Totally Texas -- The great Dallas cattle drive

Pioneer Plaza

South Griffin & Young Streets, Dallas

***

It’s one of the most visited public places in Dallas, within walking distance of that more ominous tourist attraction, Dealey Plaza, site of President Kennedy’s assassination. It’s the series of bronze sculptures in downtown’s Pioneer Plaza memorializing the Texas legend of the cattle drive.

For something so short-lived, the herds of cattle that moved from Texas to the railheads of the Midwest in the late nineteenth century have inspired an amazing amount of art. And none of that art is as outsized as the six-foot tall longhorned steers and their attendant cowboys designed by Texas artist Robert Summers twenty years ago to fill a vacant space near the Convention Center.

Sited on an artificial bluff overlooking downtown, the herd meanders along a cliff edge and through a stream. Their hoof prints disappear as they prepare to cross town toward another incident turned legend at Dealey Plaza.

Unlike the assassination site, the herd is a more light-hearted place because the funny thing is, there probably never were any cattle drives through Dallas. (Some people insist there was a Shawnee Trail through Dallas, which probably petered out in the late 1860’s.) Whether they commemorate history or only myth, the fun thing is, everybody loves the goofy, ungainly critters anyway.

Children feel compelled to climb on them, or clown with them, like the pair of little boys who posed for a Dallas version of the running of the bulls that illustrates this post.

Pioneer Plaza incorporates a number of things often sadly lacking in Dallas parks¾ water, shade, and resting places. It boasts a limited number of free parking spaces, with metered parking on the other side of Young Street. It’s also within easy walking distance of the Convention Center and Union Station DART stops and the free D-Link routes through downtown. Entry to the plaza is free, open twenty-four hours daily, all year round.

For more information about the cattle drive sculptures and other nearby sights in downtown Dallas, “like” Dallas Pioneer Plaza Cattle Drive on Facebook.

(Next Friday, countdown to a family-friendly Halloween)

Totally Texas -- We've got the pumpkin junctions

Is there a grocery store in Texas that doesn’t boast a pile of brilliant orange pumpkins this time of year? I never met a pumpkin I didn’t like, from the giants posing for their selfies against the Dallas skyline in today’s illustration, to the miniatures filling bowls in my house with the last of the summer sunshine.

But most of all, I have a yen for the bizarre, the lividly colored, the twisted, the pumpkins so weird you'd think only their mothers could love them.

And to find those, it’s hard to beat the pumpkin patches at the Dallas Farmers Market. Farmers at one booth, a little nonplussed, insisted they had “real” pumpkins. You know, the smooth-skinned symmetrical beauties perfect for carving into jack-o-lanterns. I’m not dissing those. But my heart belongs to the weird ones.

Although jack-o-lanterns mildew within days of being carved, uncarved pumpkins last for weeks. Maybe months, except that after Thanksgiving, I’m tossing them on the compost pile to make room for Christmas decorations.

Not a fan of the color orange? The bizarres come in a range of colors. I like the whites and steel-grays, which mingle nicely with flowers and candy skulls for the concurrent Day of the Dead celebrations. Others are striped, or deep, almost Christmas red, or pastel versions of the traditional orange. Some of the weird vegetables in the pumpkin patches are actually gourds. Never mind, they last as well as pumpkins and add greens and yellows to the color palette.

Booths at the downtown Dallas Farmers Market also carry hay bales, cornstalks, strings of chili peppers and other season favorites. The market at 1010 S. Pearl Expressway is open daily except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Year’s Day. The revamped open pavilion for growers, now called the Shed (formerly Shed No. 1) is open 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. In spite of surrounding construction, there’s still plenty of free parking, including a sizeable lot near the Ruibal’s Plants market.

To help carry my loot, I’ll toss the little red wagon I take to plant sales in the trunk of my car. Because pumpkins, even little pumpkins, are heavy.

For more information about the Dallas Farmers Market, see www.dallasfarmersmarket.org/. Smaller local markets may carry pumpkins as well as seasonal produce. And for a list of seasonal, family-oriented pumpkin patches, where arts and crafts and hay bale mazes mingle with pumpkins, I like http://pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/TXpdallas.php/. Be sure to call or check the websites for current information and availability.

Totally Texas -- Joust between you and me, it's a blast

The first time my daughter asked if I’d like to go to Medieval Times for my birthday, visions of The Cable Guy flashed before my eyes. She assured me that she and her then-boyfriend, now-husband had been while they were in college on the other side of the country. And loved it.

My twin grandsons would love it, too, I knew. Besides, my daughter added cunningly, admission is free on your birthday.

Why was I surprised to find out it’s so much fun? Sure, it’s cheesier than a quesadilla, and the dialogue could use some serious updates. But that’s not the point. The point is to watch terrific-looking horses and actors who wave swords and shields around like the cast of Monty Python and the Holy Grail on steroids. The point is to live two hours in a place where you can cheer the good guys and boo the bad guys while tearing a chicken apart with your bare hands.

Besides the expected jousting and sword fights, the show included demonstrations of falconry and dressage.

The kids couldn't get enough of it. And their ever young at heart dad demanded to go on his birthday, too.

Without the birthday freebie, the price would have been $60.95 plus tax and processing fee for each adult in the family and $36.95 (plus) for each child age 12 and younger. (Children under age three can sit on laps and watch for free.) The price doesn’t include tips for the wait staff, who lug around enormous platters of food and soft drinks. Or the many souvenirs the kids will clamor for and staged photos you’ll be tempted to have taken.

The food is decent and plentiful¾ a bowl of tomato soup, half a chicken, a spare rib, half a potato, a dessert (apple turnover on our visit) and all the tea or Pepsi you can drink. My daughter and I had to get takeout boxes to haul off our share of the meal. You can order alcoholic drinks and water for additional charge. A vegetarian meal is also available.

Besides the birthday freebie, the Dallas Medieval Times & Tournament offers discounted tickets at $38.95 for adults, $29.95 for kids through September 30. For ticket information and discount codes, see www.medievaltimes.com/dallas/. Educational matinees on limited dates are available for student groups, with topics including elements of theater, horsemanship, falconry, and historical information. See txschools51@medievaltimes.com or beg your teacher to call 469-342-555 for more about the matinees.

Outside of the student matinees, shows at Medieval Times in Dallas are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 5 and 7:45 p.m. Saturdays, and 5 p.m. Sundays. The you-can’t-miss-it castle is located at 2021 N. Stemmons Freeway, near downtown Dallas.

I had a brief moment of worry about one of my grandsons who is, sad to say, allergic to horses. But he got through the show without a sniffle.

***

Need more to do this weekend? Try Addison’s Oktoberfest, www.addisontexas.net/events/Oktoberfest or the National Championship Indian Pow-Wow in Grand Prairie www.tradersvillage.com/grand-prairie/events/.

Totally Texas -- Butterflies LIVE!

One fall day I looked out the window of my tenth floor office to see a monarch butterfly fluttering through the downtown Dallas canyons. It remains a perfect memory -- tiny, brilliant wings bearing it through the city, bound for a faraway hibernation spot in Mexico. But for a better chance to see butterflies up close, I like the Heard Natural Science Museum’s butterfly house and garden.

The screened house and outdoor garden teem at this time of year with a variety of native butterfly species, not just monarchs, and their caterpillars. The garden of native plants lures swarms of butterflies, and the confines of the screened house make getting closeups of your favorite fliers simple. With a little luck, you can even lure them into perching on yourself or your children.

Admission to the butterfly house and garden is included in the Heard’s general admission price, $9 for adults under age 60, $6 for over 60’s and children aged 3-12. Kids age two and younger get in free. Those prices are good through September 30, but don’t put off a visit too long -- the butterfly house closes September 28.

The Heard is located at 1 Nature Way in McKinney, open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. (opening at 7:30 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month), and 1-5 p.m. Sundays. See www.heardmuseum.org for directions and additional programs.

After searching through my butterfly pictures from the Heard, though, I ended up deciding to use a snapshot of a butterfly perching perkily on the giant T. rex dinosaur model that gives visitors a thrill during the annual Dinosaurs Live! Exhibit. Butterflies and animatronic dinosaurs overlap when Dinosaurs Live! opens September 16 (running through February 15, 2015).

Did butterflies and living dinosaurs once share the Earth? I’ll try to remember to pose that question to an expert at another favorite site for butterflies, the Texas Discovery Gardens butterfly house at Fair Park in Dallas.

Resident entomologist John Watts gives a guided tour of the Discovery Gardens Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium at 11 a.m. this Saturday, September 6. But he's always available for questions and butterfly lore at the release of newly emerged butterflies each day at noon.

The Discovery Gardens butterfly house is stocked with exotic butterflies from farms around the world. Admission to the butterfly house is included in general admission to the Discovery Gardens, $8 for adults under age 60, $6 for ages 60 and older, $4 for children aged 3-11.

The Discovery Gardens cut admission prices during the State Fair, September 26 - October 19, but you’ll have to pay for fair admission and parking during the fair’s run.

The Discovery Gardens and butterfly house are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. However, to be sure visitors have a satisfactory viewing experience, the last ticket sales are at 4:45 p.m. For tips on viewing the butterflies, including what to wear to lure them to perch on you, see
http://texasdiscoverygardens.org/butterfly_house.php/.

If the sight of all these beautiful fliers inspires you to action, consider helping scientists track the migration of the iconic monarch butterflies, through www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/.

Totally Texas -- Baby, it’s cool inside

Texas probably isn’t the first place that come to mind when you think about ice skating. But when summer temperatures lean toward the 100-degree F. mark, it’s is a good time to head to an indoor ice rink for some skating practice.

We headed for our favorite local all-around ice rink at the Galleria mall, 13350 Dallas Parkway (I-635 at the Dallas North Tollway).

I was surprised by how many ice skating rinks there are in North Texas (although I’m sorry to report that the rink in downtown Dallas is closed). However, several of the current rinks specialize only in hockey. And my daughter and family wanted a place to get a quick lunch and do some shopping, besides having a fun family skate.

We hadn’t been to the Galleria’s ice rink since winter break, when it was packed with skaters and the mall’s 95-foot tall Christmas tree. Things are roomier in summer without the tree. Admission is $10, plus $3 for skate rentals. Bring your own skates if you have them. If you rent skates, you must wear socks. Otherwise, no special attire is needed.

The Galleria’s ice skating rink is surrounded by tiers of shops and restaurants, making it easy to people watch. Skaters come at all levels of skill. The rink also offers lessons. Skating hours vary and are subject to change without notice, so check their website, www.galleriaiceskatingcenter.com/public-sessions/ or call 972-392-3361. The mall itself is open 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon - 6 p.m. Sunday.

The boys had never been on ice until they learned last winter at the Dallas Stars Little Rookies camp, which taught them to skate, at least as well as you can learn in four Saturday sessions. The program is free, no experience is required, and it’s open to both girls and boys ages 4-8 years. All equipment is provided.

All summer sessions of Little Rookies are filled, but fall sessions open September 20 at several ice rinks in the area. For details and registration, see http://dallasstars.com/LittleRookies/. For those already hooked on hockey, the
Richardson Ice Training Center where the boys participated is hosting a hockey equipment swap August 2. See the Little Rookies Facebook page for details.

Totally Texas -- Wild goings-on at Dallas Zoo

Dallas Zoo

650 S. R.L. Thornton Freeway (I-35), Dallas

#

How long was it since we’d been to the Dallas Zoo? Way too long! We set out this week to visit what had been one of our favorite haunts when the boys were too young to be in school fulltime. They have other interests now, but even going on third-graders aren’t too old to love seeing longtime animal friends again. They started wriggling in their seat belts as soon as they spotted the giant giraffe statue visible from the freeway.

We wanted to be in time for SOAR, the free-flight bird show in the ZooNorth section. We marvel at the stately crowned crane, the huge eagle owl, and the singing parrot who’s sometimes puzzled about how many “ee-i-ohs” to insert into her rendition of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”¾ or maybe just wants to keep trainers on their toes. The boys feel quite sophisticated now that they realize patter about how the hunting birds have solved the zoos rodent problem is the cue for “release the trained rats!” which swarm gaily across the backdrop.

Yes, it’s not all about the birds. We were amazed by the show’s latest rodent cast member, a 75-pound South American capybara who ambled onto the stage looking like a cross between a guinea pig and a particularly shaggy sheepdog.

We bought lunch, but the zoo welcomes picnickers with newly refurbished outdoor eating sites. We compromised by bringing our own afternoon snacks and refilling our water bottles at the drinking fountains.

Then it was off through the tunnel under the DART rail line to the Giants of the Savannah exhibit for close encounters with the zoo’s largest predators, in this case, the brother and sister cheetahs. Predator encounters alternate cheetahs and lions. (Parents will be relieved to know that the zoo now separates male and female lions since last fall’s mauling of one of the lionesses.)

The outdoor aviaries, the elephants, the reptile house and the Bug U! house, one of the boys’ favorites, and it was time to cool off at the Children’s Zoo, with its play area and artificial stream. We brought the boys’ swimsuits, but it’s fine to jump in wearing shorts and tees.

The zoo is open daily (except Christmas) from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. However, July 19 and 26, it stays open until 9 p.m., adding live music with its Safari Nights programs. The late night programs are included in regular admission, $15 for adults, $12 for children ages 3-11, free for kids ages two and younger. The zoo also offers discounts for military personnel and their families and DART ticket holders. Adults ages 65 and older get in for $5 on Wednesdays. Parking is $8 per car.

For additional information, daily senior discounts, and group and school rates, see www.dallaszoo.com/.

Totally Texas -- A monument to a Texas president

George W. Bush Presidential Center

2943 SMU Boulevard

Dallas, Texas

#

The monument on the hill to our 43^rd president has been open more than a year, and I confess, despite it being practically in my East Dallas neighborhood, I’ve stalled about going there. Until this week. It is as awesome as everybody has said, but I like the boys’ verdicts best. Voting with their feet (or maybe their seats), they had to be pried loose from the computer games featuring ex-White House first dog, Barney.

“The computers are very child-friendly,” confided one of the very friendly docents stationed throughout the museum. No kidding. The boys, just out of second grade, figured out in a few minutes that no matter what activities they put virtual Barney through, he’d still end up being rewarded with a nap. A win-win situation.

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of child-friendly activities available, from a children’s reading room with a copy of one of the boys’ old favorites, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (and a statue of late White House cat India reading a book), to the gorgeous multimedia presentation in entrance hall (repeating every quarter hour), to the reconstruction of the White House’s Oval Office where visitors are encouraged to sit behind a copy of the same desk presidents have since the days of John F. Kennedy.

For adults, but still on the light side, were depictions of the White House’s famous Lincoln Bedroom, formal dining room, and the presidential airplane and helicopter, the president’s baseball collection.

There are also more serious exhibits: news footage of the 9/11 attacks that occurred before the boys were born and a hunk of scarred steel from one of the bombed twin towers, the war in Iraq, a map depicting the devastation of AIDS (support for anti-retroviral treatment was one of the president’s initiatives).

Despite, or maybe because of emphasis on gee-whiz aspects of the presidency, there’s little room for cause and effect in the museum. The boys enjoyed spinning an interactive globe that tracked the increase in democratic governments over the past century. But they were left with no idea of the events that led to those changes. Maybe the center’s founders believe the more controversial aspects of George W. Bush’s presidency are best left to adult researchers in the library archives, leaving the museum proper little to say about the 2000 election, the problematic No Child Left Behind policy, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina or the 2008 world financial crisis.

The center is located on the SMU campus at 2943 SMU Boulevard in Dallas. It’s open Monday - Saturday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday from noon - 5 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults, $13 for those age 62 and older, graduated prices for children and youth, and directions. Parking at the lot across the street from the center is $7.

Tickets are available at the entrance or online at  
www.bushcenter.org .