An Arkansas Anniversary - Part 1 (Manual, Meal and Mountain)

Since I have known Max he has been talking about visiting Arkansas. Well, finally for our 8th anniversary we took a trip there. We left on Thursday, April 7 after a pancake breakfast at Kellyn's preschool, watching her sing in an end of the year school musical, and meeting with our financial adviser on the way out of town. We left by noon and decided to do a media fast for these 2 1/2 days so as to detox from the t.v., Internet, and phone and be forced to speak to and connect with each other. This wasn't that hard for us considering we don't have internet on our phones, we didn't bring our computer with us, and we were driving hundreds of miles away from our t.v. This would have been much more difficult do at home with all that technology staring at us. I'm glad we did it too because not only did we have to talk to each other, but to other's as well. We couldn't just do a Google search of a place, type in the address, and use our GPS in our phone to help us get there. No, we had to ask the people cleaning the room and/or at the front desk of the hotel for directions. In turning finding out little things about them and engaging in a social conversations. We also aren't able to update our facebook status or post pictures through out the trip which I think would have distracted us from enjoying each other's company and the view around us as we waited to see who all commented what on our profile page. No, we stayed focused on each other and beauty God created and genuinely appreciated this gift of a trip of relaxation and away from our reality.

During the 5 hour road trip I read my book, Kiss Me Like You Mean It: Solomon's Crazy in Love How-To Manual by Dr. David Clarke. As I read I would stop and read parts of it and share things with Max and ask him questions so as to help us open up and connect emotionally on our trip which is the point of the whole book. Let me just say that if you have not read this book you must! Getting Max to open up and share any feelings and emotions, thoughts or dreams, goals or anything personal about himself is like pulling teeth. However, thanks to this book and being trapped in the car for 12 hours together he shared a few things and we really connected. Go out and get his book immediately and read it and study it with your husband. My favorite part is that it maps out how to to have talk time with your spouse, how to pray together, and what to talk about. Dr. Clarke also dedicates an entire chapter on kissing and 3 chapters on conflict. It is all so good and lead me to some much needed self-discovery.

We arrived in Hot Springs around 5:30 that evening. We stayed at The Springs Hotel, the 1st hotel built there. It got mixed reviews, but Max decided to risk it and book us a room there despite some negative comments. They were very nice and accommodating. Max had originally booked a room with 2 double beds so as to save money, but I wasn't havin' it so he called hotels.com and got us a nice room with a king size bed, but when we went to our 2nd room it smelled like smoke. We told the guy at the front desk and he was very upset that someone had been smoking in a non-smoking room. He said he doesn't smoke and he knows how strong that smell is so he moved us to another room with no problem. It was perfect and had the best view of all!



The view from our room.



That night we had dinner at this fancy Italian place in downtown. We walked there. Then the next morning we went to the spa in the hotel and got to experience what the original bathers experienced.

It was awesome. First you sit in an almost scalding hot bath which is naturally hot from the ground. It actually comes to the surf at 147 degrees, but is "cooled" before it gets to the bath, but it was still really hot.  Second, you sit in a steam box for 5 minutes. (I knew this was not going to be good for Max when it came his turn since he is a bit claustrophobic) Third, you lay on a bed with hot towels over your back and legs. Fourth, you take a cold shower. Fifth, you get a 20 minute massage. Back in the day people would come from hundreds of miles around to do this hydrotherapy about 3 times a day. The waters were thought to heal all kinds of ailments. Definitely go to Hot Springs to experience this. It cleared my allergies up right away.

So Day 1 was spent in the car so on Day 2 we wanted to be mobile. That afternoon we hiked the mountain up to lookout point.

Half way there.

This was the trail we took on the way up.



View from the top.





lookout tower.



Headed back down a different trail.

We made it down safely then saw the beautiful Hot Springs pool.

The dogwood trees are everywhere and so gorgeous.

People used to walk the Grand Promenade in the park between baths for exercise. It was so short I don't see how they got too much exercies.