CMA Fest Day 2 & 3: Cowboy Up!

After a very eventful day one of CMA Fest in Nashville, we all woke up Friday morning with an appetite (granted I had a hot dog the night before) and a little adventure in our bones. We wanted pizza, and decided to venture out to the Farmers' Market to a place called Bella Nashville where the ingredients are fresh. 

I had the margarita pizza, but I like things simple. Just a lot of sauce and a little cheese and I'm a happy girl. 

Now, after we had a little bit of pizza we all took a nap. The first night was pretty exhausting. For round two, we hit up BB Kings in downtown Nashville where we go every year that we come to CMA Fest. It's an easy atmosphere, good food and usually we are in a hurry. I had wings. 

I know. Hot dogs. Pizza. Wings. 

I'm the living proof of health right now. 

Detox will start Monday. 

After our healthy bites, we headed to LP Field. Randy Travis photobombed our picture!

How rude, Randy... how rude. 

Now here is an interesting story. Back in 2011 we met this young fella named Nick. We were joking around one night taking pictures and snapped this one. Because I live for social media, I put it on Facebook then. This year, Melissa saw the same guy and knew it was him. Sure enough, it was. 

The top picture is 2011, the bottom is 2013. 

Sadly, even my hair curls in the exact same spot it did a year ago thanks to the humidity. 

We saw a lot of great people Friday night that include... 

Randy Travis ... Kip Moore .. Little Big Town ... Hunter Hayes ... Lady Antebellum ... Blake Shelton with special guest by Sheryl Crow and Jason Muraz. 

Kip Moore was really, really good and of course Lady A and Mr. Shelton were pretty good as well. 

To be honest, Hunter Hayes is kind of like a country Justin Bieber. Cute and little, but not for me. 

Oh look at the lights behind us! 

Friday night did not end up with a hot dog, instead, it ended up with Taco Bell. 

See why there will be a detox on Monday?? 

On Saturday we headed downtown earlier and I caught the Mountain Man from Duck Dynasty hanging out at CMA Fest. 

Just never know who you might see. 

We also visited Merchants Restaurant Saturday night. The story of Merchants is pretty cool... 

To sum it up, it was once an old hotel that opened right around the 1900's. It had different floors that had different things like a pharmacy, hardware and drug company on the floor. It also was a hotel that housed people for food and lodging for around a quarter a day. There have been some famous country stars to stay there that include, Dolly, Loretta and Hank. 

I'd stay there for a quarter if I could meet Dolly. 

While we waited on food, Melissa and I had a mini photo shoot. This is just one of like a hundred. 

The sun was right in my face but who can complain about a little natural light. 

Oh hey Nashville, hey! 

Saturday night was just as fun as the first two. That's the thing about CMA fest, even if you aren't a major country fan, you can still have the best of time because you know there will be surprises like... 

Lenny Kravitz! 

We also saw ... Florida Georgia Line ... Dierks Bentley ... Kelly Clarkson ... and Keith Urban with surprises by Jason Aldean.

Saturday night ended with a fireworks show, and I love fireworks more than one person should. It's probably why the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. 'Merica, fireworks and fun. 

After a fun couple of day ... all you can do ... is cowboy up. 

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Sunday Funday: Arkansas Apple Orchard Farm

If you're ever looking for something to do in Arkansas, then I have a suggestion. Apple picking! Sunday afternoon became an adventure road trip. A week ago at work, Falguni (my frand & co-worker) was talking to another co-worker where they were discussing apple orchards in Arkansas. She had never been to an apple orchard (I don't think) and hadn't been to one in Arkansas (or anywhere else that I can remember). She came up with the idea to take an afternoon road trip to Guy, Arkansas, to pick some apples! She also enjoys photography so we decided to load up the cameras (I still need practice) and get to apple pickin'! 

Now these are all pictures that I took - I'm still learning how to use this new camera and new lens. 

Forgive the mistakes you see, for I'm still learning.

We had no idea what it was going to be like to pick apples in Arkansas. 

But it's just like picking anything else in a garden. But the garden is full of trees. 

 This is the first row of Arkansas Black.

It's the easiest apple to pick from the others. Why? Because it's red. 

All the other apples are green.

Here's a brief description about the Arkansas Black apple: 

The skin of the Black Arkansas apple is waxy and vivid red to dark purple in color. Its flesh is golden hued and juicy with a fine-grained and crisp texture. Its highly aromatic and sweet-tart flavor mellows and becomes more palatable with storage. The flesh as well will soften with storage, when first harvested the Black Arkansas apple is extremely hard, almost to the point that many would find it difficult to eat out of hand. 

Being hard to eat out of your hand is very correct. 

This apple had already been taken by the slug. 

Couldn't blame him, it's a good apple.

When they aren't selling apples in the fall, the orchard also sells peaches, strawberries and grapes when they're in season.

Falguni made a friend while we were doing some apple pickin'. 

I'm not sure what this dogs name is, but I named her Rusty.

A tree full of honey crisp apples

The best part about picking these apples? She let us try one to see how good they were. Which is smart - because that just made me buy more apples.

We even found a small patch of leftover raspberries.

And some grapes! These were delicious. 

When we were leaving there was a field full of cattle just looking at us. 

Wonder if they wanted an apple?

A little photoshop fun!

Thanks cow! We will be back in the spring to pick some peaches. 

Stay tuned - guess what the recipe this week will be based on?

I'll go ahead and tell you. Apples! 

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Things To Do Besides Writing Papers

Clark Christmas 2011

By May 15, 2012, I will have written three papers that will be: 25 pages, 15 pages, 20 pages; Finished two case study assignments; and finished a final. So you would think that I would be less worried about playing on iPhone apps, and more concerned with all of this writing I have to do. You would think that, right?

Well, no. The free app, 'Pic Stitch' lets you put all your pictures in your phone together for collage. 

This happens to be a lot more fun than writing papers. 

Please enjoy all of my collages. 

Out and about - lots of these pics are old...

Oh, Wythe.

A little old school for you.

My sweet friend, Tiffy

My newest distraction... who needs to write papers anyway?

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