2009 Tourist season has begun...

...with a fury!!! Wow, I can't believe how many tourists were in town last weekend. Many people came to town just for the spring library book sale, which makes me very happy. We broke the record again for the most money made in a book sale. Many thanks to the hard work of the Friends of the Library who make our two yearly sales possible.

All the businesses are up and running for the season, from shops, to restaurants, to hotels. We even heard of a new old-fashioned soda fountain which will be opening on Main Street soon! I think that will fit in great here.

Signs of spring

Yay! Spring is finally here! Some of the flowers around town are blooming and I heard my first mourning dove "coo" of the season (which happens to be one of my favorite sounds). Many of the trees are just starting to show little buds on the branches, too.

The kids are officially on Spring Break now, and it seems that we needed it more this year for some reason. I just can't seem to catch up since the time changed last weekend, so hopefully this week I can regroup and gear up for the rest of the school year.

Why I like the fall so much

Fall is by far my favorite season of the year and this morning, as I was walking in my neighborhood enjoying the perfect weather, I was thinking of all the reasons I love this time of year so much. First of all, going back to my childhood, I have many good family memories of the fall. Since I grew up in Houston, Texas, autumn was the best time to go to the zoo, the park, and we played outside all the time jumping in all the leaf piles. Halloween was always a big deal in my family. I remember all of us dressing up and visiting haunted houses, going to parties, and of course trick-or-treating. My dad especially loved Halloween and always participated. One year, we even had a "haunted yard" set up in our backyard for the neighborhood kids. I remember my dad jumping out from behind a bush dressed as a vampire and scaring the pee out of a couple of my friends. Those were some good times.

Throughout the years, I can't remember ever having a bad experience on Halloween or in the fall. Things always seem to go well for me around this time of year. The weather has a lot to do with it, I'm sure. People are just in a better mood when they are not too hot or too cold. Everyone spends more time outside, which also improves mood. The scenery is beautiful and at its most colorful, and the smells of campfires and the woods are so comforting to me.

Eureka Springs is one of the best places to experience the fall, which makes me even happier that we decided to move here! Autumn lasts a full two months here at least, which I was not accustomed to in Colorado. There are so many festivals and fairs going on, not a weekend goes by without something to do, and the town is covered in festive decorations consisting of straw bales, scarecrows, pumpkins, and all types of gourds to complement the natural changing colors of the season. Happy fall to all!!

I figured out why I love Spring and Fall so much

The colors!!! Summer is just all different shades of green, and winter is all brown and gray. Spring and fall have every color you could imagine and changes happen everyday! This is our first time experiencing Eureka Springs in the spring and let me tell you, I am impressed. Just walking around my neighborhood, I see trees with blooms that are yellow, purple, pink, red, orange, and white. New growth is happening everywhere. It is quite a feast for the senses - the sights and smells are heavenly.

Time flies...

I swear, time goes by so fast once you have kids. Now I know what my parents were talking about when we were kids. As a kid, you can't seem to grow up fast enough and you think the adults are crazy when they say that time goes by so fast. But now that I have kids of my own, it's like you turn around and they have grown six inches.

The months are just flying by. It seems like Halloween was just yesterday, and tomorrow is Christmas! Maybe it's these short days in the winter that cause this feeling. But the days themselves seem long to me ever since the time changed. I don't know, it's just strange.

Officially off-season

Well, it is officially "off-season" here in Eureka Springs. After Thanksgiving, I've noticed most of the hotels along Hwy 62 are closed until March. A few restaurants have already closed as well. All the shops are still open, but I think after Christmas most of them will be closed for a couple months also.

The winter here is nice because you can really get to know your local community without all the tourists around. Also, since there are so many trees here, in the winter you have a totally different view of the city now that the trees are bare. We can actually see some of our neighbors' houses now, whereas in the spring and summer we can't see any of the houses behind ours.

Gotta love the weather!

It has been absolutely gorgeous the last few days. The highs have been 75 degrees or so and the lows in the wee hours of the morning are around 50 degrees. Some of the leaves are already starting to change. Yipeeeeee! The dogwood trees are sporting flaming red - beautiful!

Fall is on its way!!! Hopefully we will have a long and "showy" one.