Finding America

Day 8

I took sometime this morning to take advantage of the high speed internet connection at the house. Then with a little breakfast in us we pushed of for the days adventures leaving Kodi to hold down the fort.

Kam and I made a bee-line for the arts district of downtown Dallas. We found parking but when we came to the Nasher Sculpture Center we realized we were 30 minutes too early. That’s ok I wanted a coffee and a news paper so we set off to snoop out a Starbucks. We passed what looked like an independent café in the first floor of a building adjacent to Nasher’s but the decided to take a quick walk around the city instead in hopes of finding the green logo of Mrs. Starbucks smiling back at us.

People in Texas must not drink coffee nor do any walking, for we found no Starbucks or even a café in our 10 block search and nary a pedestrian was to be seen gracing the sidewalks with their presence. It appears that Dallas CBD is a commuter’s hub. Everyone drives in for work, into their parking structures and then into their office leaving very little need for the retailers, restaurateurs and newsstand which occupy the storefronts and corners of more residentially intensive downtowns.

As I mulled this over we were returning to the parking lot from which our little jaunt started only to find a small placard in front of the facing building stating that the little café we so flippantly dismissed earlier was in fact the genuine article. Sweet Starbucks, “there she blows, a hump like a snowhill.” With sweet Java relief a perk away we park ourselves in the comfortable confines of the coffee shop to peruse the local news and await the museum’s opening.

Nasher’s center had a Henri Matisse exhibit which showed a few of his painting but really focused on his talents as a sculpture. The exhibit was amazing. While Matisse’s work showed obvious genius, my favorite works were from an artist named Alberto Giacometti. His style was so fascinating. From one angle the sculptures were veritably two dimensional, yet from the other the depth and realism was astonishing. I must have stared at one of his sculptures of his brother Diego for nearly 5 minutes.

I was filled with a strange sense of awe. Or maybe it was revelation. See it was the first time that art of this kind resonated with me. Typically I gravitate toward more recent art, mixed media and non-traditional forms of art. Operas and ballets aren’t my thing for instance but send me to an independent film festival or an art exhibit in someone’s loft and chances are I’ll be a happy man.

After the museum it was time for a late lunch and under the advisement of the Mosley’s we drove to Uptown to visit Mia’s restaurant. Not quite the whole in the wall Winter Park’s PR’s is but nonetheless it had some gritty charm. I ordered their specialty beef brisket on soft corn tortilla. They pour some gravy on them in addition to the spices and chopped onions and serve them with rice and beans. They were so so good. WE loved the avocado dip and spicy salsa as well and would have to give Mia’s two thumbs up.

Following lunch we took a drive through Deep Ellum and Highlands Park Village for some sight seeing and shopping. Deep Ellum was pretty quiet and looked more like a night life district with it’s Coyote Ugly bar and assemblage of tattoo parlors and CD stores.

Highland Park on the other hand was like a Park Avenue shopping district with all the heavy hitters on board. We stopped in a few stores but the credit card stayed firmly encased in my wallet. See Highland Park is not a shopping area for the frugal at heart. No kidding in the Chanel store I saw a cute dress I thought would look good on Kamrin until I lifted the price tag - $3,250……Holy $hit. You have to be kidding me. What is wrong with our country when a piece of fabric holds that much value. Wow!!!
Taking advantage of the beautiful day we returned to the Mosley’s to lounge on the back porch by their pool. We played with their dog Lizzie and read books as the afternoon mellowed into a colorful evening.

Come dinner time we again entrusted our fate to our host’s suggestions and were not disappointed. I must say a call to Vicki prior to any visit to Dallas will provide you with a world class itinerary. Anyhow we drove to North Park mall and watched the film ‘Wild Hogs’ it was pretty funny and seeing the southwestern setting of the movie made us both eager to head west again. We followed up the movie with dinner at the Kona Grill in the mall. It serves a Pan-Asia/America menu and we both were very pleased with our choices.

Returning home we found Ted in the living room reading a book and relaxing having just returned from an out of town trip. Were glad to see him since we knew we’d be pushing off later than he would tomorrow and this might be the only chance we have to talk. Well it was good catching up with him but eventually our mutual fatigue caught up with us and off to bed we went.