But to drive home then would mean joining the throng of commuters. So I ended up stopping at Riverfront Park in North Little Rock, trying to find a new spot to get a view of the downtown skyline. I passed by this spot, with these strange posts in the water. I guess they were used to dock boats at one point?
This is looking up river, with the Broadway Bridge standing above the distant Baring Cross Bridge.
I walked under the Broadway Bridge, and ended up setting the camera up along the river, and waited for it to get dark. When the sky finally turned to dusk, I was distracted by a call on my cellphone. An old friend from college who I hadn't talked to in years decided to randomly call. I tried to take pictures and talk at the same time, which meant that I really wasn't paying much attention to the camera. Luckily, a few of the shots actually turned out.
During the call, my friend reported that he had found a coffee table book at a store in Fayetteville that had a few of my pictures in it. I laughed and asked him if he bought a copy of the book so that I could autograph it for him. He laughed back and said "no, of course not..."
After a long conversation, he got bored talking to me and said he had to go. Which was cool, the good light in the sky was gone and I was starting to get cold. I packed up the camera and started walking back to the car. Now one really neat thing about Riverfront Park is the view of the skyline. But also there are tons of stately trees growing along the river. They look to be very old, they were probably growing here back when the city first started to develop around them. It's amazing that they have managed to live this long, especially since this has only been a park for a few decades now.
I passed by one huge tree, that must have been centuries old. In fact, the tree had grown up so much that it actually went and engulfed another tree next to it. It was standing tall by a streetlight, which provided some nice illumination during this 10 second exposure...
I had some time to kill, so I headed back into Little Rock and tried to find something else to get pictures of. I rambled back and forth, and eventually decided to visit a parking deck by Main Street. I hadn't been up there since 2009, so why not?
I got the top of the parking deck and found a deep blanket of snow. By this time, most of the snow that we had gotten a few days previous had already melted. The top of this deck must be in shadow during the day, since the snow was still several inches deep. Plus, most of it was fresh. Some people had tried to drive in it, but there weren't that many footprints.
I admit that I had to do some work on the color in these pictures. The parking deck was illuminated by a few streetlights, which cast a yellowish glow on everything. That glow made the snow look yellow - and no one wants to see much yellow snow...
I took advantage of the snow and made a little snowman. My hands were cold, so it was a clumsy attempt and it created an awkward little figure. But he has a nice view, here he is enjoying the downtown skyline.
On the opposite side of the parking deck is this view, looking down on the old Albert Pike Hotel. The old hotel was built in 1929, and was in operation until the 1970s. After that it became an old folk's home. I assume it still is, although it looks like there is a popular little bar in the lobby that was attracting a lot of customers.
Seeing people going into the warm bar made me wonder why exactly I was standing in three inches of slushy snow on a cold night taking pictures of old buildings...
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