I spent most of the past week working in Harrison, AR, getting home on Thursday just in time for Crystel's birthday. Here's the private jet I got to ride in.
And here are a few pictures from Big Cedar Lodge, just outside of Harrison. Beautiful, huh? Sorry for the blurry photos...this was pre-iPhone 4S.
I've only been to our Harrison location once before, and on that trip last year, they just happened to be having the same election for the legalization of alcohol sales that my hometown of Booneville had last year. The elections were actually going on around the same time. Booneville voted it down, electing to remain "dry," while Harrison voted to allow alcohol sales. From what I could tell, things hadn't gone to "hell in a handbasket" just because they now allow alcohol sales. On the contrary, I heard talk of new local businesses opening and exisisting ones making arrangements to take advantage of the new product to sell. I saw restaurant patrons responsibly having a beer or glass of wine with dinner. Most of all, I just got the feeling of positive progress. Surely, restaurant owners have been able to partially (or fully) offset the negative effects of our recent economic troubles by being allowed to sell a product to it's customers locally, instead of having them go to the next town over to spend their money. Food for thought: new businesses plus increased success for existing business equals something all communities should strive for.
Anyway, off of my soapbox now. When I got back to Memphis on Thursday, I had to quickly get unpacked and get our new iPhones (!) synced before we went out for dinner. First, we went to Molly Fontaine's near downtown for a few appetizers. Then, we met Crystel's sister Lauren at Sekesui Midtown for dinner. I highly recommend the "Project Greenfork Roll." It's Crystel's favorite, and the prime reason we prefer the Midtown location (to my knowledge, they don't have it at the other locations). By the way, the new iPhones are incredible (of course, we were way past due since we never upgraded to the iPhone 4).
After dinner, we rushed home to pack for Oxford, since we were heading there after work on Friday. My only regret about spending all these weekends in Oxford is that our poor dog Porter has to go to the kennel. Even our cat Oliver misses him. Here's a picture taken shortly after we picked him up at the kennel a few weeks ago.
One more day of work, then off to Oxford we go!
