How to relax: a photo-essay

Here are some pictorial highlights of our long-awaited (and since much yearned-for) trips to Eureka Springs and Hot Springs.



The view from our Basin Park Hotel window.




I tried and tried to capture the steam rising from my $5 margarita in the warm late afternoon, but failed.




One of the pieces of art at the controversial Gallery Wall exhibit of modern religious icons: St. Caffeina.




You couldn't get Noel to pay $100 for shoes anytime but on vacation.





But you can get me to pay $10 for hand-dyed yarn any old time.




The kids rode in a piece of fruit or something.




The carousel is almost always the best ride in the park. Certainly better than the down-for-repairs coaster in the background.




You can also count on the utensil dispenser (in this case, "multi-purpose spoon") to delight kids even more than the ice cream whose consumption it is intended to facilitate.




It was really, really hot.




And this tower would be really, really tall even if it weren't built on top of a mountain.




Of course, the kids wished it could be even taller. Somewhere right up there would be nice.




Stubby's Bar-B-Que. Motto: "Resurfacing Lot Tues-Wed We Are Open."




It took an unrelated dad and mom to built this catenary arch at the Mid America Science Museum. It took three girls from two families to take credit for it.




The kids practice their flying buttress skills, essential to employment in the new economy.




Archer would still be at this build-a-boat-then-time-the-race station if we hadn't forcibly removed him.