Hopscotch Honeymoon Part III: Eureka Springs, Arkansas

After spending two days in the desert, we headed further east--crossing Northern Texas and Oklahoma--to arrive in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Whenever we spoke of the honeymoon adventure, Arkansas usually garnered the most dumbfounded expressions. "Arkansas? On your honeymoon?" People would look askance, perhaps questioning our sanity. I usually said "Bear with me" and proceeded to skip to Mackinac Island, the crown jewel of our trip to the moon. Well, as it turns out, I heart Arkansas!!

Dubbed "Little Switzerland" by some, Eureka Springs is a 2,200 person Victorian village with gingerbread architecture as far as the eye can see. Boasting 75 restaurants and 75 shops, this teeny town is an oasis in the Ozarks. Our two nights there were not enough and I'm certain I'll be dragging Mr. T back for more in the next few years!

Crop circles pepper the Texas landscape. Other than that, it's brown fields and stinky COWS everywhere. Hardly any pictures from the Lone Star State.

Pretty sure this is Oklahoma. I thought of The Pioneer Woman the entire flight.

Arkansas has many many tributaries and green belts. It's cool from above.

Cloud pics are a common theme on these trips. Can't seem to get enough. Random fact: Did you know that the formations on top of thunderstorm clouds (cumulo nimbus if we're being technical (according to Mr. T)) look just like anvils? This is not a picture of that though. Sorry.

Orderly Arkansas neighborhood.

After landing at the Walmart airport where Sam Walton's peeps keep the corporate jets, we drove 45 minutes to Eureka Springs. The landscape is dotted with double-wides, shacks and abandoned homes. It's really sad to see how run down things get to be.

Beautiful green countryside thrives in the humidity apparently.

And then there are tree houses! Super cool location if you ever get out this way.

Tree houses!

The view from every window in the tree house. The cicadas in these trees were absolutely deafening! We looked up the cicada life cycle and every 13 (or 17 for some species) years, a monster crop of cicadas are born and the noise is maddening according to locals. Apparently even the normal bugs have a decade or more long life cycle.

These little tree house cabins would be perfect in Tahoe.

Our little temporary sanctuary.

The decorations were absolutely lovely. I wanted to steal those bed linens so badly!

After the tree houses, we stayed a night at the Mount Victoria B&B run by the lovely Chris & Lisa. The house was built in 1901 and survived at least one fire.

The room was huge and featured a bathtub in the middle of the space. Kind of odd actually.

All throughout the room were personal touches from the proprietors. The towels and pillows were tied with ribbons. Nuts and candies were laid out, plus home made cake and complimentary soft drinks. Not only that, breakfast was a gourmet meal practically. Such a wonderful experience!

One of the fat house cats is Ping. Her even fatter brother is Pong.

One of the gingerbreads in town.

There were too many cute houses to post!

Driving through town, we found St. Elizabeth's cathedral.

Originally our B&B was the church's rectory.

It was just T & me, and I kept waiting for a security guard to shoosh us out.

Although we're not Catholic, we lit candles for our dear friend John who was murdered three years ago. We miss you John!

Always wonder where it comes from.

Really pretty church... wish I knew the symbolism of all the details.

Gorgeous details like this chandelier graced the beautiful country cathedral.

Center candle for John.

Kind of hard for me & T.

Downtown Eureka Springs was rad... they've kept most of the old painting and signage around town.

The streets were a pain to navigate... hilly and crooked, but totally cute!

We got massages at the spa in the Basin Park hotel, which is purportedly haunted. Due to scheduling conflicts, we did not complete the ghost tour.

This house was next door to the artists' colony.

The strangest honeymoon sighting so far was Christ of the Ozarks, a gigantic Jesus (see below) commissioned by a crazy neo-Nazi.

Big Giant Jesus is also referred to as "sideline" Jesus and is the third largest effigy in the world.

See Mr. T for perspective, that Jesus is huge! The reason it's not the largest is because the builder would have had to fit it with a red beacon so that planes wouldn't fly into it!