Arkansas #47
ARKANSAS — JANUARY 2016
MLK weekend brings us South again for the holiday, and state #47.
16-Jan-2016
Layover at the nice, modern Charlotte airport. Breakfast at Whiskey River: 2 eggs, biscuit, bacon, over cheesy grits. Very good, and big enough for 2 people – welcome to the South! Friendly waitress.
Little Rock’s Clinton Airport has the car rentals right next to the terminal and a very helpful Tourist Info booth full of maps and brochures. It is just a few minute’s drive into the city center.
The Clinton Presidential Library. It’s big and shiny, but it didn’t have the same personal touches that others – like Carter and Reagan – have and therefore feels a bit cold and sterile.
First stop: Clinton Presidential Library. We’re coming to the end of our Reagan Library membership and so take advantage of the reciprocity with all the other libraries (members of any of the libraries have admission privileges at all the others). Nice design, in part modeled after Trinity College Library in Dublin. Like other libraries, there is a replica of the Oval Office, but you have to pay to get a photo of you behind the desk. The usual library fare, but honestly of the 7 we have visited this is the least impressive as far as the exhibits go. Not a whole lot about their upbringings…
Going whole hog at Whole Hog BBQ.
Drive a few miles to Whole Hog BBQ (discovered through Yelp), winner of so many contests, the trophies fill the building. We get one plate of ribs, brisket and pulled pork, side of cream corn and cole slaw. On the table is a 6-pack of sauces, from sweet to vinegar. Volcano is only available at the cashier. Price was approx $20, and well worth it.
Drive back near the library to see Heifer Project headquarters and its small museum (Heifer Village). The bio gas stove powered by cow manure is one of our favorites. Gift shop is nice, not overpriced. Free admission. Our church supports this charity (teach a man to fish concept), and it is a really great organization!
Drive to upscale Kavanaugh Street for gourmet popsicles at LePops. They have a rotating selection of cream-based and juice-based pops. 50 cents extra to dip on chocolae and 50 cent extra for one of 8 crumbled toppings. The bourboun and brown sugar is delicious, and we also get 5 home s’mores. The graham crackers are put over chocolate and homemade marshmallow and cooked with a small torch.
Flavors change daily at Le Pops. The neighborhood has a lot of cute boutiques.
Comfortable suite at the Homewood Suites, right downtown. We’re near a district with nice houses – bungalows and Victorians (Scott Road – we look up a for sale sign and discover it is $450K – would be 4x that in Boston).
My wife loves me so she researched men stuff to do. One of these men stuffs is a distillery. Rock Town is first [legal] distillery in Arkansas since prohibition. We get a private tasting in the bar in the back. We taste about a dozen things and purchase their top of the line limited edition whiskey and 100 proof apple pie spice. Good thing we are walking distance from the hotel.
We walk around the corner to Lost Forty Brewery for dinner. I get a chocolate stout that is very light, not syrupy. We eat homemade keilbasa with homemade mustard and some cheese and a spicy chicken salad on arugla with some muscadine jam. Dessert is bread pudding topped with tangy buttermilk ice cream from Loblolly (more on that later). Lost 40 has big, shared tables and we meet foodie med students who give us the low down on where to eat.
17-Jan-2016
Drive to the suburbs to visit the Old Mill at T.R. Pugh Memorial Park in North Little Rock, built in 1832 and in opening shots of Gone with the Wind. Mexican sculptor Dionico Rodriguez made each piece of concrete work to represent wood, iron or stone, and he designed the foot bridges and rustic seats.
We find an estate sale that starts at 11 am right near the mill. We get in a line and buy a few odds and ends.
Back to the to The Root restaurant in the hip SoMa district The Root is extremely popular, long wait for locally sourced meats, veggies, and homemade biscuits with the house muscadine jelly.
Across the street inside The Greene Store is Loblolly ice cream. The market has all kinds of overpriced goodies. We get a pint of buttermilk and cookie ice cream.
Arkansas Arts Center. When they built the new museum, instead of razing the old building they wisely built around it and preserved its beautiful Deco exterior.
Drive to Arkansas Arts Center. Contemporary and classic art, including a special collection of Paul Signac watercolors. There are some pieces of Art Deco glass and American art pottery. A very exciting find are a couple of Venice seascapes that once hung in Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill in London, which we visited just a few months ago. The current museum is built around the old museum, and mercifully they lefts its beautiful deco façade intact.
Next door is the Little Rock Arsenal and birthplace of Douglas MacArthur Birthplace, which is now the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History and includes a room dedicated to jeeps and many other little surprises.
Stained glass memorial window in the Military History Museum.
Photograph collection in the Museum of Military History includes this touching photo of a little Italian boy teaching the GIs a few key phrases. The last one is “Volete venire a passeggiare con me?” i.e. “Would you like to take a wake with me?” (in the plural, btw, like he’s going to invite several ladies). Do you think the kid decided to teach them this, or did they request it?
Visit a couple of antique malls and along the way purchase some shelled pecans from an old man on the side of the road selling from his car (these are actually good). We pop into an open house at an adorable bungalow with a small guest house near the hospital area. A little more pricey than we expected, but still a fraction of Boston prices.
Back to Le Pops for the black sesame pop. Nutty and delicious.
Back downtown to Stones Throw Brewing, another microbrewery. We grab dinner out back from a food truck called GourmAsian. We get super spicy dumplings with straw mushrooms and caramelized onions and sandwich of pulled pork with Siracha and lime sauce. The beer here was okay, oatmeal stout not as sweet as I would have liked. We also get a $5 plate of local cheese from Kent Walker Artisan Cheese.
18-Jan-2016
Wake up to snow with a thin covering of ice on the car. Really???? no ice scrapers.
Note the icicles hanging of the statue in the town of Hot Springs.
We drive up to Hot Springs, where ironically it is quite cold. Hot Springs National Park includes the historic Fordyce Bathhouse, which was left vacant for about 40 years and so can be seen as it was when it closed in 1962. Much of the facility is preserved and is well interpreted. Free admission. We decide not to take the waters at one of the modern bath houses, but we do enjoy walking around town. It is still a tourist attraction, and there are lots of fun shops and places to eat, like the retro candy place Colonial Candy Corner.
The Fordyce Bathhouse is well-preserved and you can take a self-guided tour.
Last stop before the airport is Sims BBQ. Bars on the windows, locals inside. We didn’t like it as much as Whole Hog, but it was authentic and good, and the service was friendly.