Our Washington, DC Weekend Getaway (Without Getting Away)

Well, it’s that time of year again. The time where your Instagram feed starts filling up with all your friends images from their vacations to the beach, a tropical location, to the mountains, a city abroad, etc. Then there is us, at home, with no travel plans. 

I’ve admitted this once or twice before, but I get horrible FOMO. Honestly, Zach and I forgot to plan a trip for the Fourth of July weekend, and by the time we tried to book something, prices were outrageously expensive! I set some pretty ambitious travel goals this year and we have a big overseas trip planned this fall, so to save our bank accounts we decided to stay local this holiday weekend, and play tourists in our own city. Here is a quick recap of what we did on our Washington, DC staycation. 

Wednesday & Thursday

We ended up spending Fourth of July Eve (is that a thing?) at Zach’s parents’ home in Fairfax, Virginia. After a lovely dinner and sleeping in the next day, we spent our entire Fourth of July in their pool. Navy and Duke divided their time between sitting on the top step of the pool or running around the yard. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these dogs more tired!

Friday

Zach travels almost every week for work, and I work in the city, so the last thing we want to do in our evenings or on the weekends is deal with the hustle and bustle of Washington, DC on our time off. But because the Fourth fell on a Thursday, the District was pretty quiet. I’m assuming tourists came to town for the fireworks and locals left the area for the holiday weekend. Using Hotel Tonight we scored an awesome hotel deal for the Kimpton Hotel George (for under $100!). We’ve talked about this before, but we love Hotel Tonight for spontaneous trips, especially now that they have a feature to filter through pet-friendly hotels.

This is not sponsored at all, but you can use our code ALHIBBS for $25 off your next stay and we get credits on the app in return. Win-Win 🙂

After checking in and getting settled, we enjoyed wine and cocktails at the Hotel George’s complimentary happy hour with Duke and Navy. For dinner, Navy, Zach, and I walked across the street to Art and Soul. Art and Soul has a roomy outdoor patio that is incredibly dog-friendly; they have a menu for dogs! Of course we just had to order something for Navy. Being her polite self, she wouldn’t touch her treat at dinner and shared it with Duke when we got back to the hotel.

Originally I wanted to take a sunset stroll around the monuments (which is my absolute favorite thing to do in DC), but even as the sun was setting the heat and humidity were too much for the dogs to handle. Our hotel was only a ten minute walk from the Capitol so we opted to walk around the Capitol and (of course) have a mini photoshoot. 

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When we travel we generally don’t like leaving Navy or Duke in the hotel room by themselves. We were pleasantly surprised to find out the well-known DC restaurant Bistro Bis is inside the Hotel George, so we didn’t feel too bad about leaving them for an hour. While Duke and Navy enjoyed their bone in the hotel room, we enjoyed a night cap and dessert at Bistro Bis.

Saturday

We woke up relatively early Saturday morning to start our day and it was already hot and humid. I wanted to find a fun new place to enjoy brunch at, but I didn’t want the dogs to be out in the heat for too long. Instead, we decided to grab a quick bite and some coffee at Union Market. While I had hopes of kayaking in Georgetown on the Potomac River in the afternoon, the weather had other plans. Zach, Navy, Duke, and I stayed indoors and watched movies while we listened to the summer storm.

Sunday

Sunday was probably our most exciting, action-packed day of our little staycation. Navy and I woke up early and drove to McKee-Bershers Wildlife Management Area to see their famous sunflower fields. Last year we missed the sunflowers by a week, so I’ve been stalking their website for sunflower updates. A friend was able to capture some gorgeous photos of Navy and I. We ran into a local photography group that asked to take pictures of all of us as well! 

For our local friends that want to visit the sunflower fields, I highly recommend going in the morning when it is a bit cooler and less crowded. There are a lot of bugs and critters, so don’t wear anything you don’t want getting mud all over and bring bug spray. It didn’t hurt to bring a towel and wipes to get the mud off Navy’s paws. The sunflowers are tall! We brought a step stool to help photograph the sunflowers. 

To end our weekend, Zach, Navy and I packed a little picnic dinner to watch the planes take off from Reagan National Airport at Gravelly Point. If your dog doesn’t like loud noises, do not bring them! The planes are incredibly loud. Luckily, Navy doesnt mind and actually enjoys watching the planes. Duke on the other hand would not have done well, so he stayed at home. 

As much as I love to travel, staying home this past weekend was really fun. Not only did Zach and I save a little money, we also got some much needed relaxation time, and experienced a few new things in our city with Duke and Navy. I think we will have to plan a few more staycations this year!

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Have you ever had your own staycation? What activities did you do? Leave a note in the comments below.