Anna's Awesome Adventures!!!: Hot Springs, Arkansas

Today I woke up at 8:45, had breakfast (cereal, a mini blueberry muffin, water), got ready, and headed out. We went to the Hot Springs National Park Visitor Center to get some brochures and join a guided, hour-long walk. A kind and engaging ranger told us about the geology and history of the hot springs and the surrounding area. It was an excellent lesson on this unusual place. It is not like Yellowstone in many ways...one, the water doesn't get about about 140 degrees Fahrenheit, so there is no steam and no bubbling water. Two, this water has minerals, but not too many, like Yellowstone (ever smelled the sulfur?). You can drink this water, and we did. They have many hot water springs and two cold water springs. We drank out of a hot water spring on the tour and a cold water spring (called Whittington Spring) elsewhere in the park. After the guided tour, we walked back to the visitor center on a lovely brick path called Grand Promenade. Inside the center, we were able to see some displays and watch two videos -- one on the history of the area; another on the bath houses. You can still come to Hot Springs today and go in one of many (often historic) bath houses to soak in the hot water.

After that, we went to take a hike up in the mountains. We went on parts of several different trails to make a loop of 2.5 miles. It was steep but beautiful and we even went all the way to the top of West Mountain (1,100 feet)...there's a gorgeous lookout near the top. We also drove to the top of West Mountain and some other nearby mountains. We also took a very quick 3/5-mile hike which did have a lovely creek by it, which Matthew and I walked in.

After a nice day, we returned to our hotel to shower and head to supper at Rolando's, a Latin American restaurant. I had Jose's Quesadillas...chicken and cheese inside tortillas, along with a large amount of rice, beans, lettuce, and sour cream. We shared a banana dessert and a chocolate mound cake for dessert. Their computer and printer were not working and the original meal I wanted was not available. Furthermore, Matthew had texted in to their "free dessert" deal and they had run out of that dessert! So we just ended up getting the chocolate mound cake for free, which was fine. Despite those problems, our waitress was very attentive, kind, and apologetic. The food was delicious, too!

We'll be getting home tomorrow! I'll have one more blog (hopefully tomorrow evening). Thanks for reading!