Summertime Home State Vacay

Red Apple Inn Courtyard

I failed to report on our stay-cation early due to me working all summer. We ended up not staying home but going on a short trip here in Arkansas for three days.
We visited Greers Ferry, a lake resort community about 2.5 hours from home.
We chose to stay at the Red Apple Inn, a Country Club Community in Arkansas. Due to our finances being a little tight I took advantage of the trip as a way to scout out teachers for the yoga school, this allows me to use part of our expenses for a write off, plus hopefully find more students.
The hotel was much more expensive than I expected: Lesson learned: We should have learned to camp with four kids!!!
However I am such a huge fan of Faye Jones Architecture and the hotel was either designed by Faye Jones or one of his student, sadly no one was sure and we were not able to confirm. However we know he designed several houses in this area.. It was super cool and worth the stay just for the architecture, and the pool. The pool was awesome!
Here are some of the things we did for free or low cost:

1. Swam in the pool every day.
2. Walked downtown
3. Visited the fish hatchery and state park with JFK memorial.
4. Had Subway for breakfast.
5. Packed meals and ate at least one or two meals, and all snacks at the hotel each day.
6. Visited a used book store and bought a stack of books for $4.50.
7. Visited a cool little Yoga/ Eastern Indian Store and purchases some things for the yoga studio $65, but a work expense. Plus the sweet lady gave us love beads for free. 
8. Found a neat self serve yogurt place that was very reasonable. 
9. Worked out in the workout room and used the hot tub. 
10. Visited one restaurant a day, kids drank water (saves a minimum of $12).
11. We got lucky and the awesome movie theater had a Tuesday night special, movie, drink and popcorn for $4.00. We saw the new Harry Potter. It was a super nice theater and the whole family was $24.00! Unfortunately we did not know that the popcorn and soda was included until the next day when someone mentioned this to us. On the upside I guess we saved some calories. 

All in all the hotel for two rooms for two nights and one meal for Blake and I (they are famous for their restaurant, we didn't take the kids) was $525. The other expenses such as gas and food amounted to right at $300, also we had to pay a kennel fee of $60.  Not a cheap trip at $885 but not expensive considering we had four teens with us and they eat like four adults. Normally when we go on a vacation it cost us approx $2400 for five days, spending approx $150 a night on a house or hotel. 

We may be exploring camping in yurts on our next trip to North Carolina. My moms partner happens to own some R.V. campgrounds with yurts and cottages and they run about half the cost of a hotel. Fortunately they are all along our next route. 

We are saving now for a trip out east next summer in the mid summer heat. My goal is to get away from Arkansas during the 100 + days.