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!

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.

We awoke early to a bright, shiny day, grabbed a quick con­ti­nen­tal break­fast from the lobby of the Super 8, packed our bikes, and headed out of town. Destination? Shotgun Eddy White Water Rafting!

We rode back through Shawano past the Menominee Indian Casino before hook­ing a left onto a nice curvy, hilly, tree-lined coun­try road for about 10 miles before reach­ing a gravel entrance for Shotgun Eddy. On the way, I spot­ted an Bald Eagle fly­ing grace­fully above us.

The Midwest’s largest zipline tour, Ozone Zipline Adventures, reopens for the sea­son on April 1. Much like zipline tours in exotic des­ti­na­tions, Ozone Zipline Adventures is an eco-adventure that com­bines the thrills of fly­ing through the tree­tops at heights of 200 feet above the val­ley floor, with out­door recre­ation, envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion and his­tor­i­cal awareness.

Celebrate sum­mer with a week­end of wine tast­ing, food pair­ings, and spec­tac­u­lar Garden vis­tas. The Fourth Annual Chicago Botanic Garden Wine Festival allows novices and expe­ri­enced oenophiles to develop their palates with sem­i­nars and demon­stra­tions con­ducted by event spon­sors, exhibit­ing winer­ies, Chicago area chefs, restau­ra­teurs, and spe­cialty food shops.