Hot Springs, Arkansas (Nov 27-30)

Hot Springs Arkansas may seem like a weird place to travel to, but we actually based the trip around it.

We want to hit every national park eventually. Seeing as how this was the closest one to St. Louis (other than the Arch), it seemed like a good idea. 

We stayed in what was advertised as an adult treehouse. It wasn't. It was just an A-frame lake house that happened to be on stilts. But it was still incredibly nice. 

We had this view from the kitchen, not too shabby. 

Hot Springs ended up being the highlight of the trip. 

The main strip feels like a time capsule. One side of the road lined with bath houses from around the
1900s. The other side lined with small mom and pop shops. 

The area seems untouched by Wal Mart and Amazon. Every shop thriving, even outside of tourist season. 

The first night, we were beat. We stayed in and watched HBO. It was needed. It was a reset after a drive through the winding mountain roads. 

The next morning, we parked, had some lunch, and walked the strip. At the end of the street is an active hot spring in a park. It was weird, the weather was slightly cool and then there was this like 80 degree spring just covering the park in steam. 

Now, something you might not know about me, is that since puberty, I've been very self conscious of my torso cause I got body hair a lot earlier than a lot of people. The group of people that have seen me without a shirt is less than 20 at this point. 

Sal has always wanted to do a couples massage. I've never had a professional massage before because of this deep rooted childhood trauma. So I figured, "hell, none of these people will ever see me again, this will be the time to do it." 

There are two bathhouses that are still in operation in Hot Springs. We booked a package at the Qaupaw. 

Sal said typically you get as undressed as you want to be in a massage. So I was going to keep some boxers on. 

WRONG! Not correct at this place. We're handed a robe, pointed to a dressing room, and told to get naked. 

In all honesty, it didn't bug me too much. It was more the anticipation, sitting in the waiting room, waiting to be taken to the first part of our package, which was a personal bath in the hot spring water. 

Basically a really nice hot tub, 102 degree water, inside a tent where Sal and I just got to soak for 20 minutes. The amount of minerals in the water was making all of my skin feel like tiny little bubbles were washing across the surface. 

After our bath, we sat in a room with a bunch of other people (robes covering birthday suits) and cooled off with some mineral water and a very cold wet towel. 

After that, it was massage time. And you know, the masseuse saw everything. She was good. She recognized that my left shoulder and my right knee were both in pain and she worked them so hard. But the way she was stretching me, my butt was out in the open the entire time. 

I left feeling loose baby. 

We spent the rest of the day sort of hopping into random places and grabbing appetizers and shopping at all of these awesome vintage shops. 

The next day, fog and rain rolled in as is tradition for our 2022 trips. Unfortunately, this was the day we had planned on hiking up the mountain. We still did the hike, but all of the views we had expected to see, looked like this. 

There are two parts of the mountain you can sort of a do a "build a hike" on. A dozen trails all between half mile to a mile that all intersect. Many of them carved out during the health boom of the early 1900s. The prevailing and correct theory was that leaving the city full of polluted air and getting out into nature was good for you. 

There's some great history along the trail. Plaques setup every couple hundred steps. And at the top of the mountain is a tower you can pay to go up into that's like another 300 feet up. 

If not for the fog, we could've seen for miles of the mountain range. We covered 5.5 miles. 

I'm going to list off all the various places we ate and drank as some quick hits. 

• Diablos Tacos and Mezcal: Fantastic bartender that gave us the rundown of local joints. Really good food. They closed early because a cat was stuck in a storm drain and they wanted to help rescue it. I would've done the same. 
• Brickhouse Grill: Nothing special, just a really solid American Grill. In a cool spot. 
• SQZBX Brewery and Pizza: Little off the main drag. Was quiet. Great pizza and I really liked the beer. (Sal was OK on it)
• Grateful Head Pizza Over and Beer Garden: Probably better pizza. I never trust Grateful Dead inspired places cause you never know when a jam band will break out and the food will take forever, but this place was great. 
• The Avenue restaurant at the Waters Hotel: Very laid back cocktail bar. If we go back to Hot Springs, we will likely stay in this hotel as it was in the middle of the downtown strip. 
• Superior Bathhouse Brewery: The only brewery in a national park, Superior Bathhouse Brewery is in the old Superior Bathhouse. Sal loved their beers, I was 50/50 on them. They had a Jalapeno beer that was fantastic. 
• VAULT: This was our fancy dinner and it was magnificent. Perfectly cooked lamb steak, great wine list, quiet, love it.

One last thing to mention is that the entire town was decked out in Christmas decorations. At night, it was like Garden Glow. Everywhere lit up. Was really happy to have gone off season. I feel like we got to experience Hot Springs at it's best and without any other tourist.