Fort Worth - Fountains

If you know me well, you know that I love water. I must've been a fish or some other thing that lived in or enjoyed the water in a past life. One thing that I love is a waterfall. Exciting when it is natural but just as cool when it is man-made. Right next door to my hotel (and the convention center) is a HUGE water garden called, well, the Fort Worth Water Garden. It was glorious. It has THREE different types of fountains. This garden is 4.3 acres of gloriousness built in 1974.

The first is what they call the Active Pool. it also seems like the biggest. You can actually climb all the way to the bottom (I never did).

The second is the Quiet Pool. The water literally quietly spills over and slides straight down walls. It's exceedingly peaceful.

The third was broken the first day I was there, but it was fixed quickly. It's called the Aerated Pool and it is literally high pressure sprinklers. When I was photographing it during the daytime, I thought I saw lighting underneath and I was right. It swirled all the way through the rainbow. I experimented with shutter speed a little with this one. It's lovely, no? Two of the lights didn't want to cooperate the entire time but I think I managed to miss most of those.

Isn't this glorious? It was perfect! But what is even better is the discovery that will be the center focus of tomorrow's post. I'm very excited about that one. Stay tuned!

Fort Worth - Downtown

Fort Worth's downtown proper is quite intimate by my standards. I can traverse it relatively quickly and the blocks are smaller than I was expecting. To me, it seems like a decent blend of older, historic buildings that were built with decorative enhancements and modern high-rises. Later on in the conference, I learned that a tornado had whipped through downtown 14 years ago and I really couldn't see any major signs of the damage.

One can say I "Flooded" downtown Fort Worth twice over the six day period while I sought fresh air and enjoyed my brief walks very much.

When I was scouting hotels, I discovered this building on Google Maps and wanted to find it immediately. It actually found me, sort of. I spotted it on the way back from dinner with a colleague.

 

It was built in the early 1900s and has recently been renovated. I'm all for reviving historic vacant buildings!

Isn't the detail gorgeous?

I'm too tired and brain-full to do much in depth research on these buildings but at a quick glance, all the historical, older buildings seem to have thriving tenants in them.

I found some other buildings on the other side of downtown, but I'm saving those for Day 4.

Day 3 includes a very cool water garden that was right in-between the two buildings I spent most of my time in! Me + water = happy Ann. I don't necessarily have to be swimming in it to be happy.

Fort Worth - Sunrise/Sunset

I recently spent just under a week in Ft. Worth, TX. I lived in Houston for a few years and have visited Dallas before, but never made it to Ft. Worth.

It was a busy week since I was there for professional development at a conference but I still found a few moments, here and there, to walk around with the camera in hand. I narrowed it down to 106 photos over 6 days. I've divided them into four groups - sunrise/sunset, downtown, fountains and urban decay/historic buildings. So this is the first in a four-part series.

My hotel room was on the 11th floor - and though it didn't have the view of the downtown I was hoping for, I had a wonderful 'front row seat' to some beautiful sunrises.

And one beautiful sunset caught on a cloud:



You can check out a few more in my set "Fort Worth".

What's next? Check back and see!

Road Trip, Day -1: Portland, OR

The two days before L and I embarked on our road trip adventure, I spent a little time in Portland.

A high school classmate and friend of mine, D has lived there and while we've kept up a bit on Facebook, we hadn't spent any amount of time together in a long while. I spent a majority of the day with her - getting to know her again, playing with her two adorable children. D is the mom I'd like to be when I grow up. I've always been a fan of D, but I renewed my membership this trip! But we had a great time just hanging out and playing with the kids but broke away for an AMAZING dinner at Pok Pok for fish sauce wings which are out-of-this-world amazing. I didn't break out my camera at all because I was having such a good time that it didn't occur to me.

The next day, I spent with W & G. W, G & I met in Houston and we've maintained the friendship ever since. I definitely count W as one of my best friends. We started out the day at the Beaverton Farmers market where I tried beer flavored from matzo (no kidding) as well as admiring all the wonderful goodies. I didn't get to try it until later, but I had my first taste of Rainier (yellow) cherries and I'm hopelessly addicted. They are honey sweet in comparison to the tartness of the more familiar bing cherry.

But look at all the beauty found here:

These must be from another planet:

Did you know that artichokes flowered?

I wanted to buy everything in sight!

I clearly need to hit up farmer's markets more often... I'm so glad they're popular again!

From there, we headed to Seaside Beach where I learned that Pacific Northwest Oceans can turn you into an ice block within seconds! Brrrrr! 

Jellyfish were scattered on the beach - puzzling:

As well as sand dollars:

And crab bits:

Later, we explored Cathedral Park where we happened upon, but didn't stay for,  a free orchestra concert:

W&G have turned their patio into a beautiful hanging garden and they have a hummingbird feeder. One came to visit:

I wish my time there had been longer - so I'll have to return when I can really stay and play! 

Road Trip, Day 8/9 - Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market opened in 1907 and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It is far younger than it's smaller but older counterpart in St. Louis - Soulard Market. I love Soulard Market and don't go as often as I should - but I am forever glad that Soulard isn't a tourist destination like Pike Place is in Seattle.

That being said, if I lived in Seattle - despite the tourists, I would be there often. The flower bouquets are out of this world and ridiculously cheap:

And the fish, the famous fish place was a lot of fun. This is the one where they throw their fish at each other. It's a little stage-y but they are certainly entertaining:

There's a smaller one down the way, which looks similar but without the fun:

There's tons of tasty looking fruit:

Including this amazingness that I was introduced to in Oregon: Rainier cherries:

On the second day, N & I had a delicious lunch here:

I highly recommend it - it reminded me of a great food truck here in St. Louis called Seoul Taco.  I had bi bim bap with bulgogi and the fried rice underneath was the best I'd had in a long time.

Here are more pictures of the market in general:

Because I can't get to Seattle soon, I will be getting my happy self over to Soulard and hoping that Rainier cherry season will come again soon. I had no idea how delightful those cherries were. Thanks W & G!!