Pine Bluff adventure

Here is Beth on her way to her first dance lesson. Hope's signed her up in a local class for a couple hours per week, and she's all excited.

Today (Saturday) we drove to the city of Pine Bluff about an hour north of Monticello. Since we had no big plans for Labor Day weekend, we figured we'd make a quick trip to see a few things close to home. First, we went to the Pine Bluff farmers' market, which has pretty well wound down for the year. They have the farmers' in a pavilion along an old river cut-off channel near downtown Pine Bluff. This rather nice structure was built with the intention of helping to revitalize downtown Pine Bluff, which has seriously decayed over the last few decades as traffic has been diverted to the interstate beltway that runs around town.

For scale, Hope is the figure in white at the end of this building. There weren't a lot of vendors at this point in the summer, but we were able to get some good looking squash, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, and a watermelon for very little money.

We then drove a little ways to Regional Park. About 5 or 6 years ago the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, using a small special sales tax, constructed a nature center in this park. The theme of this nature center is the Mississippi River delta, which is that real flat, now agriculturally-dominated portion of eastern Arkansas. Amongst other exhibits, the kids really like the aquarium they have, with its large native fish like this catfish:

In the picture below, Kenny and Beth get ogled by an alligator gar. This large rough fish has a mouth full of sharp teeth and can grow to be 6 feet or more in length and 200+ pounds!

Stephen enjoyed watching the fish, which include a true albino catfish:

They also have terrariums with native snakes, lizards, amphibians, and a tarantula. Perhaps their neatest live animal exhibit, though, is of the alligator and an alligator snapping turtle:

As you may recall from a post earlier this year, Arkansas lies within the native range of the American alligator. The one picture above is probably about 8 feet long and probably weighs a couple hundred pounds. A big gator for Arkansas, but not as big as they get. More impressive is the snapping turtle laying in the water next to it. The alligator snapping turtle is considerably larger (and meaner, I'd guess) than the snapping turtle we have up north. Alligators will often eat smaller turtles, but not this one! Hope and the kids watched it push around this alligator at an earlier visit, and would have little to fear of any other animal out there (except for man).

The kids really like this exhibit, which is shaped to look like an old crop duster. It really is some benches and a button to push to start a short movie that flies you over the Delta landscapes of Arkansas.

The kids also liked the exhibit shown above, which is a scale that shows how much they weigh relative to the native fish in one of the local bayous. The theme is about carrying capacity, and my bulk tipped the scales. Perhaps that's why I turned into an alligator snack before we left:

We stopped at the Nature Center's bookstore before we left, and purchased some fish food so the kids could throw the kibble to the pond you cross on your way into the building. It is filled with fish and turtles that just love the treats.

The small turtle barely visible in the water in the picture above was soon joined by other turtles, and some large catfish:

The fish and turtles get pretty aggressive trying to get the food, and splashed the water quite a bit.

We're expecting a quiet Labor Day weekend, but we are seeing an influx of people temporarily fleeing the Gulf Coast in advance of Hurricane Gustav, which is currently forecast to hit the Louisiana coast. We will likely see at least some wind and rain from this system, although even strong hurricanes drop to tropical storm or tropical depression strength by the time they get as far inland as we are. Our biggest impact may be the large number of displaced persons who have apparently already filled hotels as far north as Little Rock.