girls weekend getaway

(Warning: long post)

Goodness gracious, my friend and I sure do have some fun traveling together.  We have certain characteristics about us that most people don't have (meaning, we are weird while most other people are normal), and because of that, we travel well together. 

I'll give you some examples of this: we love being at home, so because of that, we don't like to overextend ourselves.  We might plan several things, but not many of them are set in stone.  There was one thing I really wanted to do on this trip, and one thing she really wanted to do, so we accomplished both and never complained or made fun of the other.  We also both love similar things, like Walmart and museums.  I am laughing as I write that.  And rolling my eyes at us both.  

We love good food, but we're not totally obsessed over where we eat.  I wanted to eat at different restaurants this weekend while we were away, but would have also been fine had we eaten at a chain restaurant.  I'm pretty low drama when it comes to food and can eat ANYTHING, although I did realize even more this weekend how much of a texture person I have become.  We are very similar in personality, so it's easy and non stressful for us to be together.  We're both introverts and have moments when we're serious and can be quiet, but on the flip side we can also laugh ourselves silly and do and say the dumbest and most funny things ever, and WE NEVER RUN OUT OF THINGS to talk about.  We listened to the radio one time for a few songs, and the rest of the trip it was turned off.  Seriously.  We talk all the time.  Even when we're at home, we do this.  There are times we may talk on the phone upwards of three times in one day.  

That being said, we know everything about each other.  And still love each other, in spite of it all!  

If you want to do this kind of thing and never have before, consider all that above when picking your person to travel with.  It wouldn't work well if you had one person who loved to relax at the pool if the other one preferred shopping.  And even if you're not exactly like, learn the art of compromise.  It's all about giving and taking when the opportunities arise.  Also, if you're not sure, start small.  Take a day trip together to somewhere not far from where you live.  Last year Missy and I made a trip to Nashville and back on a weekday.  (We already knew we traveled well together because of several youth camps we went on with high school students.)  Try a one night trip, if you can't do two nights or a week.  

We don't have the kind of money to go on some extravagant trip, but we can definitely swing (occasionally) a one night trip to somewhere pretty close by.  So far we've done Dallas, Nashville, Jackson Tennessee, and now Bentonville Arkansas.  Before that, though, we've traveled to Black Mountain in North Carolina and Daytona Beach in Florida together for youth trips.  There was also a two night camping trip with several teenagers thrown in, and an all night lock-in at our church with the high school girls,but we don't like to talk about either of those.  

Now, about our weekend.  There is a lady whose blog I have read for a whole decade (this is a theme with our trips), who lives in this cute little town, and when I started looking into us going there, I realized that just about everything to do here is free, all thanks to Walmart.  It's where their HQ is located, and we lost count how many Walmarts we saw.  All I can say is that now I really wish we had a Walmart Neighborhood Market.  We both had some ideas of what we wanted to do, so we put them to paper and took off.

On Friday night, we went to a baseball game!  I can't remember the names of the teams, but one was the triple A version of the Royals and the other was the same version of the Cardinals.  The Royals team won.  The stadium was small, but really pretty, and check out that sky!  And y'all.  It was like seventy degrees.  We wanted ice cream, but decided it would make us too cold, so we went with a funnel cake instead.  It was glorious.  The night, AND especially that funnel cake.  

Saturday morning we woke up kinda early and had our quiet times (separately, not together) and got dressed and I went to breakfast alone while she started getting dressed.  This is another of those things that works well with us~I shower at night and she showers in the morning.  I went to eat alone with my Instagram stories (tell me you love those as much as me) and then I brought her breakfast to our room.  We had a ten thirty appointment to see a Frank Lloyd Wright house, which I was totally fan-girling over.

BUT LOOK AT IT.

It was beautiful and amazing, and basically every other thing I knew it would be.  I have loved his style of architecture for as long as I can remember.  I have also always appreciated architecture because of my childhood and a couple of people I know who passed on their love to me.  Inside photography was forbidden, but when am I ever going back here?  I took some pictures on the sly until I noticed the security guy following me around, so I stopped.

I love the symmetry of his architecture.  In that picture of the couch in the living room, the lines in the floor and couch match up.  I also love the minimal thing, and the simplicity of his design.  He worked to make the main thing the main thing, and that was family.  In his spaces, we learned that the inside of his homes were designed to bring family together.  That floating staircase was TO DIE FOR.  When we first walked in, it immediately reminded me of the inside of a bunker.  He used wood, glass, and concrete in all of his designs, and the glass was so that the outside could be brought inside.  Hence the wall of glass in back.  I wanted to go upstairs SO BAD, but we weren't allowed.  

Originally, this house was in New Jersey, but it was taken apart, packed, labeled, and brought here and reassembled.  Is that not amazing?  We were not allowed to touch anything, and you'll be happy to know I did oblige that rule, though my purse bumped into the wall three times.

This house is a part of the Crystal Bridges Museum, and all of this was free to the public, though to see this house, you do need a reservation.  

Because it was so hot outside at this moment, we flew through this art museum.  I did like the glimpses it gave us of the outside.  This spider thing was a giant exhibit outside the museum.  I took this picture for my friend Lori, who hates spiders as much as me.  

After we left the museum, we went to Walmart.  Imagine that.  We browsed the whole store, then bought lunch and had a picnic in my car at the HQ of Walmart.  That wasn't planned, but it was close by and there was good shade for us to sit under.  

After lunch, we headed into Springdale, where a used bookstore was that we wanted to go to, called Once Upon a Time books.  They had a great selection, but I only bought TWO, can you believe that?  Anytime I go into a place like that, it's like I get a mental block of authors I like, and can't decide.  Missy got more than two.  I'm laughing.  That's what she told her hubby, when he asked.  

This place is way better than McKay's, which charges more than the clearance price at Barnes & Noble.  (Seriously, I bought a book that would have been $5 at B&N, but they marked it up to $8.  No thank you, McKay's, never again will I visit you.)  This place, however, charges about $2 per book, maybe $6 if it's newer.  

We went back to our hotel to relax, and I took a nap. 

For dinner we headed back into Bentonville, and ate at this place.

We also toured the Walmart museum, which was fascinating, and I loved seeing Sam Walton's truck.

We walked around a Walmart Neighborhood Market, too, all before dinner.  After dinner we drove around looking at all the cute houses near the square, and even saw some deer that were not afraid of us.

Then, I think the highlight of our trip for both of us was The Buckey Ball.  And this isn't so much because of what this was, but because of what happened when we got there.  

This is a big sphere thing that lights up at dusk, and the darker it gets, the better the colors get.  For your comfort, they have these great benches to recline on, but the minute I sat down on it, I fell onto it and kind of slid into place accidentally, and immediately was struck with the thought wondernig how in the HECK I was going to get back up.

I am the least graceful person ever, and am currently in a walking boot, which is why I was near panicking.  But we started talking about this and laughing, and before we realized, the laughter turned to the inappropriate kind and we could not stop.  For almost a solid hour, we did this, while texting our husbands that we may have to call 911 or spend the night.  Turns out, it was way easier than we expected, getting up from the reclining position, and all that was for nothing.  

This thing was beautiful.  Once we stopped laughing to watch it more closely, that is.  

And, here we are.

The next day we got up and had our quiet times again and repeated the whole breakfast thing, and then we checked out at eleven and started the drive back home.  It was such a great weekend, and we will never forget all our antics and all the memories, like pronouncing ourselves the Queens of Tontitown.  We may have bought mood rings and light up princess wands.  I'm not saying for sure, but that really may (or may not) have happened.  I'll let you decide which.  

I'm looking forward to our next trip!  

Now to just figure out our next spot.

Thanks for reading!  Love to all.