Good times in Fayetteville

Thursday (the 19th) we got to do something we’ve been trying to do for months: go to a bluegrass jam.

An old family friend, Reed Doke, has been trying to get us to come to the Bear’s Place jam since we arrived here in November. It’s on the third Thursday of every month. Things kept getting in the way, though, and so we were pretty excited that the stars finally lined up.

It was a small jam (six people total), but everybody was super talented and I had a great time. I don’t think my dobro teacher would have been particularly proud, as some of my breaks were terrible, but I took more breaks than I ever did as a guitar player so I consider this a win. It was fun! And so wonderful to play and sing again.

So that was the first round of awesome.

The next round happened the next day. First, we had a “max reps” challenge at CrossFit. As in, pick a heavy weight (mine was 105 lbs) and do as many reps as you can, unbroken. 105 lbs is a lot of weight for me, and I was hoping to get to 20 reps.

I got to 37.

Hell Yeah! But afterwards, trying to put my weights away, I could barely walk. Which also elicited a Hell Yeah!

That evening we got to head back up to Branson, Missouri, for a dinner invite with Richard and Bambi. You might remember Michael’s amazing uncle and aunt from this post in December. Well, we needed to bring up a couple pieces of furniture, so Richard and Bambi turned dinner into a big family event. So we got to see our cousin Tyler (who we haven’t seen in a couple of years) and his lovely fiance, Allegra, as well as cousin Zach, his wonderful wife, Molly, and their two kids.

We had a great time hanging out with everyone.

Saturday the 21st was the day of the Women’s March, and I have to tell you I was so proud to be an American. I followed it all on Facebook. I love all my strong nasty women!

Saturday afternoon we met up with our friends Barton and Andrea and Shireen and Liz at Crystal Bridges  Museum of American Art up in Bentonville. I had mentioned to Andrea a little while back that I’d love to go to the Frank Lloyd Wright house that’s on the premises now. And she said, “Really?!?” Because apparently she’d been wanting to go for a long time. Yay!

We toured the house, which was awesome, although we couldn’t take any pictures inside. If you click on that link above, the museum has several pictures online. I loved the view of the trees from those giant picture windows.

After the tour we all went out to dinner at a place in Bentonville called Tusk & Trotter. Their menu looked so fabulous, and with the exception of serving foie gras I think this place would fit right in on Pearl Street in Boulder. (If you don’t get that joke, check out this article from the Wall St Journal, the most objective piece I could find.)

Dinner was amazing. The food was wonderful and made all the better by the great company. I had something that I actually don’t see on their on-line menu: porridge. Yep, that’s what they called it. A mixture of farro and oatmeal, with a little pulled pork, three decadent pieces of pork belly, a hard-boiled egg, and pico de gallo on top. It might sound a little weird but let me tell you it was delicious. Delicious!

It hasn’t been too cold here this week, but it won’t stop raining. We’re both totally looking forward to Florida.