Those of us who live in Houston have a light and amusing rivalry with Dallas. We consider ourselves more sophisticated and worldly. They consider themselves better dressed. We think our sports teams are gutsy and grounded. They think their teams win. We think our traffic is horrible. Well, here we agree.
But Dallas does indeed have some interesting public spaces, some delightful restaurants, and some great art museums. (Well, let me include Ft Worth here, too).
I had some business there on Monday morning, so we decided to make a weekend of it. We left Saturday about 10:30 or so, and got to Dallas about 2:00. It rained and rained and rained until we got into The Metroplex, but then the weather was very nice. We stayed at the Marriott Dallas City Center, which is in downtown Dallas.
Saturday afternoon we walked over to the
Dallas Museum of Art (not called the Dallas Art Museum because the Baptists in Dallas don't swear) and enjoyed their permanent collection and their sculpture garden. We walked past the Nasher Sculpture Center, which we would visit on Sunday.
That evening we ate at
FT33, a great new place that I would recommend to anyone. A Farm to Table place with a small but delightful menu, the only reservations I could get were at 6:30.
FT33 is in the Design District, not too far (under 3 miles) from downtown, yet the Uber driver seemed to have a problem finding the place.
For appetizers we shared the
- charred octopus, aguachile, herb flowers, winter squash,
- smoked beet, charred cabbage, sauerkraut vinaigrette, goat manchego
(odd font spacing there, sorry.)
Charred cabbage is just fantastic. Charred Octopus, too.
for our entrees we had
- pork loin, heirloom clay peas, clams, beech mushrooms,
grilled bread
- scallops, fermented kale, acorn squash, maitake
I had the Pork Doreen had the Scallops. We had a great wine pairing (don't ask me what) recommended by the server.
Finally, for dessert we shared:
- warm apple cake, butterscotch, sour cream, pecan
- pear, mascarpone, graham, vanilla, pineau
No complaints, there.
The poor Uber driver took the long way home:
To Uber's credit, when I said the "driver took a poor route" they did give me a credit. I still like Uber, though. Some friends recently told me they don't use them because they don't like the gig economy. It is a valid argument. Plus, their CEO is a jerk.
On Sunday, we got up, had some coffee, and started a walk.
It turned into a long walk:
but it was a lot of fun.
Our first stop was the new park over the Woodall Rogers Freeway:
a nice way to get some green into a city.
It is only a couple of blocks long, but very well done.
It was well guarded:
We then walked down toward the Trinity River, (
God bless it) where Dallas built a fantastic Calatrava bridge. More which.
But first we had to get there.
There was no easy or obvious route from downtown Dallas to the Trinity River.
This is a typical sidewalk:
But to their credit, they are also building sidewalks that look like this:
I can only imagine those cutouts are for trees that are not even born yet. But I like that kind of planning. Reminds me of an old Japanese saying: When is the best time to plant a tree? 100 years ago. When is the second best time? Today.
Here you can see the top of the bridge:
and us, in front of the bridge:
The levee:
I was very happy with the bridge:
Coyote tracks:
The Trinity River:
An American Kestrel:
Bridge Abutments (this is from the bridge we walked across - the Contiential Street Pedestrian Bridge. Nice bridge, hard to get to from the North)
The Calatrava bridge from below:
The suspended part of the Calatrava bridge"
Fantastic:
The old Dallas County Courthouse:
These next photos are a little disturbing. I will not comment much:
The Book Depository:
The Sixth Floor:
There is an "X" on the road where JFK was shot:
and tourists stand on that spot and take selfies. I did not. I was sort of appalled at this:
enough of that.
A 19th century log cabin:
and the Phillip Johnson memorial to JFK:
We then finally made it to the
Nasher Sculpture Center. Here is some advice: Go There.
Henry Moore:
Giuseppe Penone. Some of those potatoes are bronze"
And are molded from the artist's body parts. He had potatoes grow into a form made from his ear (nose, mouth) and then used the potatoes to cast some bronze.
Fantastic:
He also took the large blocks of planned wood, and "found" the sapling inside:
That is not imposed on that block, it is carved FROM the block. It is the heart wood, carved out by following the rings. You have to see it to believe it.
He has some original ideas:
In this one, the tree will eventually grow around the hand. It is title something like, "It is growing, but not at one point"
a tree trunk:
We love this guy!
Sunday afternoon we drove to Fort Worth (does it ever cross your mind?) and had a great lunch and stopped by the Kimbell, one of the best museums in the state, to see one of Doreen's old friends. She is a curator there.
Sadly, I did not take photos. But this post is too long anyway.
We really enjoyed the weekend. So if you made it this far, you can tell that when I tease Dallasites, it is really just teasing. We like the city and will be back.
Then, on Monday, I did some work and came home.
We stopped in Corsicana and bought a fruit cake.
