Getting Arty in Arkansas

 Hi Kids,

Emily and I have been in Arkansas.  It's easy to find on the map.  Can you find it?  We started out in northwest Arkansas.  Above, you can see the train station in Van Buren.  This is where we caught the train for a nice ride.  

Volunteers run the train -- the Arkansas Missouri Railroad.  It travels about 70 miles to Springdale.  I met two new friends.  On the left is Wayne Porter in his outfit as a Railway Express Special Agent.  On the right is the Conductor -- David Kerr.  They love trains -- and so do I.     

We went through some beautiful country and over three trestles (pronounced tress-uls).  I could look way down at the rivers or creeks below.  We even had lunch on the train.  When it was time to eat, Mr. Porter hit a chime that looked like a tiny xylophone.

After we reached Springdale, we got on a bus and went to Bentonville where we went to a fantastic art museum -- Crystal Bridges.  It is full of art by American artists from colonial times to contemporary times.

It's hard to get a picture of the whole museum.  Miss Elaine took this one from the little bridge looking toward the bigger bridge.  Below is a picture of a model of the museum.  It's built like an O.

The museum owns more than a thousand works of art but they only put out part of the collection at a time.  They change the collections on display so that each time you visit, you'll see something new.

I'm sitting in the restaurant (in the little bridge) but I didn't have anything to eat.  I was still too full from lunch.  

 That night we saw more art at a really cool hotel called 21C Museum Hotel (for Twenty-first Century, I think).  It was full of art like a museum.  Almost everything was really modern.  I couldn't always tell what the artist was trying to show but I liked looking at the pieces anyway.  The hotel mascot is a penguin.  They have lots of penguins like this one.  And they move them around -- sometimes in funny ways.  Right now there are three 21C Museum Hotels in the country.  One of Miss Elaine's friends stayed in one in Louisville, Kentucky and one night she found one of the penguins in her shower!  That would be a funny surprise!  Don't you think Emily looks pretty in this picture?  She was wearing her purple and gold and green necklace.  We look a lot alike -- but sometimes she fancies herself up a bit!

I have lots more to tell you about our Arkansas adventures so be watching for more posts soon.

Love,
Tiger