Way in the future plans

With a new school year upon us, thoughts of the future creep into my mind. I still have one child at home, but next year they will both be in school full time and I won't know what to do with all that time to myself. I will hopefully be working more hours at the library, and be substituting for the school regularly by then.

One thing my husband and I have been looking forward to when our children are older is finally taking a trip to Europe. We have always wanted to go, but we got married young, had our first child right after college graduation, and have been in the realm of child raising ever since. While I try to cherish the present, I can't help but look into the future as well at the freedom we will have when our children grow up.

France is especially intriguing to us, since both sides of our families have relatives from France. Hotels in Paris look so quaint and romantic, with the old world charm we adore. One town in the South of France actually has the same name as our last name, so we would have to visit the country and stay in another hotel with a different feel. It will be interesting to compare a Paris Hotel with different Hotels in France outlying areas.

Since my husband and I are both artists, with degrees in Fine Arts, we would spend a lot of time at the Louvre. It will be so amazing to see most of the works in person that we studied for years in college. The thing that strikes us the most about Europe is how old the architecture is, and how well preserved everything is. We consider buildings old here in the US that are only 100 years old, but over there you can find buildings that are 200 or 300 years old easily, with some being much older if you do a little research.

For now, we are happy in our "Little Switzerland" of the Ozarks, Eureka Springs, which has more Victorian-era homes per geographical area than any other area in the US. Plus, we are in the mountains, so we have fun hiking around town and discovering new stairways that lead to ancient stone foundations or old roads that are no longer used. Our town has history, and that is one reason we love it so much.