A Touch of Teal | Washington, DC Lifestyle Blogger

6.20.21

A Sunset Sail with Reflections DC

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know there’s almost nothing I love more than being on the water. Even though I live less than two miles away from the banks of the Potomac River, I’ve only been out on it a few times in all the years I’ve lived here. Recently, Captain Jerry over at Reflections DC reached out and invited me for a complimentary cruise and I was so excited to get out on the water and see my city from a different point-of-view.

While Reflections DC offers cruises at various times throughout the day—there are 11am, 1:30pm, 4pm, and 6:30pm start times—we opted for the sunset sail that departs at 6:30pm from Gravelly Point Park. (As an aside, if you’ve never been to Gravelly Point Park, it’s awesome! It’s right on the Potomac and next to DCA—you get great views of the planes taking off and landing. It would be such a fun spot for a picnic in the summertime; when we were there, there was even an ice cream truck!) You can park for free at Gravelly Point, or if you don’t have a car, it’d be a super easy place for an Uber to drop you off/pick you up.

One of the great things about your river cruise with Reflections DC is that it’s private, so it’ll only be your party and Captain Jerry on the boat, which makes for a really personalized experience. I brought along my two sisters, Jennifer and Lindsey, and we all were able to comfortably fit and enjoy our time on the Cortina. (This boat has four-guest limit, and I do think if you had a party of four, you’d be equally as comfortable as we were!)

The Cortina is a classic Boston Whaler Super Sport Limited and, in my opinion, the perfect boat for a sunset sail. It sits low on the water, so it makes for a really immersive experience. I’ve been on larger boats on the Potomac and while it’s been fun, this was the trip where I really felt like I could see and enjoy the city, while also truly feeling like I was on the water. That being said, despite being a smaller vessel, it was a really stable boat, both at higher speeds* and slower speeds—I felt really safe on board, which meant I could focus solely on having FUN and taking in the scenery around me! (*When we were going faster, usually from one part of the city to the next, we wore life vests—but when we were going slowly, we were allowed to take them off and move about the boat as we pleased.)

Complimentary drinks are included in the cost of your ticket to a Reflections DC cruise—beers, hard seltzer, soda, and water. However, you can also bring your own food and drinks to enjoy and make a little picnic on the water!

on my nightstand

6.6.21

On My Nightstand: May 2021

I can’t believe it’s already June! May really flew by—and because I was traveling a little bit more in May than I have in previous months, I wasn’t able to read as many books as some other months. That being said, the books I did read were great across the board, so I am excited to share them with you today. Later this month, I’m heading to the beach and I am so excited to work through the stack of books I’ve been collecting for that trip!

As is custom on these posts, I wanted to call out that I’m part of a program where Random House will send me some of their new titles each month. I’m under no obligation to post about any titles I receive, so I really can tell you my own opinion (good or bad!) about them. I’ve starred the books Random House sent me for free below. I’m so lucky to be sent books and that’s not lost on me.

Without further ado—here’s a recap of the eight books I read last month: Read more “On My Nightstand: May 2021”

home decor

6.6.21 1

How I Hung My Balcony String Lights

I’m back today to share a little bit more about my balcony! In case you missed it, I shared all about my patio furniture over in this post. Today, I’m going to focus on how I hung these beautiful Project62 outdoor string lights with frosted bulbs.

My balcony faces directly west, so it gets direct afternoon sunlight. This time of year, from about 4pm to sunset, it is just too hot to sit out there because the sun is beaming down right on you. However, as soon as the sun dips lower into the sky, my balcony becomes my favorite place to be. It’s awesome to sit out there on evenings with a late dinner or La Croix and just relax. It’s also a great place to have friends over for wine nights.

I knew from the second I signed the lease on this apartment that I wanted to put string lights out on my balcony. As I’ve mentioned before, I spent a lot of nights last summer out on my sister’s balcony and that really made me want one of my own. My sister has string lights hung on her balcony, and I loved the magical touch they added to our nights spent outside, so I knew I wanted to hang some on my balcony, too.

At the beginning of May, when the weather started to be consistently warm, I was spending almost every night after work out there, so I decided it was time to install some lights!

Shop My Balcony