Solar Impulse Is In A Long Holding Pattern and Other Mixed Topics

The 73rd Annual Memorial Day Dallas

Fire Fighters Memorial at Restland Memorial Park and a funeral on Saturday for the second Dallas Fire Fighter  fallen in the last month.

Wind Damage on Park Central

The Vote at the Gaylord Texan Thursday

The Solar Impulse currently is making loops over the crosswind run way DFW International. It made good time to Dallas from Phoenix today. I have a ticket to tour the plane later  this week.Pictures should be forthcoming on this blog over the weekend.

There is a lot happening in Dallas this week. There is a lot happening in Dallas,period. The city just voted the big OK on a horse park as part of the new Trinity River Project in south Dallas. The new Trinity River Golf Club just landed this past week the Byron Nelson when it leaves the Four Seasons by 2019. That will be in south Dallas as well.

Protesters from both camps  were in Grapevine today. One group was at the Great Wolf Lodge and the opposing group was meeting at the Gaylord Texan across the street. That's two enormous complexes off Main Street in Grapevine. The actual vote for the Boy Scouts political position will go on at the Gaylord tomorrow,Thursday.

The Carry the Load march across the eastern seaboard to Dallas will culminate this weekend at a park in Uptown on the Katy Trail. The 73rd Annual Memorial Day Dallas sponsored by  The Greater Dallas Veterans Council will be held at Restland Memorial Park on Memorial Day. There will be a march from the Abbey Mausoleum to the Field of Honor this year with a balloon release to begin the Services. The 6,640 flags displayed are up already. The vintage helicopter, vehicle and equipment displays from World War I and II, Korean War, Vietnam War and Desert Storm will open to the public at 10 AM on Memorial Day.

This year, Dallas Fire fighter, Stanley Wilson's funeral will be at Park Cities Baptist Church in University Park at 10 on Saturday. His burial will be in Restland two days before the ceremonies.
Firefighter Wilson was a 28 year veteran of the Dallas Fire Department, ending his career at station 53.

Memorial Day weekend has always been full of activities. This year it is a bit more somber than it has been in the past few years.

Today, I ran into the boxer that I photographed a few months back. Check the archive  for the article. He was working out again and getting ready to head out to Oklahoma with some relief help over the weekend from his church.

Tex Dot issued a  statement this week that officially, the LBJ Construction Project is now 50 percent complete!. Does anyone hear angles singing: All-e-lu-ia! All-e-lu-ia!




 

Four Seasons Resort and Club at Cottonwood

The Main Entrance to The Four Seansons Resort and Club

The south entrance for shuttle bus drop offs and pick ups

The Pro Am entrance and Registration. That's Williams Square you see over the fence in the business
district of Las Colinas.

The Four Seasons Resort and Club has had some tough times over the past ten years or so. One of the outstanding features of her reign has been the class that she has shown through it all. Class always has a shimmer to it that ordinary just doesn't have.

 In the last several years, there has been a "steal-a-way" going on. I've never liked that, but that's how life works. The American Railroad Museum stole away the trains from Fair Park taking them to Frisco. Arlington, stole the Cowboys from Irving which stole them from Dallas. Dallas has just stolen the Byron Nelson from Irving beginning in 2019 or sooner with the newly planned Trinity River Course in south Dallas.

So, with the second 90-degree day in over eight months, it was a day to go to Las Colinas and take in a little of the glamor of the old girl that lines MacArthur with her beautiful red roses growing on the fence work. The tents, shuttle buses,crowds,parking attendants, ticket sellers and buyers just breaths a living presence into the old lady.

This evening I was able to submit a few images to the live news feed and the server should pick them up in the wee hours of the night. There aren't that many to share until the original feed is published, but I do have a few to check out here.

The Contralto

This is the male match to The Contralto but shown only as a comparison to why The Contralto was re-created.
The art work is priceless! Art Deco at Fair Park is a jewel in the crown the city has kept as a treasure.

The Contralto at Fair Park. It has been missing for years and was recreated and reinstalled. Thank goodness!

The Contralto. The Hall of State is the building behind with the three columns.

The credits

Side View of the Reflection Fountains and the Portico of Confederate States,Portico of Mexico,Spain and France Buildings.

A Flipped Airport Today

EVA Air Cargo's 747-400 headed to Anchorage for re-fueling.

Takeing off on 36L at DFW International. This would be 18R normally

Eating Up a lot of Runway--Loaded with fuel. It's a long way to Asia!

It's always a big disappointment to visit Founder's Plaza at DFW International when the airport is flipped and the planes are landing on Runways 35 and 36 rather than their other ends, 17 and 18. When ATC has the planes landing on 3- 35s and 2- 36s, they are at the far south end of the airport. The only hope one has at a good view with a reasonable lens is limited to 747's--the most graceful bird that  flies. Watching one land is a ballet in slow motion.

 In times past, I have watched  them hit the 10 mile marker and take forever and a day it seems to reach the threshold of the runway they are assigned for landing. Of course once they hit that one point where they are equal with you in line of site, there 180 knots makes the landing end in seconds. It's that old Physics thing that comes into play. However, the take off can  generate excitement for a photographer as that huge aluminum tube with wings and wheels rotates on the runway and takes to the air coming at you as its engines whine and the big bird climbs out to its departure control  altitude in the TRACOM before being handed off to Ft. Worth Center. The problem with a flipped airport is that the big Heavys during the day are limited in departures to mostly the cargo carriers and limited passenger departures during the day.

Today, there was just one opportunity to get a good photo shot of a departing 747. There were only two arrivals and of course, they came in on the one of the 3-35s which are on the east side of the terminals nearly two miles aways from the 2- 36 runways. The 2-crosswind runways had no traffic today.

Thank goodness, the weather was excellent. Over night, the winds are forecast to switch to the south and the airports in the Metroplex will be back to the normal flight rules again. Here are a few shots from the afternoon.

It Has Become A Cliche.....

From the lower walk looking upward

Free Wheelin by LaPaso

The lawn amphitheater.

The City of Dallas has three sculptures in the park. These signs from the Office of Cultural Affairs identifies the work and the artist. 

From the bridge at the Lake Highland Dart Station looking south. The walk connects both sections. The visible bridge is Walnut Hill Lane

A Dart Rail Train can be seen in the background. Next stop: White Rock Lake Station. 

But it's true in this case. "if you build it, they will come."












About three years ago,maybe four, the bulldozers arrived and started tearing down a large apartment complex that had been built sometime in the late 60's or early 70's. Then the heavy equipment arrived and started digging down and down and down along a creek that  ran through the property. Slowly,the site was transformed into an amazing walkway along the creek with high stone walls, beautifully crafted steel ornamental fence work, lights,water fountains, drinking fountains, benches,overlooks,a split-level lake with individual fountains and a rock-boulder dam separating the two.

There are two stairways that take you upward to a  more grade level-street level that is also landscaped with fountains, and  a lawn amphitheater.

Least anyone forget, this is a residential and retail development. What has made this so different is that the park setting was created first, then allowed to sit and settle before the first builders showed up.  But, as was said in a movie filmed in an Iowa corn field: "If you build it, they will come." These are a few shots of the new Lake Highland Center.

Contrast In Seasons

Mercer Crossing Hay Field

Hay Bale at the edge of the road.

Native Texas Wildflowers surround bale of hay in field.

The annual hay crop at Mercer Crossing has long been understood as being one of the best in the area for photographers. In fact, several images are included in my portfolio. A couple of weeks ago, in passing, some of the bales were still in the fields and native Texas wildflowers were springing up around them. It occurred to me: what a contrast.

The fields are posted so any shots have to come from the streets or from the train tracks. Since the train tracks are the BNSF, they are posted as well. That clearly leaves two streets to shoot from. To make a long story short, a Farmers Branch Police cruiser ran me off because the owner of the property did not want anyone "trespassing on his property". Yielding to the judgment of the officer, I put away my cameras and equipment and left. So any photographers that shoot at Mercer Crossing should be aware and stay clear. There seems to be a move to kick us out like they did the remote control airplanes that once flew over the fields but landed and took off on the street.

Maybe that is one of the reasons the construction project slated for one of the plots of land fell through;to much opposition at a zone hearing,maybe?

Here are a few of the shots before being run away
This is my last trip here. As pretty as it is, it was the essence of nature in an urban setting to be captured in photos until today.

Fair Park is Much More than Elitch Gardens--Maybe.

The Entrance to the Midway for the Summer Opening

Plastiki on display in front of the Hall of State Building

The new Top O'Texas on the left of the Texas Star.Actually, it's behind the Texas Star.

The Cotton Bowl with a crane still in place from my last trip to Fair Park.

One of the many Art Deco Buildings at Fair Park.

Swan paddle boats at Swan Lake on the lagoon.

Fair Park, this Friday night, May 3rd, kicks off something it has never done.It will open the midway for the summer on Saturday, May 4th.. The new ride, Top O' Texas, the 500 foot observatory up and down wheel will give a view of Fair Park and surrounding areas, including downtown Dallas.

It has long been an unanswered question why the City of Dallas has quasi-turned its back on Fair Park in favor of the Trinity River Corridor Project. Sure, they have pumped a few million bucks into Fair Park upgrades, when the place could be drawing in tons of convention dollars nearly year round and  there is so  much more to Fair Park than just the Cotton Bowl. Don't get me wrong. I have etchings on my heart for the Cotton Bowl, the old parades that were a Thanksgiving-- or was it Christmas-- tradition. It was the emerald of the jeweled crown that the city had with Fair Park.

Many years ago, Elitch Gardens  in Denver, was a fun summer place to go. That was, before the original EG moved from its historic home of 38th and Tennyson Street. It was between the old Stapelton Airport and downtown. At approximately 70 acres, the park was a major attraction when you visited Denver. You had not been to Denver unless you went to Elitch Gardens. Long story short, with many ownership changes over the years including an ownership under the Six Flags brand, it has managed to survive with a 20 acre water park but not like the crowds of the old park. By-the-way folks, Elitch Gardens opens its 2013 season on May 4th also.

Yesterday, I walked the entire length of Fair Park's approximately 177 acres down one side and back along the lagoon and IMAX building to the parking area east of gate entrance no.5 which is across from the Texas Discovery Gardens. I'm thinking to myself, Music Hall is full for a performance, a flea market is going on, the Old Mill Restaurant has a good size crowd, people are coming out of the Discovery Gardens. The city ownes water parks. Why don't they have one at Fair Park? Amid all the questions that were left unanswered was the most pressing question: Will Fletcher's be selling their corny dogs,too?