august is maybe the worst part of the year to visit memphis, with heat indexes often over 100 degrees and hella humidity, but that turned out to be the best time to make a trip and so that’s what i did. i hadn’t been back or seen my parents since march, and i also needed to drive my car down to leave it there for the fall and winter. chewy is becoming a snowbird and he is pretty thrilled about it — his first nyc winter the battery kept dying until i finally had to replace it, and winter two is when he got hit while parked on the street. so needless to say, he’s excited for the change of scenery and i am excited to have a car available for my upcoming visits later this year [and to not have to move it for street cleaning for a while / ever again].

coming back to the point, i spent the better part of august in memphis and lived to tell the tale. here are some highlights from my time, some of which [maciel’s, adventures with mama swami, gus’s, etc] will feel familiar and a few of which are fun and new.

all my memphis food.

three weeks in memphis allowed for ample opportunity to hit up all my favorite spots and even try a few new ones. i made it to soul fish and kwik chek three times, maciel’s and petals of a peony twice, and india palace, gus’s, blues city cafe, curry bowl, and fino’s once. new york city food is amazing, but i miss kwik chek every day i’m not in memphis.

a visit to bentonville.

katie milligan bought a house last year and i wanted to see it [and her, obviously], so i drove myself up to bentonville one weekend. we had a lovely two days of catching up and hiking and eating and enjoying each other’s company, and it was great.

steph and pete came to memphis!

as luck would have it, steph and pete finalized a deal with memphis travel a week or so before i got to town, so they came to memphis for three days with their son hays and steph’s parents ken and ellen. it was so good to see all of them and to show them around town [and introduce them to gus’s], and i can’t wait to share the videos from their visit once they are ready.

lots of pool time.

i spent three weekend afternoons in dillard and rich’s pool, and i also scored a solo weekday afternoon dip as well. i hadn’t realized how much i had come to rely on their pool in the summer until i stopped having access to it, so i took full advantage while i was in town.

mother-daughter adventures.

my mother retired last year, but when i visited in december i was working and didn’t get to enjoy the days with her, so this time around i took full advantage. some days we tackled a cleaning / organization project, some days we went out for lunch and ran errands, some days we cooked dinner, and some days we watched bones marathons and napped. we took care of a lot of family admin things that needed to be done, and we also chilled a lot.

i’m still shocked at how quickly three weeks went, and i’m also really grateful to have had the opportunity to spend three unencumbered weeks with family and friends. i know i’ll be back twice more this year, but with those visits revolving around reunion weekend and marathon weekend i know i won’t have as much flexibility in my schedule, so i’m glad to have had this visit.

until next time, memphis.

xx