Welcome to Northwest Arkansas, Us!

Hello, world! Welcome to our joint blog about adventures in Northwest Arkansas, otherwise known as the hub of retail supergiant Walmart. Which may be like living in Satan's backyard, but only time will tell.

The reasons to start chronicling our adventures in Walmart Country are many-fold. Like origami. First, it might be nice for us to have a record of our time here, particularly our initial time here, as we could be here for the rest of our lives, or just a few years. Second, as much as we love our family and friends, repeating the same stories over and over gets tiresome and this is a nice way for you all to keep up with us, hear our tales of joy and woe, and see some pictures.

To start us off, I will do my best to describe the town of Fayetteville, Arkansas. It's the third largest "city" in the state, with about a population of slightly under 75,000. The region of Northwest Arkansas includes a collection of smaller towns, including Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, with a total metro area of around 460,000. Or, to put things in perspective, the entire region has fewer people than the city of Albuquerque. Which is a fairly small city compared to the likes of say, Chicago.

Anyway, Fayetteville itself is pretty cute, particularly the historic area in which we live. There are a fair number of old Victorian-style homes, and the University is smack dab in the middle of town. There are tons of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and little stores in which to frequent, including many within walking distance.

The most notable thing about Fayetteville for me is that it is crazy hilly. And I do mean crazy. Here are a couple of views, facing different directions, within half a block of our apartment:




And this last one, as pointed out by my esteemed fiance, looks like a wall of road is at the end of the block. As Doug said, it's like Inception....only our neighborhood:




We will continue to post pictures, commentaries, news and information about us and our adventures in the region. That is, provided the world doesn't fold in on itself (another Inception joke there). We've already started exploring, so stay tuned for more hill-filled excitement!