Two Paducah women have come up with their own version of men's fishing and hunting weekend getaways.

Melanie Carter and Calena Peeler opened Cropical Paradise, a weekend scrap booking and spa retreat for women, earlier this month at 1025 S. Friendship Road.

"This is a place where ladies can get away for the weekend, and they don't have to worry about cooking, laundry or phones ringing," said Peeler, 25, who has a 20-month-old daughter, Gracie. "They can just focus on scrapbooking."

The women have been scrapbooking together for several years. They searched the Internet last summer for a weekend getaway and found a scrapbooking retreat in Arcadia, Ind. "Arcadia is a six-hour drive and it's the closest one to here," said Carter, 32. "There are several in the U.S., but most of them are on the East Coast or California. There's nothing in Nashville (Tenn.) or St. Louis."

Carter and Peeler visited the Indiana retreat together in December and decided to open their own business when they got back home. They are leasing the former home of Herb and Margaret Finnell, the grandparents of Carter's husband, Matt, a McCracken County deputy sheriff.

Matt Carter and Peeler's husband, Chris, who were best friends in high
school, spent two months renovating the house and building a scrapbooking
workshop on the first floor. The second floor contains four bedrooms that can accommodate 10 women.

The weekend retreats run from noon Friday to noon Sunday and cost $260 a person. The amount covers all meals, unlimited snacks and soft drinks, use of all scrapbooking tools and a hot tub. Massage and manicure/pedicure technicians are available by appointment.

Local scrapbookers can receive a discounted price of $175 through May. Customers also receive 10 percent off all purchases at Those Were the Days scrapbooking store, 2225 Broadway, during the weekend of their visit. The first two guests stayed last weekend and two more are booked for this weekend, Carter said.

"A lot of people scrapbook," Carter said. "The retreat we visited in Indiana is booked to the end of June every weekend. We're hoping to hit the Nashville crowd. Your avid scrapbookers won't bat an eye (about going to a retreat). They can sit in their pajamas all weekend and be pampered with everything."

Carter said she is working on five scrapbook photo albums, including one for each of her daughters, Jessica, 14, and Emily, 18 months. "I think the biggest thing about scrapbooking is you learn to take your memories through photos and put them in an album that will tell the story about what happened in your life or your child's life or grandchild's life," she said.

For reservations, call 488-2767 or e-mail cropical@hcis.net.
Information: cropicalparadise.com.