I spent a very quick 72 hours in New York last week, which may not seem super quick to some, but when you lived in a place, that’s barely enough time to see a few of your dearest and revisit past haunts in a sprawling city with five boroughs and friends scattered throughout them.

But as usual, I squeezed in a few gatherings and meetings both before and amid Click Retreat, which was my reason for being in NYC in the first place. Airbnb offered to sponsor me at this photography workshop in Brooklyn, and I couldn’t say no. Especially since my dear friend Angie would be there, as well!

How cute is she, and how much do I want one of these LoveSac non-beanbags for my house?!

Click brought together 20 influencers of all walks—food bloggers, crafty Pinners, serial entrepreneurs—for photo walks, strategy sessions and tutorials with brands like Blurb and individuals like graphic designer (and all-around rock star) Angie Hall Anderson.

After more than a decade of doing photography, I feel like I have a pretty solid grasp on that aspect on the business, but learning about new platforms, such as PubExchange, and ways to increase my blog’s visibility—especially in the wake of our new redesign—was why I was really there.

Meeting new like-minded blogger friends like Heidi and Ali aside—not to mention, reps from the other sponsors like Southwest, my very favorite airline—the most beneficial part of Click for me was our afternoon at Pinterest’s New York office.

After packing on the subway and spending a morning strolling Central Park with Vivienne from Traveling Lens, we made our way to PiNYC on 5th Avenue.

I’ve realized if I’m going to continue to up my blog game, Pinterest is one such platform I need to tackle—speaking of, are we Pinterest friends yet?—and I loved learning tips and tricks, some of which I already knew (like the fact that verticals and images with text overlay always perform better) and others that I didn’t (like how to name boards for SEO and how long Pin descriptions should be ideally). Also mind-boggling is the fact that Pinterest now has more than 100 million regular monthly users and 50 million search queries per day. WHOA!

The final day, however, was my favorite. Blurb came to the loft and did a couple of presentations, and then we all got to set out on a photo walk through Brooklyn.

Embarrassingly, I spent zero time in Brooklyn when I still lived in those parts. In fact, I think I maybe went three times in two years! (More) Grown-Up Me definitely sees its charm now, and I have no doubt that next time I’m back with SVV, we’ll make our base in Williamsburg or Brooklyn Heights or maybe with our friend Nicole in Bushwick.

Claire Rosen, who has a fantastical series of feasting animals—seriously, go check it out, as she managed to stage an entire table of live elephants eating peanut butter sandwiches!—was our photo guide, and we had a grand ol’ time strolling the DUMBO waterfront and scampering among the foliage.

Me Ra wanted in on the fun next. She makes an excellent foot model, don’t you think?

And then it was my turn. You know I’m not shy when someone tells me to climb into a bush! So climb into a bush I did.

Angie even posted this photo of me on Instagram, and it’s currently the top trending photo from DUMBO. I always knew my ass was destined for greatness! And that I should wash my feet more frequently, too…

Trips back to NYC make me nostalgic for my years spent there—for a very short time—but by the end of them, I am usually more than ready to escape the chaos and go back to my relatively quiet, if not hectic, lifestyle back in Tennessee—in this case, however, it was off to JFK to hop a flight over the pond; you can see where I am now via Instagram—but I vowed to New York that I wouldn’t put another 17 months of distance between when we next see each other.