Visiting George W. Bush

Yesterday we left our Houston hotel early in the morning because of a planned detour to Cypress and the Outlet Mall there (which we knew from a former trip) to get some really good deals at Eddie Bauer's, Jockey and Crocs. Via College Station (home of famous Texas A&M University) we continued driving north to Dallas, and when we arrived to our downtown Dallas hotel around 5 pm we had approximately 300 mi. driven.

The Magnolia Hotel is in the former office building of an oil company by name "Magnolia" (later: Mobil), built in the 1920ies in elaborate art-deco style. The building has been nicely renovated and furnished inside with fancy, bouticey, artsy elements. We got a nice, large corner suite in the 21st floor with fully equipped kitchen, living and bed room and a terrific view. Equipped with Happy Hour coupons for the hotel bar, we didn't leave the hotel anymore, but worked and planned the next day.


Friday morning we paid a visit to George W. Bush, Jun. and his wife Nancy in the new Presidential Center & Library. This very instructive exhibition makes some of Bush's actions better comprehensible. After paying our respect to Bush we continued to the Perot Science Center, a fantastic building of Thom Mayne with Morphosis Architects.

Lots of hands-on exhibits, interesting ... but somehow we are getting tired of Natural History Museums, dinosaurs, gems and astronomy. More great architecture a short drive away: Calatrava's Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, opened in 2012.

Driving is much easier in Dallas than it's been in Houston, and much faster, too. Nevertheless, we dropped the car at the hotel in the early afternoon and continued our exploration on foot, much more effective, though not many people seem to walk in Dallas. In the Dallas Arts District we visited the Museum of Art, peeked into the Nasher Sculpture Center and AT&T Performing Arts Center and enjoyed the Klyde Warren Park, a new green promenade on top of a busy highway, surrounded by food trucks, with an open-air library, an open-air stage, playgrounds etc. Nice addition to downtown Dallas!


In Founders Plaza Dallas' history started and an old cabin is left from the very beginnings as well as the impressive Old Red Courthouse. Also historic are many houses in the Historic West End with Wild Bill's western wear store. The owner is an interesting character, we interviewed him last time for a story.

Pioneer Park with a grandiose sculpture group of 49 (!) larger-than-life longhorns and three cowboys. It commemorates 19th century cattle drives on the Shawnee Trail, an early cattle drive route which went through Dallas and is the largest bronze monument of its kind in the world. Very impressive!

Admiring downtown's modern and historic architecture, a new park with a gigantic eye and, finally, Neiman Marcus' flagship store we were getting tired after walking for a couple of hours in 80+ degrees. Had lunch and dinner at once in a burger joint closeby our hotel before calling it a day (though still working in the room).