It’s been a busy couple of weeks with travel and visiting family.

Louie and I went to Chautauqua, NY to spend a few days visiting my sister Leslie and her family there. Her husband is in the orchestra and she subs, so they spend the summer there. (He is a cellist, she’s a violinist like me). Leslie recently had her second baby, my first nephew, so we were excited to see him again.

We stayed at the Pine Hill Resort near their house. This was a great place to stay, because it was close, quiet, and clean. What more could you want in a hotel? We didn’t spend much time on the property, but there is a boat dock and you can get right down to the lake. The room had a lot of pine and smelled very nice!

It was a relaxing few days. We walked around, had some nice meals, saw Bemus Point, Mayville, hiked in Chautauqua Gorge, walked around the grounds of Chautauqua, saw a ballet, hung out with my niece and nephew a lot, went to Southern Tier Brewing Company, and went to a barbecue. Louie went sailing and I spent time on the beach.

The town of Bemus Point was adorable. Very quiet, calm, and what you’d expect for a lakeside resort town.

Athena liked the tiny chairs.

Luca’s face is too chonky!

We enjoyed the lake breezes!

Louie and I took a hike along the Chautauqua Gorge. We took a few pictures but my eyes were closed in all of them. Fail.

We hope to go back next summer for a longer visit! There was more to do in the area, and along the way (for instance, we drove right by Cleveland without stopping and I’d love to take a day and look up some old friends to visit and see where I used to live and show Louie!) It’s also not terribly far from Niagara Falls and Louie has never been there.

Also, this guy.

When we got back to St Louis we only had a few hours until my sister Carrie visited. She normally lives in NYC but had been in Minnesota and then Chicago so she popped over to visit for a few days. It was incredibly hot here at that time, so we mostly just hung out inside, but we also went to the Art Museum and the Campbell House Museum.

This cat might have missed us while we were gone.

Lots of great artwork. I think the St Louis Art Museum is really great—it’s not huge or overwhelming, but just really well done.

There are tons more pictures on my instagram, so go check that out if you haven’t!

Now I have 5 days, counting today, until we hit the road for a longer time. I’ve been planning this upcoming road trip since last September, so I really can’t believe it’s almost here! We’ve already assembled and organized all our camping gear (which is no small feat) and the only things left to do are to finish packing our clothes, load the car, take care of the cat and the house, and hit the road! Well, and a million other things, plus working this week, but rest assured, I’ve got lists and plans made, and it will all work out. Our biggest concerns are bears, hailstorms, and flash floods.

Louie and I spent Memorial Day Weekend in Eureka Springs with another couple. I’d never heard of Eureka Springs (it’s in Arkansas) until a few months ago, but it ended up being a great place to visit for the weekend.

Louie had just bought a new Subaru Forester, so we took that. We picked up Ben and Roz after lunch on Friday and headed out. It was supposed to take about 5 hours to drive there, give or take, so we wanted to get a good start.

The drive was uneventful. The last portion of the drive was very hilly and did include a gravel road for a bit (yay for the Forester!) and then we got to the cottage we rented. We’d looked at quite a few places, but most importantly wanted something in town that we could walk to the shops and restaurants from, but that had two bathrooms and two bedrooms. We found the Cottage on the Hillside fit our needs.

The first night we had dinner at a great Mexican place called Taqueria Aquarius. We sat outside (after a little wait) and enjoyed the mild summer weather. This place was across from a biker bar, and there were a lot of motorcycles in town for the weekend (the one downside—loud engines going by here and there, and lots of traffic! I can see why people like biking here though.)

We walked back to our cottage a slightly different way than we’d come, and much of the walk was steeper and darker than we liked—we hadn’t found the best way to get around yet and had been using our phones to navigate. The town was full of Victorian Era houses as it was founded during that time for people to come visit for the water—there were many springs scattered throughout the town. The other interesting thing about Eureka Springs is that the town is built on the sides of mountains—hardly anything is straight and houses are just crammed in where they are, on top of rocks, squeezed in between rocks, wherever they can fit!

Everybody except me slept in the next day, so I read on the front porch for awhile. It was a lovely wraparound porch and I got to do some nice people watching instead.

I probably should have gone out for a stroll as I started feeling a little stir-crazy, but oh well. Reading is nice too! We got an early lunch at Oscar’s Café and then went for a hike around Lake Leatherwood.

We took a path that led totally around the Lake, and included a bridge over the dam. It was a nice walk and not too hot, but quite humid.

We did have to do one water crossing. Our friends took their boots off for it, but Louie and I decided to leave ours on.

This wasn’t actually the crossing, but a nice example of the trail.

Later we got cleaned up and headed into town for dinner. We tried a few places but ended up at a place called Local Flavor. We had a nice dinner and then went to the Balcony at the Basin Park Hotel for a nightcap.

The next morning I was up early again (this is how I’ve been as I’ve gotten older, I wake up somewhere between 7 and 8 and I’m just up.) Louie got up shortly after and we decided to go walk around for a bit. I must say this was my favorite thing to do in Eureka Springs, just wander around and see what you find. We saw some really great houses (though, the upkeep seemed crazy!) and found a few springs, wandered up a dirt path to the Crescent Park Hotel at the top of town…there were so many places to walk and wander and little paths coming out here and there.

We met our friends for brunch back at Local Flavor (eggs benedict with salmon) and then wandered around the other side of town.

The other side of town was a little less polished and had narrower and steeper roads. It was full of hidden places and fantastic views and houses still.

We headed over to Beaver Lake after that and checked out the Dam and a Marina. The Lake was very pretty.

We had a great dinner at the Grotto. It was a restaurant built sort of into a cave wall or something and the food was really good. We’d tried to eat there the night before but they were booked, but we got a late reservation for our last night, which worked out perfectly.

Anyway, that was Eureka Springs! We packed up and left the next morning. It was great place to stay, easy to check in and out, easy to get around, and we loved it. I would definitely go back and see more things and simply wander around. It was a cute town and seemed very welcoming to everybody.

That little frog came home with me—the owner of the cottage had a few things for sale and that frog was one of them.

Our way home included a very long dirt road. The Forester was more than up for the challenge though.