Picture Day

No Cemetery Art this Monday, but I do have pictures of…Arkansas! If you click on a picture, it should enlarge.

On a day that was supposed to be the coolest of the week, but hit 103 instead, we headed down to Crater of Diamonds State Park, located in Murfreesboro, AR. Found rock, dirt and more rocks (to quote our friend, Mary).

It's just a huge plowed field, with not much shade to be found. But people were out there digging for diamonds. Me, too (barely) as I found one of the few places that had shade (yeah, that's me in this picture). No diamonds for any of us, though.

The next day we visited Hot Springs, which is a small town inside the Hot Springs National Park. The high for this day was also 103. Thank goodness it wasn't humid - and the shade was tolerable.

I was amazed the hot springs didn't stink. When we visited Chena Hot Springs (in Alaska), it smelled like sulfur. The water in Hot Springs is drinkable once it's cooled from its 145 degree temp. See the steam in this picture? And it was HOT outside!

The famous bathhouses still stand, but only one is available to tour. One is still functioning, too. Others are either for sale or they are used for something else (one had a cafe & library - I had some iced coffee). I don't remember which one this was, though! 

This is one of the tubs. Yep, all the chairs are still there, too!

The baths are just lined up one after the other, too. Not much privacy, that's for sure!

The next day we visited the Graven Botanical Gardens. Nice and shady, especially when the high again was 103. Unfortunately, at this place it was a bit steamy! Everything was green  and everything was getting watered - they get irrigation from Lake Hamilton.

Here's a shot of Lake Hamilton (taken from the garden). The gardens were really beautiful, though and I highly suggest a visit if you're ever in the area!

Many weddings have been performed at the gardens and this church is also on the grounds. It was very impressive, too! Almost makes you feel like you're outside (yet it's air conditioned!).

On Friday and with temps at 105, we ventured up to Little Rock to visit the William J. Clinton Presidental Library. I've never been to a presidential library, so I had no idea what to expect. Lots of exhibits of what he did. It was interesting.

And there were some walkways and a park, but it was so hot, I had a hard time enjoying them! It also seemed to be in the middle of nothing! But then, Little Rock isn't a huge city (as you can see from this skyline - that's the Arkansas River). I think Dayton is bigger.

That's it for my pictures. Hope I didn't bore you all. We had a good time, though. I was pleasantly surprised (and happy the gas was under $3.00/gal in some places - when the gas was still $3.50/gal up here!) and wonder what it must be like in NORMAL temps!

The really funny thing was we went to Bob Evans on Sunday and the cashier had just come from a week's vacation in Arkansas, too! She was sad they were under a heat advisory and couldn't see any fireworks. But she loves the state. I can say the same now, too.