Our Honeymoon Trip (better late than never)

This evening we are lounging and relaxing on the last night of our honeymoon. We spent 20 minutes watching the sunset over the Cedar Creek Canyon valley.  It probably goes down on the list of top places to sit and reflect on the day as the sun sinks low over the cliff. (Of course once the sun set we returned to our room to watch the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA playoffs --I am winning big wife points).  We have greatly enjoyed our week in Arkansas.  It has been beautiful weather and glorious scenery.  

Our adventures began Friday after we got off of work.  We met back at the house and did a final check to make sure everything was unplugged—the last chore on Arthur’s checklist.  The drive through the Flint Hills was beautiful.  All the pastures that were burned in this past month were a fresh new green.  The sunset silhouetted trees and cattle.  It was too bad that the sun went down and we had several hours to go in the dark.  On our trip we listened to Zorro on audiobook.  All weekend I wanted to blurt out Spanish phrases.  The first night we stayed at my grandmother’s house and visited with her some the next day. 

Saturday we headed in a southerly direction to Bentonville, Arkansas.  First we made a stop at the Arkansas Visitor Center and got maps and tour guides.  I have a deep love of maps, ever since our section on 4^th grade on cartography.  At one point on this trip the passenger seat of the car was covered in a layer of maps strewn about four or five deep.  Arthur also lets me carry the maps and navigate—he gets husband points and we get lost less.  In Bentonville we ate at a Thai food place—Arthur’s used his one free pass to eat Asian early.  We also walked around the town square and saw the original Wal-Mart before making our way to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  

Since we are taking our drawing class we were able to analyze the use of shading, perspective, and line in the pieces, except for abstract art where all the rules just get tossed out the window.  The exhibits included American art over the past 250 years and it was interesting to see how the subjects of paintings has transitioned from primarily portraits to landscapes to artistic representations of culture and society (i.e. Rosie the Riveter) to abstract.  There were also several pieces by famous artists.  In addition to the museum the grounds had been landscaped and had hiking trails.  Sculptures were placed on either side of one of the shorter trails.  We ventured out on to the trails for a few hours.  Everything in Arkansas is green and leafed out like it is already the middle of summer.  Some of the dogwood trees were still in bloom.  We had to mosey on towards Hot Springs for the evening and became acquainted with highways in Arkansas—curvy, hilly, and tons of tree.  I am sure all the vehicles that got stuck behind the slow car with the Kansas tags were trying to hold back road rage—oh well.  We finally arrived at Lake Catherine State Park and settled into our cabin. 

Sunday morning we rolled out of bed and enjoyed eating breakfast on the deck of our cabin that overlooked the lake.  Our cabin was originally a fishing barracks built in the 1930s that had been remodeled but still had a rustic feel.  Our morning’s activity was going to the Garvin Woodlands Garden.  This was a large botanical garden showcasing woodland flowers.  It also had lots of trails and water features.  One of my favorite parts was the children’s adventure garden.  It had mazes through boulders, a neat bridge, and a cave that allowed you behind a beautiful waterfall.  There was also a beautiful chapel at the gardens that was primarily glass so when inside the building you still felt like you were in the middle of the woods.  We had a peaceful lunch while watching the action at the model train garden and the peacocks that roam the grounds.  

After a nap we decided to do some more hiking on the trails at the state park.  We hiked up to a waterfall which was neat but a little crowded.  We decided to go on up to the mountain loop trail which was definitely less crowd.  My only compliant with Arkansas is there are too many trees.  We were up on a ridge above the lake which probably had some great views but all we saw were trees, (and a little green snake Arthur about stepped on).  After walking about 10 miles that day we crashed for the evening and were just slugs.  We ate spaghetti and watched old TV reruns of Boy Meets World.