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Weekend Recap – DC & Charlottesville

March 20, 2018

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I’m Manali
Coach, editor & brand photographer based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. When I'm not behind a camera or teaching about systems, you'll find me at a vineyard or cuddled with my cat Keegan on our cozy couch!
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It’s been a minute since I’ve blogged but I promise I’m back!! That goes specifically out to Sohum who was very quick to call out the fact that I hadn’t blogged in a while. Hey what can I say, when you’re out there having a fun time, hoo has the time to blog?! Hahaha in all honestly, it was more of me getting ready for the upcoming busy season tracking down all my expenses, coordinating with clients for some upcoming shoots (rain, please hold out!!), and ordering and testing out some new gear! So for this week’s post I’m kicking it off and doing something a little different and doing a weekend recap instead of my normal weekly ones!

– The absolute highlight of the week was having Jillian over to visit me!!! She’s currently up completing her masters in BME at the University of Michigan and I had kept in touch with her but not seen her since graduation! That’s almost A WHOLE YEAR!!!! It sure doesn’t feel like that, thank goodness for technology! She hadn’t been to D.C. since about 6th grade so we spent Friday evening walking around the National Mall and downtown D.C. and ended up grabbing dinner at Bindaas which is a place I had been wanting to try out for squite some time. The food WAS GREAT! 10/10 would recommend πŸ™‚

– First things first, Saturday morningΒ  was spent having Jillian try out the hazelnut cappuccino at Republik. This girl spent about four years sharing my appreciation of a good cup of coffee at any time during the day at UVA & I’m happy to report that hasn’t changed one bit πŸ˜€ See her reaction below

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– The rest of Saturday morning was spent brunching at Northside Social (their brunch was really good!!). Then we hopped onto the metro into D.C.Β for the March for Our Lives with Maya as well and man oh man was it truly inspiring and super emotional!! Here are a handful of pictures I took while there, but pictures truly don’t do it justice.

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– After the march we headed out to District Wharf! This place is definitely a newer, up and coming area and the PERFECT spot to enjoy some time on the water while in D.C! You can walk along the piers, enjoy the outdoor swings and fire pits but let me warn you, if you’re trying to grab a bite,Β definitelyyy make a reservation! We totally learned our lesson when we tried to grab a snack at the bars along the waterfront and were met by a lovely 1-2 hour waiting time at EACH place!

– We ended Saturday in Georgetown meeting up with Lakshmi & waiting in a long line to grab some Baked & Wired which has apparently reached its claim to fame along with Georgetown Cupcakes! I got their Tessita which is a vanilla base with a hazelnut ganache filling and can attest that their Dirty Chai one is amazing as well πŸ™‚ We walked along the Georgetown harbor and lucked out grabbing a table at Pizza Paradios and enjoying some delicious pizza & wine! We pregamed back at my apartment with Bold Rock (did you expect anything different hahaha) and then went bar hopping in Clarendon! I learned that Divya has great taste buds (yes way to amaretto sours) and a hidden talent for skee ball hahaha πŸ™‚

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– Sunday we brunched yet again (a weekend with not one but TWO brunches!!) at Rustico in Ballston! They have a subtly Southern inspired brunch menu and their pulled pork benedict with spicy hollandaise sauce hit the spot! Even when I was eating its leftovers at work on Monday! We then left for Charlottesville and enjoyed the day at Pippin Hill Farm! It was Sunday so we got to enjoy some s’mores with the wine (peep Nav!) and of course the gorgeous views πŸ™‚ It was even warm enough out that we got to ditch the winter coats for a bit which I definitely appreciated!

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^ When your friends appreciate rosΓ© as much as you do!!ManaliPhotographyDCCharlottesvillePhotographer012

Was so glad we got to see Dre as well!!ManaliPhotographyDCCharlottesvillePhotographer013 ManaliPhotographyDCCharlottesvillePhotographer014 ManaliPhotographyDCCharlottesvillePhotographer015

– And of course no trip to Charlottesville is complete without spending some time on the Lawn! Shoutout to Nav for some of the pictures below!

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The girl loves her columns πŸ™‚

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– The night ended with some delicious thai food from the Thai Noodle House where I had Vietnamese coffee for the first time ever which left me wondering HOW HAD I NOT HAD IT BEFORE?!!!??!! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!! I know that Cafein has it on their menu so the next time I’m back at my parents house, I am getting some more!!

And so with such a fun weekend going back to work this week and with the rain that keeps popping in and has been quite the struggle. I guess the rain means that it’s spring and that we’ll start to have warmer days so I’m keeping my fingers crossed! And with that, this concludes my first ever weekend recap which was actually brought to you by my pink office chair which I was able to put together last night!! I’ll have to do a quick update of my apartment room with some pictures soon once I’m able to get the desk set up and finally finish the space up a bit after having moving in 6 months ago! All in good time right?!

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