Wait! Before you read on, you must watch this video to understand. It’s only a couple minutes long, but will bring you many hours of chuckling when you sing it to yourself throughout the night.

Before we had even pulled the phone out to call L, R spotted them driving in the downtown area. So we tried to catch up to them and creep them out. They hadn’t noticed, which makes me wonder if I’ve ever been stalked.

We followed them to their B&B (they were staying in the actual carriage stable) and condensed down to one car. L said they had slept almost all day long, which made me feel really good about not coming up earlier. There’s nothing like a lazy day, especially when it’s cold outside. The original plan had been to go to a Kite festival to a) let me sing Mary Poppins songs and b) enjoy a picnic outside. That was shot, but I’m of the belief that, if it’s going to be cold, bring on the snow! Warm company over dinner and drinks beats any spoiled plans.

Before we headed out, L stole some homemade lavendar cookies from the B&B and passed them out in the car. It was like eating perfume, but with a better aftertaste. So good.

We grabbed some coffee and T asked where the Crescent hotel was. Be sure to check out this picture of the hotel. The photo is old, but it looks just the same. The shop owner suggested we drive… And actually one customer in the store offered us a ride… and so when we declined, he gave us directions. He started off with “The simplest thing you can remember is…. ” and R said that was the last thing he heard. It was too confusing.

Every so often, we would see random stairs leading up into trees. Finally, L got the courage to go up some and we followed suit.

They opened up onto a gravel-type pathway lined with snapdragons trying their best to survive this sudden turn of weather. You could see small stone steps up ahead and had no idea where they would lead. It just felt surreal and off-kilter. But that also could have been my cold medicine. Or maybe that wasn’t lavendar in the those cookies??

Further proof that we were in another world, R found the lamppost. I was waiting for a faun to appear.

You’re supposed to be able to see the big statue of Jesus in the background and so when a stranger offered to take a photo of L & me, he asked if we wanted Jesus behind us. L laughingly said, “Oh, He’s always behind us.”

We found a room in the hotel to watch the bastketball games and have a few cocktails. L & T are so easy to talk to. We joked about how serious we get, but it’s refreshing to have conversations of substance, if you will. Not that we never cracked a smile, but our topics ranged from politics to religion to human nature to parenting to me trying to recruit them to live in a cave with us. Wait, what? Yes, we need a hunter position filled. You all saw me holding a gun in that Six Flags episode. We need someone with skill.

As we were walking back to head out to dinner, I mentioned how I thought this felt Chronicles of Narnia-esque. Then, L mentioned the SNL skit on it and I squealed. R & I had just watched the skit the night before on hulu.com and was actually singing it on the way to Eureka Springs. So we had to get our rap bits in and then later, L came up with an encore verse for it. L, if this is copyrighted, I’ll pay you later: “Driving down south in my kid-trashy car… Sedalia to Eureka didn’t seem too far…. our good ol’ friends fight the snow to meet us… God was on our side and so was Giant Jesus!” Ah, cleverness.

We left around midnight to go home, but neither R nor I wanted to! We had so much fun. Good friends, good food, and good conversation. All in toasty old buildings. Can’t beat it.