Weekend in Arkansas with my Family

This was a trip that was planned in late July as I started seeing some improvement in my elbow. There were enough Hilton points for a night in Bentonville and enough Wyndham points for a night in Little Rock. According to my research, this was the best time to see the fall colors in Northwestern Arkansas. This is also the perhaps southwesternmost range where you can find some Sugar Maples. These maples are the ones that show the most vivid fall colors. I invited my family, so my parents along with one of my sisters decided to come with me to celebrate my birthday. 

It was Friday, November 3rd, four days after returning from Chicago. I asked for permission to leave at the end of my 6th period class, as my 7th period is my conference. I thought that we'd be arriving in Little Rock at around 7:30, but I completely forgot that we Mexicans typically eat late when compared to Americans. We had to stop at a Whataburger on our way to I-30. It was a little far from either that freeway or I-635. It took us about two and a half hours to eat and leave the Metroplex.

I noticed that trees were still green. Two years ago when I visited Daingerfield and Tyler State Parks there were a lot of yellow trees on I-30 right outside the Metroplex, and some multicolored sweetgums farther east. I was thinking that trees would probably still be too green. I later found out that I was right and at the same time also wrong about this. On Saturday, November 4th we visited the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock in the morning before driving to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. This museum in Little Rock barely opened in April, 2023:

Trees in the state capital were still green, with a few more hints of fall color when compared to Dallas:

As we drove towards Bentonville we started seeing some hills and some spotty fall colors mixed in with mainly green trees. These fall colors were mainly brown, yellow, and reddish colors. Many of these brown and reddish trees were perhaps Shumard Oaks. As we got closer to Northwestern Arkansas, there were less green colors and most of the trees had shades between brown and red. There might've been a few Red Maples and Sugar Maples on the hills just south of the Bentonville-Rogers metro area. Stopping to confirm this would've been dangerous. That area was also mixed with trees that had lost most of their leaves as well. As we drove into Bentonville I noticed a lot of red colored maples that were near their peak. As I hardly saw those vibrant colors on the highway, it appears that while those trees grew well in the city, they were naturally uncommon or nonexistent in the area that surrounds it.

The Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville is worth visiting. Most of what you can find is a large collection of American paintings, but the best art is perhaps Yayoi Kusama's Infinity room:

My parents seemed to think that I was rushing them when I told them that we had to leave at 8:00 AM on a Sunday morning. Visiting Eureka Springs right before heading back to Dallas meant going a little farther from Dallas before returning. After driving east for about an hour, we made it to Thorncrown Chapel about 20 minutes after it had opened:

This chapel was right outside Eureka Springs. We made it to St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church a little later. According to Guiness World Records, this is the only Church where you go inside through its steeple:

Right on top of that church we found the Crescent Hotel, as we were told it had the best views. We found out that people claim to see ghosts in this hotel: 

We certainly did not go looking for ghosts, but what we did find were these Sugar and Red Maples at a walking distance. Sugar Maples do not grow farther south from this area as their seeds need a certain amount of time with freezing temperatures in order to survive. The Sugar Maples were barely starting to change color:

We thought that we were about to go back to Dallas and make it there during the day, until we found a sign telling us where the downtown area was. We decided stay there for a while until we ate lunch:

While some trees had lost most or all of their leaves, some deciduous trees were still mostly green. It appears that "peak fall colors" is usually an average of when the trees are showing their best colors in a given area. The hills that are located around and south of the town of Eureka Springs had the best fall colors in Northwestern Arkansas. This was despite the fact that every tree specie seemed to change colors and shed its leaves at different times. 

It got dark as we were driving highway 69 in Oklahoma, but made it back home safely. I'm glad that my family enjoyed the trip as well.

Fall Foliage in Chicago and Milwaukee

Very few trees match the beauty of a Sugar Maple in the fall. According to what Wikipedia shows today, December 29, 2023, all of the Eastern North Central states are located within its growing range within the Eastern North American Forests. Taking a flight just to see the fall colors might be a little expensive, even when you use mostly airline miles and card points. Luckily, I've learned how to spend time a little more wisely by also visiting world class museums and churches. 

This was my second visit to Chicago. The last time that I visited this city was back in the summer of 2017. Besides wanting better quality pictures, I also found out about the Art Institute of Chicago, other minor museums, and beautiful church interiors. This is part of what I saw the first day:

The picture that is shown above shows one of the many miniature rooms. The picture below shows a candy exhibit where you could actually take candy and eat it. I tried the apple, cherry, and grape candies. 

The second day was the day that I visited Wisconsin for the first time: a day trip to Milwaukee thanks to an Amtrak train:

This third day was the day to visit churches as well as confirming that the Shedd Aquarium is not among the best aquariums. This was also the day when sunny weather was forecasted, so it was also a good time to take pictures of buildings. As this was a regular workday, I took this day off and flew back to Dallas in the early evening:

I was shocked to see that Sugar Maples were a little hard to find in Chicago and Milwaukee, as well as the forested area between both cities. This was evident on the Amtrak train that I boarded on my day trip to Milwaukee. Despite the fact that I did not get to see the fall colors that I was expecting, the trip was worth it. Hopefully I'll be back around the same time next year or sometime in the future.