Three of my best girlfriends and I drove out to Charlestown, Rhode Island for a long weekend that will go down in history as one of the greatest girls trips ever – we’re talking cheese boards and wine and dancing in our pajamas! Our goal was to have a cheap, relaxing, and COVID-safe trip, and I’m pretty confident we found the perfect mix!

*** Disclaimer: We were very COVID safe. We self-isolated before and are quarantining after. We also all got tested before seeing each other, wore masks to the grocery store and to the beach, and would have worn masks if we went anywhere else. But it turns out we didn’t need to leave the house to have a perfect weekend! I will always be upfront with my clients, and I will never put your safety in jeopardy. ***

Our little cottage was so charming! It was the perfect backdrop for our epic weekend sleepover. I mean look at how cute this place is?? Great light, cute beachy details, and insanely comfortable beds!

But first thing’s first: we had to hit up the grocery store! Because long weekends in your 30s must revolve around Ina Garten recipes, right? And yes, we did bring two of her cookbooks with us!

Ina basically catered our whole weekend and let me tell you, her frozen grapefruit palomas are to die for.

And if Ina catered, our girl Nancy Meyers brought the vibes.

From the music to the movies to the outfits, we channeled our inner Nance, and honestly I feel like she would be proud.

Picture this: White turtlenecks and matching bucket hats, tunes made for kitchen dancing, and you have the makings of an epic girls’ weekend!

THURSDAY

Night one of any great trip is all about getting a little (or a lot!) drunk and catching up with friends you haven’t seen in a while.

With that in mind we put our own spin on the “famous” Tik Tok feta pasta, which shockingly did live up to the hype, made a massive batch of gin and tonics, and talked about life until it got dark.

A few more G&Ts later and we were laughing and dancing on the kitchen chairs while singing “Defying Gravity” at the top of our lungs.

So Friday morning was a little rough, if you can imagine.

FRIDAY

A hungover morning calls for New York bagels and some fresh air. (We opted for both!) It took a lot of effort but we rallied and left the house for our one and only weekend excursion.

Our Airbnb was super close to the beach so we bundled up and took a stroll in the cold air. There were maybe four other people on the entire beach. It felt like we were walking along the edge of the earth!

Side note: I don’t know about any other photographers out there, but sometimes I just want to leave my camera behind and enjoy the moment, so that’s exactly what I did. I have some really terrible iPhone pics to prove it, but I think I’ll spare you. You can check my stories if you really want to see!

After our beach stroll, we decided that we just had to get some Del’s Frozen Lemonade and drive along Watch Hill to look at the mansions. Del’s turned out to be closed (which in retrospect shouldn’t have been such a shock seeing as it’s a frozen lemonade stand in the middle of winter in a beach town…) but the drive was beautiful and we might have seen Taylor Swift’s house!!

Pivoting our plans without frozen lemonade led us to some amazing seafood and Cajun French fries. A big thank you to Matanuk Oysters for saving the day!

We were so drained from our day “about town” that we immediately changed into pajamas and piled onto the couch to watch movies and drink frozen palomas and eat cheese until we fell asleep.

SATURDAY

Saturday was hands down our laziest day. It felt like a rainy day sleepover, which was everything I wanted and more!

We gave each other haircuts and painted our nails and put on face masks. We ate copious amounts of candy and brownies and gummies, because *vacation life* and there are no rules. And we even brought a spare mattress into the living room so we could stretch out while we watched every mid-2000s teen movie we could think of.

After what felt like 19 hours we looked at each other with aching stomachs and realized we should probably eat some real food. We had spent all that money on proper groceries after all!

So Ina to the rescue, once again!

SUNDAY

Sunday was our travel day, our “divvy up the food and strip the beds and give each other big hugs that will have to last us another 6+ months” kind of day.

We all had to get back to our regularly scheduled bedtimes and work responsibilities.

But first? A photo shoot!

No trip with me is complete without new headshots or impromptu boudoir pics or just a good old in-home lifestyle session. My friends are not the type to ask me to take their photos (or even enjoy having their photos taken!), but they are the type to humor me and go along with my shenanigans.

And that’s how we ended up with these gems!

These photos will definitely be getting printed to hang in my home as a reminder of this amazing weekend. (Tiny side rant: always print your photos!!) They’ll be there to remind me of the friends who made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt and our amazing little weekend getaway.

‘Til next time, back to the grind!