One thing I’ve really liked about central Arkansas is all the flowering trees and plants. I have favorite spots that I walk by in my neighborhood --- just hoping that the neighbors won’t be outside gardening, so I can get suuuuuper-close to the flowers and no one will think it’s weird. The sights and the smells of summertime bring a sense of calm to my heart. Also, a sense of sadness that I can’t have my own flowers right now… temporary apartments aren’t friendly to that sort of thing and the gardens of our own little Sunnyside Cottage back in Pennsylvania are mostly known for the ability to grow VERY LARGE hedges that obscure mailboxes and hide poison plants. But I digress.

Speaking of digressing, I hate to be an art critic, but this mural. is. weird.

We went for Saturday night stroll in downtown Conway, and were thrilled to find this train car in the local park. I mean, IT’S JUST LIKE HOME!
We had to go see the train, of course…. and this is my 24-week baby bump!! I had Brandon take a more official picture later, but it happened to be by a brick wall and then like ten people walked by us and stared at me, so I ended up having the WEIRDEST, MOST UNCOMFORTABLE look on my face… so there’s all the bump photo you’re getting. I gotta say, I make Brandon look skinny. ;) He’s been working out… looking good!

So we’re strolling along, hand-in-hand, chatting, walking (I always walk on Brandon’s right side. I’m not sure why), talking about all the little shops that are mostly closed --- because it’s Saturday evening – and smelling some delicious pizza smells…. trying not to give in…. and then we found this:
It was an entire little shop filled with CANDY and old-fashioned glass bottle soda. This is the stuff that my dreams are made of! I was absolutely thrilled. We wandered around in circles, staring at the various candies, allowing our mouths to salivate all over the place. I mean, I didn’t know I wanted candy until that moment (the exact reason that one should not scroll through Pinterest late at night: it’s the power of suggestion!).


Did I ever tell you how much I love Mallo Cups?
Still thinking about home? I have really good Hershey Chocolate Factory/HersheyPark memories throughout the years… well, except for that one time during our friendship years that I went there at the same time Brandon was there and he wasn’t allowed to speak to me. But hey, we ended up married several years later… so guess who won? ;)

And now we get to have married dates!

We made our candy and soda choices and headed back to the cute little park to eat, drink and be married (I do love puns and plays-on-words. Like the time during the drama at church on Sunday where the teenagers made a pun about sheep and ewes, and I’m pretty sure I laughed first and loudest. I blame my daddy for loving pun-ny jokes).

Awwwwww. Here we are.
YUM YUM YUM! Candy choices (which happened to be my favorites, but Brandon likes them A LOT, too, so it worked out perfectly!) + soda choices. I like lime soda, and Brandon loves ginger soda so spicy that it clears out the sinuses… I had one sip of his and couldn’t stop coughing. My goodness! It says “Australian” but the strong ginger flavor always reminds him of his time in Africa.
Here’s a better mural from the downtown area. Toad Suck is a place (I think) and this town has a big ol’ festival named Toad Suck Days (Daze?) that they are famous for. I was sad that we came here too late… because I heard that the festival has really great fried food--- that’s what I go to festivals for….It was a calm and quiet date night in downtown Conway. I adored it, because I adore sweet things…. and it was little unexpected – why is it that the best dates are the unplanned ones?

Our July 4th weekend was calm, restful, exciting and more than a little American. We spent our actual holiday staying home (except for the gym!), while Brandon worked on his second job from the couch and I puttered around home. We originally intended on going to a baseball game on Friday, but apparently, everyone else and their brother had the same idea (it might’ve had something to do with the fireworks on the river after the game). So we bought tickets for the baseball game on Saturday night and spent our Friday night watching Psych.

There were fireworks that we could see from our balcony. I was the only person that could really see them because I would hear the popping noises, jump up and run over to the door and then exclaim, “fireworks!!” About three or four fireworks would go off, I would “oooooh” and “aaaah” and then by the time Brandon came over to watch, the fireworks would stop… for the next ten minutes. Finally, we gave up and ignored the fireworks altogether. I wasn’t too sad, because we saw beautiful fireworks on Memorial Day weekend!



On Saturday morning, I just had to drag Brandon on a looooovely walk through my new favorite college campus – Hendrix College! It’s just a few blocks from our apartment. The campus is shaded and small and pretty as all get out. I mean, look at this ivy-covered building!



I’m not really sure what this sign means… there were no spoons in sight.



Whenever I see gazebos, I think “someone should get engaged there.”  Hilarious considering that I didn’t get engaged in a gazebo (Potomac river cruise engagement for the win!), but I consider it a hazard of being a former wedding photographer --- I pick out romantic spots a mile away! ;)



Our real destination was checking out a new coffee shop called The Patio Café in downtown Conway. It seemed like a hybrid restaurant/coffee shop, which is quite an interesting concept to master. The patio was full (expected, because they have a nice patio), but we wanted to sit inside --- Brandon likes air conditioning). There was waiter service, which is a little odd since all we wanted was coffee and nice place to hold hands and talk.




This is actually Brandon’s fake smile… because there were two VERY ANNOYING FLIES that wouldn’t leave us alone. Once we went all Mr. Miyagi on them (Karate Kid reference, anyone?), life got a whole lot better. Death to flies everywhere. They are the curse of this world.

Anyway, back to positivity. The mocha and blueberry scone were quite yummy!



Art on the walls.



Aaaaaaaand…. a piano. I like pianos. I like them even more since I haven’t actually touched one in months, and sometimes I do feel like I’m going through music withdrawal (though my acoustic guitar helps a little bit). Also, I sing incessantly around the house whether or not someone is listening.



Side note – loved this song from church on Sunday. It’s stuck in my head, and that’s not a bad thing.
I love seeing hot air balloons. They just make me happy, even though the likelihood of me actually going on a hot air balloon ride is about zero….. #afraidofheights. :)



Saturday night baseball game excursion!







Baseball!

It’s American. It’s a little bit slow (read: relaxing) and the perfect way to spend a summer evening. I find baseball to be a bit snooze-worthy, unless a) I know the people playing, b) it’s a live game (not TV!), or c) there are peanuts involved. I love roasted peanuts in the shell.



Perfect, breezy weather. People-watching. Hanging out together. Chatting about the game. Listening to people sing “take me out to the ballgame.” Americana at its best.



You could tell that it was getting late when the very young and very old started leaving. We were determined to stay ‘til the end --- in part because we don’t go to sports events that much and were definitely gonna get our money’s worth. ;) The game was surprisingly close and we stayed until the last play to see if the Travelers could pull off the win. Not quite, but we weren’t too sad. ‘Cause it was a great game. And that’s enough for me.

“Let’s have an adventure!”

We are adventurous. Considering that we trekked from Pennsylvania to Arkansas to live in a temporary apartment for summer, that’s adventurous. In general though, I consider us homebodies. We like to stay home. Except for when we leave the house to go get coffee. Blogging about our big-super-duper-interesting life seems to be a stretch, because like I said, we’re homebodies.

A sneak peek into our lives on a typical Friday night equals us sitting on the couch together. Drinking iced coffee. Brandon on his work laptop, doing his second job. Me on my laptop or curled up with a book. It’s not very exciting… but it is nice.

Sometimes we leave the house on date night. Sometimes we don’t. A few weekends ago, we did a Saturday afternoon date to Little Rock… where the city was surprisingly empty. Our thoughts, “EVEN BETTER!” (Homebodies no likey crowds either!). ;)


We strolled by the riverside… on the opposite shore than when we viewed the fireworks!


We didn’t even realize how far we walked until later, when my feet started aching. The river was calming, the roses were vibrantly beautiful and we got a real kick outta strolling by the kids running through the sprinkler area, especially the one little boy who crawled to the top of a rock ledge and was screaming “I’m king of the mountain!!!” Kids are hilarious.


Raindrops started falling and we ran for cover… right into the Little Rock library. Brandon buried his head in an engineering book and I found a fascinating tome on American foods. It was enlightening…. and it made me so hungry!

For pizza. I don’t care what anybody says…. pizza IS American. It’s hard to find a little American town without pizza, and it’s usually pretty delicious!


Little Rock has a historic district. We drove around looking at big ol’ houses. This one had a lot of security, a nice tall fence and a guard booth. Because it’s the governor’s mansion. I took a picture anyway (and had Brandon drive away really fast… just in case).



We took a drive to a new little coffee place and ended the day on a sweet note!


Affogato. The delicious concoction of a scoop of gelato or ice cream drowning in espresso. Soooo good. The ice cream gets a little melty from the hot espresso. We share the ice cream, but Brandon gets most of the espresso because the flavor is a little too strong for me. It’s a good-good deal. :)

When our first full weekend in Arkansas ends up being a holiday weekend, what do we do? Eat, sleep and watch fireworks. Seems so patriotic. Like the American dream.

This internship is cooool ---- also with some weird hours. Brandon’s been up early and working late most days. Sometimes I drive him to work (if I need the car), sometimes I just get up to make him breakfast. He tells me that he can make his own breakfast, because he’s a sweetheart like that… but I wake up anyway when the alarm goes off and I figure I might as well get up and make sure the food/coffee sustenance gets in his belly. Also, I have a weird sense of alarm about stovetops being left on when I’m not the one cooking, so I prefer to be the one cooking. Even if it’s 4:00 am. ;)

Saturday morning breakfast omelet looked like this. Omelets always remind me of sunshine. They’re such happy breakfast items. Also, I am super-consistent at taking prenatal vitamins. :D


Anyway, I ventured out Saturday morning to find the farmer’s market. Not too much happening there… or maybe I just arrived towards closing time. I snatched up some fresh lettuce and a jar of local honey. Brandon now gets a tablespoon of honey in his oatmeal every morning, because I heard that local honey can help with allergies. We are currently testing that theory. I’ll keep you informed on the progress… I was a little sad driving away from the farmer’s market because there were no strawberries. Then, lo and behold, I turned a corner and there was a large banner on a roadside stand proclaiming, “FRESH STRAWBERRIES.” I did a pretty cool quick turn (good thing nobody was following me too closely) and bought 2 1/2 quarts of fresh, delicious, amazing-looking berries.

Simple strawberry shortcake, anyone? :D


Sunday dawned a new day, and that meant visiting church #2. I gotta say, this whole visiting-new-churches-thing has perks. Like free homemade bread last week! Free cookbook and coffee mug and candy this week! If I was more shallow, I’d say we should keep on visiting new churches every week! Maybe by the end of the summer, we’d get a new car! (sillyness here should be obvious).. We did really enjoy church #2. Super-friendly. Greeted by soooo many folks. Liked the worship and particularly appreciated the sermon because it was… about the Bible, from the Bible and firmly on-topic the whole way through. Very good stuff. The consensus in the Schwartz family is that we shall be visiting there again (despite my love of free-visitor gifts. lol).



On Sunday evening, we headed into the city… well, semi-close to the city of Little Rock. There is Little Rock and then there is the river and then there is North Little Rock. I had heard about some big ol’ music festival happening in Little Rock --- which made me abandon plans of going into Little Rock, because we’re not big on crowds. Or music festivals, for that matter. BUT the really-cool-fun part is that at the end of said music fest, there would be fireworks. So we headed to the riverfront park on the North Little Rock side to see if we could catch a glimpse of the fireworks.



The weather was lovely. The heat of the day had passed (and it was HOT!), and there was a slight breeze blowing. We walked the trail for awhile and could glimpse the crowds across the river.



Found an empty park bench facing the river and waited until darkness fell.
Oh yes, and I was being “artistic” while waiting for the fireworks to begin!



As it turned out, we could not have settled on a more perfect spot for fireworks-watching. They were bursting almost directly overhead! We even had to brush fireworks shrapnel off our clothes when leaving. I snapped a few fireworks photos, but mostly rested my head on Brandon’s shoulder and just enjoyed the show. The best things in life are often free. Like date night by the river as fireworks burst overhead (and in my heart).






One last look at the river before the night was over.

Our Memorial Day was slow and restful, but the entire weekend was pretty fun.

How was your holiday weekend? Do tell. I read comments. :D