Daisy was back to cooking and what a treat to come home to a bowl of Asian-inspired rice bowl with shrimp and cucumbers paired with the new Arkansas wine we picked up on our recent trip. Snow even was up in her seat waiting for a bite! Daisy has been a working with her internship and staying busy.
This was my 20th year to volunteer for Vacation Bible School in some capacity at various churches throughout the years. This year they gave me a super easy job: check-in, and I appreciated it! I also took a day and drove over to Arkadelphia and got my hair colored. I loved the new hair color and am excited as this will be my before photo, as I’m about to get hair extensions. So, be on the lookout for a new do, coming in a few weeks! Also, I’ve always loved driving under this railroad bridge; it’s neat.
And we headed back to the arts center for the opening of Momma Mia! the summer musical. It was great! I highly recommend it. In fact, I went back and ushered on Sunday and will be going back to see it with some of my friends. At the end you get to sing along with the songs of Abba, so much fun!!!
What a fun night! Good friends and good food! We enjoyed an evening for dinner over at Amy & Tracy’s house – Rudy, Daisy and I; Amy and Tracy and Blair; and Renee and David. The table setting was lovely and the first course was Renee’s wedge salad. Amy said she always requests Renee’s wedge salad and now I know why, because it’s one of the best I’ve ever had! In addition to the wedge salad, we had: thick cut steaks that were buttery deliciousness; creamed shallots and spinach, which I never had before but may have been my favorite part of the meal; scratch-made Alfredo and fettuccine topped with a grilled garlic-lemon-butter shrimp and roasted potatoes. We were so full, but somehow able to enjoy cheesecake with fresh cut strawberries and whipped topping. Amy said the cheese cake came from Mac’s Fresh Market in the frozen food section. I seriously thought it was homemade; it was so very good. So, we had just the most delightful time with friends and a fantastic meal. A good night!
A little Wildlife: This mockingbird was chilling on the roof of my car after work. He really liked it up there and wasn’t took keen on moving, but he eventually did. Also, this cute baby turtle was hanging out on the back patio on my way to work. He was so cute.
Friday night we went out and saw our friend and a fantastic musician Chris Loggins playing at Main Street Pizza and got to hang out with some good friends. We had a wonderful night together!
Saturday was a really nice day. We started the day fresh with a visit to the MAD Farmer’s market. Rudy and Daisy got fancy coffee from the coffee cart. We bought a really cool inlaid wood charcuterie board, canned dill pickles, and a hoppin’ john hot sauce for our black-eyed peas that I haven’t seen since I was a kid, so I cannot wait to try it! After we went to Off the Rail for brunch. This place never disappoints! And we got to visit with the couple outside on the patio who brings their big green parrot River every so often out. Afterwards, we strolled around the square and hit up most of the shops and made a few purchases. We headed home and took a break. That evening Rudy and I went to the pool at the club. The first time all summer. It was hot out of the pool and warm it in, but it was one of the coolest things we could do on one of the hottest days of the year. Plus, they make cool drinks and it was fun catching up with some friends. After we drove our golf cart home, and cleaned up and popped in the car and all went to the South Arkansas Arts Center’s Juried Art Show reception. We caught the last thirty minutes. We loved all the art that the judge Taylor Jasper from The Momentary selected. It was really a cool and well done show, especially if you enjoy Contemporary and Modern art. I was impressed. We bought a piece from Marla Tomlinson, whom I have admired for a couple of years. It has lightening bolts on it, so Rudy is the one who really loved it and selected the piece. We are excited. We also picked up our Razorback piece from the last show. After the reception, we drove out to Fernando’s and had supper. We ran into our friends from the night before, which was a neat coincidence. The food was good and so was the day!
On our trip home, we stopped at the Wiederkehr Restaurant. Both Rudy and I have been stopping and eating here since our childhoods. So, it has been quite nice that we both have such good nostalgia built around this lovely restaurant and have carried the tradition of stopping through our marriage and passing the tradition onto our children. It’s such a cute restaurant with a Swiss-Alpine feel. The dark underground restaurant with the thick dark beams and cozy atmosphere featuring Swiss inspired food like fondue. This trip I had the bratwurst and knockwurst with sauerkraut and potatoes. It was delish! I enjoy their red muscadine wine, as this is what both my father and grandfather made at home, as I was growing up, so more wonderful nostalgia. A lovely meal. Also, if you ever stop, I also enjoy their black forrest cake; I have been getting this since I was a child here and still love it. After popping back in the car, we made a quick stop in at Chateau Aux Arc Winery just down the road maybe a mile from Wiederkehr’s. We partook in a wine tasting and chatted with the guests and gal who was working there. It was a lovely little spot and we purchased two bottles of wine: a Zinfandel and Cynthiana 2016. We learned the Cynthiana is the state grape of Arkansas and it is quite nice. A pleasant stop.
We had a spectacular 4th of July weekend visiting Mamaw up in North West Arkansas. We did all sorts of fun things. We visited The Momentary, The Momentary Tower Bar, Downtown Springdale, Downtown Bentonville, drove through downtown Rogers, looked at cars on some car lots, had Boba tea and ribbon ice (Mamaw found her new favorite place to get a snack: pinneapple ribbon ice), went and saw some family, fed the baby raccoons (my dad was probably smiling from heaven when these kits strolled up to eat the bird seed) and of course, watched fireworks all over the region from the front porch, started season 2 of Only Murders in the Building, and of course, shot off fireworks. Actually, Mamaw shot off all the fireworks. She loves them and so do we. And, we love Mamaw and America. How lucky we are in life.
Kicking off our end of the week before the fourth of July weekend was a surprisingly rainy night. This rainy night was following by a big flood while we were gone that was over 10 inches of rain in less than 12 hours, resulting in major flooding in the town. We were shocked by this news. Happy that our house stayed high and dry, but felt for those in our town who were adversely affected. Anywho, this precursor rain was lovely and welcomed as it gave a reprieve from the heat. It has already been a hot summer. So to cool off, we enjoyed the rain, as well as homemade flat-bread pizza which we all agreed the flatbread needed more pre-cook time but was still good and a Christmas in July movie: Christmas Vacation. A lovely evening. And then Rudy took these nice pics featuring the spider-lily flowers that always look like fireworks to me, ready to bloom. Also, Mr. Lizard who has been living in the lilies and puffing his chest up at us on the fence quite often lately.
Cherie's Sayings 