Weekend in Dallas

Saturday morning (August 9) I was up and ready to hit the road as I wanted to get to Slider’s in time for coffee.  While coffee at the hotel was okay, I knew she had the good stuff.

I was actually closer than I’d thought, and I found her place just like I knew where I was going.  On occasion, that happens.  More often than not, though, it does not.  Oh well.  More miles for me.

She had the gate and garage door open and I just rode right on in.  She was washing her car, and was nearly finished.  Then it was time for coffee.

We visited like we hadn’t seen each other just two weekends ago.  How could we possibly have more to talk about?  But we did.  We always have, and probably always will.

Today (August 9) was her birthday.  And surprisingly, I had something for her (which I usually do not), and I even had the exact right card (now why would I be carrying a birthday card?).  Sometimes things just happen.

Slider told me about this new dine-in movie theater.  While I thought it might be like the Beartooth at home, was I ever wrong.  We decided to go … I knew it would be something I’d enjoy.  We just needed to figure out the movie to see.  Slider had been the day before and seen a movie called, “The 100-foot Journey.”  She said it was about two chefs in France.  I’m thinking, not my kind of movie.  But she said it was really good and she’d see it again.  Okay.  We’ll see.  I was a bit skeptical. 

 

Yep.  A good place to go for something different to do.

Off to the movie we went.  The movie theater had red reclining seats, and I mean reclining, down to the point of being like a bed.  And the trays for the food slid around to be in front of you.  There were drink holders at the side, and a place in between the seats for belongings.  Wow.  Pretty snazzy.

Kinda dark in the theater. 

I had a wedge salad and a crab/cream cheese dip with fried wonton chips.  The dip, I wouldn’t have again although it was probably good.  The salad was excellent.  I also had an apple dessert that was great, too.  Slider had fish and chips and the apple dessert.  All was good.

Now, back to the movie.  The movie was wonderful, great, awe-inspiring, thought-provoking.  It was a movie that I so enjoyed I hated to see it end.  And I don’t often say that about a movie, and this was one that was not in my normal list of movies I’d see.  Wow.  This one is a five-thumbs-up in my book.

Then it was back to the house, still talking about the movie and how great it was.  And Slider had seen it two days in a row but enjoyed it enough to do that.

On Sunday we decided to go to the Ross Perot Museum.  What?  Who knew.  We’d talked about this on my previous visit as Slider had heard about it and wanted to go since her company had made a donation to the museum.

We got ready to go, and off we went, driving in downtown Dallas.  What a beautiful city it is downtown, although I don’t care much for big cities.  This one is really pretty … tall, gorgeous buildings that have been designed to attract attention, lots of glass. 

This is a dog park and all the pillars are painted with trees and other cute things like this one.

Driving through downtown Dallas is great ... on a Sunday and you're not the one doing the driving.

The Ross Perot Museum is an interesting-looking building, too.  It looks like material spread over a base, and torn, much like the kids wear their jeans with the tears. 

There's this odd hanging glass thing from the building, and I never did see what it was from the inside.

The building is just very different-looking from others I've seen.

Even the entrance to the building is different.

Just outside the entrance is a frog park … for children.  NOT!  We played on the frogs, too.

Frog parks aren't just for kids.

There were lots of adults playing on the frogs, too.

Then we walked inside the museum and the first thing we saw was a dinosaur.  I knew this was going to be good. 

It's a great museum when there are dinosaurs.

We got our tickets and walked through the gates to be greeted by a hanging display of origami butterflies.  Too cool.

There must have been hundreds of origami butterflies.

It was a whole flight of them.

There are four flours, plus a bird display in an additional area.  We started at the top … and worked our way down. 

There was a separate elevator for when we were ready to go up to the bird display.

 There are wonderful displays of dinosaurs, and it rivals the displays I’ve seen at other museums. 

There always seem to be so many dinosaurs it's hard to get a good shot of a single one.

 

This one has a large eye socket, and could see exceptionally well.

 

This display allowed youngsters (or oldsters if they wanted) to build their own dinosaur.

 

Who can resist the big-tusked mammoth.

 

A flying tortoise.  Actually, not.  It was just displayed overhead and appeared to be flying.  This turtle was roughly the size of a small car.  That's scary.

The bird display was great, and interactive.  You could make your own bird, and see what it looked and sounded like at the end.  Mine, of course, sounded like a Trumpeter swan.

 

Pretty colorful.  There was loads of information that I intend to use when I get my Bird TLC presentation together.  It made some things seem much clearer to me, and I hope the photos I took will be usable in the slide show.

Dallas taken through a window of the museum.  Love the tall buildings.

Another floor housed robots and you could make one, other displays that read your heartbeat, showed the veins in your hand or had wood squares move with you.  It was all a wonderful time, and the interactive stuff would drag you back to visit over and over and over.  There’s so much to see and not enough time.

These boys were having robot races.

Me and Slider ... a microprocessor and a camera interpret your images as pixels.   Tiny motors tilt each wooden tile so it catches the light to mirror what the camera sees.  It was pretty cool.

This one shows the veins in my hand.  Ugh!!

We hit another floor and this had the gems … oh my.  There were a few of those I wouldn’t mind putting into my jewelry box.

The displays were awesome.  This was a favorite with the sticks and gems all around.

 

Looks like a rose in a way.

 

A gold nugget I'd treasure.

This is a really beautiful piece.  It's a fossil of an extinct mollusk known as ammonite.  it lived from 400 million to 65 million years ago.  The iridescent colors are a result of light passing through the very thin layers of the fossil shell's ammolite (calcium carbonate) material. 

There was one more stop we made … Rick Fairless’ Strokers Ice House.  He designs custom, and I mean CUSTOM, bikes.  I’d call them bar bikes, but they were beautiful to look at.  I had to look at everything.  It happened that Rick was on the grounds, so we got a photo with him.  He was very nice to us, and seemed like a pretty good guy.  His bikes sure are outta this world.

There are a lot of things on top of this building that I don't get, but they are certainly eye-catching.

Appropriate head attire while riding in Texas.

Rick Fairless, Slider and me.  He was very accommodating, particularly since the first guy we asked to take our photo couldn't figure out how to work the camera, even when I showed him three times.  The next guy wasn't a whole lot better but we did, at least, FINALLY, get a photo.  These guys, some of them, drink better than they can take pictures.  Haha!!!  And through it all, Rick was very gracious.  Thank you, Rick Fairless.

These are not your ordinary custom bikes.

And they came in all colors.

I didn't ask prices.  If there's no price tag on it, you can't afford it.

Outside there’s a bar, sometimes live music, and my obligatory MC.  This time it was the Dirty Bastards.  I was respectful and asked for a photo. 

While this one isn't the best of the guys, the gal photo-bombing had to be the photo I used.  It's my favorite. 

 

I've run into a lot of MCs this trip.  All have been gentlemanly.  Thank you.  I appreciate it.  And will continue to be respectful to those who wear an MC patch.

And a little drive by on the way to lunch.  A couple even posed for us.  Cuties.

Then we’d had enough for the day.  It was time for lunch.  This lunch was the best I’ve had in a long time … Texas Land & Cattle Co.  Steak, baby. 

On Monday (August 11) we decided I’d sleep in a bit, blog a little and get ready at leisure.  Slider would come home at lunch to say good bye, and I’d head out then.  And that’s exactly how it worked out.

It’s always sad to say good bye even though I know I’ll see her again.  It’s just that it’s not as often as I’d like, but we always have great visits, and look forward to the next ones.

Interstate 20 east was how I got out of town.  I then headed north and west, with no real destination in mind.  I didn’t need to be back to Phoenix until Friday, so I had some time to play.  I made it to Ada, Oklahoma.  While I hadn’t made many miles, nor taken any photos, it was a good ride.