Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Fair

We went to the fair a few weeks ago and it was a blast!  There were a ton of vendors and lots of food too!  There are 2 locations for the fair, one on the road by the Walgreen's in Bella Vista.  The other is on Forest Hills Blvd, and it's the bigger location.  We went to both and found some really cool stuff.  (I'm not mentioning them because some are Christmas presents.)  There was pottery, wood crafts, little arts and crafts, and of course some of the cheesier T-shirts and stuff like that.  The big area had a ton of food, of many different varieties, from gyros to brats to Indian corn.

We made a quick loop around the smaller fair, probably about 45 minutes to an hour.  For the bigger fair, we really needed all afternoon, but we got a late start so we didn't finish looking.  The next fair is in mid-May, so be ready!

Here's the smaller fair:

Omani Woes

You may remember that I started this blog because I was going to Oman to study Arabic for 2 months.  Oman is one of the more stable Middle Eastern countries, but it, too, has been having protests.  Check out this article from Slate.

Eureka Springs

Had a great weekend there!  We stayed at the Bavarian Inn on Highway 62.  We always stay here because it's a good price and its right next to the Bavarian Inn Restaurant, which is one my favorites!

We had a great time in Eureka.  We hiked all up and down the hills geocaching, and on Saturday we watched the St. Patrick's Day parade.  I took a ton of photos, I'm just trying to figure out where to put them.  I'll put up a link once I have one.

If you've never been to Eureka, you really ought to.  It can be a little touristy and in the summer it gets crowded but it's got some funky little shops and some good food too.

Bean Fest!

Yes, you read that correctly.  There's a two-day event called Bean Fest, that takes place in Mountain View, Arkansas every October.  It's free, and about 40,000 people up to eat up a boatload of beans and cornbread, and listen to bluegrass music.  Then, there's the outhouse races!  I couldn't make this stuff up!

Well, we decided to head over there this year, because we all like beans, even our dogs.  It's about a 3-1/2 hour drive from NWA, through the Ozarks, so we didn't get there till about noon on Saturday.  We lucked into some free parking, in this really nice lady's yard.  But by the time we got to the square, most of the beans were gone.  They still have regular fair food, and arts and crafts though.  And a nice fudge place across from the square.

The dogs really enjoyed the festival!  Buster is a complete ham, and he kept stopping so people could pet him and hopefully feed him their food.  We were a little concerned about Sadie, because she's never been to anything like this before, but she did well.  If it got too crowded she'd hang back and let Buster get all the attention.

It was a long drive, there and back, but it was a great festival.  And the drive is absolutely beautiful, especially at this time of year.  There were a number of dogs at the festival, which is something I really love about NWA.  That's one reason we decided to take the dogs with us this time.  Anyway, I highly recommend Bean Fest.  Be sure to pick up a T-Shirt too!  I went to Bean Fest and I got gassed!

Steak and Shake

Frank has been eying Steak and Shake for a while, so we finally dropped by. I was impressed! They are a chain, and I was expecting another version of McDonald's. Nope! They have a sit down area inside, which is an actual restaurant. The servers wear white shirts with bow-ties, and aprons. And the decor is a little retro looking. I had a cheeseburger with fries (around $3.50) and $1 sweet tea, and Frank had the Bacon and Blue cheese burger, with fries and a shake.

The burger patties are 100% beef, and small and square shaped. You can get whatever you want on them. I had a thick slice of tomato, thick onion slice, and big piece of lettuce that stuck out the side of my burger. The fries are small, like the potato sticks that you buy in cans, but fresh and hot. The tea is made with real sugar and is very large. Frank said his burger "was really good. And there was plenty of blue cheese."

The shakes deserve their own paragraph, because they are amazing! The last time I had a good milk shake was at a Tastee Freez, circa 1994. I don't know what that soft stuff is that comes out of machines at McDonald's and other places, but it ain't ice cream and they don't make good milk shakes. Steak and Shake uses premium ice cream and milk, and you can taste the difference. Frank's shake was so good that I had to order one too. (Frank loved his shake, but swears that Braum's is actually better!) They have specialty shakes too, like Butter Pecan or Caramel Apple.

Overall, I thought Stake and Shake was really good. I prefer their burger patties to Braums, but Frank likes Braum's better. But he still says that Stake and Shake is good. They are way better than fast food places. We've eaten at both of the ones in our area, and the service was fast and polite at both, even during a dinner rush. I'd give them at least 4 out of 5 stars, maybe 4 1/2. They also have all of their ingredients listed online, and happy hour for drinks AND shakes is 2-4 pm and 2-4 am.

TG is still great!

A few weeks ago, Frank and I went back to Taqueria Guanajuato and I am happy to say that it is still really really good. I had the same dish as last time, but this time Frank had some kind of pork enchiladas. He said they were "very good."

I'm still here II

Yes, I'm still here. We've had some money issues, so we haven't been eating out much. Things are going better now, though, so hopefully I'll have some restaurant reviews for you in a few weeks.