"Open the doors and let the lookers make their connections.”

Sounds like the curator of drawings at the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock believes her visitors are kind of smart.

Phaedra Siebert could be talking about the whole city instead of the Paul Signac watercolor exhibition she was discussing with a small group the day I visited this charming center of innovative exhibitions, continuous classes and world-class collections of works on paper and contemporary fine craft.

Connections for making, and musing, for texting instant, on-site reactions home and for reconsidering childhood concepts are all over this city.

Three days in Little Rock rocked my recollections of school desegregation and renewed my zeal to plant more herbs and vegetables.

Drew me to some new Native American understandings and reminded me of pleasures found in neighborhoods.

Fortunately I ate some grand meals and had a lot of fun along the way too; vacations shouldn’t be totally enlightening should they?

Little Rock details hadn’t been hanging in my mind as a “gotta go some day” desire, but now that I’ve been, I know plenty of reasons this is a visiting place.

One of them made me really proud to be an American, in a strange sort of way, thanks to the National Park Service. They tell the story of Central High School in 1957 when nine students assigned to attend the all-black Dunbar High opted instead for the education available at Central.

It’s the thoughtful way the Park Service tells this painful, emotional U. S. history that made me proud; they put you on the street corners and sidewalks and take you in the school where classes are under way today.

How’s that for living history?

Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Eckford didn’t get the message that Sept. 4, 1957 day about waiting at home and she went to the corner of Park and Daisy Bates streets, expecting the other eight schoolmates but finding only angry mobs and National Guardsmen.

I stood on that corner too, the handsome school in sight, with an outstanding National Park Service guide. Nobody spit on me.

When Park Ranger Christian Davin told my little group that Elizabeth’s dress was soaking wet with spit by the time she got away, a lovely well-dressed young woman perhaps in her twenties declared, “I’d never let anyone spit on me.”

Hmm, I thought. Ever been all alone in an angry crowd? And just a kid?

That’s when Little Rock started clicking for me. First-person experiences in real places are available here.

I so needed to talk to my parents after hearing more history inside the school, and after interacting with the hands-on and audio exhibits in the Visitor Center, plus watching the news clips I think I remembered.

I was nine that year and my folks thought those children should have stayed at their own school. Certainly hope if they were alive today they’d tell me they changed their minds.

Travel has a tricky way of bringing up connections, and confusions and desires tough to act upon.

Set yourself up for some of the same in Little Rock by taking this tour. Reserve a spot at least a week ahead; it’s only available Monday and Wednesday at 9:15 a.m. and Friday at 1:15 p.m.

Garden visits ask less of tourists—unless you go home and start pulling weeds and planting crops—and the eight acres of gardens at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion provide a wonderful stroll. Pretty gardens are full of 1840-era Arkansas flowers at Curran Hall, too, built in 1842 and easy to visit since it’s the Little Rock Visitor Information Center.

The Governor’s yard features an eating garden, and generous paths separating tomatoes, squash, lettuces, greens and beans for daily dining plus a practical space with herbs in raised beds so no backache required to sniff the fragrances.

A reproduction of the original picket fence on this site in the early 1800s surrounds the crops. Gala apple trees and a crabapple orchard provide a backdrop.

Tour the flowers too, and native tulip poplars, red maples, sweet bay magnolias and loblolly pines.

Mansion tours happen on Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons; call first. The Quapaw Quarter District is a grand old neighborhood but the house is only 58 years old.

Fine art and craft are displayed, including the legendary “Arkansas Traveler” painting, a working 1770 grandfather clock, 71 pieces of silver dinnerware commissioned in 1912 for the USS Arkansas and “The Scout” by Frederic Remington plus many contemporary works by Arkansas artists.

I recommend a walk around the neighborhood; lovely homes of many styles and their lush yards are easier to appreciate on foot. Might plan a trip when homes tours are happening.

Bill Clinton lived in the governor’s mansion, but you’re more likely to bump into him near the Arkansas River in the lively River Market art, shopping, eating and overnighting district, or in his Library, Foundation office and School of Public Service.

His is the 12th Presidential Library built and it’s jam-packed with more information than I could digest in an afternoon. The $3 audio tour, narrated by Clinton, is a good help.

A full-scale replica Cabinet Room lets you punch up issues faced during his eight years and see big-screen video how decisions were made. I had fun with this, and with extensive displays of letters written to and from the White House---hand-written on fine paper, no e-mails, stating polite, courteous sentiments.

Glad to know such letters are still written.

The Clinton Library is a green place, with LEED certification, a roof top garden and renewable resource materials including bamboo and cork. Fine restaurant too.

Set in a park along the river, the Presidential Center intends to have a neighborhood ripple effect: the next door 1899 Choctaw passenger train depot was restored to be come the University of Arkansas Clinton School offering master’s degrees in public service.

Next up is the restoration of the historic railroad bridge to become a pedestrian walkway across the river, connecting 14.2 miles of trails.

Art trails this river front too, big bronze happy sculptures of families and fishing, dancing and celebrating, a majestic bald eagle and a big pig, perhaps an Arkansas razorback.

The red carpet trail a few blocks from the Presidential Center beckons the Peabody Hotel ducks every afternoon at 5. Called to attention by a leader reminiscent of a circus ringmaster, the ducks exit the lobby fountain, waddle down four steps and follow the carpet to the elevator. It’s a short show.

People in the know gather early if they want photos. Best view I thought was the finale with the ducks peering down at us as they rode the glass elevator back to their suite.

The Peabody is where I almost saw President Clinton; seems we just missed him as we returned from a superb performance by the Arkansas Repertory Theater.

Security staff still looked on high alert but their focus was Little Rock native Kris Allen who won American Idol a few weeks later.

Him I saw.

Players in Arkansas history kept crossing my path. The Old State House building is a fine museum with free tours on the hour. Politics, law and order, Civil War, first families and Arkansas women are among the topics portrayed in lively varied ways in this handsome 1833 building.

Historic Arkansas Museum is an inside and outside place, with formal exhibitions plus pre-Civil War buildings and grounds to tour, complete with living history actors.

Easy, interesting place to linger, and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

Fifty-nine rare items from the Smithsonian are part of the new “We Walk in Two Worlds” permanent exhibit about the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw in Arkansas.

“Our histories are here in significant ways; our traditional knowledge is shaped by centuries of our lives and homes in this area,” says Osage David Conrad.

I stayed a long time in this exhibit, following the curved path, admiring the artifacts and paying attention to the stories told.

“We start everything with prayer,” Quapaw Ardina Moore is quoted as saying. “We end everything with a prayer. Indians are a very spiritual people.”

Why did the books and movies of my childhood teach me such a different attitude?

Don’t linger in “Two Worlds” so long you miss the Bowie knife exhibit. Absolutely amazing the specialties that show up as I roam.

I never even heard of the American Bladesmith Society but they heard of Historic Arkansas Museum; they keep their official exhibit of old and new knives here.

Bowie knives are a big part of it. Art, not weapon, is the concept with dozens of blades in surprising sizes and handles looking like museum pieces to non-knife owning me.

Creative museum design abounds at the new Mosaic Templars Cultural Center too, telling the story of Little Rock’s West Ninth Street business district in the early 20th century.

A 13-foot-tall video wall with 175 photos merging easily from one to another is an astounding way to look at history. Compelling oral histories on tape, real time conversations with the sister of Minnijean Brown, one of the Central High students and handsome displays throughout welcomed me to the story of the Mosaic Templars black fraternal organization founded in Little Rock in 1883.

Admission is free; the flow of information is compelling and easy to stick with. Can’t say that about every museum or cultural center I visit.

Little Rock allows for balance—all those discoveries and bright lively shopping, art and eating places too.