DART RIDER INSIDER
Family Fun
A key to a memorable staycation is to think like a tourist. Dig into local history and the natural environment to learn and experience something new.
Ever wonder what makes Dallas tick - what put this place we call home on the map? Visit the Old Red Museum of Dallas County and you'll learn plenty, like how mammoths once roamed the Trinity River basin and how local leaders coaxed the railroads to come here in 1873, sparking a commerce and population boom that continues today. There's that and much more beneath Old Red's sandstone clock tower (West End Station).
History is on a roll when you ride the McKinney Avenue Trolley. Spend a day hopping on and off for dining, shops, galleries and museums stretching from Uptown's West Village to Downtown's Arts District. All the vintage trolley cars are air conditioned this summer, making it a cool way to explore the city (Cityplace Station to M-Line).Grab binoculars and a birding book and check out hawks, warblers, finches and herons at scenic White Rock Lake - the nation's largest in-city lake. Look closely, and you might even see a wily coyote slinking through the trees (White Rock Station).
Hop from DART Rail onto the Dallas Zoo's Wilds of Africa monorail to see majestic gorillas, fierce mandrills, stripe-legged okapi and tiny klipspringer antelope in their natural habitats (Dallas Zoo Station). Get out of the summer heat and plunge the ocean depths to see weedy scorpion fish and ominous bamboo sharks at Dallas World Aquarium (West End Station).
Live it up in Luxury
You don't have to jet off to Manhattan, Chicago or Miami to enjoy world-class luxury.
There's more than 6,000 dining options right at home with sumptuous offerings on the DART Rail lines. Top chefs Stephan Pyles, Dean Fearing and Wolfgang Puck have signature kitchens just steps from downtown rail and Uptown trolley stops. Spend the summer riding DART from style to style, or enjoy one-stop sampling at Taste of Dallas, July 10-12 in the West End Historic District (West End Station).
How about dinner and a show? Catch a new American Idol or a big-time star - Eric Clapton, Beyoncé, Andrea Bocelli, Keith Urban - at American Airlines Center (Victory Station). The
intimacy of House of Blues is a perfect setting for soul/R&B legend Etta James and jazz vocalist Michael Franks (West End Station).The bright lights of Broadway dazzle with "The Sound of Music" and "Mame" at the Granville Arts Center (Downtown Garland Station), while the battle of the sexes is waged in "Defending the Caveman" at the historic Majestic Theatre (St. Paul Station).
Want to kick back and rejuvenate before the big night out? Ladies will love a day of pampering with an organic chocolate massage and facial at Spa*Habitat in historic downtown Plano (Downtown Plano Station), voted the best spa by Citysearch Dallas. Meanwhile, men can relax like titans with hand-rolled cigars and rum mojitos at Victory Plaza's Havana Social Club (Victory Station).Or maybe "shopping therapy" is just what you need. You'll find everything from running shoes at Foot Locker to diamonds at Tiffany's when you visit NorthPark, a top five U.S. shopping destination (Park Lane Station). Fine shopping on a more intimate scale awaits at Mockingbird Station, Dallas' premier transit village (Mockingbird Station).
Wave a Flag
No summer vacation is complete without a big July 4th bash, and you don't have to be on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to see the "bombs bursting in air." There's plenty of bang for your buck in North Texas with spectacular concert and firewords shows in Rowlett, Farmers Branch, Addison and Plano, but the biggest and brightest is Dallas' Fair Park Fourth (Union Station, then Bus Route 60 or Cityplace Station, then Bus Route 409 (Illnois Station).
The great thing about a staycation is that with so much to see and do so close to home, you can make it last all summer long. Visit www.DART.org/travelagent and let DART be your guide.
