M&R's Vacation Stories

  Hot Springs I never know how to start these entries, usually it's about some historical wish list of places to visit.  But who really wants to go to Arkansas?  I guess if you want to hit all the National Parks then you might as well book a trip to Hot Springs National Park, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Being 7 hours from Houston, it's not exactly close but just close enough that a road trip isn't really out of the question.  We left Houston in the afternoon with the intention of getting into Hot Springs not too late to enjoy a meal before bed.  We arrived just after 8pm after driving down quite a few surprisingly windy roads, dinner was at the German brewhouse in town. First day in town was started with me taking a few meetings from the road before enjoying the afternoon checking out the town.  We had brunch at the Pancake House, then spoke to the ranger at the visitor's center (which is located in a former bathhouse in the heart of bathhouse row) in the hea...

 Link to the album Glacier National Park - The Dawn Wall Radium Hot Springs/Kooteney National Park Day 1  Of all the big parks in the National Park System, there’s very few of the “big” (read famous) parks that we haven’t been to and the biggest we've yet to visit is Glacier, the Crown Jewel of the Rockies. Known for its glaciers and jagged peaks, wildlife and the engineering marvel known as Going-To-The-Sun Road.  With ‘big’ parks like Glacier, Yosemite and Yellowstone you have to start planning quite a ways out and then with some luck it will all fall into place for you.  Last year, we tried to play the planning game with Yosemite but due to a record breaking snow pack the previous winter the section of the park that we hadn’t visited was still closed when we were due to go there.  Glacier tried to set us up this year with a snow fall in late August that actually closed Going-To-The-Sun Road  but seems like the snow was short lived but Glacier is last on ...