Mini-Vacation, Part II

Dale already summarized the concert portion of our mini-vacation, so he asked me to fill in the rest. He didn’t mention that we stopped in Wiederkehr Village on our way down to Little Rock on Saturday. I had checked out a book from the library—“Off the Beaten Path: Arkansas”—before the trip, and its description of the Swiss Alpine-style village that’s on the National Register intrigued us. We stopped there for lunch—had a yummy beef stroganoff meal followed by an apple dumpling ala mode for dessert. (We split both, so we didn’t overdo it on the calories!) Note: There are no pictures of Widerkehr Village to be found anywhere on its site or any other travel site, except for some of the wine cellars and a couple of the entrance to the Weinkeller Restaurant, so here it is below:

On Sunday we were looking for things to do and see in Little Rock. Richie Poe and my guidebook both recommended the River Market area downtown, which the book described as “an amazing renovation” and “booming.” Well, we found it to be neither. Maybe a cold, drizzly March day is not the time to be there. We split a gyro sandwich at the food court and did a little walking to see if there was anything worth seeing. There wasn’t and I was cold and miserable, so we got in the car and drove around. Here's a photo (not ours) of the interior of the River Market food court:

We found the Capitol building. It’s a beautiful white marble building with the requisite columns and dome. Along the curved drive leading up to it, the pink tulip trees were in spectacular bloom. Inside, we were kind of surprised that there was no security. We just walked in and wandered all over the building. We could have been terrorists planting bombs for all they knew! Of course, they were probably watching our every move with cameras. Anyway, we weren’t terrorists, and we had a swell time looking at the splendor of the interior and reading the historical displays. Some photos follow, first of an angle of the exterior, reminiscent of the capitol in Washington; then of the center front, showing the three large polished brass doors, no longer used for entries; then a detail of the middle door; then the interior of the dome, with 16-light chandelier suspended.

After that, we drove around in the Quapaw Quarter, where there are lots of lovely old buildings and houses, Victorian through Craftsman era, mostly. We saw the Governor’s Mansion—at least the massive grounds, as it’s all surrounded by a tall iron fence. I was disappointed—it didn’t look majestic like the Missouri Governor’s Mansion. Just rambling and ostentatious. Looked like maybe a 1920s Colonial Revival that had been added on to many times with no concern for appropriateness. The landscaping was overdone and tacky-looking. But that’s just MY humble opinion!

We also went to MacArthur Park—too cold to walk around outside, so we toured the Arkansas Arts Center. Saw some less-important works by some of the world’s greatest artists. There was a display of art by area high school students that was quite impressive. Those kids are talented!

Our guidebook mentioned the Decorative Arts Museum that is housed in the Pike-Fletcher-Terry Mansion, built in 1839. It was free, so we went to check it out. Not very impressive. I guess the house had lost most of its original features throughout its many incarnations: a house, its occupation by Federal troops during the Civil War, its use as a women’s college, and now a museum. Just empty rooms and a surly docent who talked on her cell phone the whole time we were there.

By then, we were all historical-buildinged out, so we went to our Best Western (took FOREVER to find it). Dale mostly napped while I watched “Key Largo.” He woke up in time to cheerfully watch the bad guys get their due from Bogie.

Of course, we can’t go to Arkansas without looking for the best catfish around. After doing some research, we decided to try Grampa’s Catfish house. That was a good choice. It was delicious. We ordered 2 “senior” plates, thinking that would be smaller portions. Nope. Huge portions and we didn’t want to waste any of it, so we pigged out.

Monday morning we headed home. But we decided to look for an Indian restaurant we’d eaten at once before. Dale thought it was in Fayetteville, but I remembered it as being either Rogers or Bentonville. Dale asked Agatha, our British GPS lady. Eureka! He found Star of India listed in Springdale, so he set the GPS to take us there. We arrived—no Star of India, but a Thai restaurant. He checked the GPS again and found there was another in Bentonville. Eureka! So he set the GPS to take us there, but when we got there, no Star of India. Then I spotted Acropolis, a Greek/Middle Eastern place, so we zipped in there. It was good. Dale had another gyro and I had falafel.

After that, we drove back to Joplin, full and happy, and trying to beat the rain storms that the weatherman had predicted. I went on to the library to work a few hours. My vacation is over, but Dale is on spring break. I will be taking next week off. Kelly and the boys (minus Mike) are planning to come. She is going to help me figure out how to landscape our new backyard.