up to it. an hour and a half of yoga is hard enough as it is, but trying not to pass out really keeps your mind from cluttering itself up with all the hundred other things i usually tend to think about in regular yoga classes. plus, the feeling of walking out of that room and into the air conditioning after class is maybe the most incredible feeling one can ever hope to experience. the evening was so beautiful when i left that i sat in dupont circle for a while and watched people come and go and i just marveled at what an incredibly eclectic city dc is and thought about how lucky i am to live here.

(side note: i did stop at sweetgreen and grab a wrap to eat while i was people watching- it was so good i vowed to make it at home and in fact i have already. i LOVE a good summer salad and this one was no exception - baby spinach and basil with fresh white peaches, almonds, goat cheese and balsamic vinagrette. so simple. SO delicious. i added dried cranberries to mine when i made it at home today. i might be eating that every damn day next week.)

and sunday i actually managed to get up early enough to hit the billy goat trail at great falls national park before 8am, which meant i all but had the trail to myself. you'd probably never know it by looking at me, but there resides within me a tomboy that cannot get enough of being outside, climbing around rocks and getting my clothes good and muddy on a hike. it's a strenuous trail but so much fun, and i couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. combine all that with some good music while i was on the trail (louis armstrong - you can never go wrong with louis), and i could possibly argue that it might not get any better than that.

i closed the weekend out with some good food (quinoa with cranberries, spinach and almonds!), good wine, and a good book (the ticking is the bomb - it is my first nick flynn book but the way this guy writes, it will not be my last) on my patio, and i have to say, if this is what my summer weekends are going to look like...i am hoping that summer will stick around for a long, long time.