#047 Oasis Hookah Lounge

I spent the earlier part of my day with my dog at Shelby Farms. I walked a little of the Tour de Wolf unpaved trail.  There are mostly bikers on this trail.  The trail is narrow and winds around a bit so I had to get out of the way a number of times.  After coming home and cleaning up my dog a little bit, I headed to dinner at RP tracks. I had the Alpha Beta Pita, which I found pretty tasty.

Then we headed over to the best place to blow smoke shisha.  The Oasis Hookah Lounge and Cafe is in Minglewood Plaza.  We tried one vanilla and spearmint (my preference) and one blueberry.  It has a nice contemporary atmosphere if you want to come and relax while you smoke hookah with your friends.  You have to have a membership to smoke.

#047 Oasis Hookah Lounge

I spent the earlier part of my day with my dog at Shelby Farms. I walked a little of the Tour de Wolf unpaved trail.  There are mostly bikers on this trail.  The trail is narrow and winds around a bit so I had to get out of the way a number of times.  After coming home and cleaning up my dog a little bit, I headed to dinner at RP tracks. I had the Alpha Beta Pita, which I found pretty tasty.

Then we headed over to the best place to blow smoke shisha.  The Oasis Hookah Lounge and Cafe is in Minglewood Plaza.  We tried one vanilla and spearmint (my preference) and one blueberry.  It has a nice atmosphere if you want to come and relax while you smoke hookah with your friends.  You have to have a membership to smoke.

#008 Best Donut

Saturday morning I woke up early to go get some donuts at Gibson's Donuts.  In the past I have gone there late at night to hang out because it's open 24 hours a day.  This was my first time going early in the morning, and at that time there was not surprisingly a different crowd. There were a lot of young kids. The place was pretty packed for 9 am on a Saturday morning.  I got a bunch of different donuts to share. I'm not a big donut eater, but they were all pretty good.

A little later in the day, I went with a few other friends to see Bridesmaids.  It was laugh out loud funny; people were laughing throughout the whole movie. The first half was really hilarious; the second half had more sappy chick flick moments.

Sunday I attempted to go to a furniture store on the list, but it was unfortunately closed. However, I discovered another gem Flashback, a vintage shop on Central.  It had a lot of neat retro items that were really fun to look at. I recommend checking it out if you are into that kind of thing.

Mother's Day

Yesterday for Mother's Day Lunch I went to an Indian restaurant with my family.  We all had the buffet. Some of it was good, but I have definitely had better Indian food.

Later on, I went to Starbucks for the Happy Hour (half off on a Frappuccino).  Go to Starbucks for half-price Frappuccinos from 3-5 pm every day until the 16th.

Saturday at Shelby farms: #010 and #200

Despite the morning rain, the tornadoes of the past couple weeks, and the rising rivers, the afternoon turned out to be warm and sunny- a nice change after all the miserable weather we had been having.   I decided it was a perfect day to re-visit the best dog park at Shelby Farms.  (Though parts of the park have been closed due to flooding, it seems that in the areas I saw, most of the extra water had disappeared.)  My dog prefers to stay away from the off-leash area.  She is intimidated by the bigger dogs that roam free.  I took her to this area once before and she insisted on being picked up for most of the walk.  So this time I took her for a walk around Patriot Lake.  On the way we stopped by to see the buffalo.  Many of them had wound and chunks of missing hair, possibly from illnesses from which they are currently recovering (http://www.shelbyfarmspark.org/sfpc/shelby-farms-park-buffalo-herd-update).

Buffalo

Buffalo in a new 'pond' created by flooding

Then we continued and made our way around Patriot Lake.  The weather was warm and windy.  The walk was nice, and if you get tired, there are places to rest along the way.  There are walkers, joggers, skaters, and bikers out.

 Geese protecting their young.

Goose telling me to back off when I got too close

Goose eggs next to the lake

There were a number of dead fish.

Patriot Lake

Gazebo

After I left Patriot Lake, I drove to Gate 8.  I started walking in that area, and not too long after, I began to hear the joyful screams of kids.  A few minutes later I found the best playground in Memphis, the newest addition to Shelby Farms, the Woodland Discovery Playground (#200).  This playground, just opened last month, is different from any other playground I have seen before.  It is a project by the Sustainable Sites Initiative.   Unfortunately for me one of the rules clearly states is no one over the age of 12 allowed (unless with children), and while I might look young, saying I am under 12 is probably a stretch.

Woodland Discovery Playground

Another cool thing to do is cross the street and pick strawberries in the strawberry field at the Agricenter.

Strawberries in the field at the Agricenter

A box of strawberries

Cinco de Mayo: #109

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I thought it was only appropriate to visit Swanky's Taco Shop, the best fancy taco shop in Memphis.  I have been there before and had a tasty and filling burrito.  This time I chose two order the three taco meal.  I had two crunchy tacos, one with ground beef and the other with steak, and then I had one soft taco with chicken. They were all pretty delicious. Overall I would say they lived up to my expectations, though I do not claim to be an expert on tacos in Memphis, so I am always open to the opinions of others.  Unfortunately I had to drive soon after, so I had only a taste of a margarita.  It was good but strong.  After dinner, I spent my evening finally seeing a show at the new Playhouse on the Square.  I would highly recommend Ragtime to everyone.

365 things to do in Memphis this summer...

LivingSocial has a list of 365 things to do in a number of various cities all over the US.  Since this will be my last summer in Memphis before departing for grad school, I decided to try to complete the 365 things to do in Memphis. This might be easier if I had 365 days, but there are a number of them I have already done in the past.  I will do some of the things I haven't already done, and maybe repeat a few that I enjoyed. So here I go...