Hot Springs, AR Mini Vacation: 1/2

Hot Springs, AR mini vacation post #1

Instead of bombarding your brain with a bunch of boring old text and your screen with a million photos, I'm just going to share with you a few pics from our mini vacation in Hot Springs, AR (along with brief descriptions of what's going on). And because I'm super nice, I'm going to break down what would be one massive post into two smaller ones.

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Sooooo, here are some photos from the weekend-after-Christmas Ramsey family vacation.

By the way, Hot Springs is a small touristy town in Arkansas, best known for its... hot springs...

On the two hour drive to Hot Springs, I learned that a glove box is the perfect place to put yarn so it doesn't get dirty and tangled and smashed up on the floorboard.

I. Is. Brilliant.

  We all stayed in a cute little cabin that had rocks outside that had been decorated by previous renters. If I had known it acceptable to do this, I would have brought a bit of paint... or at least some nail polish as it seems that's what some people have used.

 When we got there we ate some lunch and opened presents...

 River's Auntie painted this lovely Yellow Submarine painting for his nursery per my request.

 And I received this crazy awesome print from my bro and sis in-law who clearly understand my taste... or maybe they took a random swing? but they definitely hit the nail right on the head.

 Actually I got A LOT of gifts but I'll share those in my next post.

River with his Granny and Gramps, Auntie and cousin.

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Later that evening we went to Garvan Woodland Gardens which is an ENORMOUS park that has been completely decked out in Christmas lights.

 Check this out. These vellum lanterns were all over the place. Aren't they pretty?!?!

 

 This lighted tree was incredibly tall and the lights were perfectly in sync with the music that played from it. It might look cool in the pics, but there was something mildly creepy about it...

 A lot of the photos I took required the flash on my camera so a lot of them came out looking like horrific stills from the Blair Witch Project so it was pretty easy to weed out what not to post.

 Also, in the gardens is this glass and wood chapel, a VERY popular wedding venue here in the south. It was pretty cool to finally see it in person.

We went back to the cabin, had a bit of dinner and settled down for bed...

...and we accidently forgot pack River's play pen that also serves as his crib. So the poor little guy got to sleep on a pallet on the floor. He didn't seem to mind too much, though. It was a rather cozy setup.

Well, stay tuned for part 2 of our little family vacation: Bath houses, grumpiness and warm water.

unicorns are for gangstas

Today after lunch with a new friend I decided to take advantage of the rare occasion of having a vehicle and went to Target for a little clearance rack raping.

 I got this great floral print hi-lo dress for about $12. I rarely pay that much for a dress but the dress is very light and it's dang hot here. I don't do fashion trends but the ho-lo is a trend I really dig. I've been looking for an affordable hi-lo forever and this one was the only hi-lo there and it was my size... I'm pretty sure it was meant to be.
Sorry about the one blurred photo. A ghost walked through in front of the camera.
No worries. He doesn't bite.

 I also got this dress for $6. The material is pretty heavy so I'll probably only be able to wear it when the sun has long since gone down. I looooove me some stripes and this will be great for the fall.

In town we have a store called the Dollar Tree. Everything in there is a dollar. No more, no less. It's impossible to go into the Dollar Tree without coming out with bags full of completely random stuff. Since we have no used book stores in town the Dollar Tree is THE spot to get new books for... you guessed it: one dollar. Most of these are new releases and I have no idea why they're only one dollar. Overstock? Typos?

 I got the top four books yesterday and the bottom four I got last month. I've only finished one of the books (A Gentle Axe) and I'm currently reading A Separate Country. As you can see from the covers of the books, I mostly read historical fiction.

I also found these fun and colorful wall hangers at the Dollar Tree along with baby socks, stuff for a fairy costume I'm working on, nail files, nail polish and a bunch of other crap I don't need.

Are you a Dollar Store Whore like me?

We discovered someone hit my car yesterday. I'm not sure exactly when or how and I'm not even mad about it but the offender could have at least scribbled out a little note on the back of an old receipt that said, "Sorry I hit your car. I didn't feel like waiting for you so I left. Here's a note."

Has this ever happened to you?

Me? This is like the fifth time over the past ten years.

NY: Day Four

Are ya sick of hearing about New York yet? HEEHEE!! Sorry!

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The day after the wedding we all piled up into the bride and groom's apartment for brunch. Er... lunch... dinner? The party was supposed to start at NOON and the food wasn't ready until FOUR! I'm not going to complain too much about all that though. There was AC in the apartment, delicious leftover wedding food to snack on and good company... and lots of mid-day boozing so the wait wasn't so horrible.

While waiting for the shindig to get started Caleb snuck off to a festival that was happening not even a block away from the apartment. What a douche! He came back with this French fireman's helmet...

 .... and this beaded elephant for my ornate pachyderm collection. I guess I'll forgive him for leaving me. 

 Guess what? After sitting in the cool for hours waiting for the food... the power went out. Bye bye AC. Why does NY hate me so much?

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After a while we all started to get a bit bored and restless. I didn't come all the way to NY to sit and wait for food for four hours. So me and my sis-in-law Krista went to check out the festival. It spanned about five blocks and it was aaawwweesome. 

 The booths at our festivals here in Texarkana sell nothing but kettle corn, blowup toys, crap mass produced Native American decor, cowboy figurines and "country chic" art. This festival was such a lovely change from our little world of cheap dream-catchers and rooster shaped cookie jars.

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Later that evening I took my first train ride ever to get into the city. 

When we got to Grand Central my husband kept saying:

 "There's the clock. New York's most famous clock."

I looked around, up, down - "Where?"

"Right in front of you."

"I don't see a clock."

"How can you not see it? It's right there?"

  "What clock?!?!"

"Right THERE!!"

"That clock? I was looking for something more impressive... you know like Big Ben."

"Nope, that's it."

"What's so great about it?"

"It's old..."

(Click this link to find out what's so great about this clock)

Moving on: we set off down Fifth Ave just to see where we'd end up.

 at some point we stumbled across and into the Rockefeller Center - just aimlessly wondering around..

 ...and I got the world's worst characture done. It looks nothing like me. The only thing he got right was my jugs.

I look so terrible in this photo!! All fat and shiny and blubbery lookin'.

He got the boobs perfectly right! They're huge and one is bigger than the other!

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We hailed a rickshaw and asked the driver to take us to the nearest Japanese restaurant.

Food time!

Sorry veggie heads, you might wanna skip over this part.

We had very rare marinated duck, a mushy raw salmon thing with a raw quail egg on top and smoked eel box sushi. As gross as it all sounds... it was AWESOME!

Soon after we ate, it started to sprinkle a little and we had to haul booty to get the station to catch our train back to Tarrytown. On the way there we spied the Chrysler building. Cool beans, no?

At the station I sent Caleb to get some coffee while me and River waited. 

He got stopped by a few TSAs and they questioned the heck out of him about where he was going, what he was doing and all they jazz. He told them his train was leaving in just a couple of minutes but they didn't let up. We missed our train and I spazzed. I was sure we were going to have to spend the night at the station and I was pissed (I don't know anything about how the train system works) but thank God there was another one coming up just a few minutes later. 

There was a lot we didn't get to see due to time issues, but I'm not bummed about it. I know we'll be back.

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There's one more post left!

Next up: Great buys, no more sweat and heading home!

NY: Day One

Hey party people! Guess what? I’m back! Visiting New York was awesome but in my opinion it just wasn't as spectacular as I thought it was going to be… I probably only feel this way because after 25 hours of being cramped in the back of a suburban and getting only about two hours of sleep during the entire ride we were greeted with temperatures that teetered in the high nineties the entire time we were there. The house we were staying had no air conditioning, no window units and some rooms didn't even have ceiling fans. It was like a sauna in that place. I was hot and sweaty the entire time and the only extended breaks I got from the heat that was on the subway, train and the Staten Island Ferry.

Now, don’t think I’m some sort of powderpuff, fussing over little heat. I can handle heat…I live in Texas for crying out loud, our summers here AVERAGE 98F (36C). But what I can’t handle is walking around in said heat for hours with a family of well experienced fast paced hikers, wearing a baby in a black mei tai carrier. 

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Since I was gone for a week I have tons of photos to share with you so I’m going to break it all down into day-by-day posts.

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Day ONE!

 Since we were in New York to attend my sister-in-law’s wedding of course we had to see her first! Meet Jess! Jess and her fiancé, Doug (now husband Doug) live in an amazing duplex in Tarrytown. I’ve never seen their home before and I was soooooo impressed with her perfect collection of vintage art and trinkets. She has amazing taste!

 I wish I could have gotten a photo of every little cool thing in her home but there just wasn’t enough time for that.

 We all walked around Tarrytown for a bit and there was lots to see. Tarrytown is about 1/16th the size of the city I live in and there is more to do in one block than there is in alll of boo boo Texarkana.

We stopped in a coffehouse called Coffee Labs Roasters, the place the bride and groom met and eventually fell in love.

Next we visited a super cramped albeit delicious Greek restaurant. 

I’m a very adventurous eater and since we don’t have Greek restaurants around here, eating Greek is well… an adventure. I ordered a lamb stick, fried eggplant and dandelion greens.

I had no idea you could eat dandelion so of course I had to give it a shot. I thought they were pretty good – needed a lot salt though. It tasted like collard greens cooked in black tea and chamomile. It would have been wonderful as a side dish, but that plate was piled with a massive heap of the greens – I’m not eating all of that.

The mei tia carrier was perfect and River didn’t mind being in it, but it was just too dang hot for him to stay in it so after a while me the husband took turns carrying him around. He’s such an awkward size now. Too small to carry on the hip, but too big to cradle – you know what I mean? 

 

And of course, if you know anything about me, I’m all experimenting with beer. I’ve never seen or heard of this beer before but I think this it’s pretty common in the NY area. I wasn’t a fan of this particular beer, but I love how the photos came out with my other sister-in-law (Krista) creeping behind.

  

I thought about blowing my entire shopping budget in the bakery. If my husband wasn’t the cash handler, I probably would have. Learn this about me: I frickin’ LOVE pastries.

  

 

Jess’ husband and friends set up a surprise scavenger hunt for her bachelorette party. All of the clues were  illustrated in this book made by a very nifty artistic bridesmaid. Jess had to decipher each clue to figure out where she was to go next in Tarrytown. At each location was a friend waiting for her – then they joined the party. Figure out the next clue, go to that place, find another friend, they join the party, etc…

This clue means go to the Coffee Labs Roasters Coffeehouse.

One of the last places on the list was a wine store. There the manager had mango-mosas waiting for all of us.

Cheers!

Oh, don’t forget about me!

At the wine store, the last clue was revealed. I think this one was pretty easy to figure out.

“…meet us at the Tapp” The Tapp is the bride’s favorite bar and there my husband, his brother and a few more folks were waiting.

It was all fun and smiles until the girls started to get a little too rowdy for my taste (and no one had even started drinking yet). Knowing that things were only going to get crazier once the drink orders had been filled, me and my husband snuck out for dessert a quiet and elegant Bistro. I’m such an old lady.

So I ended the day with…. FLAN!

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In my next post you’ll get to read about our trip to Manhattan: back sweat, spit-up, punks on a subway and inner thigh chaffing. 
Stay tuned.