Grover and The Waff: May 2010

So, my sweet boyfriend, Will, decided to celebrate the ending of his first (successful!!) semester of PA school by taking me and Waffles on a mini-vacation in Ponca, Arkanas!! We absolutely love Ponca. It is so beautiful down there and they have a lot of good hikes.

We were able to get 2 nights in one of Buffalo Outdoor Center's luxury cabins. Yay! It is called Cabin X and it has a hot tub on the deck. Oh yeah, it is also very secluded and on the top of a mountain. Since check-in time wasn't until 3 p.m., we decided that we would go on a hike before going to the cabin (we also thought that our hot tub experience might be more enjoyable if we went on a good hike first). On the Buffalo River's website, http://www.buffaloriver.com/, one of their recommend hikes was Whitaker Point (aka, Hawk's Bill Crag), so, we decided to give it a try (plus the view looked awesome).

Waffles is getting pumped up for his very first hike!

My two best guys.

We finally found it! Apparently, this is the most photographed rock in Arkansas. It was also on the cover of a Rand McNally atlas, once upon a time. The hike down was a pretty good one. We realized that a lot of it was downhill so that meant a little bit harder hike on the way back. But, as you can see below, it was well worth it.

Trees, trees and more trees. It was gorgeous!

It was almost 3:00 and, after taking in the view, we decided to head back. On the hike down, it was cloudy, sprinkling and there was maybe a rumble of thunder or two, but all of the trees kept us pretty dry. The hike back to the car was a very different trip. We just got started on the trail and there was a very loud clap of thunder and then it was like someone was standing over us with an endless bucket of water. It absolutely POURED!!! There was a full-on thunderstorm going on and we were in the middle of the woods--about 1.5 miles from our car! Waffles usually runs like a big wussy dog whenever there is thunder, but this time he just wanted to get the hell out of the woods--as fast as he could!

Here is what the poor, little guy looked like once we made it back to the Jeep.

Now it is off to the cabin!

This place was awesome. Absolutely gorgeous with a breathtaking view.

Jeez. You'd think that a bunch of hillbillies live here with all of those clothes hanging all over the railing!

Front porch.

Where's Waffles? Waffles couldn't go and run around like he would have liked to, so, he had to settle with just sticking his head through the rails.

We had to build a Waffle-cade so that Waffles wouldn't go and fall down the mountain. He didn't like this much.

View from the front porch (and the hot tub)!! Gorgeous.

As you can tell from the first picture, the whole front of the cabin is windows. This is our view of the hot tub looking out the front of the cabin.

The cabin was basically just one big room, so, we had the same view from where ever we were in the house--even in our bed. Ok, we had a view of the driveway from the bathroom, but everywhere else we were in the cabin, we had this view.

View from the front door.

When we got there, our cute, little romantic table for two was set up like this. There was also a complimentary bottle of champagne.

One of the things I was most looking forward to (and Will, as well) was the soft, fluffy robes that the BOC provieded for us to lounge around in during our stay. Unfortunately, they didn't have one in man-size. This made Will very sad.

This was on our coffee table. Upon better inspection, we realized that it was real. Gross. We are not sure what it was, but by looking at the big, furry hide, I'm sure it was really cute.

After our first, wonderful night in Cabin X, we decied to go out and do another hike. This time we did the Hideout Hollow hike.

We especially liked the bullet holes in the trailhead sign.

Waffles is patiently waiting for daddy to come back with the GPS.

Finally!

This waterfall was waiting for us at the end of the trail.

Will and one of his favorite toys.

Waffles absolutely LOVED this hike! He got to run around without his leash once we reached the waterfall. He was running up and down rocks and even running back behind the waterfall. As soon as I figure out how to post a video, I'll let you see for yourselves.

Waffles was worthless after the Hideout Hollow hike.

Totally out.

While Waffles was inside snoozing, Will and I went outside and relaxed in the hot tub before going to bed ourselves. This is our hot tub all lit up at night. Will is actually in it in this picture but you can't see him.