Main Street Garden Park

Main Street Garden (which opened in this month) now has it's Christmas tree up and ready to ring in the holidays! I snapped this picture while taking a morning walk with the fam and thought it looked a little postcard-like. So I posted it.

I'm looking forward to spending more time here since it's only three blocks from home, and it's sure to be a great place to sit out in the sun during the summer for a little R&R.

Texas State Fair

This weekend marked the opening of the Texas State Fair! The State Fair can be traced back over 120 years. Back then the exhibits consisted of finest cattle, farm equipment, and summer concerts. Now the exhibits that are the most popular are the number of strange and weird items that can be battered and deep fried! Fried Twinkies, Snickers, and butter are some of the more unhealthy but delicious items on the menu.

We met some friends in Richardson Sunday morning for Dim Sum at Kirin Court and parked at the Aprapaho DART station to catch the rail into the city. After getting off at the Pearl Street station we switched to the newly open Green Line which took us directly to the front entrance of Fair Park! It was the perfect way to get to the fair and avoid the traffic and parking issues that have plagued the fair for years...

Having the kids with us made the fair extra enjoyable (for me anyway). There's nothing like watching them jump in all the show cars and pretending like they're driving... and they did this over and over in almost every car on the show floor until we finally left the building! Of course, since they're mine it's probably a lot more annoying than I thought it was. :)

The ride back to Richardson was long but enjoyable after being outside and on our feet all day long.

If you can make it to the State Fair this year I definitely suggest taking the DART Rail.
It's better for the environment and for your budget. Tickets were only $4 which is worth the hassle and every time we ride the DART Rail we're proving that residents of this city can appreciate and understand urban transportation instead of having to show up and get their BMW dinged in the cramped parking lots around the fair grounds.

RE:Vision Dallas Winner: Entangled Bank

The winner of the RE:Vision Dallas competition has been named. The North Carolina firm Little has won with their Entangled Bank design.

From the UrbanRevision.Org website:
Something incredible is about to happen in downtown Dallas. Soon, a single block will be transformed into a place that creates economies, supports community, facilitates relationships and generates resources. The winners of Re:Vision Dallas have created plans that challenged us, engaged us, and inspired us. And their ideas, from local materials and vegetated screens to integrated greenways, will shape how people will live and work here in the future.


Entangled Bank is a complex yet simple network of elements. Each piece whether it is the bird, the plant, the worm or the soil personally contributes to the growth and ultimate survival of each. They are all very different from one another but each is very dependent on the other. For without them the bank would unravel and fail. Within the network still a very personal cycle of life persists that starts with conception, continues with growth and ultimately flourishes or sometimes fails. But the bank itself is meant to sustain and offer every opportunity for its constituents to succeed. This same notion can be related to the natural environment as well as the social landscape of Dallas and also our site.

 

What if we not only sought to teach and educate about the importance of living sustainably out of respect for the environment but we actually sustained and rehabilitated those among us who were struggling? What if we welcomed them back within the comfort of the entangled bank and as they grew and flourished we watched them begin to contribute to the bank themselves? It is our belief that true sustainability relates not only to the environment but also has key economic and social impacts.

 

Read more at the competition website.

Terrorist Plot on Fountain Place

Yesterday Dallas FBI agents intercepted a Jordanian terrorist in an attempt to detonate a car bomb to blow up the Fountain Place building. Fountain Place is a 1.2 million-square-foot office tower of green reflective glass rising 60 stories from a beautiful water garden located at the corner of Ross Avenue and Field Street in downtown Dallas. This is one of my favorite modern buildings in downtown Dallas. I see it everyday on my way to work and on the drive home.

Designed by I.M. Pei & Partners, the original plans were for the development of a second twin tower that was not built. It's location was just north adjacent to the existing tower. The second tower was also to include the famous plaza and water gardens with connections to the first tower. Although it was not built I can only imagine what the two towers would have looked like peering over the Dallas skyline.


The alleged terrorist mentioned during the planning stages of the attempted bombing that he wanted to blow up the tower because it reminded him of the World Trade Center in NYC. An eerie thought for sure. It makes me happy to know that the F.B.I. are diligent in their mission to seek out and uncover terror activity, and we can all see the value in their efforts especially on a day like yesterday.

The Pearl Latte @ The Pearl Cup

This is the Pearl Latte: this gigantic mother-load of a latte is from The Pearl Cup. My new favorite coffee shop. It's on Henderson Ave. just across the street from Barcadia.

The vibe inside this coffee shop is that of the independent spirit, laid back locally owned espresso bar ala: Austin!

The two women who own it moved from Austin and after finding that they didn't like their jobs in corporate America, decided to strike out on their own. If you ask anyone that's visited this jem, they'd agree that this place is definitely a one of a kind and worth visiting on a regular basis!

I can't wait to go back and enjoy the atmosphere, great employees and a hot cup of coffee!

West End Pirate Day street festival

Today was national Talk Like A Pirate Day! Which is a very interesting thing because at the West End in Dallas, everyone thought it was Dress Like A Pirate Day! Allowing people to live out their strange yet amusing obsession with pirates hundreds of people gathered in the West End for live music, food, crafts, and performances.

We ate lunch at the Chipotle just up the street and and walked around afterward watching the crowds singing while dressed like pirates! It's nice to see some action in the West End as it's been pretty ghost like for the past few years. I think it's about time to have more businesses move into the space and bring it back to it's former glory! Having House Of Blues just at the Northern edge on the boarder between West End and Victory park is definitely helping get some people moving through the area. I look forward to seeing it return to it's old glory!

Addison Oktoberfest

Addison Oktoberfest was a smash hit! Got there around 7Pm and drank the night away enjoying good music, good friends, and great people watching! Got a hotel at Springhill Suites also, which was a good thing because we went to Shuck and Jive afterward and things got a little crazy... All in all we were safe, had a good time, and made some fun memories. Until next year...

I know where Britney sleeps

Word got out last night that Britney Spears is staying at the downtown ALoft hotel which is right next door to our loft. Here's the view from our window. The hotel was packed last night and there appeared to be a lot of buzz from guests and visitors trying to catch a glimpse of Britney in the hotel. She plays American Airlines Center tonight and the concert is almost sold out.

I tried looking through all the windows I could (sans binoculars) but couldn't spot her. Apparently there have been a few spottings, of people caught in intimate moments, and with their windows open (for some reason) by local residents in my building. So let it be known, that if your windows are open there could always be someone watching...

NYLO Hotel has steez

We visited the NYLO Hotel this weekend and spent some time lurking through the building. The place was built out from the ground up with an urban loft feel. Which is apparent by the high ceilings, open floor plans, large windows, and minimalist interiors and give the hotel a true New York City feel.

Stephane Dupoux is the designer who is responsible for all the interior design and is the owner of Depoux Design and if you've ever been to NYLO you'd agree that he and his team did a fantastic job on the place. The hotel even used Project Runway runner-up Daniel Vosovic to design casual comfortable uniforms for hotel staff.

We spent some time hanging out on beds by the pool and laid out under a perfectly sunny Texas day! When we got too hot, we took a dip in the black bottom pool, having drinks brought to us from the bar, and enjoying the outdoor music being piped in by speakers surrounding the lounge area.

This is a very stylish place and had lots of cool design eye-candy. We'll be back soon for sure.

The Londoner Uptown: Cheers Mate!

This weekend was the British Bike BurnUp in Expo Park. As usual there was a large turnout of scooterist who gazed at the vintage metal! Soon after the things cooled down and motorcycles dispersed, we took a tour through the historic Fair Park fairgrounds which was pretty amazing since Fair Park was the location of the 1936 World's Fair and remains unaltered to this day. It also is the worlds largest collection of Art Deco buildings and was amazing to see it without the crowds of people gulping down fried pizzas and Twinkies.

After a great group ride we and ended up at the Londoner in Uptown. Good times, good beer, great food made this a instant favorite of mine! I really like this location, and apparently they like us too with happy hour prices for all people showing up on scooters. They also have reserved parking out front just for us! The inside is styled like you would imagine an old London pub, with a bit of Hard Rock Cafe thrown in. Pool tables, darts and yes, a free juke box filled with "Brit pop, 80's favorites and some 70's glam rock".

We're definitely going back soon for some fish and chips and to enjoy the UK without leaving our neighborhood!