Other CITIES, Dallas

Well, I have to admit, I have lived in Texas a long time and have never seen the Tyler Roses in bloom. It seems every time we are going through the area, we have to get there quickly and miss this beautiful display of God's handy work. If you are visiting Dallas in the autumn, and you have a rental car, it may be worth it to trek out to Tyler for the day to catch these beautiful roses in bloom.

Tyler is known as the Rose Capital of the World, and its beautiful flowers are known world wide for their beauty. 2008 marked the 75th anniversary of the Tyler Rose Festival, yet once again, we missed out on seeing this pageantry.

This year's festival was October 16-19th, so if you are planning to be in Dallas around this time every year, consider the trip out to Tyler.

If you are looking for a visit to a smaller town while on a vacation to Dallas, then I would highly recommend making a drive 30 miles north to the small town of McKinney. McKinney actually is not all that small any more, but they have kept the old town quite unique and antique. The central square is still intact and has quite a few antique and specialty retail boutiques for all your Texas goodies. There are also several small cafes and restaurants around the square for a nice walk and snack. For those looking for a little night life, there are also a couple of places that really go late into the night as well, however if you are staying in Dallas, I would warn against those since there is no good public transportation system back to Dallas and the cab ride would be very costly!

As for getting to downtown McKinney, your only real option is by renting a car. Technically you could take the DART up to Plano and then take a cab the rest of the way, but this would be alot of hassle compared to renting a car for the day.

If you would like more information on McKinney, drop by my page using the link below:

If you are in search of the real Texas, you likely can pass Dallas right by. Dallas is not known for its Western heritage, and frankly has done as much as possible to move completely away from anything that would signify itself as a Texas town. The flat layout does not add much adventure to the city, and if you were to walk around the downtown area, I doubt you would know you were not in any other Midwest US downtown area.

If you are interested in learning a little bit about western heritage or just seeing a little of the "Real Texas", I would head out to Fort Worth, which is located 25 miles or so to the west of downtown Dallas. If you are visiting with a rental car, that would be the easiest, but if you would like to use Public transport, then just hop on the TRE train from Victory Park and head over.

For more information on Fort Worth, please visit my Fort Worth page!

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When my mom and dad visit us, we will usually go to at least one place nearby as a day trip. So when someone asked what day trips there were from Dallas (and they had already been to Fort Worth and Irving) I asked, "Had you thought about going to Denton? Very nice town square, a little museum and some nice places to have lunch."

This was a place that my Father-in-law found, and he just fell in love with it. He especially liked Beth-Maries

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Palace of Wax & Ripley's Believe It Or Not! features over 175 realistic characters such as Hollywood stars, favourite storybook characters, heroes and villains from the wild west and famous American figures in history. They were all created by a resident wax artist.

601 E.Safari Pkwy, I-30 at Beltline.

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I went to Irving and Las Colinas, and Mandalay Canal when I was in the area in 1997. I was particularly impressed with the Mustangs of Las Colinas. Los Colinas is a planned development where the sculptures are displayed. It consists of high-rise office towers, retail centers, upscale residences and apartment complexes, and golf courses in Irving TX. Irving also has Texas Stadium (where the Cowboys play,) the Movie Studios at Las Colinas and more.

When we visited in 2006, we got to see the Los Colinas Mustang (free) museum, and also we took a ride on the elevated rail line.

Drive about 160 miles south towards Houston and you'll come to Huntsville. If you have an hour or so free, you can visit the Texas Prison Museum and have a look at Old Sparky. Of course, they do things more humanely down in Texas nowadays. They should do - they get a lot of practice. Indeed, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice judicially kills more people than any other state in the US or than any other country in the civilised world. When it comes to the number of executions, only places like China and Iran rank ahead of Texas: not exactly the kind of places that redneck America would normally want to be associated with. There is no denying that many of those executed are guilty of particularly heinous crimes, but there is no denying also that Texas has executed those who were minors at the time of the crime, the mentally retarded and those who had been denied their full rights under international agreements. If you live in Texas, you are more likely to be executed than to die in a plane crash.

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Frisco is mostly a bedroom community 12 miles north of Dallas in central Collin County. My daughter who lives there says that you can live, shop and eat there, but there are not many tourist attractions.

They do have a stampeding sculpture in their Central Park which is at the northwest corner of Parkwood Blvd and Warren Parkway and down the main road in front of the Target shopping center.

In 1902, when the post office was established, the town was named Frisco City after the St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway Company, known as the Frisco system. Later the name was shortened to Frisco.