Category Archives: In the City

George W. Bush Presidential Center

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The George W. Bush Presidential Center offers the public highlights from two presidential terms. North Texas Ramblings George W Bush CenterThe Presidential Library and Museum covers signal events such as 911, Hurricane Katrina, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Literacy campaigns, volunteerism, and compassionate foreign policy receive equal attention.

Presidential Library and Museum

Located on the edge of Southern Methodist University, the museum highlights the George W. Bush presidency with artifacts, films, and computer-guided demonstrations. Most poignantly, a towering piece of steel from the World Trade Center anchors the 911 exhibit. A war room styled, computer table allows visitors to explore what lead up to both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the wars’ aftermath.

The Center’s Decision Points Theater provides visitors a hands-on experience decisioning a major crisis. Each person has their own computer consul and access to video from key players. When we visited, we responded to the disaster in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. It gives you a new appreciation of the high stakes, time-sensitive decisions presidents make.

First Lady Laura Bush figures prominently throughout the Center’s exhibits. She and the Bush daughters are pictured around the world in venues supporting peace, literacy, and human rights.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the museum includes very little about Vice President Cheney, though you can purchase his and Lynne Cheney’s books in the museum store.

The museum also boosts a full-sized replica of the oval office. And, across the hall from the permanent exhibits, you’ll find a temporary gallery highlighting various aspects of life in the White House. We enjoyed a look at Christmas 2002 that featured a retrospective of First Family pets.

Bush Institute

The George W. Bush Presidential Center encompasses the entire complex and includes the ongoing work of the Bush Institute. The Bush Institute’s tenants are

  • “Freedom is a universal human desire.
  • Free enterprise is the engine of economic prosperity.
  • Education is the foundation of successful life.
  • Every human life is precious.”

These principles weave their way through much of the museum exhibits culminating with a call to action encouraging volunteerism.

When you visit

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Sundays, from noon until 5 p.m. There is a courtyard café for drinks and sandwiches (outdoor seating only). A formal restaurant appropriately titled Café 43 offers table service. The center is located at 2943 SMU Boulevard, Dallas. Parking is available for a fee across from the center. Tickets to the Presidential Library and Museum range from $10 – 16. Active duty military and children under 4 are free.

Insider’s Tip

Visit the George W. Bush Presidential Center in springtime. A 15-acre urban park planted with native prairie grasses and wildflowers forms a semi-circle around the back of the Presidential Center. Not only will you find bluebonnets, but also dusty pink carpets of evening primrose, brilliant reds and yellows of firewheel, and magenta wine cup. Benches scattered around the garden make for an ideal spot to stop and enjoy the magnificent spring display. The park is open sunrise to sunset. There is a fee for touring the Presidential Center, but entry to the attached park is free.

Autumn at the Arboretum

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Dubbed Pumpkin Capital USA, Floydada farmers grow over 15 million pumpkins each year. To celebrate the bountiful harvest, Floydada hosts Punkin Days the second weekend in October.

Did you miss Punkin Days?  Never fear, you can still see 65,000 Flyodada pumpkins and assorted squash at the Dallas Arboretum.

Fall colors.  Autumn is ideal for exploring the arboretum. During the seasonal, Autumn at the Arboretum, pumpkins line the walkways, North Texas Ramblings Pumpkins Dallas Arboretumhay bales anchor 10-foot tall arrangements of plants and squash, and mums burst with color in the floor beds.  Who knew, squash came in so many different shapes and colors.

Pumpkin Village. Be sure to check out Pumpkin Village, a series of storybook cottages with pumpkin facades.  I’ve never seen so many pumpkins in one place before. Designed after pumpkin-themed children’s stories, kids love exploring each of the playhouses. And of course, there is Cinderella’s carriage pulled by straw horses! On the outskirts of Pumpkin Village, you’ll find more hay bales, this time outlining a two-foot high maze, ideal for the littlest of explorers.

Especially for kids. During Mom and Me Mondays, and Tiny Tot Tuesdays, Pumpkin North Texas Ramblings Pumpkin Village Dallas ArboretumVillage rocks!  In addition to exploring the storybook cottages, youngsters can feed goats at the petting zoo, get their faces painted, and participate in Kindermusik activities.

Details:  Autumn at the Arboretum runs September 20 through November 26.  Mom and Me Monday and Tiny Tot Tuesday activities are held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Dallas arboretum is located at 8525 Garland Road, Dallas.  The Dallas Arboretum is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More on the arboretum…..

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.

Rory Meyers Children’s Garden

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Calling it a children’s garden is misleading. A visit to the Rory Meyers Children’s Garden at the Dallas Arboretum is like a visit to an outdoor, natural science museum. And best of all, you don’t need to a kid to have fun here!

North Texas Ramblings Rory Meyers Children's GardenCovering eight acres, the Rory Meyers Children’s Garden is so chocked full of activities that we spent hours exploring its outdoor (and indoor) exhibits.

Pure Energy. Located at the bottom of the garden, Pure Energy is a favorite spot during hot summer days. Explore renewable energy from solar, wind, and water on a stage surrounded by a small pond. Little kids enjoy getting wet with the hands-on water exhibit. Adults and older kids can experience a tornado and learn more about wind turbines.

Texas Wetlands. While we didn’t see much in the way of living wildlife (aside from birds and squirrels), bronze animal statues populate the area around the wetlands. And we learned all about the vital role different plants play in filtering and cleaning wetlands. Who knew cattails purify water better than my faucet filter?

First Adventure. Located just at the Rory Meyers garden entrance, the First Adventure area is what you would expect from a children’s garden.  It’s a play area for the littlest garden explorers. Kids crawl on giant whimsical ants, play with exhibits set at toddler height, and plant table-top vegetable gardens.

OmniGlobe. One of only five in Texas, my family’s favorite exhibit was the OmniGlobe located inside the Exploration Center. This unique system projects simulations onto a spherical (think Earth) display. We watched continental formation over hundred millions of years, and simulations of tsunamis and hurricanes. The OmniGlobe displays astronomical phenomenon, too. My teenager thought this exhibit alone was worth the visit.

Secret Garden. Children (and even adults) looking for an adventure quest will enjoy this garden maze. While there were no dragons, we used our imagination as we wove our way towards the castle at the center of the maze.

When you go. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Dallas Arboretum is at 8525 Garland Road. Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for children. Admission to the Rory Meyers Children’s Garden is an additional $3. Situated just outside the children’s garden, the Garden Cafe by Two Sisters sells a wide variety of pre-packaged snacks and sandwiches, along with drinks and ice cream bars.

Visitor Tip: A Dallas Arboretum membership can pay for itself after just two visits. The family membership is $125. Sounds expensive, but members can bring a total of six people with them each time they visit the arboretum (and the guests do not have to be family).