Hot Springs

We started this morning with pancakes, so we didn't start our hike until about 10:00, which, in hindsight, was a mistake. It got pretty hot and we were all sweating by the end. There was a nice trail from our campground directly into town just behind all the bathhouses. I think it was 0.5 miles, but I can't remember for sure. It was mostly uphill there and downhill coming back, so there was a lot of complaining, especially from Adria who apparently "hates" hiking.

So, I guess I'm just clueless about Hot Springs, but I thought there were some kind of natural springs that you could actually get in and swim or splash around. No. There are natural springs, but they are small and about 143 degrees. If you don't know how hot that is, you're not swimming around in it. The kids couldn't hold the tip of their finger in the water for even five seconds. It was really, really hot.

So, there are these bathhouses that have been built over the past hundred years or so that surround this super hot water and they were businesses. They cooled the water to around 100 degrees by wrapping the pipes in other pipes that pumped regular city water, heat exchanger style. The spring waters supposedly healed people with their "special" minerals and other qualities and people would come from all over to have their gout or liver failures healed.

One of the bathhouses has been turned into a visitor center that you can tour for free that was really cool. I took lots of video of it, but can't find the cord to dump it on the computer. Two of the bathhouses are still active and we considered going, but the $20 per person one (already too high for me) didn't allow any kids under 14 and the other bath house separated the men and women to different floors, some of whom bathed nude (and it was $33 each). The kids voted no for that one also. So, we just checked out the visitor center instead.

* I apparently spent so much time filming the visitor center I didn't take a single picture.

We asked the NPS lady where to get ice cream and she suggested the neighboring bathhouse which has been converted into a diner/bar/root beer float place. We sampled the bar and float offerings..

The hike back was so much better, mostly because it was downhill most of the way, but it always seems shorter when you know exactly how much farther you have to go. I think it was overcast as well.

Just as you get back into the campground, there was a little stream (the same one Haley is sitting by, just a different spot) and the girls wanted to splash around a little because it was so hot. Brady went to take a shower.

I made mommy's chicken/pork hamburger recipe which they absolutely love. I think they were genuinely more excited about that than anything we've done thus far...except maybe the swimming at Jellystone.

As I was looking into cheap things to do, I found a coupon for this observation tower, which seems very touristy, but was actually pretty cool. It is a 264 ft. (I think) tower built on top of a tall hill, so the views were pretty great. Also, you can see the main street in Hot Springs, so it was a good vantage point to tie everything together.

* Hmmm, I apparently forgot to take ANY pictures of the tower or of the view because I was talking to Stacey on the phone and filming. I need to get the videos off the camera eventually.

Here is one of a magnet that I sent Stacey just to show her what the tower looks like. Pulitzer Prize picture here.

P.S. Stacey has decided to fly with Jacob to meet us for a week! We're keeping it a secret from the kids, but she is planning on joining us in Toledo and then flying back the following Sunday from wherever we happen to be then. I can't wait!