Dinosaur Valley

Texas's Jurassic Park likes about an hour from Fort Worth, along the Paluxy River, near Glen Rose. Three kinds of dinosaur footprints can be found imprinted in the rock of the river bed. Two live dinosaurs, a carnopod (meat eater, see the teeth) and a sauropod (plant eater) guard the entrance.

Texas Barbecue

There's nothing that says weekend eating like Texas barbecue. It differs from other styles in that it's dry, served with a thin sauce on the side. Beef, especially beef brisket and beef ribs, is by far the preferred meat. Chicken and sausage or bologna are popular too, but only rarely can one get pork. Typically, Texas barbecue is served with beans, coleslaw, potato salad, a thick slice of onion, and toasted bread. Whether a small, family-owned restaurant or a chain, the sign of a good barbecue place is the firewood, piled out front and the number of big trucks in the parking lot.

Return to Fossil Rim

We'd been warned that spring break was the busiest time of year at this amazing wildlife park an hour south of Fort Worth (see previous post) but my mother, who's been visiting for Gwenny's spring break, really wanted to go. The line of cars was long and painfully slow and the animals too full to bother trolling for snacks. This irritable ostrich whacked Lloyd on the head, hard, and put a few dents in his car. Showed him.

Sunday Downtown

Tired of being boring, the Buck Bruce family dressed up and headed downtown to take in a Sunday matinee at the Bass Center. Following a spectacular performance of Swan Lake and feeling a touch of altitude sickness from having bought the cheapest seats, we wandered over to Uno's for pizza. When the weather gods were handing out climates, they cursed Fort Worth with both unbearably hot summers and freezing winter nights. The galloping mummy is actually a topiary that someone has lovingly wrapped in little blankets so it doesn't freeze to death.

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

The Stock Show, which attracts almost 1 million visitors and nearly as many head of cattle, swine, poultry and horses, has been part of Fort Worth's culture in some guise or another for over 100 years. The stock show/rodeo/carnival takes place in the Will Rogers Memorial Center, in the center of the cultural district, just a stone's throw from the three major art museums. Imagine letting thousands of tons of livestock, cowboys from every western state, and their trucks and trailers, occupy the center of the city for 23 days. That's Fort Worth fer ya: City of Cowboys and Culture, sharing the same parking lot.

We went to the Rodeo Monday night. I was completely enthralled by the galloping horses and gallant cowboys. There was calf roping, bareback bronco riding and more. Champion rodeo competitors come from all over Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Montana, Kansas, etc. I'm totally fascinated by cowboys now, and the lives I imagine them to lead, the people I imagine them to be. I've started to fantasize about being a cowgirl and being as comfortable maneuvering a big, sweaty horse around barrels as I am behind the wheel of a car. Then again, this kind of activity looks like it could really hurt sometimes.

Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show

This was really lame, for tourists only. The historic 1908 Cowtown Coliseum was cool, and those lean, athletic cowboys galloping around the arena on pinto horses were to die for. The western movie soundtrack was at times even exhilarating. But the show? Totally unimpressive. And short.

Christmas Eve at the Zoo

As we used to do in Cincinnati, we spent Christmas Eve at the zoo. Our favorite part is Texas Town, featuring Texas animals, geography and ecology.
The zoo has tricked out the exhibits in a Texas theme, housing the animals in clever recreations of old weathered buildings and such. Yeah, it's a little over the top, but it's amusing.

Girls in Red Dresses

For the second time this season, Charlotte's parents, Azilee and Rob, invited us to a fantastic holiday party. This one was called the Sugar Rush and was a fundraiser for Kids Who Care, a children's theater group, followed by their musical production of The Christmas Carol. The party was fun and their Carol was terrific. The main roles were played by professional actors while teens enlivened the script with extra Christmas songs and dancing.
I don't know whether it was because this production was especially good, or because great works of art continue to surprise you long after you think you know them, but I felt the meanness and misery, as well as the merriment, of Dickens' familiar story more intensely than I ever have before. I shed real tears.
Again, I can't post a picture, but here are Gwendolen and Charlotte enjoying each other's company.

Chicken Dance in Cow Town?

"Feel like German food?" asked Lloyd as I sat at the dining table knee deep in fake fur. (I was busy making mouse, bear and wolf hoods for Gwenny's school play.) I loved Edelweiss the minute we walked in. The decor was "Bavarian Chalet tricked out for Christmas" and reminded me of Munich. The beers were huge and the food way too delicious. Best of all was the music: an oompa band with accordion, keyboard and Eidelwiess' owner, Bernd (pictured), belting out German drinking songs and Bing Crosby Christmas carols. Little girls, including ours, took to the dance floor. By the time I ordered another stein of hefe weizen and we danced the Chicken Dance, I felt like I hadn't had so much fun in years.
Here's Gwenny in the mouse hood.

Armadillos, cont.

It breaks my heart that so many of these sweet critters die in traffic accidents each year.

Log Cabin Village

Sunday, 72 degrees and sunny. We went to Fort Worth's Log Cabin Village. There are five or six log cabins from the mid-1800s, complete with interpreters...albeit with different interpretations. One interpreter told us a family had raised eight children in the Seely cabin; another told us, "well, they didn't live in one room for very long, they added a room every time they had a child."

Lloyd and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary today. Like today, the day we got married in Carmel, CA, was 72 and sunny The traditional gift for the sixth is iron, so Lloyd gave me a new cast iron skillet, which is actually made in the USA! Turns out that Log Cabin Village had more stuff made out of iron than modern folks usually see: pots, pans, bells, stoves, pumps, wheels, axes, plows....

More Fort Worth Nature

Woke up this morning to bright blue sunny skies and cool, as in mid-50s, weather. I found a park on Grapevine Lake that promised a hike bike trail. Not only was it really beautiful, but we found an armadillo skin (what Gwenny is holding), a turtle shell and several bird nests. It's called Oak Grove Park.

Back to the Nature Preserve

They lied. There is fall in Texas. We spent a glorious day at the only park we know of, by Lake Worth, where nature is left alone to be herself. It's very dry, like California, with a splash of fall color thrown in. Lovely.

Fossil Rim

A friend recommended this place about an hour southwest of Fort Worth: the Fossil Rim Wildlife Park. You drive through a 1700 acre park where African wildlife roams in "their near natural environment," so we grabbed our binoculars and set off. We needn't have bothered, with the binoculars, that is.

I never knew ostriches and emus could be so...friendly. Did I mention you buy a bag of food for $7.50?

As one big-eyed animal after another approached our car seeking handouts, I began to realize how bizarre it really is. And ethical?

Here there were these deer, with antlers worthy of any trophy room, walking up to pickup trucks like streetwalkers.

Families of zebra with the little ones in tow worked the road, while giraffes stuck their heads in through sun roofs.
The fall scenery was prettier than I ever thought the north central Texas prairie could be. The wooded grassland is a lot like the African savanna, which explains why the animals thrive here. On a warm (not hot) late afternoon November 1st everything was tinged in gold. Gwenny and I stuck our heads out the sunroof as we drove, taking it all in.

I wonder what AZA (association of zoos and aquariums) would have to say about feeding animals from cars when most parks don't even want you to feed the squirrels, but it was fun. And the animals were healthy, if perverse.

Giraffes have really soft lips.

Texas State Fair

The Texas State Fair is the
biggest fair in the biggest state so I was thrilled to learn it was less than an hour's drive from here. We had a blast. Dickies is the official outfitter. Check out Tex's outfit.

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.

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!