Biking, hiking, art, food, fishing — things we love and ever-so-present in the once-sleepy Northwest Arkansas town of Bentonville. So much that we have made a number of day trips down to the area from our home base of Joplin. Everyone sized up in bikes and we got to ride a pump-track-meets-a-mountain-biking-trail with features and all. The kids devoured the art (and Jam the architecture) at the ever-insane Crystal Bridges Museum. We even got some adults-only fishing trips in which allowed us to confirm, since we already knew it in our hearts, that our $15 waders do in fact have holes in them.

• We explored: Ozark National Forest, Crystal Bridges (five stars), Mark Twain National Forest (MO)
• We biked: All-American Trail/Razorback Greenway and the Art Trail (five stars), the Bike Playground
• We fished: Roaring Fork River (MO), Beaver Tailwaters (White River)
• We enjoyed: Oven and Tap, Onyx Coffee (five stars), Preacher’s Son, Wright’s BBQ, Bike Rack Brewing
• We are reading: True Grit