New Resident Orientation

If you can conjure up the image of yourself walking on your college campus for the first time with your map out, blowing in the wind, and trying to figure out if you were north, south, east, or...well maybe northeast...that was the theme of our weekend.  Each of our experiences this weekend left us with a distinct feeling that we had a sign on our backs that read "We're New Here".

We started out at the Fayetteville Farmers Market.  Not only was it a beautiful day, but an awesome event.  They like to say around here that the population consists of 1/3 hippies, 1/3 college students, and 1/3 professionals.  This is where they all come to congregate together...and mainly stare at the hippies.  While the assortment of fruits and veggies hasn't hit its heights, the beautiful weather, the assortment of different ukulele's being played, and the wonderful people watching made for a great start to our Saturday.

We moved on from there to the Promenade in Rogers - which is like a miniature version of Easton.  Admittedly, I'm finding out one of the drawbacks of bringing your wife to a distant land where she doesn't know anyone is the expectation that I join her on all shopping experiences.  I think I made it right up until the last stop in Bath & Body Works - which is right about when I lost my "hey I'm having fun" look.

Sunday was literally picture perfect.  The wind had died down, the streets were calm, and the birds were chirping.  We decided to try out the contemporary service at a methodist church which is about a half mile from our house.  Once again...we were the newbies.

We first walked in to the traditional service - directly in to the mix of the choir and staff preparing to walk down the aisle in traditional Palm Sunday attire.  It was as if we walked in and the music stopped - everyone stared - and we politely asked "excuse me, we are looking for the contemporary service".  We might as well have asked a Catholic priest when the organ player would be playing a little David Crowder Band.

After escaping from the traditional service, we followed a group of young couples to what we believed to be the contemporary service.  Everything was going great until a nice woman asked us "what is your child's number"?  We quickly realized we had made it to the child care center - not the contemporary service.

Our third attempt proved successful - we made it to the service - and it turned out to be a wonderful experience.  The message was impactful, and continued a theme we've discovered here of churches focusing their sermons on a study of scripture prior to the practical life application.

After church we had the chance to walk to the historic square and just take it all in.  It was as if the streets were empty and silent, and we had a chance to just enjoy a beautiful day, with each other.

You will see below we finished off our weekend with an 'attempted' bike ride on the trail.  As I tried to prove my 'mastery' of the cycling world, my chain popped off twice - and just as I had concluded it was unfixable...Nicki summoned her inner Dale Freygang and fixed the chain no problem (the only problem was the oil that got on her hands).

 We finished off with an amazing dinner on our deck - while we threw Jack his new frisbee in the yard.

All in all, it was an incredible weekend.  Sometimes weekends are great for all the busy-ness that comes with them - and sometimes they are great just because.