A Downtown Christmas

One fun thing about having a toddler is getting to see how excited he gets when he's out seeing things. This year he has gotten into Christmas, so we've been taking him to different places to see the lights and decorations. Last weekend we headed to the historic Capitol Hotel in downtown Little Rock, which features a massive Christmas tree in its lobby. Jonah happily screamed when he saw it (much to the presumed delight of the other visitors, sorry Capitol Hotel). If only the tree had Paw Patrol ornaments on it, it would have blown his mind.



The tree is a 30 foot tall white fir, and has about 15,000 lights on it. The tree is so tall that it nearly touches the ceiling of the second floor.



From there we crossed the street and went inside the Marriott Hotel, which had some Christmas decorations up. But their Christmas tree didn't seem as tall as the one in the Capitol Hotel, which granted you'd probably need to have a redwood tree there in order to reach the ceiling.



The next night I swung by the State Capitol around sunset. A tiny bit of golden light was left in the sky, which was being reflected back in the glass of the downtown towers.



And another view looking east towards the skyline, showing some cracked pavement. Which is a little infuriating to see, since my car is currently in the shop after I drove into a massive pothole which ended up bending the wheel. Should I send the bill to the city of Little Rock to pay since they've gotten lazy about patching all the potholes?



And a view of the Capitol dome, as seen through one of the many trees on the grounds.



A few minutes later, the 55,000 lights on the Capitol were switched on. The Capitol has been lit by lights since 1938, a tradition which was started to help lift the spirits of the kids who were staying at the nearby Arkansas Children's Hospital.



If you head down Capitol Avenue from here, you'd soon reach the Little Rock Christmas Tree (at Capitol and Main Street). The city's tree reaches 65 feet, but it does seem overshadowed by the buildings around it.





From there I headed a few blocks north and caught a ride on the Metro Streetcar as it slowly made its way through downtown. There weren't any other passengers on board, so I set the camera up on a tripod and tried to take some long exposures of the city lights passing by the trolley windows. The streetcars are decorated for the holidays, with lights and garland and even some ornaments that swayed as the trolley lumbered down the road. These shots were taken around the Capitol Hotel and the Statehouse Convention Center.