The Good Week | July 9, 2026

Staying close to home this summer? There’s still plenty to make the week feel full. Around Potomac, Bethesda, and the nearby neighborhoods, you’ll find free live music, poolside movie nights, creative classes, outdoor adventures, farmers markets, and many good reasons to try something new.

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Art, music, performances, and a few reasons to spend the evening out.

Watch Jaws from the water at this adults-only dive-in movie night. Doors open for swimming at 8:30 pm, with the movie starting around 9 pm. Clear tubes will be provided, or you can watch from a deck chair if floating during Jaws feels a little too on theme.

Space is limited and registration is required. $5 residents / $20 non-residents.
👉 Register

If you know Carla Hall from Top Chef, The Chew, or the Food Network, this is a chance to see a different side of her. In this funny, candid, and inspiring one-woman world premiere, Hall shares the winding path that took her from an awkward theater kid to award-winning chef and television personality, reflecting on identity, resilience, and learning to embrace what makes you different. Extended for two weeks only through July 26. Tickets start at $52.
👉 Get tickets

A ship of fools. Medieval art. Puppets. Live music. Physical comedy. Angels, demons, and a giant hellmouth.

Produced by Happenstance Theater, a Helen Hayes Award-winning visual theater company known for original, performer-created work, ADRIFT: A Medieval Wayward Folly brings the surreal worlds of Hieronymus Bosch, tarot archetypes, and medieval folklore to life in a wildly inventive production that’s equal parts theater, spectacle, and visual art.

If you’re looking for something beyond the usual night at the theater, this looks like a memorable place to start. $20+
👉 Learn more and get tickets

Food experiences, tastings, and classes that make the week revolve around something delicious

Botanero’s Summer Wine & Beer Social is a walk-around tasting with thoughtfully selected wines, craft beers, chef-inspired small plates, and plenty to discover at every station.

Your all-inclusive ticket covers tastings, appetizers, nonalcoholic drinks, taxes, and gratuity. Even better, 100% of ticket sales support SMYAL, a local nonprofit serving LGBTQ+ youth across the DMV. $65.
👉 Get tickets

Hands-on classes and social activities where you can learn something new or step a little outside your comfort zone.

Mahjong isn’t the only game in town. Bridge is having a moment of its own. Davis Library’s new bridge group welcomes players of all experience levels for an afternoon of party bridge, social contract bridge, and easygoing conversation.
👉 Join the game

No partner? No experience? No problem. Contra dancing is social, beginner-friendly, and led by a caller who keeps everyone moving.

Start with the 7:30 pm lesson, then dance to live music from Wombat Crossing in Glen Echo’s Spanish Ballroom. Pay what you can, $5 minimum.
👉 Give contra a whirl

Part herbal workshop, part creative retreat, this afternoon is all about slowing down and making something meaningful. Set at Alden Farms, you’ll learn about herbs traditionally used to support dreaming and restful sleep, then create a custom blend for a handmade dream pillow or sachet.

Add personal touches with symbols, beads, charms, fabric paint, or stitching, and leave with a deeper connection to local plants and your own sleep rituals.

Hosted by Riverworks Studio in Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve. $20.
👉 Reserve your spot

Start Sunday with books, brainpower, and a little friendly collaboration at The Paper Heart, a new independent bookstore and community space in the Kentlands. Their weekly Puzzle Society brings book lovers and puzzle people together to work through New York Times crosswords in a relaxed, welcoming setting. Come for a few clues or stay for the full solve.
👉 Make it a crossword morning

Bring the shirt, tote, jacket, jeans, or thrift-store find that needs a second life. In this hands-on Rockville Makerspace workshop, instructor Jojo Craven will help beginner to intermediate sewists rework clothing and accessories with patches, zippers, grommets, thread, bleach pens, and other creative details.

You can bring your own piece to transform, or use materials provided, and leave with something reimagined instead of replaced. $23
👉 Save your spot

Paint your way into summer with a Bays & Beaches-themed night at Girls Who Paint. The $50 ticket includes all materials, and you can bring your own snacks and drinks to make it a casual creative night out. No art experience needed, just show up ready to paint something beachy.
👉 Register

Plenty of people have a book idea. The hard part is knowing where to begin.

In this two-session workshop, author Aggie Blum Thompson focuses on the first chapter: how to hook a reader, introduce a main character, build tension, set the tone, and avoid common early missteps like too much backstory or starting in the wrong place.

Participants may bring a first chapter or up to 2,000 words for critique, but it’s not required. $100 members / $115 non-members.
👉 Start your first chapter

Bring a little more color to your porch, patio, or balcony with a hands-on summer container garden workshop. You’ll learn how to choose heat-loving plants, design a vibrant arrangement, and care for it through the season.

The $59 workshop fee includes a planter and all materials. Bring gloves.
👉 Grow your summer garden

Pottery, pasture views, and alpacas wandering nearby: this is not your average ceramics class. Tucked on a microfarm in Poolesville, near the farms, wineries, and scenic roads of Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve, Sugarland Studios is hosting a four-week evening series in handbuilt ceramics.

You’ll work outdoors in the pasture when weather allows, creating pieces like vases, planters, platters, mugs, or decorative objects before painting and glazing them in the final week. No experience is needed, and finished pieces are fired after the session. $275.
👉 Save your spot

Tiny tree, local beer, low-pressure craft night. Bonsai Bar brings its beginner-friendly workshop to 7 Locks Brewing, where you’ll pick a dwarf jade tree, pot it in a ceramic bonsai planter, learn the basics of trimming and care, and leave with your own little living project. Tools are provided, and your ticket includes the tree, pot, two hours of instruction, and ongoing support if your bonsai needs a little “tree-iage” later. $100.
👉 Register

Move your body, get outside, and stay active this week.

Start the day in the woods with a women’s hike through Cabin John Regional Park, where the trail winds through mature forest with a creek running alongside much of the route. Hosted by Better Outside Together, a local outdoor community for women 40+, this moderately paced hike is designed to feel like a real workout without turning into a boot camp. Expect about 3 to 4 miles of rooted trail, rolling terrain, fresh air, and conversation before the rest of your day begins.
👉 Join the hike

For Global Climbing Day, Movement and The North Face are opening the gym for a full day of free climbing access, rental gear, beginner-friendly classes, games, swag, and more. No experience is needed, and no registration is required, though classes are first come, first served.
👉 Learn more

Join Nature Forward for a summer morning along the C&O Canal, searching for birds, dragonflies, and damselflies with experienced naturalists Rob Hilton and Lisa Shannon. The route between Carderock and Widewater moves through Potomac waters, bottomland forest, swampy areas, rocky cliffs, and other habitats that draw plenty of winged life this time of year. Bring binoculars and expect helpful ID tips along the way. $33 members, $46 nonmembers.
👉 Register here

Earlier picks still ahead — and still worth catching.

🐶 Yappy Hour at The Metropolitan Plaza — Thu, July 9, 6–8 pm — Bethesda's favorite dog-friendly happy hour returns with a pop-up dog park, live music, food and drinks, and activities for pups and their people.

🀄 Mahjong Night at Sisters Thai — Mon, July 13 — Learn the basics during Mahjong 101 or join guided and social play nights at Sisters Thai in Potomac.

🧘 Sunset Yoga at Lake Needwood — Mon evenings, July 13–Aug. 10, 7–8 pm — A beginner-friendly lakeside yoga series in Rockville, no registration or experience required.

🍸 Embers & Elixirs Cocktail Class — Fri, July 17, 6:30–9 pm — A smoky, summery cocktail class with BBQ-inspired small plates at Summer House in North Bethesda.

🌙 MidSummerFest — Sat, July 18, 6–9 pm — An evening of live music and summer style at Old Angler's Inn benefiting pediatric brain cancer research.

🖼️ What's So Funny? — Through Sun, July 19 — Two Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists fill Amy Kaslow Gallery with sharp visual commentary on America at 250.

🧵 Connecting with Nature: Contemporary Art Quilts — Through Fri, July 31 — Contemporary quilts and textile art inspired by the natural world at The Mansion at Strathmore.

🎶 Strathmore's Free Lawn Concerts — Wednesdays through Aug. 12, 7:30 pm — Free outdoor concerts featuring everything from Americana and bluegrass to flamenco-pop and Creole roots music.

🍸 A Delightfully Deadly Night at the Theater — Through Sun, Aug. 23 — A Tony-winning musical full of wit, ambition, and very unlucky heirs at Olney Theatre Center.

🌱 Lend a Hand in Rosie's Garden — Dates vary through September — Spend a few hours helping plant, water, weed, and harvest vegetables at Rosie's Farm Sanctuary in Potomac. Two-hour volunteer shifts are available throughout the growing season.

🎭 Round House Marks 50 Years — Throughout the 2026–2027 season — A season of free behind-the-scenes experiences celebrating Round House Theatre's 50th anniversary

If you stop by any of this week’s spots, let them know you heard about it in The Good Week.

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See you next week.

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