Anniversary in Hot Springs

Chris and I were debating on where to spend our anniversary. My sister, being a flight attendant, said that we could use some of her free tickets to fly somewhere. We wanted to stay close by, but out of the state. It was between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Hot Springs, Arkansas. Hot Springs won and after looking at the distance and getting a rental car we decided to drive our own car. We arranged to stay in a hotel for the first two nights and a secluded log cabin the following two nights. A coworker suggested to stay in the Arlington Hotel in downtown Hot Springs. The Arlington is a historical hotel that dates back to the infamous gangster Al Capone staying there.

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At the Arlington Hotel

It was a very large hotel, but needed a bit of remodeling. Our room was somewhat nice, but the walls were so thin that I could hear a man in the next room sneeze. The shower irked me the most.

The bath mat was originally hanging on the shower door and it was just a big hole(no drain) in the shower. Needless to say, we took quick showers.
The second day of our stay I arranged for me to have a spa treatment. I went to Quapaw Bath and Spa. I indulged and received the Merry Berry Treatment. This treatment included a 20 minute private bath, 40 minute massage, facial, and foot scrub. I had not received a massage in over 2 years(I know, shame on me). This experience was perfect. The private bath was a huge tub made for two that was filled with mineral water from the hot springs. Alex was my massage therapist and I would recommend him to anyone. He was highly experienced and intuitive when it came to knots in my muscles. He also did my stone crop facial and foot scrub, which were heavenly.

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While I was enjoying my spa treatment, Chris used the time to take up some of his sketching around Bathhouse Row and the surrounding area. Here is one of his sketches

He is really good at drawing or "draw-ring" as he says it. And every time he says it, I think of Mike Myers in the SNL sketch of the little boy Simon back in the 90s. If you remember that, you just got a little chuckle.

The next morning we went to Mass at St. Mary of the Springs Catholic Church. This was a beautifully decorated church and the priest's homily really spoke to our personal life. One of my favorite parts of traveling is seeing new churches. I think it's wonderful that our Catholic Church is universal in that we say the same prayers and read the same readings, but each church has its own appeal according to the culture of the area and the people.

After Mass, we headed to Bismarck where our cabin was located. Before we got to Bismarck, Chris wanted to make a pit stop at Lowe's. I remembered that this was his anniversary too and I needed to let him take his time. Although I thought it would be painful to sit through the long aisles at Lowe's, it was actually really nice to talk to Chris and discuss our plans for the next phase of remodeling our house. We both agreed on what needed to be the current focus and where to move on to after that. It was great to have such an in-depth conversation like that. We are usually so busy that we don't get to talk like that very often.

Once we got to our cabin, I knew that this was going to be the best part of the trip. We stayed at Remember When Cabins. These are newly-built cabins with nice furnishings and a hot tub on the decks. Arkansas was recently hit with a lot of snow and it was still covering the grounds by the cabins when we got there. The owners live on the site and were very helpful in getting us situated. Here is what our cabin looked like

We stopped to pick up a roast chicken for dinner. If you know anything about Chris it is that he LOVES roast chicken. He was in heaven getting it ready for dinner.

The owners decorated the cabins for Christmas, too. There was a small Christmas tree and garland hanging around the rooms. We got festive with our drinks, too.

During our stay, we kicked back by watching a Star Wars marathon and playing Words with Friends and a fun game called Bubble Shooter on our phones. It wasn't until we were about to leave that we saw the board games and cards in a cabinet in the kitchen :(

On New Year's Eve we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. We joked that this New Year's was the complete opposite of last New Year's. But it was quite nice to be an old married couple who did not mind going to Cracker Barrel and having a quiet New Year's Eve.

When we got back to the cabin we popped open a bottle of champagne and ate our wedding cake.

We couldn't eat much more than this

We headed home on New Year's Day and took in the last moments of our trip. It was really nice to get away from it all and get back to us. I wonder what next New Year's will be like?