Arkansas get away

About three hours east of here, there's an area of significant beauty and history.

We decided to make that our destination for a very little get away this weekend, to celebrate, in advance, our second wedding anniversary (which falls on Monday, 7/12).

Fort Smith, AR lies in a picturesque valley, nestled between rolling green hills, and acres of beautiful country landscapes.

We booked reservations for date night dinner at a German restaurant in Ft. Smith, called Emmy's, and booked the jacuzzi room at the Hampton Inn.

We both got off work early on Friday, met back at the apartment, put the packed bag in the car, and took off!

The drive there was lovely. It was somewhat cloudy, and it rained a little, but mostly, it was a nice drive. We arrived in our destination town around 6:30, checked into our BEAUTIFUL hotel room, then went out for dinner.

We didn't get to spend much time sight seeing in Ft. Smith itself, but it was such a cool town, we know we want to go back.

Dinner was really good...we shared the entree, an authentic rouladen with a dill pickle in the middle, and brought black forest torte back to the room to have with our champagne.

The room wasn't QUITE as lovely as we first thought, as we found out that the air conditioning unit was leaking water into the carpet beneath it, there was a fly buzzing around in the room, some creepy little beetles in the bathroom, and a rather, shall we say, disturbing residue in the jacuzzi tub....but we enjoyed it anyway.

The breakfast this morning was included, and we decided that the "cheese omelets" that were our only hot option were filled with cheeze whiz. Yes, seriously...but, we laughed it off, and went on our way.

Our main destination for today was back over the state line in Oklahoma, but we did some scenic driving around in west Arkansas, too. It was a beautiful day for it.

Spiro Mounds historic site and archeological center is located out in what some would call the middle of nowhere. It's the remnants of what was once a bustling city of mound builders, similar to what is located back in Illinois at Cahokia, as well as numerous other sites around the southeast.

They have excavated several of the mounds at Spiro, and have determined that there was, at one time, a community of as many as 800 people living at the site. There was a temple mound, and residential areas, farm areas, and a burial area.

It was really interesting to go through the visitor center and museum, and then to go out into the landscape with a guide book and look around.

Unfortunately, it was stiflingly humid, and just a short partial tour of the grounds had me drenched in sweat.

Next stop, a bit further back toward home, was Sequoya's Cabin national historic site. Again a very interesting interpretive center, and the cabin Sequoya last lived in before he walked off to Mexico and never came back.

For those of you who may not remember from history class, Sequoya was the Cherokee farmer who took it upon himself to preserve the Cherokee language in writing, by developing what some call an alphabet, but which is actually a syllabery.

Through his studies of various alphabets, he developed a phonetic writing system which provides a character for each spoken sound or syllable of the Cherokee language. No other native American language has such a writing system.

One of the cool things at the museum there is a typewriter in Cherokee characters.

Anyway, in the 1930's, the cabin itself was preserved by having a stone building built up AROUND it to protect it from the elements. Inside, the cabin stands, with artifacts and interpretive stations around it.

The grounds are lovely, with a picnic area, and the spring where Sequoya and his family used to gather their water can be seen.

(not just of historic interest to me, but also of cultural interest, as there is a very good chance that my great grandmother Sarah Cloud was Cherokee)

Then, we headed back to the big city. Tomorrow, laundry, errands, and hopefully some relaxing, too.

It was a nice little get away, and the eastern part of the state of Oklahoma is really very pretty! Lots of hills and dales, as it is, I believe, the western edge of the Ozark chain.