Dallas - the worst tourist destination in America

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You know what? Don't come to Dallas. It isn't fun to visit.

Today Ronn and I tried to make it fun and interesting. We tried, but Dallas got in the way.

First thing was a trip to the Ft. Worth Science and Planetarium. I haven't been to a planetarium since I was a little kid, and I was really looking forward to it. We checked the website to make sure everything was cool. They had an update that said because of the Texas Stock Show (a cow show), parking might be limited. Okay, no problem. We head down there using Ronn's GPS. It says we are where we are supposed to be, but nothing that looks like a science center or planetarium. Ask the man at the visitor center - and he says most of it has been closed down for reconstruction, and that we should come back in May of 2009. Why on earth would you put updates about daily parking conditions on your website, but not "Oh, hey, we're closed for the next year and a half?" · Same as the Reunion Tower! Stupid!

So we head all the way to Dallas to check out their planetarium. We finally make it there, and then are turned away because it is only open to the public on the weekends. They tell us this right after a lady walks out with three or four kids. Unbelievable. The guy who told us this was a chump too. He said "sorry" in one of those tones that really says "I could give a s*** about you, hahahahahaha".

We try our luck at the Dallas Science Place around the corner. They supposedly have some cool IMAX films there, so we figure we might still salvage all this driving we are doing. Nope. The films are only shown until 2:45 Mon-Thurs. The time we show up after driving all over the greater Dallas area and being told to go away? Two fifty-five.

Our last ditch effort so we can actually say we did something without lying about it was the Space and Flight Museum. And whaddya know? Something that is open! We spent about an hour walking around and checking out the planes they had on exhibit. It was actually pretty cool. They had the nose section from a Southwest Airlines plane that you could walk up into and check out, flight simulators for an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane and F-4 Phantom fighter, and they had Apollo 7's landing pod. You know, the one that would get shot up into space on a rocket, orbit the earth, and then parachute into the ocean with the astronauts on board? This pod had traveled 4.5 million miles in space. There are a few other things that we saw there, you can see them in the photos.

After that, we drove back to the house. I will never come to Dallas again for entertainment purposes.

Later tonight we are going to drive by BestBuy to pick up some stuff. I am pretty sure they will be open.

Then again, this is Dallas area. They might not be.

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Photos

The Space and Flight Museum
From the second floor.

The SR-71 Simulator
How can you know what everything in here does? If it was me, I just need to know where the "on/off" button is.

Cockpit of Southwest plane
Go to school and you too can learn how to fly one of these.

Chopper
Doesn't this make you think of "Predator" when Arnold Schwarzenegger yells "Get to the chopper! NOW!!!!"??

Apollo 7
Can you imagine spending time with two other people in that little thing?

What you wear to work
when you work for NASA

Comments

[Dad]

Texas
Son - Tomorrow I will also be in the Great State of Texas, although a few miles West of you in Amarillo. Have a project out there, actually about 60 miles north where there are miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. Sorry about your experiences in Dallas - maybe St Louie will be better. The Space and Flight Museum sounds pretty interesting. Your Mother has now caught what I had over the weekend. She's feeling pretty bad. Weather here is still cold and windy - frost on the roofs last night, but at least no rain. Will possibly go to Boulder Creek this weekend - we'll see. Dad

[Sis]

Pictures and more..
Hey, I wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed the pictures. I have been sharing the aquarium and aviation pictures with my class. They love them! Most of them were shocked that there was an animal named the sea cow. Another student of mine, who is big into anything military, was wondering what plane that is in the background of the F-16 picture. Any idea? I hope you at least went to the Fort Worth Stockyards - that should have been open. And I am very unhappy to see that my own brother has crossed the dark side to become Whataburger fan. Too depressing...

[bigchowder]

Pictures and more
Hey, Sis. Glad you and your class have been enjoying the blog. Not sure about the plane, will have to check when I get a chance. and Whataburgers are sooooo goooooood.