Hot Springs, Arkansas

Reese at the koi pond with our guide

Fishy food

The Koi fish

The wedding chapel at Garvan Gardens

And, for your aesthetic pleasure, a very lovely, serene waterfall

Yesterday, we made the drive down to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to visit a possible wedding venue. Since we were going anyway, we decided to make a day of it and have some fun as well. We started out at Garvan Woodland Gardens, which I'm sure is absolutely gorgeous in the spring. Due to it being so darn hot, not a whole lot was in bloom right now, but in the spring, they have over 101,000 tulips in bloom. Even without a ton of flowers, the foliage and the serenity of the place was nice. We took a golf cart tour, since it was nearing 100* F, if it wasn't. In the middle of the tour, we stopped at the Koi Pond, and Reese got to feed the koi fish, which were very large. Reese likes to feed animals, such as fish and turtles (her two experiences). When we finished going through the Gardens, we walked across the parking lot over into the part of the Gardens where the chapel is located. It's called the Anthony Chapel, and it is a replica of the Thorncrowne Chapel in Eureka Springs, AR. It's very pretty, very serene.

It was a nice experience at the Gardens. We hope to go back in the spring, when everything is in bloom. After we left, we went and found lunch at Cracker Barrel, after driving all over Hot Springs.

Robotic Dinosaur

Reese playing with a magnetic globe

I believe this was a whisper machine...

Each of those poles (well, the ball on top, but hey) made a different primitive synthesizer sound. You could touch each of them (together, individually, whatever) to create different noises.

Reese and the Tesla coil. She thought this was really awesome.

Watching the hot air balloon she made go up

After lunch, we went to the Mid-America Science Museum, which is a Smithsonian Affiliate. I went there quite a bit when I was little, with my grandparents. Much of it is still the same, but certain exhibits change from time to time. Like now through September, they have a Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit, featuring robotic dinosaurs and video games that allow you to "be" the dinosaur. Pretty nifty for me and Joseph as well, at 19 and 23 respectively. The whole place was pretty fun for Joseph, who had never been, and Reese, of course, loved it. Enough of it was still the same as it was 10+ years ago, that for me, some parts of it were good for nostalgia's sake, but not much else. Reese loved it, however, so we'll probably go again sometime.

There's a nifty part of the museum that I still find really cool. It's a "capture your shadow" thing, you stand in front of a screen, push a button, and you have 5 seconds before the flash goes off to strike a pose. Then your pose is left on the screen. Even at 19, I found this as cool as I did at 8. It was kind of fun to see Reese having fun with the same things that enthralled me as a child.

On the way home, we stopped at Kohl's and Shoe Carnival to do some back to school shopping. Reese got some cute outfits. She wore uniforms last year, so we're having to do some serious outfit inventory since she doesn't have to this year.


OH! And I am kidnapping this, from Emily's blog, And Now There Are Nine. It's a Q&A thing. Ask me a question, and I will, within reason, answer it on this blog. Hope to get some good questions. It can be about me, Reese, life in general. Just about anything. But if I feel it's not appropriate, I won't answer. I'm trying to get back into blogging more, and I am hoping to up readership some. That would be nice. :)