Category Archives: Beat the Heat

Dallas Aquariums

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Dallas is home of three great aquariums — SeaLife Grapevine, Dallas World Aquarium, and Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park. At first blush, three separate aquariums may seem excessive until you realize each offers a completely different marine experience.

SeaLife Grapevine — Best Date Night

SeaLife Grapevine is the newest aquarium attraction to open in the Dallas Metroplex. Owned and operated by Merlin Entertainment, SeaLife Grapevine is one of over two North Texas Ramblings SeaLife Grapevinedozen SeaLife attractions world-wide, with most located in Europe. Across from LegoLand, also owned and operated by Merlin Entertainment, SeaLife is situated inside Grapevine Mills Mall.

Despite its limited size, the aquarium entertains visitors with a variety of exhibits and tanks artfully constructed to look bigger than they are. Sea Life is a two-story facility allowing visitors to figuratively walk on water at the shark walk exhibit. Actually, it’s an acrylic floor with sharks and rays swimming in a tank beneath your feet – a novel change to the typical shark tunnel.

In addition to sharks and rays, SeaLife exhibits include coral reefs, touch tanks, jelly fish and sea horses. In fact, SeaLife prides itself on its successful sea horse breeding program. Honoring its location, SeaLife also has an exhibit dedicated to Texas wetlands and fish.

Don’t miss. Fin Facts painted on aquarium walls educate visitors with interesting factoids about the aquarium’s residents. Study well, as quiz stations located throughout the exhibits will check your knowledge. It’s a fun way to learn more about the animals.

Details. SeaLife Grapevine (3000 Grapevine Mills Parkway, Grapevine) is open later than most aquariums. Visitors can see the fish Monday through Saturday until 7:30 p.m., and Sunday until 5:30 p.m. Tickets online begin at $15 for adults and $12 for children. A combined SeaLife/LegoLand ticket is also available.

 The Dallas World Aquarium (DWA) — Best for Out-Of-Town Visitors

Calling the DWA an aquarium is a misnomer. This unique attraction is part aquarium, part zoo and part South American adventure. Housed in a refurbished warehouse in the historic West End, the DWA may be best known for its indoor rain forest exhibit called Orinoco – Secrets of the River. Complete with 40-foot waterfall, visitors begin their journey at the rain forest canopy and travel downward to the “river” below. Birds nest in the tree tops and habitats for other rain forest animals are situated along the walkway. A favorite is the sloth who hangs out near the Jungle Café.

A large, underwater viewing area provides a look at fish that populate the Orinoco and an opportunity to see the DWA’s Antillean Manatees, an endangered species. In addition to the unique South American rain forest experience, DWA has the standard aquarium exhibits of clown fish, sea horses and jelly fish. There are sharks, too. A 40-foot clear tunnel allows visitors to see sharks swim overhead. Other exhibits include penguins, flamingos and even a hallway with nocturnal animals like bats and opossums.

Don’t miss. On weekends the Mayan Performance Troupe performs traditional Mayan dances near the jaguar enclosure in the Mundo Maya exhibit.

Details. DWA (1801 N. Griffin St., Dallas) is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $20.95 for adults and $12.95 for children. There are two restaurants located within DWA and both are worth a visit. The Café Maya affords diners a view of the rainforest and serves Mexican cuisine. Eighteen O One is located on the ground floor (no view) with an Asian inspired menu, and a kid-favorite, fish-shaped pizza.

Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park — Best for a Birthday Party

No more standing on tiptoes to see the fish for youngsters at the Children’s Aquarium. The aquarium’s recent renovation included installation of viewing windows and exhibits at child-friendly heights.  The aquarium’s touch tank is strategically positioned in the entrance foyer where a docent guides children and parents. Here kids can see the underside of a horseshoe crab or touch a slipper lobster.

The smallest of the three Dallas area aquariums, it is also the most affordable with tickets for adults $8 and children $6. The aquarium’s size is a plus for the littlest marine biologists who can become overwhelmed by crowds at larger aquariums. A newly refurbished party room is an ideal location for children’s birthday celebrations. The aquarium offers weekend party packages, which include an animal interpreter and stingray feeding. For more information contact the aquarium at (469) 554-7549.

Don’t miss. Stingray Bay is a covered, outdoor exhibit that includes a shark tank, and stingray touch tank. Velvety smooth to the touch, the southern stingray seem to enjoy their encounters with humans. For a nominal fee you can feed the rays, too.

Details. The Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park (1462 First Avenue, Dallas) is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Money Factory

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What would it be like to work surrounded by almost a billion dollars? I found out with a trip to the Money Factory. Located in Fort Worth, the Money Factory (also known as the North Texas Ramblings Money FactoryBureau of Engraving and Printing or BEP) conducts free tours of its facility, one of only two locations that print U.S. currency.

The buck starts here! Imagine printing presses churning out sheets of hundred dollar bills. Or pallets stacked with money bricks, 400 notes to a brick. On any given business day, the Fort Worth BEP produces 36 million notes valued at $526 million.

The tour is conducted from a glassed-in, elevated walkway above the factory floor. Visitors see all three types of printing processes used to make money.

  • The intaglio printing pushes ink into the sheet giving money its three dimensional, textural feel.
  • The off-set press gives higher denomination bills their color.
  • The letter-press printing process serializes the notes.

Between each printing step, currency sheets dry in controlled areas on pallets.

Laundering money. Guides provide fun facts throughout the Money Factory tour. I learned that paper currency is actually a misnomer. U.S. notes are printed on specially designed sheets made of cotton and linen fibers. The fiber blend prevents money from falling apart in a washing machine or tearing when it’s folded too many times. To meet BEP quality assurance standards, currency must be able to withstand six washing machine encounters!

What you won’t see. The Money Factory has just one customer, the Federal Reserve Bank. Security restrictions prevent BEP visitors from viewing the 19,000-square- foot Federal Reserve vault that stores the finished currency prior to its shipment to one of the 12 Federal Reserve banks.

Learn about BEP. A self-guided walk through the visitor center is almost as much fun as the factory tour. Interactive exhibits and displays provide detailed information on all the engraving and printing processes involved in currency production. My favorite exhibit told the story of the Mutilated Currency Division. They refund damaged money, like currency damaged by fire or flood. The most outlandish example of the division’s work involved a man and his money eating cow. The man killed the cash consuming cow and sent the damaged currency (still in the bovine’s stomach) to the Mutilated Currency Division. And yes, he did get his money refunded.

Early counterfeiters. I also learned about the history of money and counterfeiting. Cacao beans were used as currency by the Aztecs. Some would counterfeit the cacao bean by removing its meaty center and replacing it with mud. Today’s counterfeiters are more sophisticated and BEP uses a variety of measures to foil attempts to counterfeit currency including the use of color shifting ink, security strips and more.

The 10 cent note. Surprisingly, the United States didn’t use paper currency until the Civil War. In 1861, the Treasury printed fractional currency in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents to offset coin hoarding. Today, BEP produces $1, $2, $5, $10, $50 and $100 notes. The largest denomination printed was the $100,000 note used only between banks prior to the advent of electronic fund transfers.

When you go. The Money Factory in Fort Worth is located at 9000 Blue Mound Road. Public tours are Tuesday through Friday (except federal holidays) from 8:30 a.m.to 4:30 p.m. All visitors must pass through security. BEP advises people to allow up to a half hour for the security check during its busiest times (spring and summer break). Cell phones, cameras, backpacks and any sort of weapon including pocket knives are strictly forbidden. For more information call the visitor center at (817) 231-4000.

Interurban Railway Museum

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People know Plano Texas as the headquarters for companies like Dell Services, Cinemark, J.C. Penney, and many more. Prior to the big corporations, Plano, like many other Texas towns, depended upon the railroads and railways.

The Interurban Railway Museum located on the edge of the old Plano downtown, tells the story of Dallas’ early mass transit system. Over 100 years ago, an electric railway linked towns from Denison in the north to Waco in the south.

Electric Trains. The Interurban Railway Museum is housed in the Plano depot for the Texas Electric Railway. Not only did passengers and mail pass through the depot, it also North Texas Ramblings Interurban Railway Museumserved as a transformer station, stepping down electric voltage so that it could be used by the railway. Hands-on exhibits in the museum give visitors, young and old, a chance to learn about the mechanics behind powering an electric train. Who knew physics could be so much fun!

Post Office on Wheels. Located outside the museum, you’ll find a fully restored rail car. Many interurban railways served as rolling post offices. Look at letters before 1948, and you may find the RPO cancellation stamp. That indicates the letter was sorted and processed in a railway post office. While not unique, the Texas Electric Railway did more than just sort mail. Its cars served as fully functioning post offices. You can explore the postal section at the rear of the rail car. Forward from the mail room, you’ll find the passenger section. The railway was a product of its time with segregated seating. The white section of the car was the smoking section, and the colored section was designated non-smoking. Ironic.

Sample Plano History. The Interurban Railway Museum also tells the story of early Plano. First settled in the 1840s, the city fathers named the town, using what they thought was the Spanish word for plains. As it turns out, the city founders needed a language refresher course as Plano, in Spanish, translates to flat. Corn was the region’s primary crop until the Houston and Texas Central Railroad came to town in the 1870s. Cotton became king with the railroad providing the means to transport the crop. By the 1930s, share croppers, growing mostly cotton, operated over 70 percent of the area farmland.

End of an Era. The share croppers and the Texas Electric Railway both struggled during the Great Depression. In fact, the company went through bankruptcy and reorganization in 1935 World War II saw a resurgence in the railway, but the end of the war also heralded the end of the railway. With steel and rubber no longer needed for wartime products, people could afford to buy automobiles. The railway, offering its mass-transit product, couldn’t compete with the auto. The last run of the Texas Electric Railway was in 1948.

When You Visit. The Interurban Railway Museum (901 E. 15th Street, Plano) is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and from 1 – 5 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free (donations are appreciated). If you visit on the weekdays, the museum docent will likely be a member of the Plano Conservancy for Historic Preservation. Conservancy volunteers are a wealth of information not only on the Texas Electric Railway, but also the history of this corner of Texas.

Choctaw Casino in Durant

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Are you looking for a Las Vegas style getaway?  How about Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma? Located off US Highway 75 just beyond the Texas state border, Choctaw Casino Resort is hard to miss. In fact, it’s the only tall building in the area!

Choctaw Casino. The sights, smells and sounds of the casino can be overwhelming. Enter the main foyer and a white buffalo statue grabs your attention. The bison is the North Texas Ramblings Choctaw Casinocenter attraction in the casino’s 22-foot high water wall and fountain.

And then there is the smell. Smoking is allowed on the casino floor. A powerful ventilation system helps, but if cigarette smoke really bothers you, Choctaw Casino is not your place.

And what about those ringing bells? The casino floor itself is a maze of slot machines all ringing and whirling with light and sound. Talk about sensory overload! According to Choctaw’s website, the casino boasts having 3,500 slot machines and over 200,000 square feet of gaming space. That is almost twice the gaming space of the Bellagio in Las Vegas!

Neophytes. As a novice, I found Choctaw Casino challenging. One cent slots really aren’t a penny a play, and what’s up with progressive slots with a bingo line? You do have a choice of slots or table games like black jack, baccarat, poker, and Pai Gow. With a minimum bet at the black jack tables of $10, table prices discourage the timid.

While there may be no winning strategy for slot machines, they are certainly easier for the beginner. With options like 25 cent Poker slots, you can easily gamble for a couple of hours and only loss a few dollars.

Tip: If you aren’t a professional gambler, visit Choctaw Casino with a set limit on how much you are willing to lose. And to stick to that limit!

Players Club. Like most casinos, Choctaw Casino offers the opportunity to join their players club. Consider the casino players club even if you only intend to visit once. Why? At the time I joined, I received ten dollars free play, and discounts on the buffet and my hotel room. But, if you value your privacy and don’t want to end up on another email list, take a pass.

More than a Casino. Bring your swimsuit and enjoy the outdoor water park. Or if you just want to relax after a long night at the tables, the resort has a full service spa. The Choctaw Event Center serves as venue for the once-great bands on the casino circuit. Tickets to see headliner bands from the 1980s and 1990s are priced from $40 to $90.

Choctaw Casino Resort is located at 3735 Choctaw Road in Durant, Okla. Contact the resort at 580-931-8340 or visit their online site at choctawcasinos.com .

The Kimbell and Dallas Museum of Art

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Beat the summer heat with an outing to one of the area’s free art museums — the Kimbell in Fort Worth and Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas.

Kimbell Art Museum

The Kimbell is now better than ever. The Renzo Piano Pavilion, added in November 2013, allows the museum to organize and more fully display its permanent collection. If European art is your thing, then you’ll enjoy wandering the Louis Kahn building (the main building). The museum’s eclectic collection contains a smattering of works from European artists from Bernini (terra cotta angels) to Rembrandt (Bust of a Young Jew). And its European collection includes Impressionist masters like Sisley, Monet, and Manet.

North Texas Ramblings Kimbell Art Museum in Fort WorthThe Kimbell gives guided tours of its permanent collection Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Visiting families can obtain an audio guide tailored to children ages 7 – 12.

The museums Buffet Restaurant is a great place for lunch. It uniquely offers a selection of soups, salads, quiche and dessert — the unique part — the cost is based on the plate size. Small plates are $9.50 and large are $12.

Details: The Kimbell is at 3333 Camp Bowie Blouvard, Fort Worth. The museum is closed Mondays. Onsite parking is free.

Dallas Museum of Art (DMA)

The DMA houses an extensive collection of over 24,000 pieces of art. In the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the innovative museum offers visitors an eclectic art experience far beyond just gazing at masterpieces. The innovative Center for Creative Connections (C3) lets you experience art from different perspectives. And it’s in the C3 gallery that you can make and take home your own piece of art. DMA supplies the materials; you the creativity.

Embracing technology, DMA has several self-guided tours accessible via your smart phone and the DMA mobi site. If you don’t have a smart phone, you can borrow an iPod Touch from guest services to take the web-enabled tour.

Details: DMA is located at 1717 North Harwood in Dallas. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Thursdays (open until 9 p.m.). On the third Friday of each month, the museum offers special programming until midnight. Onsite parking is available for $10.