Girls Weekend Journal

Woo Hoo!!  Today is ziplining day!!  I went ziplining with my family while up in Whistler, Canada this past summer and had an absolute BLAST!!!  It was so much fun that I actually have given thought to becoming a zipline tour guide when I decide to retire from pharmacy. All of this is to say that when I found a brochure for ziplining in nearby Branson while we were at Cosmic Caverns, I told Kathi that we MUST go do this.  She, of course and as always, was game.  So Monday morning had us getting up early to make the hour drive up to Branson, Missouri to do some ziplining.  Since ziplining had not been on my mind when I packed for this trip, I realized that I did not have the appropriate shoes.  None of my shoes tied on, they were all slip ons, and I didn't trust that they would stay one my feet while flying through the air so we had to stop at, where else....we are in Arkansas, after all, Walmart so that I could get a pair of tie-on tennis shoes.  ...

This is the day of our massages.  Just the word massage sounds relaxing, doesn't it??   I looked it up on dictonary.com and the slang definition for massage is:   attentive or indulgent treatment; pampering.   I believe that kind of treatment is exactly what we are looking for!!  So we got up around 8 a.m. and set out for the New Moon Day Spa and Salon in the Crescent Hotel.  Our licensed massage therapists, Chris and Elizabeth called us back to the room at just about 9 o'clock on the nose.  We each received our dose of pampering and indulgent treatment for an hour.  It was quite lovely and incredibly relaxing.  Kathi liked the blue oil from Aveda that Chris used so much that she just HAD to purchase some before we left.  As soon as we were done and were dressed and about to leave, Kathi's cell phone rang and IT WAS RIDLEY!!!!!  She was doing well enough to have earned the privilege to call Kathi, and one of the first things that sh...

Saturday, November 6_GW13_Eureka Springs, Arkansas I must say that the weather for this trip has been spectacularly beautiful.  It has been sunny every day and unseasonably warm, usually between 65 and 70 degrees.  As always seems to be the case for Girls Weekend, God is smiling on us. So, even though we returned to the room fairly early last night and decided to stay in, we ended up staying up and talking until 4 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING!!!  I can’t remember the last time I stayed up that late!  But, since Kathi and I had not seen one another since July, we had a lot of catching up to do, so we did.  Once we went to bed, I think we both fell into a dead sleep but we still managed to get up at 10 a.m.  We had big plans for the day.  Our agenda included Quigley Castle and Cosmic Caverns.   Quigley Castle is not a castle at all.  Just a house that sits a little bit outside of Eureka Springs.  Notice that I didn’t say an ordinary house. ...

Today was our first full day of Girls Weekend and after arising a little later than normal and just hanging out for a while in our cute little room this morning, drinking coffee, checking e-mails, and journaling, we headed into historic downtown Eureka Springs.  What a captivating place.  Built on hills with winding streets (there are NO perpendicular streets in downtown Eureka Springs), we parked the car in a pay parking lot ($5 for three hours) and started off on foot.  We decided that we were kinda hungry, so we went in search of a cup of coffee and something to eat.  No Starbuck's here so we found a cute little coffee shop close to a scrapbooking store.  Wellllll, there was no indoor seating at this particular coffee shop and, though the sun was shining brightly, we decided it was just too darn cold to sit outside and have a cup of coffee, plus we were in search of some kind of food.  The kind lady at the coffee store made us wonderful drinks and ...

Before I go much further in describing the things that we did today, I have to say that this is a Girls Weekend unlike any in the past because of some difficult, as well as some wonderful circumstances that are currently present in Kathi's life.  On the wonderful side, Kathi is in love with a man that God put in her life at a time when she, most certainly, needs someone who is there for her and loves her unconditionally.  I have to say that I am truly amazed at God's grace and His timing at putting people in our lives who have gifts that we need at the absolute moment when we need them.  This has certainly been the case in Kathi's situation.  The difficult circumstances in Kathi's life right now revolve around her beautiful, spirited, talented and amazing daughter, Ridley.  This truly amazing child has suffered and fought with depression for a number of years and this struggle culminated in a suicide attempt about three weeks ago.  This, of course, caused K...

It is that time of year again!  Girls Weekend!  I can hardly believe it.  In so many ways, it just doesn't seems like a whole year has rolled around since we were in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Now, I don't know if anybody who reads this remembers, but at the last "flipping of the states" last year, when it was down to just New York and Arkansas, New York landed face down and Arkansas remained face up causing Kathi to experience great disappointment.  But, hey, we rallied and now that we are here in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, I think we both agree that this is actually looking like it is going to be a very cool little town to explore over the next few days.  At this point I have to thank my Mom, who is the one who suggested this particular town.  I was looking at Hot Springs and Little Rock, but when Mom heard that our destination state was Arkansas she suggested Eureka Springs, and, by golly, she knew what she was talking about!!  Thank you, Mom!!! While...