Yesterday at the park....

I've gotta give 'em credit....the weatherguessers nailed it yesterday.  We enjoyed a few puffy clouds, a mild breeze, and temps in the mid-80's.  I know!

To take advantage of this rare, cool Dallas summer day K and I decided we'd take a road trip all the way to downtown Dallas to see the new....

This is a $100M public/private venture that turned a three block long, 5.2 acre piece of land ON TOP OF AN 8-LANE HIGHWAY into a public park.

That's right, this freeway....

....goes underneath this beautiful park!

We arrived there a little after noon and had no trouble finding parking nearby.  What we hadn't counted on seeing there were...

....FOOD TRUCKS!  I love food trucks....yum!

We also noticed there were Corgi's everywhere.  What the...?  Turns out there was a Corgi owners club that had met there that morning.  Being as the place is so dog friendly you might think there would be some "piles" here and there, but there weren't.  It was super clean.

Man's best friend even had their own special cooling-off fountain.

Did I mention it was dog friendly?  Did I mention I like dogs?  ;)

It also had a dedicated Juvenile Holding Facility.  ;)

It looks like we just missed whatever kind of performance/presentation they had at the outdoor stage.

There were people tossing footballs around, a few frisbees, and even these guys playing a game of non-regulation croquet.  (I say "non-regulation" because they didn't have those little white sweaters tied loosely around their necks.)

After a while of walking around and taking in all the sights, we found us a shady spot to sit and "admire" the passersby.  

When hunger pangs finally overwhelmed us (OK...me) I walked back to the food trucks and settled on this one.

It was very good!  (Crab, red and jalapeno peppers, and siriachi sauce)

The park is right across the street from The Myerson Symphony Center, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher Sculpture Garden, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.  Kudos to "Big D" for their downtown renaissance effort.

If I worked at one of these downtown offices (or the little church), I think this park is where I'd spend my lunch hour.

Off topic:   I always liked the curved front facade on the Hunt Oil Building.

The best view of the park is probably from one of the Museum Tower condos.  Unfortunately for me, each unit is juuuuust a smidge over my budget.  (Ha!  Who are we kiddin'....more than my entire net worth.)

It was a very pleasant day.  If we have another cool summer Saturday, or maybe this Fall, we'll definitely be back.  

Have a great Sunday everyone.

S

Road trip!

While it wasn't all that far as the crow flies our visit yesterday to the new Perot Museum of Science and Nature was quite a trip.  K has a few days off (and I've been "off" for a long time), so we thought it might be a good time to avoid the weekend crowd and go see this new wonder.  It's located in Uptown Dallas just across the freeway from the Arts District.

Your first reaction is WOW!  The architecture is stunning.  I learned the horizontal cast concrete ridges in the facade are meant to replicate geologic strata.

They have 11 permanent exhibit halls in 180,000 sq ft on 4 levels, a 300-seat digital theatre, a bead-and-trinket store, etc.  As a builder I was awed by all the angles and curves and ramps, wondering how many times they had to re-do them to get everything to fit just right.  Turns out they got it right the first time thanks to the 3-D digital model where they built it just for practice.  And I saw the complete blueprints....stacked 6 inches thick.

Smart folks they are!

K liked the "Expanding Universe Hall" which was about the universe (duh!), stars, exploration, the Big Bang, etc.  It was extremely detailed yet understandable. 

Trust me....this photo doesn't do it justice.  The large exhibits and special effects were awesome.

I preferred the "Gems and Minerals Hall" and the "Dynamic Earth Hall".  They had an earthquake shake platform you could stand on and dial in the magnitude of the earthquake you wanted to experience.  Cranked all the way up the floor rose and fell and moved side-to-side with extreme, unpredictable violence.  It was an interesting sensation for someone who's thankfully never experienced a real one.

In Gems and Minerals, among other things, they explained in detail how the climate change way back there created oil and natural gas and showed how we extract it today.  This sounds rather sophomoric, but I promise you it was very professionally presented.  They explained offshore drilling platforms...

and the various kinds of drill bits and how they work....

and how a blowout prevention "Christmas Tree" works, too....

I also enjoyed the weather exhibits, including one that showed how colliding fronts form tornadoes....

They also had exhibits about critters and birds and such, and a bones room, too....

We were there about 3 hours and that was just a "get acquainted" peek.  To really see and experience everything would take several days at least.  It's the sort of place where you might go once a quarter and spend the day on just one floor reading, listening, and interacting.  If you could do that, by the time you were finished you'd probably have the equivalent of an advanced degree in any number of disciplines.

Kudos to the Perot family and their uber-rich friends who funded this beautiful museum.  (It opened debt-free.)  It truly is world class.  If you're just passing through Dallas go see it.  You won't be disappointed.  If you live nearby, go see it over and over.

I'm not easily impressed, but this really blew my socks off!

S

The good, the bad, and the just plain odd...

The Perot Museum of Science and Nature opened this weekend in downtown Dallas.  We didn't go see it on opening weekend because of the expected crowd.  While most will go to see the exhibits inside, I'll be content to just sit outside and admire the structure...

We'll have to let the crowds thin out some before we trek down there.

I think this is so cool looking.  I wonder if the builder asked the architect half way through the project, "Where's the escalator?", and he replied, "Gee, I dunno.....just strap it there to the outside somewhere."  Haha!

Most of the couple hundred million dollar price tag was covered by Ross Perot's kids, the museum being a tribute to their dad.  (They probably brown-bagged it for a week and donated their lunch money.)  That's Daddy Ross third from the left.

He's never been photographed wearing anything besides a dark suit, white dress shirt and tie.  For once I'd love to see him wear something else, like maybe a Hawaiian print shirt or some sweats.

The museum will fit in well with some of Dallas' other "unusual" architectural features....

As someone who appreciates eclectic architecture there is one other building that has always intrigued me that I wish was here....

The "Twisted Torso" in Malmo, Sweden.  I wonder which came first, this or the Rubik's Cube?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I saw in the news this morning that more banks are agreeing to pay fines to the Gubment for their wrongdoing and more bankers are under investigation for various illegal acts, too.  But here's what gets me:  Instead of being banished to some far-off place in disgrace, these crooks just leave the firm where they were caught and move down the street to another bank and given an even better position and more money.  These banks just play musical chairs with their top felons.  Whoever said "crime doesn't pay" obviously wasn't a banker.

Another Monday.  Let the games begin.  ;)

S