Hot Springs holiday, part 4.

We began our last day in Hot Springs at Pirate's Cove mini golf.
Of course, we opted for the "challenge course," and it was tough! We loved the scenery, though!


How often do you get to play golf on a pirate ship?




We were happy to reach the shady part of the course. Even though it was only 9:30, it was already starting to get hot!

Four lousy strokes on that one!

We LOVED this place and recommend it highly to any Hot Springs visitors. The greens were in excellent shape, the staff was friendly, and the pirate theme was fun. Our rating? AAaaaaarrrrrgggghhhh!

From there we headed to the Winery. The wine tasting was promoted with our duck tour, so we gave it a shot. It was SO much fun! The kids tried out some Arkansas grape juice while Brett and I tried out several varieties of Arkansas wine. It was worth the stop!

Then, since our tickets were included with the duck tour, we were back downtown for a visit to the wax museum. Going in, we knew we've been spoiled with our own local wax museum, and as expected, these figures weren't nearly as realistic as what we'd seen closer to home. Still, we had a good time checking out the scenes on display.

The stairway of the stars

Like the Palace of Wax, this one featured an "optional" scary section.
(As if we would bypass the monsters! HA!)

It was hair-raising!

This George Washington reminded me of Marcia Brady's drawing.

And this Teddy Roosevelt reminded us of Night at the Museum.

President Clinton looked pretty good, but Hillary? Not so much.

The anachronistic royal meeting with the Nixons

And our idea of royalty: the KING!

Katie tried on the kiddie car, but it was a tight squeeze!

From there we walked across the street to see the springs one more time.

And yes, that water was still HOT!!!

After one more stroll down Bathhouse Row, it was time to head back to Texas. We're so glad we stole these two days from this crazy summer to explore Hot Springs and enjoy some time together!

Hot Springs holiday, part 3.

After our exhausting morning, we ate lunch at our hotel's restaurant (home of "the best burgers in town"!) and swam in the lakeside pool. It was awesome to unwind for several hours. Later we decided to take the "duck tour" of Hot Springs and Lake Hamilton.

While waiting for our duck to depart, we drove up the same mountain we'd hiked earlier.

Such an awesome view!

Then we had a date with a duck:

These tours are conducted aboard an amphibious vehicle originally built during World War II. Our duck was the 1944 model, which means it was constructed mostly by women.


Our captain told us a bunch of corny jokes (followed each time by a "quack-quack-quack") and gave us a brief history of Hot Springs. The coolest part, though, was when he drove off the road, down a boat ramp, and into Lake Hamilton!




We cruised around the lake, checking out the fancy and not-so-fancy boathouses.

We were amazed by the impressive Hamilton House, now a B&B.

The sunset on the lake was gorgeous.

It was the perfect way to end a great day.

Hot Springs holiday, part 2 1/2.

After our Mountain Tower visit, we headed back down the mountain and found ourselves at another of the display springs.

We couldn't get over all the shades of green!

And yes, the water was hot, hot, HOT!

Hot Springs holiday, part 2.

One of Brett's favorite activities is hiking, and even though Hot Springs National Park is in the middle of the city, it still has a series of nature trails. After touring Bathhouse Row, we were off to climb a mountain. Admittedly, this was far from Everest, but Hot Springs Mountain is part of the Ouachita Mountains, and it was a STEEP hike!






Our goal was to reach the Mountain Tower, a destination accessible by car but also within hiking distance. At one point I was winded and worn out, questioning our sanity. And just when I thought we'd never make it to the tower, I looked up and saw this:

FINALLY!

It was so refreshing to go inside the gift shop at the base and enjoy the air conditioning! We bought our admission tokens there and headed on up to the top.

What a great view!

Even though I doubted him as I huffed and puffed up that long ascent, Brett was absolutely right: It was so much more rewarding to hike our way to the tower!

Mission: Accomplished!