Today’s Camp Carpe Diem activities included more hiking and photography, a scavenger hunt, a distillery tour, and yummy BBQ.

Another morning hike

We gathered again at the camp gathering space to coordinate rides for the morning’s hike. Today we went to Lake Catherine to see the falls.

Rather than a bike ride, Ken led a group on the tougher hike. Barry led the photographers, and Debra led another group along the edge of the lake. We all met up a the waterfall.

I had every intention of taking the slow, easy route around the lake. However, I had serious fear of missing out so I followed Barry up the “medium” path. I made the hike just fine, but by the time we were heading back to the cars my hips were telling me they were just about done with such nonsense.

Tony stayed in camp to catch up on work. After the hike, my ride (Thanks, Penny!) brought me back to camp where I rested, ate lunch, and changed my clothes in preparation for the afternoon shenanigans.

More photography lessons

I forgot to add a link to Barry’s photography business in yesterday’s post. I’ve remedied that, and apologize to Barry for forgetting yesterday.

Barry talked more about the rule of thirds, showed us how to use pano mode to take a long vertical shot, and I learned that if a photo is taken in “live” mode it can be viewed in several ways. Barry also told us that we were hampered a bit by the lighting - he said the best time is early morning or late afternoon to decrease the dappled light. As I review my photos I can totally see that the feeling I had taking the photo doesn’t really shine through the actual photo.

Scavenger Hunt

The group met back up in the town of Hot Springs for a scavenger hunt. Parking was pretty tough, being an almost-summer weekend, and a beautiful day. As I looked through last year’s photos from our visit here, I see we were wearing sweatshirts and long pants.

The scavenger hunt was a list of photos that we were to send to Debra. We read through it and knew where we could find some of the photos, from our previous visit. We didn’t have any thoughts of winning. We were just enjoying our day on Bathhouse Row. When we got to the Fordyce House, which is now the site of the Visitor Center and Museum, we were delighted that the entire house (with exceptions of course) was open to touring.

One of the list items was to show some love to a ranger, so Tony gave Ranger Lissa at the counter a little kiss, and she helped him pass his Junior Ranger test.

We sort of abandoned the scavenger hunt and enjoyed a tour of the bathhouse. Of course, some of the scavenger hunt list was found here, so we did earn a few points but mostly we just marveled at the facilities. And the wild contraptions people used to use for healing! Imagine an electrohydric bath, where they sent an electrical current through your bathwater. I recall an episode of Columbo where the son threw a toaster into the dad’s bathwater to kill him. I’m sort of confused!!

Whiskey Tour

When time was up and we were spared the requirement of looking for items from a list, we headed back to the truck to drive to Hot Springs Distilling, where we got a tour of the facilities and a tasting of five of their offerings. We tasted vodka, and four whiskeys. Tony bought a bottle of white whiskey, which he says is going to be terrific in a bloody mary.

I’m not tolerant of much whiskey, so I gave Tony at least half of each of my tastes, and traded him for the truck keys. He also started out with an old fashioned, which I had a sip of and it was delicious!

Dinner

We were kind of tired of the heat and sun, so instead of joining the group at the food truck park, we opted for a sit-down dinner with air conditioning. I looked on the map, and saw Stubby’s BBQ nearby that had a fairly good rating, so we headed there after the tour and tasting.

We had a delicious dinner. I got sliced brisket with sides of beans and deviled eggs. Tony got a stuffed baked potato piled high with chopped brisket. The meat was wonderful. The potato was baked perfectly, and there was plenty of butter. Even the BBQ sauce was really tasty. We left cool, relaxed, and very full. Although the food trucks were probably a lot of fun, we think we chose well.

A New Tap

Our hosts April and Ken from Living a Stout Life tapped a new keg, so Tony grabbed his Silipint cup (a gift from Silipint for Camp Carpe Diem) and chair, and we went to the fire for a night cap. I opted out of more drinking but went to hang out for a while before turning in for the evening.

I was tired, and every time I sit down another muscle sort of stiffens up from two days of hiking. So I’m finishing this in the morning while avoiding physical activity as much as possible!