See America Slowly

The title is borrowed from a photo caption from the book "The Oregon Trail - A new american journey", which I just start reading. This week I took "see America slowly" to the heart and slowed down, took time to enjoy the surroundings.

The park at HQ

I visited my company's HQ numerous time,  I see that there is a beautiful pond in front of the auditorium. Every time  I went there for a meeting and left right after the meeting, I had never walked around the pond to experience it in person - only looked at it from a distance.

An island in the pond

This week I went there again for a corporate presentation "Tech Trend 2016".  There was an hour to go after lunch before the presentation began. Instead of checking emails etc, I walked toward the pond for my usual after lunch jog. There are much more than the pond - it is an on-campus park.

Reflection in the pond

The pond actually elongates several hundred yards to the east, with 6 large buildings around its perimeter. There are two islands in the pond, with bridges connecting them to the perimeter.

I walked slowly around the whole perimeter, looking around and taking pictures - the landscape, the trees, the moving white clouds and their reflections.  I noticed that there was another cafeteria on the east side of the campus, and more people dinning there than that in the one by the gym/auditorium. Few people takes advantage of this beautiful setting. It took me about 45 minutes to finish the half mile loop.  I walk around my campus after lunch almost  everyday, I pass by a factory,a  receiving dock, two test wells, .... all industrialized structures and share the road with 18 wheeler occasionally! I wished I had a park like this at my campus.

After the loop, I still had 15  minutes or so to spare, I sat under a tree on the center island to read a magazine I brought with me, I was totally immersed in the beautiful park.

The park at HQ

Klyde Warren Park at downtown Dallas

We went to Meyerson Symphony Center many times for concerts and every tine we left right after concerts. So we have been to the heart of Dallas downtown many times, but we have never really experienced downtown except viewing it from our car.

Jane's Lane

Klyde Warren Park is about a hundred yard away from Meyerson down the Pearl street. Lily and I went to the park on Saturday after listening to Nicholas' performance at Meyerson with his band.

food trucks by the park 

The park is a 3-block open green area in the downtown concretes over the Woodall Rogers Freeway, like overpasses. There is a small dog park on north end. It has a 0.44 mile loop walkway for jogging, and there is a playground to the north end. There is a stage at the center, and water fountains by its side. Besides the green area, two things drew our attention - food trucks and the play of bagpipes by a "Scottish piper".

Most visitors were near the food truck - it was lunch time - families with young children, old couples, young couples. Many of them don shorts to enjoy this cloudy and pleasant day - temperature around 75F.

Scottish piper

high rise in the distance, food trucks at roadside

The park is right by the Art District. We have been to Art district many times, in addition to Meyerson, we also went to Dallas Art Museum, Nasher Sculpture Center. It had been single focused trip previously, we went to the destination, and went home after the visit.  Looking at the map of the Art District, I realize that everything is within walking distance.

Next time we go to downtown for a night event , we got to get there much earlier to walk around a bit, and have a nice dinner there before the show, concert, opera or dance.

Slow down, there is much to enjoy !