Ella and Francisco

Ella and I spent Memorial weekend in Dallas. We decided it was high time to get to know one of our adopted states larger cities. We began our weekend by visiting the JFK Memorial museum. It’s an incredibly well laid out monument to JFK’s life, the assassination, and his presidential legacy. I have to say it is very arresting to stand in the same street in which the motorcade passed. The audio tour, films, and exhibitions filled me with a  palpable sense of the national shock and mourning that followed the assassination.

We also visited the Nasher Sculpture Center. This is a modern art collection assembled by the Nashers, a couple that collected modern art worldwide. Part of the museum is dedicated to the couple and their legacy; a really great documentary that conveys their passion for modern art and artists. The outside courtyard houses some of the larger and more immersive exhibits. I especially loved Walking to the Sky and Skyspace. The former was interesting because the effect of the escalator reaching toward the sky is made possible by the practical need to bury the anchoring point deep into the ground. The latter exhibit had you walk through a dark walkway with white noise, only to emerge in a stone courtyard with a perfectly square and borderless skylight. Watching the clouds go by through the skylight was like looking at a museum frame on a wall with a moving image.

Of course, food was also a prominent part of our trip. We ate at a wonderful breakfast spot just north of downtown Dallas called Cafe Brazil. On another morning we went to a great South American bakery called Zaguan. I recommend the Alfajore; a cookie that demands that other cookies be renamed to something that better depicts their mundane natures.

At this point our news was becoming harder and harder to conceal…

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