July 4th in Eureka Springs

July 4 ~

What a day! Aaron and I set out for Eureka Springs with our dear friends, Bricia and Almamy. We intended to stop at the Beaver Lake because our friends hadn't been there before. We ended up passing the main docks and mainly flew by the lake. It is a huge and beautiful lake; runs all the way into Missouri.
We made it to Eureka Springs to join the festivities led there by African Aya. Lots of drumming, dancing, and merry-making. Anyone who had a drum, or any favorite instrument for that matter, was invited to play, but the rhythm was ochestrated by the leader of African Aya, a very gifted Kenyan drummer. He's in the middle of the first and second pictures in the pink shirt.

After walking through the streets of Eureka Springs, doing lots of window shopping (they have great shops there), we left for Fayetteville to see the spectacular fireworks. We got there at the tail-end of the program. Same thing with the Roteo. I had never witnessed live bull-riding before and I was sad when we arrived just as the show was finishing. We watched the ensuing fireworks anyway. We just had so many functions to attend that day that we almost missed them all driving from one to the next. But all in all, we had fun. Ended with a good movie - Dancing with Wolves featuring Kevin Costner.