Thursday, November 25, 2010

Petit JeanThanksgiving!


You all know by now that I am deeply in love with my home state of Arkansas.  I wanted to show you one of the many reasons:  Petit Jean State Park--I had not been there since I was a teenager until today.  It took my breath away then and it still did today.

I will never grow too old to be awed by the varied beauty of Arkansas from its delta and cotton and rice fields in the east to its beautiful Ozark and Ouachita Mountains in the northwest and west central sections.

I have provided a link HERE because the history of the park is very compelling.  It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps established by President Franklin Roosevelt.   The CCC worked here from 1933 to 1938.




This picture and the next two was what the view looked like from our table at Mather Lodge where we ate with our good friends, Bob and Joyce.







Mather Lodge--the restaurant where we ate





We have had incredibly warm weather for months and months.  We had the air conditioner on this morning.  It was so warm and muggy.  By the time we got to the lodge, rain and much cooler temperatures had come rolling in--From 80 and humid yesterday to 28 and freezing today.  You gotta love that Arkansas weather!





The restaurant--





It was warm and cozy inside with a live cedar tree for Christmas.





The beautiful handmade chandeliers in the room where we waited for at least an hour--they served over 2000 people Thanksgiving dinner today.





In one of the overflow waiting rooms--the people at the table next to us were playing cards--wish we had thought to bring some kind of game.  Note the beautiful handiwork of the CCC men.





I took this picture through the window while sitting at our table--
their dressing was to die for by the way.





This was called the CCC water tower.  





It was VERY overcast, foggy and raining when I took these pictures but this little camera that I love did a pretty good job of shooting through all that stuff.





It really looked more like this--For some reason, I love this picture.





The camera didn't seem to capture it to me, but we were up really high on the edge of a bluff.





--the beautiful Arkansas River--do you know what state it begins in?









Arkansas, You Run Deep In Me!

The river begins in Colorado.


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