Rest and relaxation at its ultimate.
That’s how I felt when I returned home Sunday from a weekend with the girls in Hot Springs, Ark.
For many years, I have heard it’s sheer heaven to make the trek over to Hot Springs for a weekend of pampering. But with my schedule and basically lack of funds while I was paying off the credit cards, I had never made the trip.
The opportunity presented itself in May, when a couple of close friends and I decided we needed a getaway weekend to end the summer. Since there is no better place for a group of females to go and relax, we planned our trip to Hot Springs.
It was amazingly inexpensive, and something I definitely want to do again.
I worked half a day Friday, but my mind was clearly on getting away for a much-needed and long-awaited trip.
We all met shortly after lunch, loaded the car and away we went.
Being the multi-tasking women we all are, there was some work being done along the way. That’s just the way we are wired.
Women can’t travel anywhere without stopping and shopping along the route. Our first stop was in Lake Village at Paul Michael’s.
There was an older woman parked in a van out front selling all sorts of pies. She had an official sign on the vehicle, so she undoubtedly was well-known in the area. But well-known or not, we couldn’t pass up homemade pies. To heck with a diet. We were on vacation.
We inhaled the pies before we got in the front door of the store. And as always, I had more of the pie on the front of my shirt than I had in my mouth. You would think I wouldn’t miss my mouth at age 40, but I do.
All along the way, I checked in with my mother and sister, and of course my fiancé, David.
For those of you who may not know, I am getting married Dec. 5. My fiancé works in Washington, D.C., so I kept him up to date on how my trip with the girls was going.
And let me tell you, my dear friends picked on me constantly about talking to David. He may not have talked to them directly on the phone, but he sure heard them well enough in the background.
They made me blush more than once. But it was all in good fun.
As we arrived, we were greeted with the sign announcing that Hot Springs is the hometown of former President Bill Clinton. Clinton was born in Hope, Ark., but moved to Hot Springs as a second-grader and grew up there.
And what a great place for someone to call home. Hot Springs is in the beautiful Ouachita Mountains. Everything was so picturesque. Since I left my camera at my mother’s house during my last visit, I purchased a small throw-away model. I’m not sure what good it did me because all the ladies I was with were not excited about having their photos taken, much like myself.
After a big breakfast and a stroll along the main drag Saturday morning, we headed for the bath house at the Arlington, where we were staying.
Bath houses are famous in Hot Springs. Legend has it that warring tribes would lay down their arms to bathe in the healing waters in the Valley of the Vapors.
According to history on Hot Springs I found on the Internet, for centuries, this misty Ouachita mountain valley was revered by Native Americans as a place of neutrality, where all tribes could bathe in peace. Congress set aside the natural hot springs site as a federal reservation in 1832.
Until the advent of modern medicine in the late 1940s, visitors from around the world flocked to the natural hot springs to bathe in its healing thermal waters.
That history continues today.
All I can tell you is that after a soak in the hot springs bath house, I was like a bowl of jelly. There wasn’t an ache to be found on my body.
The ritual is quite interesting.
We first had to go in and strip down. We were all given a sheet to wear, much like a toga, until we were called back for our individual baths.
An older woman was my attendant. She helped me get in the hot tub of water and gave me a small cup of warm water to drink. She said the body should be warm inside and out.
She closed the curtain, and I laid back and enjoyed the steaming hot water. About half an hour later, she came back, scrubbed my legs, arms and back and then helped me climb out of the tub. My skin was so soft and warm.
I left the enclosed area where I bathed and went out into the main room. There, I was instructed to lay down on a table, one of about a dozen lined up side by side, where all of us ladies stretched out in our togo-style sheets following our baths.
They brought us a small cup of ice water to drink. Then they placed a hot towel on our shoulders and back, and they wrapped our arms and legs in hot towels as well. Thank goodness for the cold towel they placed on our foreheads.
At this point, I don’t think I had ever been so hot in all my life. They were definitely steaming out any stress we had remaining in our bodies.
After about half an hour, the towels were unwrapped, and we were led to individual showers and given a fresh sheet to wrap up in.
I was so relaxed that I almost fell out of the chair as I waited for the massage.
The girls laughed at me because I could barely hold my eyes open. Every care in the world had fled from my mind.
After 20 minutes of heaven on the massage table, we headed back to our rooms for a nap.
Of all the trips I’ve been on, this was by far the most heavenly.
I can honestly say, if you want to wash all your cares away for a weekend, go have a hot bath and massage in Hot Springs. Your body will greatly thank you for it.
