Eureka! or just Eureka.

Every state has that one town that seems to take pride in its' own weirdness. I'm all for the quirky, the oddball, the unique. Oregon has Portland, Texas has Austin (or at least it did in the Seventies, the best decade of Keep Austin Weird. I remember going into a clothing store to try a dress on back then, and a guy came out of the girls dressing room in a formal gown, twirled a couple of times for the clerk, and asked, "Does this suit me?"). But I digress. I suspect, based on my visit to Arkansas, that Eureka Springs has volunteered to step up and be the 'crazy aunt at the reunion".

Apparently we had just missed the huge LGBT gathering when we checked into the Basin Park Hotel (a shabby place that somehow presents itself as so much more on its website). And we were too early for the annual Parade of Volkswagons. The town itself seemed full of bikers, lesbians, artists, New Agers, and traditional religious people. That went for the tourists too. Harleys cruised routinely up and down the main downtown drag, and occasionally some old timers wandered down from Branson, Missouri looking for more "Ozarkiness"

There was a giant statue of Jesus on the hillside opposite when we went for wine on the rooftop of the Crescent Hotel. Supposedly the largest in the northern hemisphere. He looks small here, far far away. Like he's yelling "Hey, Val!"

The view was supposed to be the best for seeing the town. It's definitely the best for seeing a dense layer of trees. I think the town was under all that. We also saw this in the hotel hallway, as well as another one in our own lobby. I do not know what it is but it frightens me.

We ate a nice meal at Ermilio's Italian restaurant in a small Victorian house (it goes without saying that everything was in a 'small Victorian house"). But our meal the next night on the balcony of our hotel was terrible. Tough steak, hard microwaved baked potatoes, and salad out of a bag with cheap, bottled dressing. Considering that they have a nice spa in the hotel and we had great massages and facials, this was a total letdown. I drowned my disappointment in wine. Glenn preferred a dark ale with a shot of Jamison's.

We wandered through a lot of shops but bought nothing. There was only one true fine arts gallery we saw, the rest mainly had kitsch and country. I am sure, had we stayed longer, we would have unearthed some more interesting places. We did enjoy the Mud Street Cafe for a morning coffee. It was in a downstairs lair, and  here I sketched my only drawing of the trip, an interesting looking girl behind the counter.

I always intend to do lots of plein air sketches and then....I just forget. We did visit a couple of cool churches.

Saint Elizabeth's Catholic Church is known for its' entrance in the steeple at road level, after which you wander a path down to the actual church. The second church, outside of town, is the Thorncrown Chapel in the Woods, an architecture-award winning structure built in the '80's that is truly a 'spiritual' space. I wish I could say the same for many churches I have been in that seem more like offices or schools or entertainment/activity centers, rather than a place to experience God.

And, that was pretty much our trip. Our hotel was supposedly haunted, but I saw no apparitions. There was a bit of quirk, but I suspect that Eureka Springs, like Austin, probably had better stories in the old days.

Here are a few more images in parting.