A week in Eureka Springs

Eureka Springs Locomotive

[Follow our road trip here using the tag Road Trip 2019 ]

It was time to leave the AirBnB we were stay­ing at, but we weren’t sure where we should go next. So, we found a place just an hour or so away, just south of the Arkansas bor­der; a lit­tle town called Eureka Springs.

On the way in, we passed a steak­house that caught our inter­est. As soon as we found our new place and dropped off the dogs, we head­ed back out. I’m glad that we did, as it was a fan­tas­tic meal. (See Gaskin’s Cabin Steakhouse for more.) It was a bit tough to find in on the dark roads, but it was worth the search.

The next morn­ing, we drove into town. Eureka Springs is a beau­ti­ful lit­tle town, with lots of shops and places to eat and walk. It is not ter­ri­bly child-friend­ly, though. We did­n’t see many oth­er fam­i­lies with so many lit­tle ones (and a stroller) in tow. The side­walks are nar­row and there are ran­dom steps up or down. All the action is along a sin­gle street, and there are trol­leys that can help you get around, so we were able to over­come those obsta­cles with­out too much trouble.

We let the girls take turns with the snap­shot camera.

We ate a late break­fast at the Mud Street Annex, locat­ed on the main drag. Loved the ambiance and the food. It was sit­u­at­ed direct­ly over a creek, with a win­dow in the floor look­ing down into it. You could tell the tourists ver­sus the locals by who stooped down to look through that win­dow. (Of course, I had to take a look, and a picture!)

Staying in a hotel with three little ones

I was invit­ed to a con­ven­tion this week­end. It starts in 5 hours. Want to go?”

I looked up from my work com­put­er. “Um. OK. Do we have a room?” “Not yet, but I want­ed to check with you first.”

Fast-for­ward 5 and a half hours and we are pulling up to the hotel. The dri­ve was 1 hour, give or take, and it took us an hour to load up the car. Before that, we hasti­ly packed every­thing we thought we would need, but there was­n’t enough time to do that well.

We are on the sec­ond night of this trip, and this is going bet­ter than the pre­vi­ous night by far. I have learned a lot in these two days. Things to pack and things not to pack. How to get the lit­tle ones to go to sleep while shar­ing a cramped hotel room. How to keep them that way. (Hint: it involves hang­ing out in the hall­way, prefer­ably with a beer.)

Continue read­ing “Staying in a hotel with three lit­tle ones”

Attempting to share a room

Our girls JR and E, are super cute, obe­di­ent, and sweet — most of the time.  During the day, they are great, but when bed­time comes around, it is dif­fi­cult.  They both would rather run around and play than go to bed.  I’m sure that this is total­ly nor­mal, espe­cial­ly since they are so close in age, but it can be real­ly infu­ri­at­ing at times.  My wife and I real­ly cher­ish our adult time and if they stay up late, then we don’t get so much of it.

Right now, they are in sep­a­rate rooms, across the hall from each oth­er.  At bed­time, they tend to treat their two rooms as a sin­gle play area.  So, a few nights ago, we tried some­thing new: we let them have a “sleep­over.”

We used it as an incen­tive.  If they both made hap­py plates, and if they were obe­di­ent dur­ing bath time and while get­ting ready for bed, then we’d let them share a room for the night.  We even let them have a half hour of “con­ver­sa­tion time” before lights out.  At first, it seemed like it was going to work… Continue read­ing “Attempting to share a room”