Downtown Dallas

I’ve never spent a lot of time in a down area so I noted my perceptions as I moved around in downtown Dallas one day last month. It was a week day and the rain has held off on a warming spring day - making for a pleasant time to be in the city.

Tall buildings can be overwhelming up close. It is hard to get enough perspective on them without the frame including a lot of other buildings too.

I found myself using the zoom on my camera to capture the top of buildings.

I felt dwarfed and decided I was more comfortable with the older buildings that were not as tall. I also enjoyed the spaces that had been opened up into small urban parks and medians with trees. The downtown area had more vegetation than I expected.

The structures that were lower still seemed even more interesting. It was easier to see their architectural elements and enjoy their size.

I like the sculpture and the light fixtures that did not require a zoom at all.

These sculptures in a median seemed to fit right into the Dallas scene.

Narcissus

Narcissus and spring ---- they go together. The flowers in this post were in my parents’ garden in Dallas but the flowers are frequent sights in Maryland this time of year as well. As I write this (back home in Maryland) I see a patch of daffodils that a neighbor planted at the edge of the forest; they started out in a smaller area 20 years ago and have multiplied - and seem to be in sync with the red blooms of the maples.

I used my 8x loupe to capture images of the central flowers from different perspectives.

And there was a tiny spider that was very still on his flower while I captured his portrait.

Dallas Rapid Transit to Klyde Warren Park

When I moved from Dallas over 30 years ago, the sales tax had been increased to fund DART. It seemed to take a very long time for the system to become fully operational but now - what a pleasant surprise the system is! I rode the trains twice on my recent trip to Dallas: once from Love Field to close to my family’s home and once to go into Downtown Dallas. The trip to Downtown Dallas is the topic of this post.

The parking at the train station was free so the cost of the train was $5 for an all-day pass (good for train and buses around Dallas). The train is mostly raised above the roofs of warehouses with occasional street-level crossings. All the flat rooftops made me wonder why the space is not used for solar panels! The closer the train comes to downtown the taller the buildings get.

Once downtown, there is a free bus that cycles through the area called D-Link. The drivers are very knowledgeable. We stopped at the West End for lunch and then got back on the bus until it got to Klyde Warren Park. The park is built over the Woodall Rogers Freeway in the middle of the city. It has activities for just about all ages: playground, food trucks, small tables and chairs, water fountains intended for playing, a putting green, badminton, checker and chess tables, borrowing stalls (books, board games), a dog park…..with plantings just recovering from winter to add some greenery to it all.  There are pigeons to watch too. Even without a child - this park may become one of my favorite places in Dallas!