Adventures in Hot Springs, Arkansas

Earlier this week I took a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas to speak at the Arkansas Society of CPAs on social media marketing. I went up a day earlier to spend some time with my Mom and to check out the town that had so much history in my family - though I hadn't been since I was a kid.

I started out exploring the Hot Springs National Park and walking through the Promenade where Lucky Luciano was arrested and is a beautiful green stretch behind the historic bathhouse row. My favorite part of adventuring out on my own were the beautiful Magnolia blossoms - they were fragrant and opening up for the season. Just lovely!

Next stop was the park's Visitor Center at the Fordyce Bath House. They offer self-guided tours through the house and you can see the men's bathing rooms and the women's...let's just say the guys had all the swanky digs. Naked women stained glass, too.  The bathouse was incredibly fascinating as the water is from the natural hot springs that the area is named after. This geological phenomenon is the heart of the tourism and history of Hot Springs and it very neat to see it in person.

Once Mom got into town we headed out on our own adventures. We stopped at Coleman's Gems & Rocks and while we got some really cute pictures, the lady at the counter was incredibly rude and did not want to answer many questions about the rocks and the collection of beautiful items out in her lot. It was actually really disappointing because I took all these fun photos of her place. I'll be visiting one of the countless other's on my next visit and hope some of those will be willing to answer my questions about it all. I ended up not buying anything because she was rushing out the door - five minutes to five o'clock but would have likely spent some $$ if I had known what rocks I had in my hands and the back history on the. Another day, indeed.

We ate dinner at Rolando's and had this delicious Cuban dish with rice and beans and a bunch of other yummy things whipped together with seasoned chicken. Their guacamole was top notch, too! We ate out on their gorgeous patio and had a really great waiter as well. 

Also among our adventures, we hit up some fun flea markets and did some off road-ing through the neighborhoods checkout the houses and free spirited style.

One of the coolest things Mom and I found was the Stone Bridge which was rather humorous to us because we were just aimlessly driving and stumbled upon it thinking we had found some thing secret, then we realized there was a main road right around the corner so it wasn't some huge secret but it was to us!