SibSabs – 2024 – A Familiar Location

Continued from: SibSabs – 2024 – Prelude

With just weeks before our scheduled SibSab, we decided to travel to Northwest Arkansas where our two sisters lived and where we had previously had SibSabs before.  My brother would fly into Memphis and then the two of us would drive over.  And the second purpose of choosing this location, was I had another doll house to deliver to my grandniece.

As planned, my brother flew into Memphis on a Wednesday and on Thursday morning, he helped me load up the precious cargo—the doll house.  Our drive over was uneventful, and we went straight to my niece’s house.  After secretly moving the doll house into my grand niece’s room, she came in for the big surprise, which by her expression, you can see she was obviously delighted.

That night we went out to dinner with my niece and her family before driving out to my sister’s house.

Friday morning, we did what we do on so many SibSabs—sitting around drinking coffee, playing our usual games, and having a wonderful conversation.  My brother had brought a list of interesting topics for us to cover which prompted some lively discussions.  Although each of our mornings conversations together were slightly tempered by the fact that we were not having them in Montreat as planned.

That first morning, my sister needed to go into school and grade some projects where she teaches, and my brother and I went along as well to see where she works.

Returning back to my sister’s house, I had some free time to work on LEGOs just as we had planned to do in Montreat.

That night, I grilled out my famous steaks accompanied by my sister’s outstanding double-baked potatoes.

As a new activity for the four of us, my eldest sister suggested we take a day trip and drive over to Eureka Springs, an historical town founded for its then believed-to-be healing springs and where soldiers in the civil war even sought relief.

By the time we arrived, it was nearly lunch time and so we went to a restaurant that our eldest sister had read a very good review.  After a fairly long walk from the parking lot, we chose to have a refreshing adult beverage to quench our thirst while we waited for our table.  As we sat there, our female bartender was so entertaining, we decided to just eat at the bar as she suggested.  It was a great lunch, and we knew we would remember our barmaid as well.

After lunch, we strolled through the main street visiting many of the shops.  It was a Saturday, and the sidewalks were crowded but we managed to stay together for the most part.  At one point, our sisters went into a shop to get some jewelry repaired and my brother decided to get some nice photos of the historic buildings set beneath a beautiful azure sky.

Late in the afternoon, we made our way up to the historic Crescent Hotel situated on one of the highest peaks in the area.

Our eldest sister had suggested we take in one of their ghost tours, as it was just a couple of weeks before Halloween, but we opted instead to just enjoy a thirst-quenching drink on their fourth-floor outdoor bar.

On Sunday morning, my brother and I helped our sister rebuild her rock fountain, a task she had started but had not been able to complete by herself.

It was here that I suggested we get our traditional photo of the four of us, as always arranged in birth order.

Then in the afternoon, I got to play with my sister on some doll house activities.  She had gotten a new laser cutter and had not even had a chance to try it out.  With solid wood sheets of nice wood, she cut out the pieces for some of the furniture I was building for my doll house.

That night, we went out for delicious pizza (sorry forgot to photograph it) with our sister’s son and his wife who lived nearby.

Our last day together, we went to Crystal Bridges, the outstanding museum of American art, and the inspiration of Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton.  We got to see some of the art displays we had seen on previous visits but some new acquisitions as well.  This piece in particular, caught my eye.

Then that night, we took our eldest sister out to dinner for an early birthday celebration.

On Tuesday morning, it was sad to have to part ways.  Both our sisters had to return to work and my brother, and I had the drive back to Memphis.  Once my brother and I returned home, we tried to make up for not having had a BroGo this year and went to a local establishment where we could sample some of our favorite beverages.

The next day, my brother flew back to his home near Philadelphia.

While it was not the SibSab we had planned for, we still had a great time together.  As usual, we did some of the same things we normally do but some new things as well.  And as always, we talked about future SibSabs.

We did not know when we might be able to return to Montreat since we did not know how long it would take to repair all the damage from the storm.  Based on the photos I had seen; I figured it would take at least two years.  As such, we tentatively penciled in a future SibSab in Montreat in October of 2026 to make up for the one we missed this year.