Things to Do in Jacksonville

Wildwood Park’s 104 bucolic acres are home to woodland trails, manicured gardens, and the 625-seat Lucy Lockett Cabe Festival Theater. In service of the center's continuing mission to encourage lifelong learning and fertile imaginations, the expansive grounds host myriad events that marry culture and art, from annual festivals to year-round children’s education programs. Beyond artistic pursuits, visitors can simply savor the center's natural splendor by taking in the sights of the Richard C. Butler Arboretum, wending through the Carl Hunger Wildflower Glenn, or spotting ballerinas in the wild at the park’s eight-acre swan lake. The nonprofit park maintains its gardens, education projects, and other artistic hallmarks purely through help from its community, including volunteers, individual donors, and arts organizations.

In conjunction with the yoga studio, The Floating Lotus Day Spa aims to beautify and relax clients using all-natural therapies, including body wraps, organic facials, waxing services, and massages. Wielding Éminence Organics skincare products, aestheticians deep cleanse faces using biodynamic ingredients designed to naturally hydrate and rejuvenate faces. Within the day spa's private rooms, therapists use methods such as Thai massage and foot-focused reflexology, as well as warmed lava stones, to melt away any knots or stale marshmallows hiding beneath the skin.

When the Little Rock Zoo opened its gates in 1926, it contained fewer animals than many people's homes. At the time, its inhabitants were, in total, a circus-trained brown bear and an abandoned timber wolf. From its formative days, the Little Rock Zoo has expanded dramatically, now home to more than 700 animals from more than 200 unique species. Visitors can witness lions, tigers, and jaguars up close; interact with exotic birds; and carefully navigate spider monkeys' webs. In addition to conserving wildlife, the zoo also preserves a unique antique carousel, one of only four in the world to feature an undulating wooden track rather than conventional moving poles.

At Cabot Miniature Golf, balls tumble down undulating greens past landscapes adorned with well-maintained shrubs and animal statues. Games unfold in all kinds of weather on the illuminated 18-hole course, where giant windmills and miniature ponds obstruct each ball’s path to a hole-in-one. On the adjoining driving range, orbs soar above more than 200 yards of real turf until 10 p.m. as a sand trap tries to swallow balls rolling across the practice putting green in an effort to feed the sand monster living inside of it.

After rounds of golf, a small playground entices kids to play, and two covered, colorfully lit pavilions shelter guests enjoying post-game snacks. Cabot Miniature Golf also includes mini storage units, which are guarded by extra-heavy bar-tube fencing and a coded entry system. This facility can also store large objects such as cars, RVs, and boats.

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.

The teachers at Poser Yoga Studio have at least one thing in common: an unwavering love of yoga. From Barkan and hot-yoga masters to Hatha practitioners with more than a decade of teaching experience, the studio's yoga elite is flexible when it comes to the styles preferred by the students. The class schedule reflects flow, Hatha, and hot-yoga sessions suitable for kids, adults, or dogs with a circus background. The staff also maintains a nontraditional atmosphere at the studio, with music ranging from dubstep to disco during workouts, and a fun-first attitude that focuses on both the physical and mental side of yoga.