Misc Pictures From The Last 24 Hours

Larry was going to sit down in the easy chair after we got home but Morris was comfortable and wasn't budging. A couple of days ago, he was in a similar position and actually slid down in the chair while asleep.

Morris was checking out the morning commute traffic this morning after he had his breakfast.

Sunrises and sunsets here are pretty blah - especially compared to the desert. Last night was one of the prettiest we have had.

We were watching golf yesterday afternoon and heard Morris crunching behind us in the kitchen. We assumed he was eating his food until I went into the kitchen and there he was in the sink eating ice cubes. The ice was from a drink I poured out in the sink after we got home from lunch.

Capitol Smokehouse & Grill

Yesterday, after the Art Museum, we tried out another restaurant that we had seen in a local magazine. It is anything but fancy and is only a few blocks from the capitol which makes it a very popular lunch spot. Apparently there is standing room only when the Legislature is in session. This was a favorite of Bill Clintons when he was governor and the couple who own the place were invited to his first inaugural. Now for the food....my oh my....it was some of the best BBQ pork I have ever tasted. The pork butts are smoked for 16-18 hours at 175 degrees. Besides the BBQ meats, they have a daily Blue Place Special each day. Monday is chicken & dressing, Tuesday is meatloaf, Wed is pot roast, etc. Side dishes were yummy things like fried potatos & onions, green beans & bacon, black-eyed peas, squash casserole, okra, baked beans and cornbread. The best testimony for a place is when Larry cleans his plate and that happened yesterday.

A lot of the lunch places use steam tables and this place is one of them. Just the basics....

Arkansas Arts Center

The Arkansas Arts Center (Art Museum) was on the list for today. We waited until after last weekend to go because of the new Rockwell Exhibit that opened last Friday. The Arts Center is a beautiful building and all admission and parking is FREE.

There are about 25 pictures of Norman Rockwell's in the exhibit including some original oil paintings. The pictures are paired with black and white pictures by photojournalist Kevin Rivoli. Included in the Rockwell paintings is a never-before-published painting "The Golfer", one of his earlier works. Above is the book cover of the exhibit which shows a Rockwell painting and a photo from this generation.

Of course we wandered through the rest of the museum galleries. Above is
Scuba" by Andrew Wyeth done in 1994. You could not take pictures in the Rockwell Exhibit. However, you could take pictures in the rest of the museum as long as there was a person in the picture and you didn't use flash. So.....I just cropped Larry out of this one. 8-)

Larry is trying to decide whether or not he likes Picasso's "Still Life with Red Bulls Head". It didn't take me long to decide this wasn't my cup of tea.

This one I thought was interesting because it was done with gunpowder on paper by Edward Ruscha. It is one of a series that he did featuring single words using a technique in which the words are formed from ribbons of curling paper. The medium is gunpowder, which is a charcoal mixed with sulfur and saltpeter - an unusual medium.

Tidbits from the Furnace

O.K. - I'm tired of 100+ degree weather! As of an hour ago, it was 103 degrees with 115 heat index. Now that's hot, whether you are in Arkansas or Arizona. I noticed that the high temp today in Kansas City is the same as Phoenix - 108. I just don't know about this crazy weather! Right now, Portland, OR looks pretty good with their 80 degree highs......
We were talking the other day about how much we do enjoy walking down to the River Market, getting enough fruit & vegies for a few days, having coffee/diet pepsi and crossants. It is a lot more fun than having to drive someplace to do those things. We've had a couple of meals lately of just fruit and cheese. The fruit is sooooo good. Tomatoes are currently at a peak so we devouring them. I swear that I haven't had watermelon and tomatoes like this since I was a kid.
Morris has finally started using his scratching post since I have been dousing it with cat nip spray. We had nightmares of what he could do with the new leather chair after using it as a scratching post which he did in Tucson when we first got him. I picked him up yesterday and it as very obvious that he has gained weight. He looks like he fits his body now - not so skinny. His coat is just beautiful with the meat he has been getting. What's funny is that eating the tuna hasn't stop him from eating his usual amount of dry food.
With time counting down, we have made a list of things we want to see while we are here but haven't yet. I was suprised at how many things are still on the list. We are really disappointed that we aren't able to do some of the hiking we wanted to do because of the heat. But oh well.....

Natual Spring at Hot Springs, AR

We drove over to Hot Springs today which is less than an hour away. We saw most of the things to see in Hot Springs when we were there last September except we didn't see one of the actual hot springs. The arrow points to where a spring comes out and then flows down over the rock into a pool. The below picture showes where the water is coming out of the ground. We could not believe how hot the water was when we stuckout fingers in it. There are 47 thermal water springs on the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain in the downtown district of the town. About a MILLION gallons of 143-degree water flows from the springs EACH DAY! The rate of flow is not affected by fluctuations in the area's rainfall. Studies by scientists have determined through carbon dating that the water that reaches the surface in Hot Springs fell as rainfall in an as-yet undetermined watershed 4,000 years ago. The water percolates very slowly down through the earth's surface until it reaches superheated areas deep in the crust and then rushes rapidly to the surface to emerge from the 47 hot springs. Water from some of the springs is channeled to the 8 Bath Houses that are all in a row on Central Ave. In the early 1900's, people from all over the world flocked to Hot Springs to have the thermal, mineral, theraputic baths. The Bath Houses have been restored and may still are functioning spas today.

Where the Natural Spring comes out of the mountain.

Where the water comes out of the mountain. You can barely see the steam coming up and you could feel the heat when standing close to this stream. There was a lot more steam than the pictures show.

Walking Tour of the Capitol Grounds

Today we went out early this morning and took a walking tour of the Arkansas State Capitol Grounds. There are 12 memorials to groups, individuals and events of Arkansas. In addition to the memorials, there are hundreds of trees, shrubs and flower gardens. This memorial is the War of 1812 Memorial Fountain. Many veterans of the War of 1812 received land grants in Arkansas Territory in lieu of pay for their service. This is a memorial to the 56 War of 1812 veterans who are buried in Arkansas and was dedicated in 1917. So....in return for risking their life in a war, they were given some land out in Indian Territory.
Rose in the rose garden.

Zinnia in one of the flower beds. Absolutely the most beautiful zinnias I have ever seen were in this bed of all sizes and colors.

The Eternal Flame symbolizing the "Spirit of Freedom". The flame was first lit on July 11, 1969.

The War Prisoners' Marker: The Capitol sits on ground that used to be a state prison. During the Civil Way, both Union and Confederate prisoners were held in this prison. This marker is in remembrance of the Confederate prisoners imprisoned here.

The Little Rock Nine Monument sits on the north side of the capitol. This sculptural grouping was dedicated in 2005 to honor the courage of the students who enrolled at Little Rock's Central High School in 1957. Their action was a major event in the Civil Right's movement. Quotations from each of the Nine are feature around the bronze figures.

A Liberty Bell Replica also sits on the North Side of the Capitol. The bell is one of 50 distributed to the states in 1950 after a successful Liberty Bond drive. The bond sale raised $6.5 billion to help pay the military costs of World War II. In 1977, it was incorporated into the present design along with a nearby fountain to pay tribute to American's Bicentennial.

Arkansas Governor's Mansion

The Governor's Mansion sits on 8.5 acres in the heart of the historic Quapaw Quarter of Little Rock which is not far from downtown and the Capitol. The 3 story home was built in the late 1940's at a cost of $100,000. The design is a modified Georgian-Colonial Style and contains over 300,000 bricks. The brick was taken from the old Arkansas School for the Blind which sat on the property from 1880 to 1939 before being relocated. Construction was completed in 1950 and becamse the first official residence for the governor. The combined area of the house, atrium, Grand Hall, etc is just over 30,000 sq ft. The landscaping is beautiful. Major renovations were made during Governor Huckabee's administration. He moved into a triple wide mobil home on the mansion grounds while the renovation was being done. His reason was to save cost by not having to relocate the security detail during the renovation. The Quapaw Quarter is full of hugh, beautifully restored homes with many of them being on the National Register of Historic Places.

North Little Rock's Argenta District

We went across the river to North Little Rock's Argenta District for lunch today. The town of Argenta, Arkansas was surveyed and platted in 1866. In 1890 the name was changed to North Little Rock. The area has been beautifully restored. Plants and light poles like these are all along the street.

Lunch was at the "Starving Artist Cafe". The walls were covered with paintings - soom good and some terrible, in my humble opinion. The restaurant food was excellent. The owner was a chef at a restaurant in New Orleans when they won the James Beard Award. After a couple of more places, they came up here and opened some restaurants here.

They mainted murals on the utility boxes along main street. What a great idea!

Baker House Bed & Breakfast on Main Street. It is a Queene Anne Victorian built in 1898. The house was restored in 1977 and placed on the National Register of Historic Structures in 1978. The original hitching post in in the front yard.

Catching-Up Day

Hard to believe we got here 4 weeks ago today. In some ways it seems like we have been here much longer and Tucson seems a long time ago. Today was declared a "Catching-Up Day" which meant catching up on reading, laundry, spending time with His Majesty, entering data in my genealogy data base, etc. We even went to the mall and did some shopping. There is a Dillards here that we have fallen in love with! It is HUGH and I love their selection of women's clothes. Larry has a good time in the men's dept and we both supported the local economy while at the store. By the way, the Headquarters for Dillards is here in Little Rock. It even rained some this afternoon but no big thunderstorm like I'm waiting for. Larry and Morris hope we leave here without experiencing one. Next week it's back to exploring and checking things off out list before we leave here on Aug 30th. This pic shows Morris's favorite sleeping place and sometimes he let's Larry share it.

Arkansas State Capitol

Today we took a tour of the State Capitol Building which is a beautiful building. It was constructed between 1899-1915 on the site of an old state penitentiary using prison labor. The original cost was $2.3 million. The interior walls and floors are almost all marble. The marble on the floors came from Vermont, the marble columns from Colorado and the grand staircase from Alabama. The exterior limestone is from Batesville, AR and the limestone used for the dome is from Indiana.

The 3 - 10 ft tall bronze east entrance doors were purchased from Tiffany's in 1910 for $10,000 and today would be worth over $250,000 today. The doors are polished daily.

This is the ceiling of the rotunda which is 213 ft high.

I got a close-up of the rotunda chandelier from the 4th floor. It is suspended by a 73 ft chain, weighs 4,000 lbs and is approximately 12 diameter and 18 ft high. The chandelier is lowered about every 4 years for cleaning and to change the light bulbs.

This room was the home of the Arkansas Supreme Court from 1912 - 1958. It is now used for committee meetings. In 2000, it was retored to its 1912 appearance.

House of Representives for the 100 members. Seating is determined by senority. The chandelier is a smaller version of the one in the rotunda.

Day lily blooming on the capitol grounds.

Lazy Day

Not much happening today... After a trip to the Walmart Supercenter, to pick up a perscription and get some groceries I spent the afternoon doing genealogy research. The Little Rock Main Library, 1.5 blocks from us, has a wonderful genealogy section. They not only have a HUGH Arkansas section but also have some good stuff on most other states, especially states that border Arkansas. Anyway, on Monday I was able to find by dad's great-grandfather which really unlocked the door for a lot of information. I was then able to find a bunch of Public Trees that traces the line back to the 1600's when they immigrated from England to the US. I went back today, while Larry cat set Morris, and found some more info. But....I still can't find my maternal grandfather when he was a child in Missouri.

Mountain View, AR

Today was a drive up north to Mountain View, AR which is about 2.5 hours over 2-lane winding roads. Our destination was the Ozark Folk Center that I had been looking forward to seeing. We finally get there and find out it is closed Sun-Tues even though there was nothing about that on their web page or in their brochures. So....we visited the gift shop and went into Mountain View. The town is about 2,800 residents and Route 66 goes through the middle of town along one side of the town square. I didn't realize such a place still existed that wasn't commercialized. I didn't see one sigh touting Route 66 like in the other towns I have seen where the road goes through town. The above picture is the Greers Ferry Dam and Lake that we crossed on the way up.

Main Street/Route 66 in Mountain View, AR.

Soda fountain in the town drug store. It was a VERY busy place.

Burns Park in North Little Rock

Burns Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the country with 1,700 acres. The park is located between the Arkansas River and an Interstate Freeway. It has a handicapped accessible fishing pier, camping area, two 18-hole golf courses, two 18-hole disc golf courses, baseball, softball complex, 17 soccer fields, 27 tennis curts (6 indoor), 6.2 miles of paved hiking trails, 4 miles of unpaved hiking trails and 7 miles of the River Trail which runs up and down the Arkansas River from Little Rock. This pic is taken from the River Trail.

Log Cabin built in 1849.

Covered Bridge in the park.

Flowers along the river.

Bush near the log cabin.

Geese crossing the road in the park.

Pros and Cons of Hi-Rise Living

We've been Hi-Rise residents for 3 weeks now and have definitely formed some opionions about the pros and cons. There are a lot of positives. #1 is the view - it is amazing. This picture was just before sunrise the other morning. It's fun looking down on the world and watch people's comings and goings or emergency vehicles zipping past with red lights and sirens going. A few nights ago there was a false alarm at the museum across the street and 8 fire turcks plus ambulances and police cars responded. It was about 9 p.m. and that was good entertainment for awhile since there was no damage. It's really neat to be able to walk to the River Market area with the shops and restaurants or to walk a block to the neighborhood pub. There is a concierge on duty 18 hours/day in our building down in the lobby. David, the day person, knows everything about everyone and where to go for what. We like dropping the dry cleaning off with him on Tuesday and picking it up from him on Friday after the dry cleaner have brought it back. The parking garage is secured with a gate and there is assigned parking. The lobby is also secured.

And now for the negatives........It's 4 miles, one way, to the nearest grocery store which isn't far but I was spoiled with being around the corner from Albertsons. Plus here, you have to wait for the elevator, walk to the car in the garage and then do down a level, wait for the gate to roll up before you even get on the street. A new thing we noticed this morning, when we went outside our apt door was the strong smell of bacon that someone had cooked for breakfast. It was throughout the halls and elevator area. However, the single biggest negative is that we don't have any place to sit outside or get fresh air into the apt. We could go up to the outside deck area on the 18th floor but that's not like opening the door and going out on the patio. There is a door in our glass wall with a French balcony which is just a waist high heavy screen thing over the bottom half of the door so you don't fall out. However, we can't open the door because you know who would immediately jump up on it and keep going over the side while practicing his flying skills so we keep it closed.

All in all, it fun for 2 months but we can't imagine being here in the Hi-Rise permanently.

Busy Saturday Morning

The picture really doesn't have anything to do with today but I've been waiting for a chance to use it. 8-) We were over at the Peabody Hotel this week and I took the pic of a flower arrangement that was in the lobby. The arrangement is about 3 ft high plus the table it is sitting on. Absolutely gorgeous! Saturday is the main Farmer's Market so we were up early and down there by about 7:30 a.m. I swear there must be a waiting crowd waiting for them to open because it was packed a 1/2 hour after it opened at 7. Soooooo much goooooood stuff to pick from.... It was a light shopping day for us since we only got corn and tomatoes. Larry can't believe how much stuff some people buy! I've already developed my favorite stalls depending on what we are wanting. And then we can go back to the "mini Farmer's Market" on Tuesday morning to get stuff for the rest of the week. After we get our veggies, etc, we go to the bread store and have breakfast of coffee/coke and usually have hugh, fresh crossiants. The whole area is just packed with people parking 4-5 blocks away and walking down to it. Then it was back down to the Library store (2 blocks away) where they have "gently read books" and gifts. This weekend is the Library's 3 Day Book Sale. The main sale is in the basement of the library where paperbacks go for $0.50 and hardbacks for $1 - doesn't make any difference what they are or what the original cost way. Hugh turnout! It is wonderful to see the Libraries here supported like they are and open 7 days/week. Tonight is back to the Peabody to listen to the jazz duo in the Lobby Bar and drink Pink Lemonade. 8-)

Scott Plantation Settlement at Ashley's Bayou

All the buildings commerating plantation life were relocated to this Settlement Museum from actual plantations in the area. Above is the Ashley/Alexander Log House. This dogtrot cabin was built in the 1840's across the bayou from the Settlement Plantation Museum. A dogtrot house consisted of two log cabins connected by a breezeway or dog trot, all under a common roof. Usually one cabin was used for cooking and dining while the other was sued as a private living space such as a bedroom. The breezeway provided a cooler place for sitting outside.


"Big House" c. 1880 from the Bearskin Lake Plantation. Also known as the "Master's House". This house was replaced by the Marlsgate Mansion in 1905 which was what we normally think of as a plantation mansion.

Outhouse

Blacksmith shop.

Minature bale of cotton.

Anyone besides me remember using a phone like this?