On Day Three we left our cab­ins on the Caddo River for a day trip to nearby Wegner’s Quartz Mine in Mount Ida, Arkansas. What we didn’t find in dia­monds yes­ter­day, we fig­ured we’d make up for in quartz today. We were right, and then some!

This morn­ing we headed out on our way to one of the high­lights of the trip: Crater of the Diamonds State Park in Murphreesboro, Arkansas, where we hoped we’d be dig­ging up dia­monds left and right.

Using the occa­sion of a fam­ily reunion as an excuse, we decided to plan a fam­ily vaca­tion with cen­tral Arkansas’ dia­mond and quartz mines as our focus. Our trip would include a stay at some rus­tic cab­ins along the Caddo River and a trip to his­toric Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Disney Cruise Line is mak­ing it eas­ier to expe­ri­ence the magic of Disney Cruise Line on the West Coast with a spe­cial “Kids Free” offer on seven-night cruises to the Mexican Riviera start­ing January 2011.

Experience great value and dis­cover some­thing new with a visit to Chicago this Fourth of July week­end. Celebrate the summer’s biggest hol­i­day by vis­it­ing lake­front beaches, enjoy­ing mag­nif­i­cent fire­works on the lake­front, expe­ri­enc­ing the Taste of Chicago or attend­ing a Major League base­ball game. Learn about Chicago’s exquis­ite cui­sine, incred­i­ble sights, and afford­able options for a fun-filled week­end get­away on a budget.