My friends and I took a weekend trip back to where we grew up. Now, we swear by doing it every year.

Spending a weekend visiting our hometown together as adults has only made our friendship stronger.

Alexa Mellardo I've stayed close to my high-school friends , but we've got busy lives and live in different states.

To reconnect, we planned a weekend trip to revisit our hometown and do our favorite activities.

It went so well that spending a weekend together in our hometown has become our yearly tradition.

I honestly don't know what I'd do without my high-school besties.

We've navigated just about everything together, from school drama and college decisions to life in our 20s, confidently and effectively.

Even though we're now in our 30s, living in four separate states, and at different stages in our lives, we've remained very close.

Texts and calls help, but it's hard to get so caught up in our daily responsibilities that we let precious years slip by without making time to spend together.

So, two years ago, my girlfriends and I decided to plan the sweetest, most nostalgic coastal getaway around our hometown in Fairfield, Connecticut.

We figured it'd be special for our group of four to head back home, and it'd be an easy trip to plan .

After all, we wouldn't have to spend time looking up restaurants or activities — we already had our favorites.

The weekend was simple and wholesome, yet perfect It was nice to revisit some of our go-to spots near home.

Alexa Mellardo We kicked off our first night of the trip with a few bottles of rosé and pies from our go-to pizza joint, where we'd gather every Thanksgiving and Christmas break during college.

A round of hot-oil pizzas was typically followed by bar hopping and reconnecting with everyone else from our high school who was back home, too.