A Day in Little Rock

We didn’t have too much planned for today as we hadn’t been able to find much before our trip. We did read about a pig sculpture but couldn’t seem to find it and the locals we talked to didn’t know about it.  Across the river in North Little Rock, there is The Old Mill so off we went. 

The Old Mill is an historic re-creation of an 1880's water-powered grist mill.  According to the sign there, it was in the opening scene of "Gone With The Wind".  As many times as we've watched the movie, we couldn't remember it so to YouTube we went and what do you know, it sure was!

After the mill, we drove around the historic area of North Little Rock. Sadly many of the business looked closed down. There is a trolley that runs throughout Little Rock and crosses over the river to North Little Rock and we got a quick glimpse of it. 

A shopkeeper in town told us about a farm to table restaurant in the SoMa (South Main) area so we thought we’d give it a try. The Root Cafe is definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in Little Rock. There were some beautiful homes and buildings on that side of town. 

Before the trip, we read about the H.U. Lee International Gate. The gate is a symbol of friendship between South Korea and the USA. It honors the American Taekwondo Association founder. The international headquarters of the ATA is here in Little Rock. 

We also heard the Capitol was pretty. When we got there, we couldn’t really figure out how to get in so we stopped a man walking and he personally escorted us to the legislature parking and said we could park there since they were out today. He brought us in through the tunnel and got us through security. We could tell by the way security treated him, he must be someone important but he never introduced himself. After he escorted us into the main part of the Capitol and told us a little about it, he left us to explore on our own. I couldn’t stand not knowing  who he was so I went back to security to ask. Turns out he is the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff. He was very friendly and kind to take the time to help us...can definitely tell we're in the South!

Imagine our surprise to find Underwood on one of the name plates.  

This is House Representative Kendon Underwood (no relation).

The building was very nice and it was great to have it pretty much to ourselves. We wandered around the floors and opened doors…figured unless someone came after us we were okay. We were able to look into the House and Senate chambers from the galleries. I was reminded how lucky and blessed we are to live in the USA because in other parts of the world there is no way you could walk around a government building unescorted and forget about taking photos. I’ve been in many countries where it was illegal to even take photos of the outside of a government building. 

Sentate Chamber

House Chamber

We kept seeing around town these electric scooters.  Turns out they are part of a pilot program between Lime and the city of Little Rock.  Similar to ZipCar, the scooters are left where the user leaves them and are billable by the minute.  They are $1 to unlock (with app) and then $0.15 for each minute.  To make sure the city doesn't become littered with them, nightly Lime staff and Juicers (independent contractors) pick them up every night and charge them and then place them strategically around town the next morning.

After driving around a little, we stopped at a Wendy’s and had a frosty. Daddy loved frosties and it was one of our weekly rituals up until just the Thursday before he passed.  We headed back to the hotel to chill before packing up for tomorrow’s flight home.