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DALLAS & FORT WORTH: |
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 Grapevine, with a population of 32,000, is a treasure of the Metroplex. Its Main Street, with 75 restored buildings, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Willhoite's Restaurant, for example, is located in a former service station, and the jewelry store used to be a bank, which was, in fact, once robbed by Bonnie and Clyde. Esparza's -- with Tex-Mex food that "brings 'em in for miles" -- was formerly a funeral home. The Grapevine Historical Museum is set up in the old Cotton Belt Train Depot, where a seven-foot-tall replica of the Night Watchman sits atop the town hall. Volunteer Paul Ernst says the statue recalls an era that lasted until 1950 when, gun in hand, the town's only representative of the law strode the streets "checking the stores were locked, the kids home, and the drunks in jail." The Smith and Wesson .44 pistol used by watchman J. S. Daniel from 1923 to 1941 is on display. |
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There's also a lot on display at the home of the Texas Rangers, the Ballpark at Arlington including its Legends of the Game Museum and its impressive tributes to Nolan Ryan, its gentleman pitcher. |
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| Great hotels include the Four Seasons Resort
and Club in Irving and the Rosewood properties in Dallas: the Mansion
at Turtle Creek and the more conveniently placed Crescent Court, a
few minutes from Symphony Hall.
Fort Worth restaurant choices are legion, from cowboy chic at the
Reata, 35 stories above Cow Town, to simple places with great food
like Arlington's Coffee Haus. Humperdink's Big Horn Microbrewery
boasts, "Our beer is fresher, our prices are better, and our
pints are bigger." In Dallas, consider lunch at the original
Dick's Last Resort and dinner at Sambucca in Deep Ellum, Big D's
avant garde district. |
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The "Peach Capital of Texas," Weatherford boasts a gorgeous 1886 courthouse in addition to beautiful Chandor Gardens and the J. W. Brown Stagecoach Works -- where coaches for Wells Fargo and Hollywood are still built. Nearby Granbury, the first town square in Texas to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, has become a delight for tourists. The restored 1886 Opera House has a full season of live theater. Up-scale antique boutique line the square around which 4 million cars drive each year. "Our past is our future," says Diane Rawls, whose tea-room/antique shop, The Merry Heart, sits in this prime location. Tourism is now the main economy in Granbury, a one-time sleepy country town where Elizabeth Crockett, the widow of the Alamos hero from Tennessee, lies buried. |
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| Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau www.fortworth.com |
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| Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau www.arlington.org |
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| Granbury, 800-950-2212 www.granburytx.com |
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| Grapevine 800-457-6338 www.grapevinetexasusa.com |
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| Irving, 800-2-IRVING www.irvingtexas.com |
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| Weatherford, 888-594-3801 www.weatherford-chamber.com |
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