Can’t Wait To Be HOT in Hot Springs!

This weekend is the upcoming debut of my two photos in the WinterTide exhibit at the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs! I’m not sure which I am more excited about – the exhibit of my photos or the pancakes and bathhouse treatment! Followed closely by taking more photos of the springs!

So if you haven’t been to Hot Springs or haven’t read one of my posts, like the Quick Weekend in Hot Springs, then here is a little info for you.

Part of the city of Hot Springs is actually the Hot Springs National Park. Hot Springs and the area called Bathhouse Row have a rich history. I have commented to my Hubby that when we stay down on Central Avenue at the Arlington Hotel I feel as if I am walking, sitting, moving about in another era. One evening, I remember, sitting on the wide front veranda (or porch) of the hotel and drinking a nice rum punch recommended by the waitress and it felt as if I were there with my short flapper dress and he in his Al Capone hat and suit. We watched the people go by and the horse-drawn carriage as it made its rounds on Central Ave.

Ok, back to the topic I really wanted to share. If you go to Hot Springs you MUST go to the Buckstaff Bathhouse! Well, maybe first you should go to the visitor center at the Fordyce Bathhouse and tour it to get a wonderful idea of how the bathhouses looked and operated. Walking around even with a crowd surrounding you it was truly a feeling of stepping back in time. I could almost see the ladies wrapped in their towels gossiping and laughing with perhaps a shy lady at the end reading a book or magazine.

So here is where I get to the being HOT in Hot Springs! Imagine (from the point of a female) – being taken to your own floor separate from the men. You are wrapped in a sheet (down to your naked self  or swimsuit if you are really shy) and led to a steaming hot bath that is larger than most people’s’ tubs. The water is from a true hot mineral spring. There is a little motor at the foot of the tub. An attendant is there to make sure you are happy and relaxing. She loofahs your back. You relax in the steamy water. Then as you finish your time in the tub the attendant comes back and wraps you in the towel. From there you go to a sitz bath. You submerge your hinny in a hot bath just long enough to be healthy – after all the waters were healing! Then on to the enclosed steam bath – just the window open for the “fresh” air. And after that, off to the table where you are wrapped head to toe in warm, relaxing towels. Then off to your shower where hot jets stimulate your skin. Last, but not least, the Swedish massage. Heaven, I tell you!

So here are some photos from the Fordyce that give you a little bit of an idea of the experience. Of course, I didn’t take photos inside the Buckstaff in respecting the privacy of the other bathers.

December 4, 2012 | Categories: History/information/news, Photo, Picture from yesterday | Tags: AR, Buckstaff bathhouse, Central Ave, city of hot springs, Fordyce bathhouse, Found Round and about, hot springs, Hot Springs National Park, photography, picture from yesterday, sitz bath, steam bath, Swedish massage, thermal bath, tisha clinkenbeard photography | 1 Comment »