Thursday 4-7 Crystal Bridges Museum & Walmart Museum

Windy Day 

We woke up to 40 degrees and a strong wind out of the north. By 3:00 it was only 56 degrees and the wind was really blowing. Then the temperature started to drop. The wind changed directions it was coming out of the west. It was cold all day.

Today we got a little culture by going to the Crystal Bridges Museum of fine arts. It's located in Bentonville, it was only 12 miles from our campground. It didn't open until 11:00 so we did a little grocery shopping at Walmart. Afterwards we went to the museum.

When we arrived Larry wasn't sure where to park so he drove to the entrance of the museum. A gentleman said we could park at the park and then catch the shuttle from the temporary gravel parking lot. We ended up parking in the gravel parking area because there was a lot of parking. When we were here in 2013 we parked closer but that parking area was under construction today. There was a lot of construction going on because they are building a medical facility. We had lunch before touring the museum. 

As we were eating we saw a group of students dressed up in suits and dresses. They were performing in the facility. After lunch we walked over and caught the shuttle. The ride was very pleasant, a museum exhibits planner was going to work and told everyone about the museum and the exhibits. There were two other people on the shuttle besides us. 

Crystal Bridges Museum is beautiful facility on 120 acres and admission is free. They do have special exhibits that cost to see and it changes periodically. The exhibit right now was The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Cultural and the Sonic Impulse. It is there from March 12 through July 25. Some of the exhibits we saw when we were here before have been changed out. We really liked the self portrait by the artist but it wasn't there. We walked around the museum for about an hour and half. We went through all the sections: Modern Art, Contemporary Art, Early American Art, Light Fantastic Exhibition and other exhibits in the hallways. It was an amazing place.

Self Portrait by artist

 

Alexander Hamilton 1792 by John Trumbull

 

Politics in the Workshop by Thomas Waterman Wood 

 

An eagle

 

Narcissus Garden by Yayol Kusama

 

A giant spider sculpture

 

A bear eating a fish

 

There are many trails that go around the grounds. As you walk the trails there are art sculptures and exhibits. We walked the first set of artists trails that took us to the downtown. There is a beautiful town square with shops and restaurants. We stopped in to revisit the Walmart Museum. Bentonville is where Walmart/Sams Club began. The corporate offices are still there. Before walking around the museum we checked in with a young gentleman and gave him the state were from. The tour was free but they wanted to keep track on how many people visit the museum and where they were from. Before looking at the exhibits we watched a movie about Walmart and the founder Sam Walton. They added a few new exhibits in the museum. It was very interesting to learn about Walmart. We exited the museum into a ice cream parlor. We shared two scoops, chewy brownie and salted caramel. They were big scoops and very good. The ice cream parlor has changed a little bit. The workers weren't wearing hats and they added a jukebox. They only sell ice cream. Before leaving we went back into the museum and bought some candies: a couple cherry mash, banana taffy, Goo Goo cluster and Mallo cups (marshmallow chocolate cups).

Walmart Museum

 

Ice cream we shared

 

Candy we bought

Larry had read about Bentonville Art Museum/Hotel and we had walked by it earlier. On the way back to Crystal Bridges Museum we stopped in. They had some nice art exhibits in the lobby and restaurant. It was a beautiful hotel.

Basketball goals exhibit at the Bentonville Art Hotel

An exhibit in the lobby

When we got back to the museum we walked the artists north trail, which was about 1.5 miles. There were some cool exhibits: a giant deer, a sculpture of boats, floral boat and more. The trail took us back to the Minnie. By the end of our walk we had walked around for three hours and we were tired. We got the Minnie ready to go back to the campground.

Three People on Four Benches by George Segal

 

Turquoise Reeds and Ozark Flori

 

Floral Boat

 

Standing by a deer

When we got back to the campground I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of  Solitaire and Mahjong. The I did the Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 42 seconds, which put me in 11th place in my group.

While I played games Larry read.

After dinner I walked around the campground for 45 minutes. I cut it short because it started to sprinkle. I ended up doing 21,000 steps because I was tired and it was too cold to do anymore. I came in 5th place in my group with 85,252 for the week so far. I'm still 15,000 steps behind but that's ok.