It's been a week of camping for our crowd, all the way at Lake Catherine in Hot Springs. If you're looking to camp in Arkansas I'd highly recommend this state park. The facilities are nice, I didn't see a single snake, and the swimming and hiking are really pretty.
[ONE] Monday we wandered off with a two year old and 11 month old in tow and hiked the shortest trail to the waterfall. Absolutely beautiful, it just wasn't a swimming type of creek. It was freezing!
The waterfall area was nice and shallow and great for kids to wander around in.
[TWO] Trains! There is a model train section at the Garvan Gardens and Harrison was in love, mainly because of the Thomas train that he wanted us to put him over the fence to touch. We stood there a long time, but not nearly as long as this one particular couple who was childless and took roughly 4034 picture of the trains.
[THREE] If you go to the Garvan Gardens I have a few suggestions for you...
1. Don't go during the summer. We were soaking wet from sweating. It's up and downhill non stop.
2. Which leads to this one... kids who can't walk themselves the entire thing will be a pain to tote around.
3. Dragging a stroller uphill is not my cup of tea.
4. Again, Arkansas has some lizard species I'm not a fan of.
5. The only redeeming quality is that half way through there was a men's bathroom with no one around and freezing temps inside so we huddled in it trying to cool off in the window unit.
I've never been so happy to bet in free because someone's card machine was down in my life. Fifteen bucks a head was far too much for this, and that lady in the golf cart that watched us all crawl up the hill holding diaper bags and heavy kids in strollers should have asked if we needed help.
We would have paid big for a ride to the exit at that point.
All in all... pretty but exhausting in high heat and humidity.
[FOUR] A one year old wants what a two year old has. Mainly, their food. Two year old also aren't ones to just share all willy nilly.
[FIVE] That hooded towel my child is wearing in the photo above... he wore it nearly the entire trip. Why you ask? Well it makes him look like a Ninja Turtle. I can't remember how we finally peeled it off of him, but goodness toddlers are some eccentric personalities. There was even a stint where we had it on with the hood and then a bucket hat on top of the hood.
Toddler obsessions are no joke.
Oh and [SIX] because these were too good not to share - we ate at Colonial Pancake & Waffle house as well as Superior Bath House Brewery and they were both amazing! I had their Cinnamon AD combo that was basically a cinnamon roll sliced in half and turned French Toast on the griddle. Heaven! We all drooled over the Beer Cheese at Superior and then stuffed our faces with the best Blue Cheese Potato Salad on the planet. Might I add they had Kombucha on tap and I was in probiotic drink heaven.
