Things To Do in Arkansas

Quality cuts of meat and freshly prepared seafood fill the pages of SBiP's upscale dinner menu. Kick off feasts with a carpaccio appetizer ($10), which beckons eaters with beef tenderloin and capers topped in a cap of horseradish cream and blue-cheese crumbles mined from deep inside the Earth's dairy core. In the kitchen, chefs roast semi-boneless duck ($17) and fresh salmon on a cedar plank ($17), and pound chicken cutlets, sauté the tender morsels until golden brown, and then drizzle them in lemon-caper beurre blanc for a flavorful piccata ($18). Each entree arrives at tables alongside an entourage of vegetables as well as a choice of potatoes or rice, which guests can devour amid exposed-brick walls and the sounds of live, local jazz and blues music on Fridays and Saturdays, or their stomachs' harmonized growls every night of the week.

The purveyors of pulse racing behind Haunted House for Relay For Life stir up scares to benefit the American Cancer Society and Relay For Life. For four ghoul-drenched nights in late October, a guide leads thrill-seekers through hair-raising sights such as ghosts, goblins, and possessed hair dryers. The spooky event's affiliation with Relay For Life ensures that some of the proceeds go directly toward supporting a worthy cause—celebrating the lives of those who have battled cancer while raising funds for the American Cancer Society.

Photographer Kelsey Garland specializes in capturing a wide variety of precious memories at Abella Vista Studios, which celebrated its 2012 ribbon-cutting ceremony with ambassadors of the Bryant Area Chamber of Commerce. Kelsey leaves her photographic mark on local residents by commemorating everything from weddings to maternity photos to business headshots and tastefully sexy boudoir sessions. Kelsey's studio also offers guided painting classes and parties where students can create their own landscapes, self-portraits, or still lifes.

When Buddy and Miranda Grimes opened Hog Wild Family Fun Center on August 16, 2009, it initially hosted 32 arcade games and a cozy pizzeria. In less than a year, however, the center had already grown beyond its 4,000 square feet. Now housed in a 25,000-square-foot facility, Hog Wild hosts more than 100 arcade and redemption games, from skeeball to Terminator: Salvation, where players help Arnold Schwarzenegger search scripts for a new career-defining role. With enough tickets, avid players can even net prizes such as basketballs and giant stuffed Smurf dolls.

The arcade aside, Hog Wild also rolls out other fun-center staples, from five inflatables to a pirate-themed mini-golf course aglow in black lights. A massive laser-tag arena with laser maze and cozy bumper-car zone round out Hog Wild, where visitors can reenergize in between activities with snacks such as chicken fingers and frozen lemonade.

The Arkansas State Parks fete vibrant visitors and loping locals alike with a dizzying array of landscapes, natural and cultural resources, and myriad learning opportunities at parks scattered throughout the state. Familial units with children 18 and under can flex their pass muscles multiple times throughout the year at a wide range of museums, gleaning valuable state knowledge while conversing with park guides or well-read white-tailed deer.

Inside The Wonder Place’s 5,700 square-foot indoor play space, colored balls and scarves shoot through spiraling tubes. Stuffed animals await vaccinations in the vet's office, and tables covered in water and sand become interactive landscapes. The playhouse's supervising staffers encourage their visitors, generally aged 8 and younger, to explore freely as they engage in imaginative play.

Kids slip down slides and scale a rock-climbing wall at the tree house, and build towers and obstacle courses for toy balls using square blocks and ramps at Wonder Works. A child-sized stage lets them perform their own plays or reenact Hamlet with puppets using costumes and set pieces, and an art area sets them loose with a menagerie of art supplies. Infants and toddlers frolic in a designated play area, filled with smaller play structures and toys. While kids can make pretend meals using pretend produce and haggle with pretend cashiers at the River Market and Cafe, there's also a real, health-focused vending machine. An onsite gift shop peddles educational toys and puzzles from brands such as eeboo, Melissa & Doug, and Manhattan Toy.