We spent our last day of Spring Break, 2009 in Hot Springs. We had missed a couple of galleries that were closed early in the week and I wanted to check those out, plus we had decided the night before to go to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower for our last day.
When we arrived in Hot Springs I realized I had forgotten my mountain tower coupons and map, but heck we could see the tower, and there are obvious trails to it, so we figured you just climbed up to the tower. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed up to the tower, only to notice then that there is a parking lot right next to the door of the tower, with free parking. So yes, I should have paid more attention to the brochure, but hiking is good for you, and I figured it was pretty much like having a stress test on my heart.
The tower was nice. I did quite well for someone terrified of heights. It helped that it was not like the other towers I have been in before in that it did not sway. The oldest took a lot of pictures. I took a few. They looked a lot like the ones from the ridge we had climbed to earlier in the week.
We left the tower and decided to take a different trail down so that we would end up on the promenade. We took the Shortcut Trail and the Dead Chief Trail down the mountain. We kept meeting people barely able to breathe on the Shortcut Trail and I kept thinking I was in better shape than I thought until I got to Dead Chief Trail. I am not sure I could have made it up that trail. Going down was enough of a problem. I did not have my walking stick, and there was gravel on the trail. It was quite steep and I was really afraid of falling. My youngest and I decided that the best thing to do would be for me to place my hand on his shoulder so I could feel a little more secure. It worked, but what a work out!
After getting down the trail, we headed to the Golden Leaves Art Gallery and Book Store. We had seen it on St. Patrick's Day, but the crowds were gathering and decided to leave it until later in the week. Evidently we missed the part about it being a metaphysical book store. Quite an interesting experience. I haven't had one like it since the '70's, but the boys have never seen one like it so it was a learning experience. I used to hang around places like this all the time when I was my oldest's age, but it didn't do a thing for me on March 20, 2009. The art was different too. Really just not our style. The people were quite nice, and I was sorry there was nothing in there I wanted to purchase. I hope people that read this will at least check out their website.
From "Golden Leaves" we went to the Blue Moon Gallery. There I fell in love with the works of Tom Richard. I particularly liked Chapter 20 "Existentialism" Jean-Paul Sartre and "Who Wants to be a Superhero."
We stopped at another gallery, but I don't remember its name, but I do remember the works of Peter Razatos. I cannot find a website for him, but there are some pictures posted here of some of his pieces.
When we went back to the house that night we went fishing again. Just as it was getting too dark to be on the dock I caught a small striped bass. That is all it took for me to consider the trip a success.
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