Speaker 1: If al Capone was alive today, I have a feeling
Speaker 1: he'd be a park landy a listener. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: apparently a national park lover just like us. Yeah, or
Speaker 1: at least he used to frequent the thermal baths at
Speaker 1: Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, along with a boatload
Speaker 1: of other politicians, professional athletes, and foreign dignitaries, all drawn
Speaker 1: to this place like moths to a luxurious flame. In
Speaker 1: case it wasn't already clear, Hot Springs is not your
Speaker 1: typical national park. In fact, it couldn't be more different
Speaker 1: from places like Yellowstone Olympic or even the Everglades. That's
Speaker 1: right here in the heart of this bussing little Arkansas
Speaker 1: mountain city. Hot Springs National Parks serves up history and
Speaker 1: heritage with the side of craft beer and bath salts,
Speaker 1: and it's well worth a visit. Hi, I'm Matt and
Speaker 1: I'm Brad. This is park Landia. We packed up our
Speaker 1: life in Chicago, moved into an RV, and now we're
Speaker 1: traveling in the country full time, visiting America's national parks.
Speaker 1: And today we're talking about Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. History, Hot Springs National Park is really
Speaker 1: a little odd bowl of a park. I mean, for starters,
Speaker 1: it's tiny, one of the smallest national parks in the country.
Speaker 1: It's only about yeah, So to put that in perspective
Speaker 1: a little bit. By comparison, the largest national park in
Speaker 1: the US, Wrangle st Olias and Alaska, is thirteen point
Speaker 1: two million acres. You can fit a lot of Hot
Speaker 1: Springs there. Yeah, and actually it's primarily an urban park.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's some nature, but most of the park
Speaker 1: is actually situated around the town of Hot Springs, Arkansas, right,
Speaker 1: which is a historic, vintage looking town amidst these rolling
Speaker 1: green mountains in the Wachita Mountain range near the Ozarks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's an old park too. Even though it wasn't made
Speaker 1: an official national park until nineteen it was initially protected
Speaker 1: as Hot Springs Reservation by Congress in April of eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty two. So, in other words, this was the first
Speaker 1: time the US government had ever set aside land for
Speaker 1: protection any forum. This was almost a full century before
Speaker 1: the National Park Service became a thing, in a full
Speaker 1: forty years before Yellowstone became America's first national park. It's
Speaker 1: pretty crazy and amazing stuff. Yeah, I think that made
Speaker 1: this place so special to begin with, and why they
Speaker 1: designated it and where their protection is its namesake thermal waters,
Speaker 1: which have a long and said to contain medicinal properties
Speaker 1: and be revered both by neighbor Americans and apparently also
Speaker 1: by gangsters and baseball players. Because sure, yeah, the hot
Speaker 1: springs flow off the western side of the Hot Spring
Speaker 1: Mountain and they're the primary reason the place has been
Speaker 1: preserved as a National park, right. I think one important
Speaker 1: thing to clear up about hot springs first and foremost
Speaker 1: is that this isn't the type of place where you
Speaker 1: can take a dip in natural hot springs in the woods.
Speaker 1: There's actually none of that here whatsoever, which might be
Speaker 1: a bummer to some people. I know, like when I
Speaker 1: was first thinking, like when I was younger, I like
Speaker 1: think of hot springs Artawark, I would assume that there
Speaker 1: were these natural springs like in the woods or something. Instead,
Speaker 1: the National Park conserves this amazing water for public use
Speaker 1: in other ways by managing the water flow and pumping
Speaker 1: into the town for use in these ornate spas and bathhouses,
Speaker 1: and even in drinkable form and sparkling water and beer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people have long been flocking here for those springs and
Speaker 1: especially those bath houses. In fact um Hot Springs, Arkansas
Speaker 1: earned the nickname the American Spa due to the largest
Speaker 1: number of thermal treatments and spas along what is now
Speaker 1: called Bathhouse Row. Yeah. I love that. So this main
Speaker 1: street forms the heart of the park, this Bathhouse Row.
Speaker 1: But this lineup of gorgeously designed, huge, luxury, luxury bathhouses,
Speaker 1: each one with this gilded aid to architecture that looks
Speaker 1: like something off the Titanic or something. It's incredible. And
Speaker 1: this road features these beautiful fountains billowing with steam that
Speaker 1: kind of interspersed along the sidewalks like between these buildings.
Speaker 1: It's really beautiful. Yeah. At one point all these buildings
Speaker 1: were used as actual bathhouses and spas, but nowadays only
Speaker 1: two of them are still used for this purpose, as
Speaker 1: most others have been repurposed into visitor centers, museums, and
Speaker 1: a brewery. But more on that later. Yeah, I'm shomping
Speaker 1: at the bit to talk about that brewery. I love it. Yes,
Speaker 1: so cool. Yeah, bath House Row is actually so cool
Speaker 1: um that it was actually designated a National Historic Landmark
Speaker 1: all on its own in n Yeah, that's the year
Speaker 1: of my birth. So I now feel and you found
Speaker 1: kinship with bath house row we're both the same. Well
Speaker 1: now it's been around long time, so we're not in
Speaker 1: the same so that's ridiculous. But anyway, today the only
Speaker 1: two bathhouses still in use for their original purpose are
Speaker 1: the buck Staff and Quapa buildings, both of which offer
Speaker 1: these elaborate spas, services and treatments. Yeah, and back in
Speaker 1: the day that people soaked here because the thermal waters
Speaker 1: are said to help cure things like um rheumatism. And
Speaker 1: since there's been so many health advances in the past century,
Speaker 1: that's why the bathhouse culture has taken such a decline. Yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of kind of aboutmer I guess, but it's really cool,
Speaker 1: I mean, not about our it's good that health advance
Speaker 1: has happened. What am I saying? Um, it's really cool
Speaker 1: to come here though, because it's like kind of traveling
Speaker 1: back in time to this like byron Ornate era, and
Speaker 1: you get to luxury it a little bit in that
Speaker 1: and the only thing missing really is like champagne. While
Speaker 1: we so okay, I wish we could have had that.
Speaker 1: I think like when we took our bath, we asked
Speaker 1: if alcohol us aloud and they're like no, and we're like, well,
Speaker 1: what a shame, you know, that shame right, geology. But
Speaker 1: let's talk about the basic water facts first, like the
Speaker 1: fact that the park contains forty seven natural hot springs
Speaker 1: pumping out more than a half a million gallons of
Speaker 1: water per day. It comes out of the ground at
Speaker 1: three degrees fahrenheit. Yeah, it's definitely hot or in that designation,
Speaker 1: and much of that water being pumped out that's much
Speaker 1: too hot for bathing. So thankfully they cooled down to
Speaker 1: a comfortable jacuzzi like temperature for use in the bathhouses.
Speaker 1: Very comfortable. Yeah. But even though there was like some
Speaker 1: hot springs here for centuries, the town wasn't always filled
Speaker 1: with bathhouses and fancy tubs. No, no, these aren't naturally
Speaker 1: occurring bathhouses. For thousands of years, indigenous tribes lived in
Speaker 1: the area, and they're the ones who discovered these hot
Speaker 1: springs and how they could be used, and so they
Speaker 1: started to use the hot thermal waters for their healing properties.
Speaker 1: They called this place the Valley of Vapors, which I
Speaker 1: love that name. I think it's so cool. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: had these crude hot like structures that they build along
Speaker 1: Hot Springs Creek. So this is like a far precursor
Speaker 1: to these opulent like mansion looking buildings on bath House
Speaker 1: Row for sure. Yeah, I know it's unfortunate because you know,
Speaker 1: as the case with too many settlers and developments. The
Speaker 1: Native Quapa Indians gave up their land to the U.
Speaker 1: S Government in eighteen eighteen, and they were basically forced
Speaker 1: onto nearby reservations. Yeah. Arkansas then became an official state
Speaker 1: the following year in eighteen nineteen, and the area is
Speaker 1: quickly set aside for protection. Then fast forward a couple
Speaker 1: more centuries and Brad and I are taking a dip
Speaker 1: in some of the famous and legendary water. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: bath was really nice and relaxing when we went, I mean,
Speaker 1: we did a couple soak and had our own little
Speaker 1: private room. So nice. I'm so glad we did that.
Speaker 1: That was really relaxing and perfect. The bathhouse also has
Speaker 1: this huge communal tub which looked beautiful like this ancient,
Speaker 1: reminding me of like an ancient gigantic Roman bath or something,
Speaker 1: with these little waterfalls splashing into this gigantic mega tub
Speaker 1: and these these like chic lounge chairs all around the room.
Speaker 1: It was really lovely, but I think we both needed,
Speaker 1: like we just wanted kind of more privacy. We didn't
Speaker 1: want to be like floating around with a bunch of strangers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we also got to select our own bath salts
Speaker 1: um that we want to use for the soak because
Speaker 1: we had the private room and it's nice because the
Speaker 1: water pumps in from a jet. Just imagine when we
Speaker 1: were here, we took in the same types of old
Speaker 1: fashioned tubs that al Capone used to soak in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and just think too, he used to live in Chicago
Speaker 1: just like us and visit some of our favorite restaurants
Speaker 1: like Italian Village. He even has like his own booth
Speaker 1: at Italian Village, or at at least they pointed out
Speaker 1: and tell you so. So between our Chicago connection and
Speaker 1: the fact that we essentially took a bath with al
Speaker 1: Capone in spirit, yeah, I mean he was a bumbed
Speaker 1: right down the street from we have like a weird
Speaker 1: connection to al Capone. This really just cemented it. And
Speaker 1: I've I've never felt closer to al Capon. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: aside from the fact that he's an awful person who
Speaker 1: committed like really horrible and hainas crimes um and I
Speaker 1: feel like he had a great taste in restaurants, national parks,
Speaker 1: and bathtubs. Yeah, he really did too bad. He made
Speaker 1: awful life decisions. After this short break, will continue to
Speaker 1: talk about Hot Springs National Park. Hi, I'm Matt and
Speaker 1: I'm Brad. This is park Landia. Today we're talking about
Speaker 1: Hot Springs National Park trails. When we visited Hot Springs,
Speaker 1: we were driving across the country from Las Vegas to Durham,
Speaker 1: North Carolina to visit my sister for Christmas, and Hot
Speaker 1: Springs was the perfect little detour. Yes it was. I
Speaker 1: can't think of a better pit stop than a regal bathtub.
Speaker 1: And the town is just so cute too, that town
Speaker 1: of Hot Springs, Arkansas. But a really impressive amount of
Speaker 1: independent restaurants and bakeries in these but like over the
Speaker 1: top opulent old school hotels too. Yeah. I mean when
Speaker 1: you get there, you definitely take the time to stroll
Speaker 1: down bathhouse roll and the surrounding streets, and then you
Speaker 1: stop into that mountain valley spring water visitor center and museum. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was what like a total surprise. And I think
Speaker 1: Hot Springs is really the one and only place where
Speaker 1: a museum dedicated to water is actually awesome. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they were so nice there too, and they were very
Speaker 1: passionate about the town's water. The building was huge and lofty,
Speaker 1: with these historical displays information all over the second floor.
Speaker 1: On the first floor there was a bunch of water
Speaker 1: themes swag, of course, and all the water you could drink. Yeah,
Speaker 1: water themes swag. I love it. I actually bought a
Speaker 1: spring water like T shirt that I'm obsessed with, and
Speaker 1: I wear it a lot and I get a lot
Speaker 1: of compliments on the people pointed out the love that
Speaker 1: I really love that shirt, although sometimes the backfires and
Speaker 1: someone recently thought it was they mistook the water and
Speaker 1: they thought I was wearing a smearnof vodka shirt and
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, no, no, debsoinitely not. But I so
Speaker 1: love it. And while we're at this place, we also
Speaker 1: stocked up on a variety pack of flavored spring water,
Speaker 1: which might have been a mistake in our part, because
Speaker 1: I feel like the sparkling water here set such an
Speaker 1: impossibly high bar for all other sparkling waters and now
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed and forever ruined on sparkling water. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you tend to get obsessed with things pretty quickly, That's true.
Speaker 1: I tend to go all in right away. And there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of middle ground there. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: obsessed to like an unhealthy degree immediately or completely disinterested,
Speaker 1: and this water was clearly the former. I'm all in
Speaker 1: with the Hot Springs water. Are we done fangirling over
Speaker 1: this water here? I mean? Another place we have to
Speaker 1: stroll is to the brick walkway behind the bathhouse. It's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's this very nice flat trail, if you can call
Speaker 1: it trail. It's mostly just like a glorified large sidewalk,
Speaker 1: and it slopes up along the base of Hot Springs
Speaker 1: Mountain behind on the rear side of bathhouse row. So
Speaker 1: once you're up there, you have this nice raised vista
Speaker 1: of down on Hot Springs, and you can also see
Speaker 1: more of these steaming fountains along the way. It's all
Speaker 1: really really pretty. Yeah. Another nice thing about the Hot
Speaker 1: Springs here is that they don't actually have um that
Speaker 1: bad sulfur smell like the ones that yellow don't. Yeah right,
Speaker 1: these are just so like pure and clean, no bad
Speaker 1: smells at all, just pure goodness, like lovely experience altogether.
Speaker 1: And there's plenty of things to explore here too. I mean,
Speaker 1: you visit another time on your own and did some
Speaker 1: hiking to the surprise of no one. Yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: classic me. I spent today here by myself as well,
Speaker 1: on another like solo trip, and that's when I got
Speaker 1: to hike to the top of Hot Springs Mountain, which
Speaker 1: is really more like a giant hill than a mountain,
Speaker 1: to be honest. It's not huge, not very strenuous. They
Speaker 1: gets steep at some parts, but it's really not a
Speaker 1: long hike, and once you're up there, the valley views
Speaker 1: are really nice and so green, just like rolling lush
Speaker 1: green forests, but like a little bit of steaming, smoky
Speaker 1: vibes happening. I'm not sure. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: us from the Hot Springs and also just like foggy
Speaker 1: and misty, it's all very um it's beautiful, and it's
Speaker 1: really quite a site and very achievable. You can johned
Speaker 1: up there and just like an hour. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: And when the Hot Springs actually got upgraded to a
Speaker 1: National park status, protected land was increased, you know, to
Speaker 1: include places like the Hot Springs Mountain, Sugar Loaf Mountain,
Speaker 1: North Mountain and West Mountain. Yes, that's true. And you
Speaker 1: know what goes well with hiking beer food, Now that
Speaker 1: we're finally ready to talk about the beer at Hot Springs,
Speaker 1: something that I feel really sets this place part more
Speaker 1: than any other National park. Yeah. Absolutely. I just think
Speaker 1: it's like the coolest thing ever that one of the
Speaker 1: bathhouses on Bathouse Road is now a brewery, which is
Speaker 1: called fittingly Superior Bathhouse. Nice little homage. It's the only
Speaker 1: brewery within a National Park and the only brewery on
Speaker 1: Earth making beer with thermal spring water like this, and
Speaker 1: since the water is so healthy, it's basically good for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, or at least better than your typical I
Speaker 1: pas or PBRs. Anyway, this beer you can feel good about,
Speaker 1: and it even tastes delicious. It tastes very very good.
Speaker 1: And they do a great job. And they have this lengthy,
Speaker 1: impressive list of beers on draft in a wide array
Speaker 1: of styles and seeing seasonal variations like they have sours,
Speaker 1: they have brewed I p a s, won't, real stouts,
Speaker 1: Irish reds, even something like a honey Basil Calsh beer.
Speaker 1: They really run the gamut. It's a lot. It's really
Speaker 1: so good, and it's a cool beer to drink, and
Speaker 1: such a beautiful environment like this um and it's in
Speaker 1: one of those historical buildings that we're talking about with
Speaker 1: such rich architecture, I know. And the food is great
Speaker 1: here too. They have this elevated gastro pub vibe going on,
Speaker 1: which makes sense and totally fits. So they have things
Speaker 1: like giant pretzels and bronze ruben sandwiches and our favorite
Speaker 1: thing ever, blistered shoshido peppers. Whenever I see like seshida peppers,
Speaker 1: I just have to have them. Yeah, I know, they're
Speaker 1: so satisfying with like the perfect amount of heat, unless
Speaker 1: you get one of those super spicy ones. Those ones
Speaker 1: are a little too much. I know, I know that's always,
Speaker 1: but it's like the fun part. Like one from what
Speaker 1: we're told, one in every ten shido peppers is like
Speaker 1: scorchingly spicy allegedly, so it's like a little bit of
Speaker 1: a little bit of risk, which I like. I like
Speaker 1: risk with my app pezzers. Before I was actually like
Speaker 1: drinking this beer, I already felt high from that bath
Speaker 1: that we had it and we were I mean, you
Speaker 1: just you feel like you're on cloud nine, just all
Speaker 1: the like you're just released. I don't know what's with
Speaker 1: that water, but once it's on the outside of you,
Speaker 1: and then it goes on the inside of you and
Speaker 1: just feel relaxed. Yeah, we basically floated along Bathhouse Row
Speaker 1: after that because we also have like this little cucumber
Speaker 1: water that they give us too, so we're like, that's right, yeah,
Speaker 1: rolling in it u it. Now in terms of like
Speaker 1: our v accessibility, we didn't camp here or stay here.
Speaker 1: We were just passing through. But even though this whole
Speaker 1: area is technically a small city, it was very doable.
Speaker 1: I had to sirk around town a couple of times,
Speaker 1: but we were able to find parking st right near
Speaker 1: Bathous Row and it all worked out really easily. I
Speaker 1: actually parked right in front of that the Spring Mountains water. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how we found it because we didn't know that existed.
Speaker 1: We didn't look that up or anything, but we were
Speaker 1: parked right in front of the main doors. So we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is here, let's go into the water museum. And
Speaker 1: I'm really glad we did. Yeah, me too. Now, also
Speaker 1: Hot Springs. This clearly it's in the kind of park
Speaker 1: where you're likely to see a ton of wildlife because
Speaker 1: it's much more urban than most. What you mostly see
Speaker 1: is like families and beer drinkers and maybe some want
Speaker 1: to be gangsters. Yeah, it's perfect for beat people watching. Um.
Speaker 1: But it should be noted though that there are plenty
Speaker 1: of camp rounds and RV parks in and around Hot Springs,
Speaker 1: so for future reference, this would be a great place
Speaker 1: to camp and spend more time. Totally. Yeah. So now
Speaker 1: after this short break, we're going to talk about our
Speaker 1: favorite parts of Hot Springs National Park. My favorite. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Land yet
Speaker 1: and we are wrapping up our Hot Springs National Park
Speaker 1: episode talking about our favorite things at the park. So
Speaker 1: do you want to go first? You want to talk
Speaker 1: about what your favorite part of Hot Springs was? Do
Speaker 1: you want to talk about what your favorite part is? Sure?
Speaker 1: I think I'm ready. My favorite part of Hot Springs.
Speaker 1: I think it's probably superior bathhouse, the brewery. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like the coolest thing ever. I've done it twice,
Speaker 1: both times have been to Hot Springs. It's the thing
Speaker 1: I've returned to. I just think it's the most unique
Speaker 1: thing for in every aspect the fact, that's the only
Speaker 1: brewer with International Park, the only brewery in the world
Speaker 1: making beer like this with thermal spring water. And it's
Speaker 1: just really like icing on the cake that the beer
Speaker 1: tastes really good, because like all those aspects like, oh
Speaker 1: this is really cool, unique, but does it taste good?
Speaker 1: And you're like maybe a little hustan at first, but
Speaker 1: they do really good, cool and clean menu. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not over the top, and you know they have
Speaker 1: a lot of hurdles to go over because they're using
Speaker 1: that water source there in the like historical building, so
Speaker 1: like they have to be very careful and what they
Speaker 1: do and and what they've been able to overcome to
Speaker 1: make that food and those beers is truly amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we have pretty high beer standards to like we
Speaker 1: I mean not only coming from Chicago where there's so
Speaker 1: many breweries and amazing, amazing beer, so we were accommended
Speaker 1: to that kind of but also like in our travels
Speaker 1: to various cities and states, like we go to a
Speaker 1: lot of breweries and have our favorite things, and this
Speaker 1: place definitely holds its own like it's worthwhile. It's a
Speaker 1: beer destination in and of itself. I think hot Springs.
Speaker 1: So it's actually kind of funny. On that like trip
Speaker 1: from Las Vegas to North Carolina, we had two beer
Speaker 1: stops and we brought two different types of beer for
Speaker 1: the holidays. Yes, this is like a weird beer theme
Speaker 1: broachap for us, I guess. Yeah. We had Brawn Bone Arrow,
Speaker 1: one of our favorite breweries in the country from Albuquerque,
Speaker 1: from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and yeah, they have some just great, um,
Speaker 1: great beers. But we picked up that and then we
Speaker 1: picked up this beer and we brought it to my
Speaker 1: sisters and we all enjoyed it together, which was nice,
Speaker 1: you know, after of course I was having it there right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's the whole experience too. It's like the beer
Speaker 1: is delicious, and I would happily drink that anywhere, but
Speaker 1: it takes it to a whole another level by drinking
Speaker 1: it at Superior Bathhouse in these amazing historic confines with
Speaker 1: great service here. They're very friendly, very accommodating, and happy
Speaker 1: to provide sam balls and tastes of the various beers
Speaker 1: because there's a lot. There's like twelve or thirteen on taps,
Speaker 1: so you want to kind of sample things and like
Speaker 1: see what they have. Yeah, I would say my favorite
Speaker 1: thing was definitely the bathhouse itself. Going into that and
Speaker 1: coming out like it was just like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: cloud nine, I was on cloud nine and I left that,
Speaker 1: I was on cloud nine for the rest of the
Speaker 1: day umbly even the next day, like to be honest,
Speaker 1: I mean, I was so happy. I was relaxed. I
Speaker 1: was relieved. And I can definitely see where like the
Speaker 1: Native American indigenous people they came and use those waters
Speaker 1: for healing, because the way you feel when you get
Speaker 1: out of them, um, So that that was truly a
Speaker 1: beautiful it was. Yeah. Yeah, and that room. I think
Speaker 1: we should also talk about that room a lott about
Speaker 1: our private bathroom because like the room itself is clearly
Speaker 1: very old and historic, has this kind of well worn
Speaker 1: flora tile and pile's wall hole on the walls, but
Speaker 1: the bath itself is very modern. The tub seemed very modern, like, um,
Speaker 1: a very sleek, clean two person tub with these jets
Speaker 1: that are like very very precisely manufactured to just scent,
Speaker 1: temperatures and everything. It's very comfortable. So it was really nice.
Speaker 1: And then I think we also had like this little bell,
Speaker 1: like an actual bell, right in case we needed service
Speaker 1: or like more bath salt or something, so you could
Speaker 1: ring ring this little actual bell. I feel so uncomfortable
Speaker 1: dringing that bell. I feel like I'm like, no, that's
Speaker 1: not I know. I felt like I was calling for
Speaker 1: like a servant or something, and that's just not not
Speaker 1: for me. We didn't we didn't use the bell. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: but I was tempted. Yeah. So that was a good
Speaker 1: time and I'm so thankful we did it, and a
Speaker 1: great level like road trip stop. For the three things
Speaker 1: I would bring, I would definitely bring an appetite and
Speaker 1: taste for beer, good good beer. That would be one thing, um,
Speaker 1: I guess I would bring you. And I would definitely bring,
Speaker 1: like I was gonna say, a bathrow but you know what,
Speaker 1: they have enough to provide them for you. Yeah, that's true. Um.
Speaker 1: The things that I would bring, I guess would be
Speaker 1: maybe a bathing suit. I don't know if it's well, yeah,
Speaker 1: especially if you're gonna be taking a communal bath, like
Speaker 1: come on, you're going to need that. It can't be naked, Um,
Speaker 1: so bring that. I would also suggest bringing I mean again,
Speaker 1: appetite related thing because I feel like this is such
Speaker 1: a wonderful food destination, food and bever destination. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of it, and that's one of the benefits that's
Speaker 1: come from from being a little bit of an urban park.
Speaker 1: I got a good one for your third one. What
Speaker 1: you need to bring a thirst for knowledge because there's
Speaker 1: so much history there. Yeah. True, So I guess I
Speaker 1: have fourign you have to today to bring an actual thirst,
Speaker 1: like a literal thirst, and then a thirst for no edge,
Speaker 1: and then drink it all in because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of everything here and it's all great, all great. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about our dream trip to Hot Springs. Okay, yes,
Speaker 1: So personally, I'd like more pampering and there's plenty of
Speaker 1: that to go around here. I want more beer, also,
Speaker 1: plenty of that to go around. I would also like
Speaker 1: to stay at one of those decadent, vintage looking hotels
Speaker 1: that we saw, because there's a few of those that
Speaker 1: like they've been around for quite a while, like the
Speaker 1: Hotel Hot Springs. Yeah, especially that one or the Park Hotel.
Speaker 1: They just look like they've been there since the al
Speaker 1: Capone era. And maybe he's stay there, I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe he slept in the same room and there's also
Speaker 1: this beautiful chic, beautique property which I'm pretty sure it's
Speaker 1: much newer but looks just as gorgeous. It's called the Waters,
Speaker 1: and that name is the coolest thing ever, just so perfect. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that polace looked really awesome, and that was right downtown
Speaker 1: on bath Houts Row. It couldn't be more convenient, and
Speaker 1: it has the most beautiful, full high end restaurant called
Speaker 1: The Avenue with food like grilled watermelon salad and cornmeal
Speaker 1: fried oorysters and pimento cheese with Jimmy churry. Cannot beat
Speaker 1: that so good. So I think I actually wrote a
Speaker 1: story at one point calling Hot Springs like the ultimate
Speaker 1: national power for foodies, because we talked about this after there.
Speaker 1: We didn't like eat in no places, but it's immediately
Speaker 1: apparent that like this is definitely a dining destination, and
Speaker 1: after visiting so many national parks, I definitely stand by that.
Speaker 1: I think it'd be fun to come here really just
Speaker 1: like bar hop and restaurant hop around Hot Springs, because
Speaker 1: there's so many places that we saw or that I've
Speaker 1: researched and read about that I'm dying to go to,
Speaker 1: especially the one that I mainly want to go to
Speaker 1: is this place called the Ohio Club, and it's the
Speaker 1: oldest bar in Arkansas with lots of whiskeys and live music,
Speaker 1: both of which we love. And it used to have
Speaker 1: gambling too, which is cool. Not anymore, but you know,
Speaker 1: I like the backstory. And then naturally, unsurprisingly, al Capone
Speaker 1: loved it here. Like you said, the man has good taste.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Parklandia Podcast, a show about
Speaker 1: national parks by iHeart Radio, created by Matt Kerouac, Brad Carouac,
Speaker 1: and Christopher hassiotis produced and edited by Mike John's executive
Speaker 1: produced by Christopher hassiotas special thanks to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters,
Speaker 1: and the rest of the Parklandia crew and Hey listeners.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast. It helps other people like you find our show.
Speaker 1: You can keep up with us on social media. Check
Speaker 1: out photos from our travels on Instagram at Parklandia Pod,
Speaker 1: and join in the conversation in our Facebook group, Parklandia Rangers.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening.