Scarecrow Festival.

We drove into Chappell Hill this morning with my cousins...... the town was celebrating their annual Scarecrow Festival. Decorated and dressed-up scarecrows all over the town, pumpkins and Indian corn everywhere you looked.... even though the temperature was touching 90 degrees before noon. The four of us looked at all of the vendors' booths on the main road of the town..... we by-passed mostly all of the booths on the grassy side roads just because the walking was a little bit harder there.

Very crowded...... between the ladies with shopping bags, young mothers with strollers and little kids, older couples with their dogs..... you had to watch every step you took. As crowded at that little town was, everyone was happy and smiling and just enjoying the beautiful day. My cousin A bought herself handmade earrings, and found gifts for her children. Wherever we take them here, her first thought is always "My husband and kids need to see all of this!"

We walked around Chappell Hill for a little less than two hours... the temperature was rising, the crowds were getting thicker, and we were all crafted-out with everything that we had seen. (After a while, everything begins to look the same.) Off we went to Round Top..... my cousin A took a picture of the sign that says "Welcome to Round Top, population 77." We had lunch at Royer's Cafe...... the best (and just about only) place to eat in that teeny town. The cafe itself is filled with all sorts of pictures and posters and tee-shirts and holiday ornaments....... Bud's customers have papered his ceilings and walls with notes of thanks and photographs of their food-filled tables. Wonderful lunch of grilled salmon..... and home-made apple pie for dessert.

My husband decided he'd had enough shopping for one day, so we dropped him off at home, and the three of us drove into the center of our own little town and walked around a couple of the little shops here. Again, both of my cousins kept saying that the rest of the family needed to see everything they had seen during their visit with us. Before we had dinner tonight, my husband drove A to the nearby lakefront area, so she could see all the water-sports that were available on the lake. (Available if you have your own boat, that is.) But it's a beautiful lake, eleven-thousand acres in size, with plenty of spots for boating, sailing, fishing, relaxing. A kept saying "I'm coming back here.... I'm coming back here." We hope she does.

We played Scrabble after dinner..... my husband won (no surprise there). Tomorrow is our last breakfast together here, and then tomorrow afternoon is their flight back to NY. My cousin L wanted to take us all out for brunch, but we told her it would be better to have a nice breakfast here because most of the cafes and restaurants aren't open on Sunday mornings.

This has been such a great weekend...... it went much too fast, but fun weekends always do just that. We're hoping that A will come back..... we're hoping her sister F will come for a visit...... we're hoping everyone up north will come and stay in the cottage and enjoy this beautiful piece of heaven.