Hot Springs: Thursday - The Rest

After touring the bathhouses, we started our hike back up the short-cut trail. It was then that Stacy realized just how steep it was. It felt like we were going up a cliff. But after many stops, we finally made the measly 0.2 miles back to the mountain observation tower. The fog had lifted a long time ago, so we were able to go up the tower and view the entire city. Being a glutton for punishment, we chose the 16 flights of stairs over the elevator. Elisabeth ran up to the top, like it was a gentle slop. The rest of us trudged up with many breathing breaks. The observation tower was the only place in Hot Springs that mentioned that Bill Clinton grew up in Hot Springs. It had his picture prominently featured as you walked into the gift shop, and there was a display case at the top of the tower that had a bunch of stuff about him. Clinton's family moved to Hot Springs in 1950 and he stayed there until he went off to college. The observation tower was very proud of the fact, however, I didn't see one display anywhere else in the town that mentioned him.

The view from the top of the tower was amazing. The kids and I loved it, although I am not so sure about Stacy, she was really worn out from hiking up the trail and then going up 16 flights of stairs immediately afterward. The top of the tower is separated into two levels. The lower level is inside with a history of the town displayed throughout it. The top level is outside and offers the best view of the city of Hot Springs. When we were done looking out at the city, Stacy, Rebekah, and I went to the lower level and started reading the history. Matthew and Elisabeth had different plans though. They thought we were done and started down the stairs without us knowing where they went. Once I realized they were gone, we did a quick sweep of the tower and then I ran down the stairs as fast as I could, while Stacy and Rebekah took the elevator. They were at the bottom, happy as clams, and wondering why we took so long to descend the staircase. I gave them a stern talk about not leaving us, I am not sure that it sunk in that they did anything wrong.

On our way out, Rebekah saw a toddler holding a baby doll. She got extremely excited and ran to the toddler shouting "Baby! Baby! Baby!". The toddler recoiled in fear and hid the baby doll behind her back as she witnessed an exuberant kid rushing at her at top speed. Suddenly Rebekah caught herself, took her eyes off the baby doll and looked at the toddler and said "HI!". Stacy and I burst out laughing, the toddler on the other hand did not look amused.

It was now around 3:30pm, so we decided to go to one of the activities that we had planned for Friday, we went to the Gangster Museum. From its founding, Hot Springs was a hotbed of gambling and corruption. We didn't know just how much until we went into the gangster museum. The people there were very pleasant, but wary of allowing three young kids into the museum. They politely suggested that the kids may not enjoy the tour, we decided to take the tour anyway. The tour guide led us into each room, where they had several gangster pieces on display and a short video about them. We moved from room to room and the kids, while perhaps a little bored and tired, were very good throughout the entire tour.

The town became a famous gangster hangout when Owney "The Killer" Madden decided to leave New York and take up residence in Hot Springs, in the 1930s. Although gambling was illegal in Arkansas, nobody in the town paid any attention to the State law. Hot Springs quickly became the vacation spot for many famous gangsters, including Lucky Luciano, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, Bugs Moran, and most famously Al Capone.

When Al Capone came to town, he always stayed at room 442 at the Arlington Hotel, where he always rented out the entire floor. The museum showed a video of an underground passageway between the Arlington Hotel and a destroyed bowling alley that was used by the gangsters many years ago. The town's attitude toward politicians was exemplified by one business woman who said that she would rather face a hitman over a politician any day, because you always know what the hitman is going to do to you.

Gambling was eventually shut down in Hot Springs. In 1967 Arkansas sent Lynn A. Davis in to close down gambling. He realized that it was impossible to get these guys convicted on anything (they always had a way out), so instead of going after the people, he simply confiscated all the equipment. This wasn't as easy as it sounded. The local police actively helped the gamblers any way they could. At one point, he had confiscated thousands of dollars worth of equipment, turned it over to the local police, who gave it right back to the gamblers. It was said in that day, if there weren't enough bouncers at a given gambling joint, the police were more than happy to do the job for them. Anyway, from then on, whenever equipment was confiscated it was burned that day. Shutting down gambling did effectively shut down Hot Springs. Without gambling, the town started slowly dying. It wasn't until the 1990s that the local economy would recover.

At the end of the tour, they let us pose with Al Capone and a Tommy gun. We all enjoyed that. Like all good tourist places, this tour ended at the gift shop, which focused on hats. If you want a good gangster hat this is the place to get one. Stacy tried one on, but somehow it just didn't fit her. The people working there said that we had some of the best kids they had ever seen and told us to come back anytime.

After the gangster museum, we walked down the downtown area. We tried to look in a few shops, but even though it was only 4:45pm, every store was putting up the closed sign. I guess people like to get home early around here. We did find one store with a huge monkey as you walked in. Rebekah was scared of it at first, but then decided that it was better to growl at it fiercely.

Dinner was probably the worst part of the whole trip. We couldn't find a good place to eat. I had looked online for some good places, but they only tell you so much about a place. We prefer to eat at local places while on vacation. You can eat at Red Lobster any time you want, but how often can you eat at the Bleu Monkey Grill? Well we didn't, it was a bar. Oh well, we tried Cafe 1217. But as we drove up, we noticed we were the only ones there. Was it even open? We went in, and quickly decided that nothing on the menu looked very appetizing. Finally we decided on Taco Pronto. A cheap quick Mexican place. The food wasn't anything to write home about, but they did get it to us Pronto!

After dinner, we had one more activity: Pirate's Cove Mini Golf. Stacy wasn't sure about the wisdom of this, but we went anyway. Matthew & Elisabeth had a blast, even though they never could hold the golf club correctly. You never understand just how hard "thumbs out" is until you try to make a 4 year old do it (or for that matter a 6 year old). Rebekah just watched, but she had fun chasing the balls as the flew off from a bad hit. A large group had gathered there for the evening, so it was very crowded. But we only had to let 2 groups of people pass us. In the end the score was:
Me: 55
Stacy: 65
Elisabeth: 77
Matthew: 78

With that out of the way, we drove home and quickly went to bed. Of course some of us couldn't wait to get all the way to the cabin.