March 28-31, 2010
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Arriving in the city of Rockwall, where son Greg lives, we had a day to kill while Greg put in his time at work. We chose to tour the Dallas Arboretum and were glad we did as the weather was beautiful and the blossoms must have been near their peak. Word had leaked out, though, and the place was a beehive of visitors, a surprise to us for a Monday. We learned later it was “Mommy and Me” Day and school groups added to the mix. Good thing we arrived early.
Patty has always preferred a ranch-style house. Impulsively, she checked this one out for size:
Actually, she had several to choose from in “Texas Town.”
Truth be told, though, we did not come to the Arboretum for an education on Texas housing. We came to immerse ourselves in Spring blossoms and immerse we did, although no one seemed to recognize us.
We never did learn the story of this white house across the lake. From this angle, it looked quite a bit like Mt. Vernon. There is also an attractive bike path circling the lake that we have added to our “future bike ride” list.
The wisteria and other blossoming plants and trees speak for themselves. The displays were grand!
Even flower-loving Ferdinand the Bull was here:
That evening we finally caught up with the working man. No, he’s not a COSTCO General Manager yet but he is one of only two Assistant Managers at the Rockwall store. We would not be at all surprised if he had charge of his own store before long. After dinner, he showed us the nearby harbor at Lake Ray Hubbard and we planned our next day’s excursion to downtown Dallas.
In the morning, the three of us drove to the closest light rail station and enjoyed the ride into Dallas’ Union Station. Our plan was to explore as much of the city as we could on foot. The weather was near perfect for an outing like this, our first to downtown Dallas. We found the city to be clean and open, with quite a few trees, many quiet nooks for resting and not much traffic --- at least not on this Tuesday morning:
This sculpture in a little park caught our interest. Its inspiration came from the Dogon countryside in Mali, West Africa, where Patty’s older daughter is living:
Farther along we came upon a superlative work of art. Spread over a large area are 40 big longhorns herded down a slope by several hardworking cowhands. It takes the cake for originality, we think.
In front of city hall stand three flag poles that are surely the stoutest such poles we have ever seen --- probably due to those strong Texas winds.
: )
City hall itself is a futuristic creation from the mind of I. M. Pei. Clearly visible in all those windows are an army of “worker ants.” It has been suggested that the structure’s peculiar design may help shield the workers from the strong afternoon sun.
Since we were so close to the Neiman Marcus flagship store in downtown, we simply had to have lunch in its sidewalk cafe --- just for the heck of it. It was more memorable, in fact, than walking through the actual store! We also rode the trolley shown below to an “uptown” area to which Greg has considered moving. What is unique about this trolley is that she was built in Australia and served continuously for six decades in Melbourne before being retired. Having come from “Down Under,” it was only natural that she be nicknamed “Matilda” upon arrival in the USA.
After wandering for hours, we gave Dallas four stars. We’re certain, like all big cities, it has its share of problems, both social and economic, but to a casual visitor, downtown Dallas is a very likable place. Of course, having had such great weather accompany our tour might have biased our observations. Guess we’ll just have to plan a surprise visit someday to see if we’ve been hoodwinked.