Day in the District

Sunday, the seven museums in the cultural district offered free admission and a lively schedule of performances. We caught the Cowtown Opry at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. Tons of people came out for the event, or were they going to the gun show in the adjacent Amon G. Carter Exhibit Hall at the Will Rogers Memorial Center? Note to self: time to learn a little something about Western music.

Botanic Gardens

Fort Worth's Botanic Gardens are a real treasure. The Japanese Garden is stunningly beautiful, albeit a little less than serene on a Sunday afternoon. Biggest carp I've ever seen and greedy for fish food you can buy from a little dispenser.

Fort Worth Nature Center

Now that the weather has cooled to low nineties, it's safe to leave the comfort of air conditioning. The Nature Center is really cool if you like North Texas prairie. I'm still making up my mind. We saw buffalo, prairie dogs and an armadillo.

Giant Robot Playground

Gwendolen loves a good playground and the Giant Robot Playground in Benbrook (officially Dutch Branch Park) is as good as it gets. The robot is part of the older, metal, playground with dangerous stuff like I used to play on as a kid. The newer part is a giant wooden castle.

The Opening at the Modern

We'd so been looking forward to the opening of the Hubbard/Birchler exhibition at the Modern but it was canceled due to [forecasts of bad] weather. Ironically, Ike took one look at North Texas and headed to Cincinnati to wreck it's havoc. Here are Gwenny and Lloyd in the Serra sculpture. See the drizzle?

Dinosaur World

Dinosaur World was hard to find, but it was worth it: over 100 life sized dinosaurs.

Artspace 111 Gallery

Out hunting for the local arts scene, we were lucky to find an opening at Artspace 111, a contemporary art gallery on the outskirts of downtown. An outdoor patio, sophisticated-looking patrons, comic-book inspired paintings

by Ed Blackburn, free wine and cheese, and environmental improvisations by Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth dancers made the experience seem oh so LA. Loved it!

Fort Worth Zoo

We joined the Fort Worth Zoo. It's a lot different from the Cincinnati Zoo--I don't think there are as many animals, for one--but I'm sure we'll go often. It's much more didactic that the Cincinnati Zoo, with many more indoor and educational displays, especially in the theme park-like Texas Town. And, understandably in this climate, there is a lot of shade and shaded structures. (Though I can't see going when temps exceed 100 degrees, no matter how much shade!) Gwendolen's favorite exhibit is the parakeets, where you can buy bird seed encrusted popsicle sticks and make new friends. Do you see a pattern? Yes, we like feeding animals.

FORT WORTH TEXAS

I didn't ask to come here and now I'm struggling to find something to love about my new home.

Here are a few possibilities:
1. There's a copy of every major chain store within minutes of my apartment
2. I was able to leave my heavy winter coat in Cincinnati
3. Six-lane surface streets make getting around a breeze
4. There's a cattle drive through town twice daily
5. There are some really nice museums
6. An abundance of reptiles (See my Texas Critters slide show)