Once Upon A TwentySomething...: Staycation Part 1

The original plan was for the Boyfriend and me to take a graduation trip to New Orleans. Thanks to some unfortunately scheduled important tasks, we had to cancel the trip. As a backup we decided to have a "staycation" and explore our very own Natural State. We had both only been to Eureka Springs once and my trip was back when I have no memories (aka pre-7th grade... why are all of my childhood memories gone?) so we decided to head up there for a couple of days. It was only 2 days and 1 night but it was jampacked with food, fun, wine, and solo pics. We left early Wednesday morning to make the 3.5 hour trek north. When we saw a sign for "Natural Bridge" in Clinton, AR we had to stop. It was beautiful!!

Next we saw a sign for the "Cosmic Caverns" in Barryville, AR and obviously had to stop there too. Sadly, the cavern was almost completely flooded from all the recent storms so the regularly 1-hour and .75 mile tour was a 15 minute peak of the opening of the cave but it was still pretty cool. I want to go back when we can see more!

I accidentally changed my camera's settings to this creepy color but I thought it was kinda fitting for a cave picture

We finally made it to Eureka Springs and found a yummy local joint to have lunch and walk around downtown and all the cute shops along the way. We ate at a great Italian restaurant near our hotel and went to see Christ of the Ozarks. HUGE. I was so taken aback by how GIANT it was! The solo pics really help see the size :) Of course it had to pour down rain when we got out to take pictures. Thankfully the rain didn't last long.

We decided to stay at the historic Crescent Hotel (which is "haunted" according to legend) and take the guided Ghost Tour in the hotel. The Boyfriend is totally into things like that and was really excited about it. I myself was a little concerned about getting spooked and not being able to sleep since we were taking the scary ghost tour right before we went to bed in the same hotel. Lucky for me and disappointing for the Boyfriend- the ghost tour was SILLY. If it wouldn't have been rude I would have been dying laughing through the whole thing (which was an HOUR AND A HALF of my life...). The hotel itself was a tad creepy even without all the tall tales of the ghosts. There was even a creepy stray cat roaming around the hotel- that scared me more than the ghosts.