At the beginning of the year, I told myself that I would live this year differently. I would take more risk, push myself into spaces that absolutely terrified me, and I would work on being less “busy” and more present. As I was leaving graduate school and saying my goodbye’s a colleague mentioned to me that she’d keep up with me via Instagram. I didn’t think anything of it because we weren’t close friends, but I at least figured she’d shoot me a text or a quick phone call to ask how I was doing rather than opt to see how I was doing via my Instagram, where we all know only the best side of our lives are shown. As I thought more on that interaction, I realized that I was guilty of the same thing. Instead of connecting with that person I’d briefly correspond via a social media platform or browse through their latest posting. If nothing raised any alarms, I’d keep it moving. I recognized that I’d become a horrible friend.
This year I vowed to be present in my friend’s lives. I didn’t want to be miles away and “living our lives” to be an excuse for why we didn’t see each other, so I initiated “Girls Weekend.” Girls Weekend is a bi-monthly gathering where we come together to hang out, laugh, eat, shop, and discuss everything that’s going on in our lives.
For this particular girl’s trip, we choose to meet in Hanover Maryland, as it was a central location to some of the places we wanted to go. The bonus was that there were a Casino and Outlet mall right across the street from our hotel! As I was coming from Philadelphia, this trip was perfect for test driving the 2018 Hyundai Genesis G90, 3.3T Premium which is Hyundai’s luxury mid-size sedan that retails for around $68,000.
Now, I’ve driven a few luxury vehicles and to be honest with you I’ve never been super impressed with them. They usually come with way too many buttons, bells, and whistles that can be a bit overwhelming. It’s almost like experiencing sensory overload while you’re trying to focus on the road. The Hyundai G90 didn’t give me any of these problems. While the car was fully loaded and I had plenty of “what does this button do” moments I didn’t feel anxious or want to just simply not drive the car.
My trip down to Maryland from Philadelphia was lovely. The 7″ widescreen display showed the route to my destination via GPS, and my phone synced seamlessly with the cars Audio system to allow me to listen to my podcast while driving. I was even thankful for the Nappa leather seats that gave me the option to cool instead of heat, perfect for the unexpected warm weather that we were experiencing.
During our time spent in MD for the weekend, we drove the Hyundai G90 everywhere so that my friends could experience the luxury as well. Usually, when you’re driving a car, you don’t get a perspective from the backseat, but my friend Charity didn’t mind sitting back and stretching out her long legs courtesy of the extra leg room and being whisked around. We even discovered that the person in the backseat could control the radio and several other functions from their very own tricked-out console (shown in the picture below)! Don’t want to be seen? There are even rear privacy screens that help keep your passengers identity incognito.
To be honest with you, riding around in the car was the favorite part of my trip, of course besides hanging with my friends. They were helping me discover so many impressive features! We couldn’t get over the 360 view that displays on the multi-view camera when putting the car in reverse. You can even choose to see the view while you’re driving! No more asking “am I on the line?” while parking your car. I’m not sure I can quite get used to the pre-active seatbelt that automatically tightens on you when you put the car in gear, but I know it’s Hyundai’s way of keeping me safe along with the drive attention alert, smart blind spot detection, and automatic emergency braking. The only thing I didn’t like about this vehicle was that I couldn’t keep the trunk from opening on its own if I stood next to it with the keys for too long. After closing it three times, I realized that being chatty and standing next to the trunk with my keys in hand wasn’t a good idea.
We were so caught in our girls time that I didn’t realize we hadn’t snapped any cool pictures of us with the car until Sunday morning when an ugly cold storm front came through. We did happen to capture all our “what does this button do” and thoughts on the Hyundai 2018 G90 saved under the LifeStyle Categories over on my IG stories (@Being_Melody) so be sure to stop over and give them a watch.
