Mini Getaway Eureka Springs

I had every intention of cooking up something delicious and awesome this weekend for you, but on Saturday morning my lovely husband proposed a mini-getaway and the cooking plans got put on the back burner.  Since I started classes and my vacation time is limited, so when I got this Monday off we decided to take advantage.  We decided to head for the hills of Eureka Springs, Arkansas and lucked out with a hotel that let us bring two of our dogs our other two pups got left with some friends.

We stayed at the Crescent Moon Hotel.  It was built in 1895 and sits perched high up on a hill.  From 1896 to 1901 the hotel operated as an exclusive year-round resort hotel catering to the carriage set. It had a stable with a hundred sleek-coated horses for the guests’ riding pleasure.

From 1908 to 1924, the building was utilized as the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women, but continued to act as a resort during the summers. However, after operating for 16 years, the revenues from tuition and summer guests wasn’t enough to maintain the costs of running the large building and the Women’s College closed. After sitting abandoned for the next six years it briefly reopened as a junior college from 1930 to 1934.

In 1937 a man named Norman Baker arrived on the scene and bought the aging hotel for the purpose of opening a cancer hospital and health resort. Advertising miracle cures that required neither surgery nor painful extensive tests, the Baker Hospital, alleged that its patients would walk away from the “resort” cancer-free.  However, what was unknown to the many desperate patients who flocked to the hospital was that Norman Baker’s “miracle” was nothing more than a scam and he was a former vaudeville magician, turned inventor, turned millionaire business man, turned populist radio host, turned Cancer doctor without a day of medical training in his life.

We gathered out luggage and our two crazy pups and made our way into the hotel to check in.  In the lobby lodging on a red velvet sofa I found this fella.

Obviously being use to people walking up and petting him all I got was this ambivalent look.   What was even funnier was the cat door I found behind the chair with and exit sign over it.

We squeezed into the tiny elevator that made all kind of squeaky noises and was sporting this old fashion callbox.  Apparently I had a brain far and forgot to take a photo of my charming little room.  It was decorated with antique furniture, an incredibly comfortable king size bed and an old time radiator.  What was even cooler was that the room had an actual key, not a card but a real key.  The simple things right?

Once we got settled in we decided to take a stroll downtown.  They use the sides of buildings as cool billboards.

The streets are crooked, curvy and hilly, bur sure to bring your walking shoes.

There are also lots of steep stairs.  Very steep stairs, stairs that make you feel the burn.

But when we got to the top of the stairs we found this very cool rock formation.

And we took advantage of this very cool view.

After taking mother nature’s stair master I thought I deserved a little treat.  This little store looked like just the place for a treat.

The bright lime green taffy being stretched in the window beckoned me from across the street.

There was a wall of taffy with every flavor you could hope for.  My favorites were the raspberry and the lemon meringue, chew and yummy to my tummy.  I got two pieces of every flavor, one for me and one for the hubs.  Although I confess that the hubs didn’t get a chance to try some of them.

Then I turned around and found these evil doers.  I have a sever weakness with it comes to fudge, any fudge. Smooth, creamy delicious fudge.  I showed some self control and only got 1/2 a block of the chocolate.  Although I really wanted to get some of the turtle too….and the peanut butter….and the maple walnut.

After our walk up and down hills and in and out of stores we headed back to the hotel.  I took a 2 hour nap and Obed watched cable.  We don’t have cable here at home so it was a nice little treat.

After my 2 hour nap we got ready for dinner.  We headed up stairs to the 4th floor to Dr. Baker’s Bistro, named after the scammer “doctor” that claimed to be able to cure cancer.  Outside of the bistro people were lining up for the nightly 8pm ghost tour.   The hotel is full of ghost and all kinds of paranormal activity, or so we are told.  We didn’t run into any while we were there and as you can see no weird orbs showed up in any of our photos.

I ordered the the reuben with corn beef and I will just say it was phenomenal. One of the best reubens I have had in a long time.  Clean your plate and lick your fingers delicious.

Hubs got a cheeseburger served on a ciabatta roll.  He quietly ate it all.  Quietly eating is a good sign.

The next day we got up and had our complimentary hot breakfast in the grand dinning room.  We then went for a walk around the hotel grounds.  This is a view from the bottom of the hill of the back of the hotel.

We loved our time at the Crescent Hotel and hope to go back again and stay longer.   Not only is this hotel incredibly hospitable and welcoming to their guest but also their furry friends.  The hotel policy it is to charge $25 per pet but they were gracious enough to waive our pet fee.  We visited during the end of the off season so a lot of placed were closed for the season but we still enjoyed our little get away and some time together.  It’s always nice to get away with your best friend.