Our plans for today shifted and changed a lot over the course of the weekend. My husband wanted to drive a few hours out to go to one of the more historical State Parks, one fitting for the meaning of the day. I wanted to drive a slightly shorter distance to a creek we visited last year. In the end, we just stayed pretty local and walked a bridge. We have a lot of foot bridges around here, and he had never been to the biggest one.
People who don't live around here always laugh and think I'm making up the name of the bridge, but there you have it in stone.... the Big Dam Bridge. It goes over, obviously, a lock and dam on the Arkansas River. Last summer, the girls and I would go walk it and have picnic dinners on occasion. So today, I packed a picnic lunch and we went off on our adventure.
It was hot and there's no shade over the bridge, but there is usually a really awesome breeze at the top of the bridge, so that was really nice. We discovered a trail at the other end of the bridge that the girls and I had never noticed before (my husband has some weird trail radar or something... if there is a trail, he's going to find it), so we went back over the bridge to the van and drove to the other side (our lunch was in the van and no one wanted to walk the bridge twice... it's pretty long - and we were HOT), ate our lunch and went down the trail.
We ate an entire cantaloupe.
I'm a huge weenie when it comes to being hot. Lord knows that I try, but it just zaps everything out of me. Halfway through the trail, I was ready to just be done. Granted, it was a good 10* cooler on the trail because it was so wooded, but I was hot, sweaty, dirty, and ready to go home.
I looked like this only not so cute.
The girls wanted to go to a playground, but I just couldn't bring myself to sit in the sun while they played. So we bribed them with ice cream instead.
I'm sure the staff at Dixie Cafe enjoyed our dirty, sweaty, smelly selves. =) I made sure we tipped well.
It was a good kickoff to summer, even if I did poop out. I'm determined to make myself get out there and enjoy the sun this summer. I intend to go through multiple bottles of sunscreen (and apply it to myself a little better... I have splotches of red on my shoulders LOL) and a ton of water bottles. I am going to hold myself to taking the girls to the pool or water park at least once a week. We are going to be out there overdosing on Vitamin D as much as possible. =)
Hi, I found your blog because of your lovely crochet but I also enjoy reading it because I'm a former Arkansan. We lived outside of Jacksonville. I love seeing all the parks you visit, some of them I know, some I don't. We would go to the Old Mill. I live in Virginia now. My sisters still live in AR, one in Fayetteville, one in Sherwood. It's just fun to see AR. I do miss it.
ReplyDeleteHope you have a great summer! Lisa