Beaver Lake

To celebrate the holiday, we spent the afternoon and evening out at the nearby lake called, Beaver Lake.  Beaver Lake is really beautiful and pristine.  There are a number of sandy park beach-like settings.  We got out at a place called Rocky Branch, and James and the boys enjoyed taking a dip in the crisp water. 

After frolicking, we packed up and boarded a bulky boat called the "Beaver Lake Cruise" and spent about 2 hours with a park service guide and got the low-down about the lake and it's history.

The boys loved jetting across the big lake in the boat.

Some little know facts (well little know to us): Believe it or not- the lake is man-made!  It is a reservoir formed from the White River.  The lake was completed in 1966 and sits high in the Ozark mountains.  The lake has become a huge recreational park with over 2000+ ACRES of campgrounds!  There are 12 different parks around the lake, and the lake itself has almost 30,000 acres of surface area, so it is quite large!  One in 8 Arkansans drink water that comes from the lake, and the lake is also useful for its hydro power and flood control.

To be on the "cruise" we all had to wear life jackets- including Alice.  She didn't quite know what to make of it.  She is already quite "fluffy" and the extra padding made us feel like we were holding a balloon.  But she was a good, calm little girl, and even fell asleep in my lap 1/2 through the tour.  She was a bit cumbersome to hold though all buoyed up and so she was passed around a bit between James and I.

One cool thing was that we got to watch the sunset 3 different times that evening since our positioning on the lake kept on changing and therefore our horizons/views kept changing.

 It was beautiful and nothing I can re-create very well on the camera unfortunately.

The boys' favorite part was getting to see and touch the real Beaver claws/feet/tails they passed around.  And at the end, James and the boys sat at the front of the boat and enjoyed the "wind in the hair" feeling as well as made a couple silly faces with each other, while taking pictures.

I loved looking out at the vast lake and thinking about how much I am falling in love with Arkansas.

We'll definitely be back to play again Beaver lake!