This Thanksgiving we wanted to see something new, so we decided to see what Arkansas had to offer. We spent 4 days in Rogers, including Thanksgiving day.

Tuesday, November 24 we set out for Arkansas. Most of our driving was done in Eastern Oklahoma.

Wednesday, November 25 we headed through the mountains to Eureka Springs. Along the way, we stopped at Turpentine Creek animal sanctuary. They had all kinds of different animals.

Bobcats

Grizzly bear

This guys was hilarious. He was twirling that log like a baton and kept wacking himself with it.

Black bear

Caracal

Black leopard

There were plenty of tigers,

several lions,

and even a liger!

They also had a bunch of cougars.

After the animal sanctuary, we headed to downtown Eureka for some lunch on the historic Main Street.

Who can resist a fudge shop? Certainly not us!

Next we headed down the canyon to the Thorncrown Chapel. It was impressive, even with most of the leaves off the trees.

I made the kids smile for a photo…

…so they made me smile for a photo!

After that, we headed to the top of the mountain to see the “Christ of the Ozarks” statue.

Having been to Rio de Janeiro and seen the world-famous “Christ the Redeemer” statue, it was hard to not laugh at this one. Still, it was cool, in its own hill-billy kind of way.

Back at the hotel, we did a little swimming before bedtime.