Wife, Danny, and I had never been to Little Rock, Arkansas, before this past weekend. I’m pretty sure we traveled through there sometime back in the 80s or 90s en route to the Ozark and Quachita mountains for camping, but we had never stopped for any duration.
So, with daughter, Rachel-Johanna driving, and Reba McEntire singing “Little Rock” on the radio, we headed north to the Arkansas capital city last Thursday morning for an extended weekend stay. The trip was planned to celebrate her boyfriend Greg’s birthday and to meet, and visit, with his parents for a couple of days. It may have been a little bit too extended considering how hard it was staying awake on the long drive home Sunday afternoon, and how hard it was to get out of bed come Monday morning!
Greg lives in downtown Little Rock and works just outside the city near his childhood home of White Hall where his parents still reside today. Our daughter, on the other hand, lives and works in our capital city of Jackson. So, yes, it is a long distance relationship to say the least but seems to be working out just fine for them...perhaps better than just fine...perhaps even serious!
Danny and I rented a fantastic apartment downtown just a few blocks from Greg’s place. It is an Airbnb and probably the best Airbnb we have stayed in. We prefer that rental process for traveling over hotels. It is often less expensive and usually the rooms — or in this case the entire apartment — are nicer and much larger. This place was fine, and if you are ever in need of accommodations in Little Rock, we can certainly hook you up. It is, however, upstairs above a little bar so if that type of thing is offensive to you, you might should shop around.
Day one was pretty much a traveling day, and since our daughter’s very large German Shorthaired Pointer, Lady, was along for the ride as well, it was quite the slobbery traveling day at that.
When it comes to dogs, Little Rock is probably the most dog-friendly city we’ve ever been too. There are nice dog parks, dog-friendly bars, and even dog-friendly restaurants where the dogs can order a meal and their humans can order one as well. There are also pet clean-up stations scattered around town next to the sidewalks.
Mississippi could learn a lot about being more dog-friendly. It would be attractive to the younger crowd and us older folks as well.
Greg also has a dog. A big, brown, tail-wagging, friendly rescue fellow named Roscoe. Roscoe Jenkins to be exact. We lovingly refer to Rachel-Johanna’s dog and Roscoe as Lady and the Tramp from the movie by the same name. Lady loves Roscoe. Roscoe? Well I’m not so sure he feels the same just yet. He does tolerate her though.
Our rental was not pet-friendly so Lady spent the weekend at Greg’s. She has been there often, and at just a few weeks shy of being one year old likes to be the center of attention and run around everywhere, especially inside the little street side bar below Greg’s apartment. It is owned by his best friend, Butler, and is also pet-friendly. As I said, lots of places in Little Rock are pet-friendly, and this bar, Lucky Lou’s, is as people friendly as it is pet friendly, and we had a great time there the evening of our arrival.
Day two we met Greg’s parents, Sam and Kathy, in Hot Springs for lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf on the shore of Lake Hamilton and then they took us on a tour of Garvan Woodland Gardens, the botanical garden of the University of Arkansas. This place is spectacular, especially the magnificent Anthony Chapel on the grounds.
Paved trails lead visitors in, around, and about the gardens above the lake and this past weekend, during the change of seasons, the gardens and rock formations were beautiful. The grounds keepers were beginning to string thousands of lights in preparation for the holidays, and from what we could see, that is going to be a sight to behold. And, yes, dogs are welcome there too.
We had lunch at Greg’s parents house on Saturday and then enjoyed a tour of that town by car. They are both retired educators and we saw the schools where they worked and where Greg was educated and participated in most sports as well. Interestingly, they are the White Hall Bulldogs. Keep reading to see why that is interesting.
Sam and Kathy were gracious hosts and they are all, as would be expected, huge Arkansas Razorback fans. My family, on the other hand, bleeds maroon and we are Mississippi State graduates and diehard “Bulldog” fans.
Interesting! Right?
We didn’t know they were Bulldogs until our tour, but as fate would have it we had brought along the perfect hostess gift in the form of a basket filled with hoop cheese, fresh sliced bacon, and some other goodies from Williams Bros. Grocery in Philadelphia, topped off with a nice maroon and white MSU cowbell to boot.
Although I did not see nor hear him ring the bell during our visit, it was sitting next to Sam’s chair when we departed!
Sunday was Greg’s birthday and we treated him to brunch, and a bucket of Champagne Mimosas, at a cool little restaurant next to our apartment called EJ’s Eats and Drinks. Pancakes, breakfast tacos, and biscuits smothered in gravy for them, and a delicious B.E.L.T for me wrapped up a food-heavy long birthday weekend. For the record the B.E.L.T. was a bacon, runny fried egg, lettuce, and tomato sandwich which was very, very good!
We had also brought along a birthday bag to brunch, complete with a Mississippi State baseball cap and t-shirt for Greg, and took some good pictures of him with those for his Razorback friends to enjoy.
Lots of fun was had in Little Rock over the weekend. Lots of fun, and we got to enjoy a little downtime with some really nice people as well.
Including Greg! Especially Greg!
And that alone made the trip worthwhile.
