Fayettchill.....

Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that said "Fayettchill" which I thought was pretty clever. As of my last post we were about to leave for Fayettville and Eureka Springs with our four kids, ages twelve to sixteen. Our budget for four days and three nights was $1250, not much by today's standards.
First of all I did a thirteen hour car ride, one way, with my kids and husband last year. It's still fresh in my mind. This year I packed the Xanax and the family and decided we would not go more than five hours in the car anywhere one way. Here's what I learned.

1. Food is outrageous, soda will sink your budget.
2. Food is not that enjoyable with cranky kids.
3. A pool is not a luxury but a necessity.
4. Most of the best things you can do are free or pretty dang cheap.
5. Everyone needs enough space to sleep and two bathrooms are better than one.
6. Hotel Breakfast and beverage service is great.
7. A D.V.D. in the car = Sanity for the parents
8. Alcohol is expensive but necessary for the parents, okay I'm kidding....sort of.
9. Animals make everyone happy.
10. Have a really cool place to stay because the kids will probably be happy hanging out at the hotel more than being drug around.

Our Itinerary and Budget if you would like to follow our plan. Here's the skinny on what to do and what to skip. I would do this trip again but in three days instead of four and possibly just stay in Fayettville and Save Eureka for the grown ups.

Friday Paid the house-sitter (cat, mail, paper, etc... and kennel $215. Chick Fil A $28.
Friday, Painless 3.5 hr drive to Fayettville, one stop at Rest stop to pee. Packed lots of snacks and drinks for trip. Gas $40.
Headed to Tourist info spot downtown, got lost, argued, made it. Lady at tourist spot recommended Hugo's downtown Fayettville, great food, reasonable $69 for five meals and two margaritas.
Went to a fancy cupcake spot $18...would not do this again. To expensive, go to Krogers get cupcakes for $4. Everyone's happy save some money. Rented a movie in the hotel for the kids $14, which we didn't have to pay becuase it messed up and they started it over, Blake and I went to the mall and Target for some things we needed $69. Totally worth it. Took kids to swim in awesome Pool. Stayed at the Hilton Inn Suites, 2 double beds, Fold out couch, roll away bed, kitchenette,living room, awesome pool and breakfast and beverage service 24hrs totally worth it.

Saturday:
Farmer's Market: Free, bought some blueberries $4 ate them on the spot. Great music and people watching.
Fayettville Library: A marvel of green architecture, oh and we walked there. Free. So awesome, I could stay here all day.
Library Coffee shop: Smoothies and Coffee $20 (to expensive, skip the coffee shop and bring water, should have bought a couple of cookies to split, we forgot our water bottles big mistake.)
Faye Jones Driving Tour: Free. Not kid friendly, too curvy, kids were tired, hot and car sick. Would have done this sans the kids.

Picked up Thai food at "Taste of Thai' So worth it $15 for two people.
Fed kids at hotel, packed food from home- no cost.

Drove to Safari at Gentry- $58 for six people, kids 12 and under are $8, over 12 $10. I was skeptical but this was the highlight of the trip. We spent four hours here and it was just incredible for everyone.

Went to Abuelos' with kids, $90 for dinner and two drinks. Kids didn't really appreciate it, it was good but not with kids. I would probably try to find a less expensive pizza place in the future.
Back to hotel to swim and have snacks: free;).

Sunday: Slept late, ate at the hotel, kids swam Total Cost for hotel $192. Great deal for six people for two days.

Gas $42

Drove to the Old Mill, beautiful spot to see, beautiful drive. Free. Bought some hot local organic cereals $5.

Eureka Springs: This was a tough one with the kids. We were married here and it's changed a lot. It's still got the hippie vibe we like, but a lot of motorcycles, flies, and tourist...it's a weird mix of people who go to see the Branson like stuff mixed with the hippies and the bikers. It was overwhelming to say the least. Our son has Sensory Issues so he was a wreck downtown.
So we got to our hotel, which was clean but no pool. Walked around downtown with hot, cranky kids. I'm going to just lay it out below.
1. New Delhi: $90 for burgers and drinks. Decent food, too noisy, crowded and hot with kids.
2. Crescent Hotel grounds and the Catholic Church: Free and Fun tour, picture taking
3. Drove Historic Tour and to see where we were married and to the mountain lookout.Free and nice.
4. Streets were quite so we decided to walk downtown again, found unique toy store bought the kids each a little treat $18..worth it.
2.Went to get Cheesecake..it was $7 a slice so we got in the car and went to McDonalds for $4 got the kids Sundaes. We went to the "Lovin Oven" and got a Mediterranean Platter for $10 of fresh veggies, hummus,etc...worth it! Ate it at our hotel.
Monday:
1. Went to Subway and picked up breakfast and good coffee for $12- worth it.
2. Packed up, checked out $126. and went to Thorn Crown Chapel to visit Faye Jones cool church..$5 donation, optional, worth it except for the crabby old lady working the door.
3. Drove to the "Lovin Oven" again for Pizza, Soup, and Stromboli, we all drank water $48 with tip...delicious..PIZZA is the way to go with kids, even at an upscale pizza place you save money.

The smartest thing we did was:
1. Find a nice hotel with kitchen, living room, breakfast, pool.
2. Packed water bottles and made lemonade, packed Spring Water from Hot Springs. Had snacks available.
3. Planned lots of low cost and free activities in advance. Libraries, Farmer's Markets, Walking tours.

The mistakes we made:
1. Didn't have a better plan for meals. We spent way to much money here.
2. Would cut it down by a day. We were all tired and ready to come home by day three.
3. Plan the route home better with planned stops. We took an extra long route in the Ozark Mt.s and I was done with the scenic route after hour one of riding my brakes.
4. Would have planned a nice meal on the way home cutting out the extra day would have given us the $$$.
5. Would have planned an a.m. activity and a p.m. activity. Possibly two meals out per day, deserts a bottle of wine and sodas for the hotel as a treat with the swimming , water only at restaurants.

Our next trip will be to Memphis to the Zoo at the end of July for a two day trip. Hope to learn from this and have a wonderful, frugal experience.:).

Courtney