Gardenland Express, Botanical Garden of the Ozarks

Santa was also visiting the Gardenland Express

The Gardenland Express is an annual Christmas event at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.  It is a large model train exhibit with trains, homemade cookies, punch and chocolate milk.  I volunteered today.  The Christmas Market was also today with merchants all around the Garden.  The Gardenland Express is open week-ends through December 18th.

Some of the wreath's at the Christmas Marketplace

Children watching the train in the Gardenland Express

View of a few of the vendors in the Marketplace

Engineers getting the trains running.

Cookies are out and ready for eating

Old State House Museum, Little Rock, AR

This photo is in the section about Arkansas Women.  Hattie Carrway was elected to the U.S. Senate from Arkansas.  She was the first woman in the nation to be elected and serve in that office.

View from the street

Illustration of the Capitol when it was first built.

Senate Chamber

Oldest dress in the First Ladies Exhibit.  It is from 1890's.

Part of the First Ladies Exhibit.

Part of my site-seeing on this trip to Little Rock was a trip to the Old State House Museum.  This was designed and built after the captial of Arkansas Territoy was moved to Little Rock.  In recent years it has been the backdrop for several national news events.  The most famous if Bill Clinton's announcement that he was running for President.  The Museum has several permanent exhibits and a wing that has a traveling exhibit.  While I was visiting it was on the Civil War.  Above are some photos from the museum.

Historic Arkansas

Street view of one of the brick homes.

This home is frame as has a spring house in the back.

Front of one of the homes  The white building is a tavern.

Across the street some building have been moved in including this dog trop log cabin.

A few block from the Clinton Center is Historic Arkansas, a city block of houses and a tavern.  They were built in the 1820's when the territorial capital of Arkansas was moved from Arkansas Post to Little Rock.  Little Rock was a new planned city when it was chosen as the site for the new territorial capital.  In the 1920 a group of ladies realized that many of the original homes and businesses were being torn down and they purchased the building on this block.  All but one is in its  location and the one that is not was moved only to a new location on the block.  There is a charge to tour and tours are with a guide who can tell you the history of the times and the buildings.  There is also a museum with traveling exhibits on site.

Decorating the Christmas Tree at the Clinton Center

They were putting ornaments on the tree outside the Clinton Center on the day after Thanksgiving.  I was glad they did not do it before Thanksgiving.

Converted Railroad Bridge at the Clinton Presidential Center

The Bridge has to keep its center span up for river traffic.  You can see the ramp built to allow walking and riding across.

People on the bridge.

Arkansas River looking east from the bridge.

You can see the slope of the ramp going across the bridge.

There is a unused Railroad bridge crossing the Arkansas River on the Clinton Center grounds.  It just opened for crossing recently so I took a walk across.  Unlike the railroad bridge to the west of the Center you can walk or ride across without having to use stairs or an elevator to get from one level to the next.  If you walk or bike across to North Little Rock you can follow the path west to the Big Dam Bridge cross back over to Little Rock and follow the path east back to the Clinton Center.  The entire loop is 12 miles.

Clinton Presidential Library

I visited the Clinton Presidential Library when it first opened.  That visit was the inspiration for visits to other Presidential Libraries.  Any Presidential Library is worth a visit so if you are in Little Rock make time to spend a few hours at this one.  There is permanent display that documents Clinton's years in the White House  and a temporary exhibit areas for traveling displays.  The one today is a display made up of lego bricks.

This is a replica of the Cabinet Room at the White House

A view of the two levels of the Permanent Collection

There had to be a razorback in the Lego temporary collection.

The Oval Office as it looked in the Clinton White House.

Wetlands at Clinton Presidental Library

The wetlands in eastern Arkansas are perfect for water fowl hunters.  There is a statue of a hunter and his dog at the start to the Wet lands walkway.

A view across the walkway.

This the a view from the railroad bridge.  The Little Rock skyline is in the background.

I am in Little Rock for Thanksgiving and decided to stay a few days and play tourist.  I visited the Clinton Presidential Library today.  There is a new walkway around part of the 70 acres of wetlands that are part of the Library grounds.  It is a very easy walk.  Today was perfect for being outside and quite a few people were taking advantage of the good weather.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am in Little Rock to have Thanksgiving with two of my sons.  Hope all of you are having a good day with family or friends.

Member's Preview - Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

The walk into the museum

I became An Original by purchasing my membership In Crystal Bridges before the museum opened.  That membership let me attend a Member's Preview today (November 9, 2011) two days before the official opening on 11/11/11.  I did not take many photos.  I did not want to divide my attention, I wanted to focus on the museum and the art.  I did take a few that highlight the facility to share.  This is truly a magnificent museum and well worth the trip to Northwest Arkansas.  In fact plan to take more than one day.  I certainly plan to returning several times in the next few months.

Alice Walton, the museum founder in the lobby looking very proud and with very good reason.

View from one wing looking  across the water.

One part of The Colonial Exhibit

The View down the bridge where the restaurant is located.

A Few Fall Pictures

My mums looked really good this year

Find the butterfly in the flowers

We had such a hot dry summer nothing bloomed until the days and nights cooled off.

We have actually had pretty good fall color.

In the Neighborhood

I walked out around 9:30 A.M. yesterday and saw the two deer across the street.  The buck looked at me and went back to eating.  I went in, got the camera, and took several pictures.  We have doe's and their fawn's around all the time but this is the first buck I have seen here in the neighborhood.

Nimrod Dam - Arkansas Scenic Highway 7

Dam information.

It has been very dry and you can see how low the lake is looking at the back of the dam.

There is still water being released but even the rive looks low.

Fall color is beginning to show. 

I received a card telling me the engraving and vases had been completed on the headstone to my Mother and Father's graves.  I drove down to check everything out and put flowers in the vases.  I left the Inter-State at Russelville and followed Arkansas Highway 7 through Hot Springs and Arkadelphia.  7 goes through the heart of Hot Springs and the downtown was full of tourists.  On the way back I pulled off to see Nimrod Dam.  There is a lovely campground below the dam.  I did wish for the RV to stop and spend the night.  This part of Arkansas 7 goes through the Ouachita Mountains.

Botanical Garden of the Ozarks - Butterfly Pavilion

I visited the Garden yesterday, Oct. 4, 2011, to see the new Butterfly Pavilion.  It is a small screened in enclosure shaped like a butterfly and located at the rear of the Gardens.  Here are pictures of the Pavilion and some of the butterflies found in the Pavilion and throughout the Garden.  In spite of the hot and dry weather this summer the Garden looked beautiful.  Visit if you have a chance.

There were several kinds of  insects feasting on the flowers.

One of the butterflies.

Another butterfly

Entrance walk to the Butterfly Pavilion

The Butterfly Pavilion and the volunteer enjoying the wonderful weather

Volunteer and a newly hatched butterfly.  It was still wet and not flying.

Another butterfly picture.

And still another

And another.  The garden was full of butterflies.

This one spent the entire time I was in the Pavilion trying to escape.

Too many opportunities for photos to pass up.  I just kept snapping.

I was going for the butterfly but the camera focused on the insect in the foreground.

Now it is focused on the butterfly and in insect is out of focus.