This week my sister was in Arkansas for business. She was also celebrating her 31st birthday, so my mom and I packed up some leftover (frozen) wedding cake, champagne, a blender she hadn't been able to fit in her luggage after her wedding, and her guest book, and we headed east.
Day 1: While Courtney was busy at work, my mom and I explored a beautiful outdoor shopping center in Rogers, the Pinnacle Hills Promenade. It felt like I was back in California, and the weather was perfect. (Fashion note: lots of polka dots and stripes) My favorite stop was the Fresh Market, where we got birthday flowers for Court and Valentines-themed granola called Love Crunch. My mom is the queen of sending holiday packages, so the crunch was headed to CA for my brother and his wife.
That night Courtney and I went out to Starbucks for some sister bonding time. We chatted over hot drinks and nibbled on a pumpkin scone before getting lost on the way to pick up pizza for our mom. Her phone was giving us the wrong directions, both of our phones were close to dying, and then her husband called for a heart-to-heart chat, while I was frantically trying to figure out where the heck we were. Poor Chris! We finally found the place, but getting lost became a theme for this trip.
Day 2: The next day, my mom and I headed to Lake Fayetteville for a picturesque nature walk. Unfortunately, the paved trail was under construction, so we ended up doing a combination of multiple trails, and what we thought was going to be a 4-mile nature walk turned into a 7-mile fairly intense hike. The beautiful view of the lake helped, but boy were we glad to see the car at the end.
That night, Courtney's client treated us to free tickets to the Arkansas-Florida basketball game, which was a blast. I have never seen fans so fired up. Even when the Razorbacks were up by 27 points, they were on their feet, screaming their heads off like they were down by 2.
All in all, it was a great trip, and I was impressed with all that Arkansas has to offer!
