Being iced in for most of 3 days means you have waaaay too much free time on your hands to play on the internet. I spent much of mine on Google Earth, zipping around the globe from the Swiss Alps to the beaches of New Zealand and Oz.
I've commented here before about my neighborhood and our nearby baseball park, our mall, and all the hundred-plus (no joke!) restaurants just a short drive away. Courtesy of Google Earth, here's what it looks like:
1....This field is where the Dallas Cowboys, the pride of the National Felon Football League, will build their new headquarters and 12,000-seat domed practice field. It's supposed to open in 2015.
ME....This is our humble abode. We're on the 3rd floor in a very comfortable apartment with a nice balcony. I'm looking forward to being out there in the Spring, watching the thunderstorms rolling in from the west. Just south is a park with a winding (man-made) stream and several ponds that Luke claims as his. (The ducks dispute that.)
2....This is the Dr. Pepper StarCenter, a public ice rink where the Dallas Stars also practice, and the Frisco Conference Center, a mini-convention venue.
3....This is Dr. Pepper Ballpark where our Texas Ranger's Frisco RoughRiders AA minor league team plays. I enjoy their first-class fireworks show after every Friday night home game.
4....This is Stonebriar Mall, one of the largest in the Metroplex. In addition to the usual better stores they have a 16-screen (?) United Artist theatre. It also has a huge parking lot where more than a few donuts have been cut during icy weather. Just sayin'. ;)
5....Here is the north Texas IKEA. The first few times I went there I hated it. Now I've learned my way around and it's actually a fun place to visit.
6....This is where K works. It's 1.6 miles from home, door to door.
O....These are all mid-rise (4-10 story) office park campuses. The number of new ones being built right this minute is amazing, but because the highway infrastructure is already in place, traffic is very manageable.
R....retail. A huge retail district has sprung up for blocks all around the mall. If you have a tough time controlling your credit card spending, this could be a dangerous place to live. Ouch!
DNT....the Dallas North Tollway goes north to ? and south straight to downtown Dallas (26 miles +/-).
SRT....the Sam Rayburn Tollway goes northeast to Bonham, TX (home of the legendary former Speaker of the House) and southwest to DFW International Airport (25 miles +/-) and then on to downtown Foat Wuth (50 miles +/-).
All these toll roads take a....umm...."toll" on my wallet. I probably spend $1,000 a year for the privilege of risking life and limb daily at 80 mph.
PRESTON road....miles and miles of stores and RESTAURANTS! I once tried to count all the eateries on or within a few blocks of Preston, but gave up at 100.
The main residential areas of Frisco are a mile or so farther north. The homes are huge and uber-expensive, and the owners are uber-snooty, too. By mutual agreement with the residents, we never go there.
That's home. All in all it's a pretty great place to live. :)
S
Now that I know where you live maybe I'll go send you a Christmas fruitcake.
ReplyDeleteI'll refrain from visiting you until "after" you've finished eating Pat's fruitcake.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to have everything so close to you. How often do you walk to places like the mall, IKEA, work (for Kelly), and restaurants?
ReplyDeleteWe've walked to the mall, but the major roads you have to cross are a bear. At our last apartment there were no major roads to cross and we walked everywhere. I do miss that here in our new apt.
DeleteWalk? This is Texas. We don't walk ... we get in our car ... drive half a block to wherever...
DeleteIn all seriousness I do miss the last apartment where we could walk to the shops near us. Now we can walk but as Scott mentioned the intersections are a bit crazy at times.
My dream is to live somewhere with great public transportation system and most things within walking distance and sell all our cars :)