I’m 23, make crap for money and have never been on a vacation. There is no way I can afford to buy two plane tickets and head off to Paris or Acapulco for a week. My fiancée and I work 4 jobs just to pay for necessities, the bulk of which is $1470 in rent for a basic 2-bedroom apartment. Rebecca got a 3 dollar an hour raise a while back. We decided to put all of it in our Miss Piggy bank until we could save enough to take a three-year anniversary vacation away from home and work.
Not too very far from where we live in Missouri, there’s a little town called Eureka Springs. It’s in Arkansas. Eureka Springs is in the Ozark Mountains and is famous for its Victorian architecture, winding cliffside streets with no traffic lights, and historic springs. Rebecca and I decided that Eureka Springs would be the place we’d go.
When we arrived in Eureka Springs, it was Volkswagen owners’ weekend. There were old hippie bugs and VW buses parked everywhere. We had a blast looking at all the unique cars. The added fun was talking to the owners and asking them what it was like to be young in the ‘60s and ‘70s. A couple of times we experienced side-splitting laughter.
We stayed in a Swiss Chalet Treehouse! We were feeling as far away from our apartment as if we were yodeling from a balcony in the Alps. The owners were extremely kind and helpful. It was a magical place with top notch decorating and amenities. There was a full kitchen so we brought food from home and ate breakfast and lunch in the treehouse so we could splurge at dinner. It was heaven sitting out on our deck with our morning coffee and patisseries listening to the birds sing.
Saturday evening was our special night out. Rebecca bought a new cotton print sundress for our trip, and she looked so beautiful. We parked at the top of the hill going into town and hand in hand strolled down the sidewalk toward our restaurant.
A lady going up the hill stopped us and exclaimed how beautiful Rebecca was in her “adorable” dress. The lady looked at me and said, “You are one lucky fellow, son.” Rebecca could not stop smiling so I gave her a nice long kiss right there in front of the VW bugs heading into town who honked and waved and whistled at the show.
We made reservations at a restaurant recommended by the owner of the Tree House. We sat outside on the patio at the elevated front table right next to the sidewalk. Total strangers smiled and greeted us – some even involved us in little conversations asking if we were celebrating anything special or telling us how great the food was.
I don’t think we could have had a nicer time if we’d taken out a loan and gone on an expensive trip. For people young or old who are on a tight budget, this kind of getaway is wonderful. But it was the people of Eureka Springs who were so warm, fun, and complimentary that made our trip an experience Rebecca and I will never forget. It’s the locals that make Eureka Springs such a magical place.
Julie Freeman