doing (the west end of) downtown dallas in a day (and a few hours)

Oh, how we are thankful for home sweet home, but how we love the bLessing of being able to 'hit the open road'~whatever form that travel takes!  So we secured the 'homestead', filled the hummingbird feeder one last time for the season and headed for Dallas yesterday.  We stopped in Plano to 'gas up'~the cars and us~Murphy Oil, don'tcha know~ and El Chico~thank you, trusty Garmin!

We pulled into the Dallas area at 4pm and checked into the iconic Hyatt Regency Reunion Center, a long time goal of my beloved's after his many years of seeing the lighted ball rotating 560 feet above the ground on his 'weekend warrior' drives to the Grand Prairie NAS.  And, other than having to pay for internet access (are you kidding?), the hotel and all it has to offer are splendid!  The view from our room (801) looks out ON THE TRAIN STATION!!  And even during the night, we get to hear the characteristic, signature locomotive siren's call of the historic rail!  We're beyond confident the other hotel guests don't 'appreciate' the interruption in their slumber as much as we do.   Oh well.......

Then, thanks to the recommendation of my friend and former Baylor roommate, Glenda (who provided us with a list of places to see during our day and half here), we turned in our rental car and set out for the lovely Thanksgiving Square, a tranquil spot in the middle of very, busy city.

A quiet place of reflection, beautiful water features, a small chapel.......

 

By this time, we were ready to put our feet up for awhile so we headed back to the Hyatt to plan our strategy for today.  When city lights began to twinkle we took the scenic elevator ride 560 feet up into that ball for drinks and Asian-inspired appetizers and enjoyed the 360 degree view of the city at night.

 

 This morning after a 'hearty' breakfast (nope, not missing our usual smoothies yet!) and with our walking shoes on and destinations 'targeted', we set out for the Sixth Floor Museum in the former Texas School Book Depository.  Regardless of one's views/feelings about Kennedy, this would be an important part of one's education about that period in our country's history-very well done, indeed!

Picture of the Hyatt taken from 'the grassy knoll.'

After the Sixth Floor Museum, we  continued on to the Klyde-Warren Greenspace Park, a beautiful place, once again in the midst of a busy downtown, built OVER the interstate (that portion of the interstate actually goes into a tunnel under the park).  Kids were enjoying a wonderful 'kiddie park', food trucks lined the street, residents walked their dogs, played games of checkers under the trees.  This place goes on for several blocks and features splash pads, an outdoor music stage, and (be still my heart) book carts, apparently provided by the library so visitors (of all ages) can enjoy a 'good read' in the park!

 

 

Next stop on our hike was Fountain Place, with its many water features and gardens.  Much of it was roped off, due to a special event occuring later today, but we could see enough to know why Glenda has put it on the 'must see' list!

 

We then stopped by the Starbucks at the Fairmont Hotel for a caffeine shot and little bit of VERY welcome air conditioning.  Once we were refreshed, we headed in the direction of Pioneer Park (there seems to be a park on every other corner downtown~I think I counted 15 in the visitor's guide) for a look at the 'stampede' of amazing sculptures.

 

 

So, the sun has set once again and we'll make one more trip 560 feet up to say 'goodnight' to city lights then come back and make sure our backpack has all our essentials (for our 48 hour train trip) before we check our bags tomorrow morning and get 'up close and personal' with the 'siren's call of the historic rail.'

 

 

ALL ABOARD!