When everyone heads to the beaches, their homes away from home when Congress is away, thats when the native's and those who can't afford a week on the beach come out to play.

Humidity aside, August is one of my favorite times of year - bosses let you leave early, happy hours are aplenty, and then there's Restaurant week.

This August, Restaurant week falls August 24th through 30th where at a number of restaurants you can get lunch for $20.09 or dinner for $35.09. Meals come with three courses, and do not cover drinks.This year, since I recently had a chance to visit the prestigious Charlie Palmer Steak House for lunch (on the house with the new job!), I'm planning on catching dinner there with Fiance. I've tried out Teatro Goldoni on K Street, Tuscana West where I went last Restaurant Week with my fellow DC Guide Elizabeth, and my book club tried out Zaytina in Penn Quarter for lunch last summer - two of my gal pals raved of the Blueberry martini. Definitely a place worth checking out.

Directly preceding Restaurant Week though? In it's inaugural year.... Beer week. I don't know what Beer Week is per se, but I am certainly curious to find out. Not to mention, check it out with the full list of participants here. I'm curious to try out some of the places on H Street NE, a new up and coming neighborhood (in case you weren't aware) including the recent addition H Street Country Club. I've heard rave reviews of Sticky Rice and Granville Moore's (with former Next Food Network Star contestant Teddy Folkman as it's chef it's gotta be delish!) and Pizzeria Paradiso (in Dupont and Georgetown) is always a great place to check out.

Some of the events during beer week are a little pricey (I probably won't be spending $75 for a five course meal from Granville Moores - however I'm sure it'll be incredible!) but the free ones (Friday night at RFD? Yes please! I'll be there!!) I bet are definitely worth it! Needless to say the next two weeks will be filled with good booze, and even better food.

Where are you hitting up for Beer Week and/or Restaurant Week? Any favorite spots??

I'm a certifiable bookworm. A gigantic nerd when it comes to all things book related, throw me into a book store and you'll be hard pressed to get me out of there in a decent amount of time. I was raised like this, it's in my genes.

So you can imagine my delight when I saw that the National Book Festival will be continued this year! After Laura Bush started it in 2001, it was uncertain if our new first lady would continue the tradition but it appears that with or without Michelle Obama's support, the book fest will go on.

The other day, the list of participating authors was released and my inner twelve year old heart went pitter patter when I saw that Judy Blume would be there, and I couldn't help but wonder if I could find my beat up and battered copy of Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. Still to be determined, but I will do my best.

Additionally, for my inner romantic, Nicholas Sparks will be there; my favorite Food Network star - Paula Deen; and finally, Jodi Picoult who is an amazing writer as well. 

I'm pretty excited about the book fest this year - last year I took my mother and future mother-in-law as the parents were down for some quality bridal gown shopping, unfortunately I didn't get much time to tool around the festival. This year? I'll be waiting in line to meet my favorite's.

This year, the book festival is on September 26th here in Washington, DC on the National Mall. I'll be there with a library of books to get signed....will you?

Gals, I want to thank everyone for coming out to the Gals' Guide Happy Hour Friday night! Additionally, I'd like to thank our sponsor Not For Tourists who provided Chicago and DC guide books which were a smashing hit with all the gals Friday Night (I'm looking forward to using my Chicago guide when I go out for BlogHer next month!). There was a few left over so if you didn't make it Friday night, be sure to come to the next event to get your copy!

Seriously, it was a smashing hit - sangria and margs all around and while the crowd was smaller, it's probably for the better since well, we were all huddled at the bar (note to readers: Lauriol Plaza takes ZERO reservations, I got there 45 minutes early to stake out a spot at the bar and I still missed the prime spot thanks to happy hour folks throwing back a few rounds of Tequilla shots...yikes). The greatest thing about events like this is seeing a random assortment of people all getting along and exchanging business cards and contact info - I knew everyone from blogging or otherwise and I always get nervous when I host events that everyone won't mesh well. These gals meshed perfectly!

Expect Liz and I to be planning MORE happy hours and hopefully other fun events in the future because seriously? The gals here in DC are just awesome!

(Jackie, Amanda, myself, Valerie and Christine)

(Amanda, Sarah and Liz)

Thank you again to all the girls who came out (Jackie, Amanda, Valerie, Sarah, Christine) and to Liz for co-hosting (and for dragging my butt out to karaoke in Adams Morgan afterward - oh my goodness!) I'm fairly certain the only thing missing from Friday night was ending the night with a ginormous, calorie packed jumbo slice.

Check out the rest of the pictures here and be sure to stay tuned for the next Gals' Guide DC event!

Fellow DC guide Elizabeth (Miss Argument) and I will be co-hosting the VERY! FIRST! Gals Guide happy hour next Friday June 12 at 6pm on the rooftop bar of Lauriol Plaza.

There will be freebies (sorry, not drinks, gals!) so come on out to have a margarita, meet the guides (in case you don’t already know us) and to find out what Gals Guide is all about!

RSVP to heidi[at]legallyheidi[dot]com or simply respond to this post!

$27 lost in unofficial betting, a wind that made the day feel more like October than May, and way too much people watching after one too many mint juleps. It was standard fare for Gold Cup, but my gal pals and I enjoyed it to the fullest. I'm fairly certain that by 2pm, after a mere three hours, we lost count of the number of poorly dressed people and by poorly dressed I mean long sleeve shirts and shorts on the men (didn't that go out of style in middle school??), dresses that were too tight on various women (flowy fabrics ladies!! Stretch fabrics cling in all the wrong places), and clashing colors of plaid.

So, what did my people watching bestow? A few best ofs, and more worst ofs (my camera died before I could get pictures of a lot of the best dressed)

Now, I was saying to a friend of mine that Gold Cup seems to have been invaded by the DC "Hipster" crowd - it seems as if there were many people who were dressed as if they should have been walking on the beach in Fort Lauderdale or Miami and not at Gold Cup - the premier event of Northern Virginia. This guy? Looked like he walked out of a casino in Atlantic City. He tops our list of "worst of."

You can't see them, but these guys were all wearing bright argyle socks. They weren't dressed badly perse, but rather, made Gold Cup look like the circus.

Cowboy boots and a flowy Chiffon dress....need I say more? Similarly, wellies and a Lily Pulitzer dress are not the greatest combo.

I really actually liked the girl in the pink with the white sweater draped over her shoulder, but the guy in the flower pants? Not so much.

I adore the madras print dress that this girl was wearing here. The straw floppy hat worked with it perfectly. So many times you see girls wearing cute hats that don't necessarily go with their dresses.

My favorite, I happened to see linked on twitter today...

Love that the hat compliments the dress so well! [Source: OhmyGoff]

My gals and I wore dresses from Ann Taylor Loft, Lily Pulitzer and JCrew, respectively. Surprisingly I didn't see many people wearing the same dress - though I'm sure there were some duplicates--how could there not be in a crowd of 45,000 people. So even though I lost $27 betting on horses that dropped out, or came in dead last, Gold Cup was still a huge hit. I just hope my gal pals had as good of a time that I did!