Adventures in Weekend Getaways

Last weekend Kayla and I decided to take our first spontaneous vacation. We've always discussed the possibility of such a trip but never actually found the time or bravado to pull it off. It all started last Friday when Kayla got home from work around 3pm. We didn't feel like sitting around the house for another evening so we began discussing things to do. Our ideas quickly grew from a simple trip to a local park to a full-fledged vacation. By 3:30 we had agreed upon a destination and by 4pm we were in the car driving towards Little Rock, Arkansas. Most of the trip down there was spent discussing how shocked we were that we were actually doing this.

We found a bed and breakfast in downtown Little Rock which was affordable and close to the city. Little did we know that this is what it looked like...

The word "romantic" doesn't even come close to describing it. We felt like Royalty the whole time. Saturday morning we ate breakfast with a couple from England who ate with such elegance that we found ourselves constantly watching them eat and probably made fools out of ourselves in the process.

We began our day by visiting the capitol building. It was really cool to walk around in because we had the entire place to ourselves.

Next we went to the Clinton Presidential Library. The place was huge and we could have spent hours there looking through all the stuff. Whether you like the guy or not, the life of a President is definitely worth exploring. This is a picture of the elaborate library from the outside...

...and this is a recreation of the Oval Office. It's accurate right down to the picture frames on the desk.

The next leg of our journey took us to the Little Rock zoo. Kayla hadn't been to a zoo since she was 10 and her enthusiasm and excitement for seeing these animals seems to have grown exponentially ever since. Even though it was a little on the chilly side, most of the animals were still out and made for a pretty entertaining time. Mom, this first picture is just for you...

Check out the baby in this picture. It was really fun to watch play.

The final part of the trip, and the original intent of the entire adventure, was hiking. Thanks to the recommendation of a friend who now lives in the vicinity, we hiked Pinnacle Mountain just a few miles outside of Little Rock. We began by taking the wrong trail (who could have known that the trail titled "summit trail" takes you to the top and the one titled "base trail" simply took you around the bottom) which ended up taking us all the way around the base of the mountain to the opposite side. From there we caught another trail going to the top. I'm not sure that I can adequately describe the trail which was really more of a massive pile of rocks resulting from numerous rock slides. I would actually consider most of the journey a climb rather than a hike since we were literaly climbing from boulder to boulder for the better part of an hour and a half. My fit little wife was going like it wasn't even a challenge while I was so exhausted that my legs began shaking and I wasn't sure if I'd even make it. I definitely considered the possibility of calling in a helicopter evac but helicopters and I don't get along. This is a picture of what the trail looked like...

Just when I thought we couldn't go any further, we reached the summit and were rewarded with one of the most amazing vistas I have ever seen. The view was absolutely amazing in every direction. I assure you, these pictures don't even come close to doing justice to the real deal. We could have stayed up there for hours just looking around. It was absolutely astounding and provided the perfect end to an amazing 24 hour vacation. Make sure to expand these pictures if you can.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see our car in the parking lot just to the left of my left arm near the pointed section of the rock.

Kayla and I think that this picture almost looks fake...Pinnacle Mountain is interesting in that it is such a sudden and high peak in comparison to its immediate surrounding.

This is a picture of the path we took back down (which also just so happens to be the "easy" trail which we would have taken had the signs not been so confusing)