Little Rock 2008...some miscellaneous buildings

Just some miscellaneous photos from our trip to Little Rock Arkansas which show some of the architecture there.

The Clinton School of Public Service...right by the Clinton Library...

An old railroad bridge that crosses the Arkansas River...
...right next to the Clinton Library...
...the plan is to convert it to a walking bridge...

A building in North Little Rock...

A building in Little Rock being converted into a charter school...

This building's fire escape reminds us of the climax scene from...
..."It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World"...

Little Rock 2008...easy rider...

Little Rock is a fun city to visit. It's clean, well kept up, the people are friendly, and just when you get a little comfortable you see something that strikes you...

Wyatt & Billy rode past the trolley...

Perhaps they were passing through...
...on their way to Madame Tinkertoy's House of Blue Lights...
...if that's the case then they have a lot of pedaling left...

Little Rock 2008...while away...

Paul's sister Diane was kind enough to watch Sammy (and Veto) while we went to Little Rock for the weekend. His other sister Anne came down on Saturday. As always, Sammy had a great time with his aunts...and Grant too.

Perhaps it was Paul's sisters' mischievous side or perhaps rebellion for the Sammy "manual" that Paul wrote up for them...but together the two aunts set the house upside down and took some photos to show us. Here are some of the ones we can put on the web...

Aunt Anne caught Veto in a trapping pit courtesy of Byerly's...
(Byerly's is the grocery store with carpeting and chandeliers)

Veto seemed to like it though...

Anne & Diane tried to teach Sammy new "tricks"...

Little Rock 2008...late night TV

What's on late night TV in Little Rock? One night the hotel's fire alarm repeatedly kept going off so we didn't get much sleep.

On this talk show the excitement was that the guest brought his own bottle of water...
...a gallon of water...
(by his right foot)
...which he drank from...
...oh, the excitement...

While his wife is at a pharmacist convention, Paul watches Kevin Trudeau...
...the man who thinks taking linseed oil is better than chemotherapy...

Little Rock 2008...from our (old) house to the Old State House...

Right next door to our hotel in Little Rock was the Old State House. Saturday morning Paul went over to check it out while Michele was deep in whatever pharmacists do at conventions. Apparently after they moved to the new state house, the Old State House fell into disrepair. Then they repaired it. And it seems to be fairly well kept up now.

The Old State House...

A pair of Bill Clinton's running shoes was on display inside...

Little Rock 2008...the straight talk...

While in Little Rock for a conference this past weekend, we were walking in front of our hotel and saw that John McCain was in town right across the street. The local news people were out and even a handful of protesters (or supporters?). We stuck around for a little while, but got bored of waiting to see if he would appear.

Did the Straight Talk Express bus parallel park into that spot?

In Little Rock, either McCain draws very little protesters...or supporters...
...this was the sum total of the bunch...

The local news guy didn't seem to thrilled...
...when Paul snapped a series of photos of him...
...he must be camera shy...

Little Rock 2008...the Trolley

Little Rock turned out to be a nice city. It's small, the streets are very clean, easy to get around, and the people are quite friendly. There is a small trolley system in the downtown. A day pass is $2. One of the conductors was really nice, gave quite a bit of information about the city...past history, current developments, and future directions.

Clang, clang, clang, went the trolley...

Ding, ding, ding went the bell...

Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings...

The trolleys were brought over from Italy and refurbished...
...there are no turntables-- the conductor has to walk to the other side and drive to reverse direction...

Unfortunately we didn't have time for a carriage ride...

Little Rock 2008...the Clinton Oval Office

The Clinton Library has a mock up of the Oval Office we saw while visiting the library. This is as close as we'll ever be to seeing the oval office (well, at least what it might look like in person). Here are a few pics...though we suspect everyone has seen photos of the office.

Given how attached Sammy is to his barcalounger, if he ever becomes president we pity the interior designer who will have to find a way to fit that into the Oval Office.

Dimensions of the real Oval Office (as obtained from the online White House Museum):

• Long axis: 35' 10" (10.9m)
• Short axis: 29' (8.8m)
• Height: 18' 6" (5.6m)