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| Ken
Geiger/DMN
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DALLAS 101
It's a city
of big hair, big homes and big deals. For visitors, Dallas can also be
big fun. You just need to know where to look.
While Dallas'
charms may not be evident at first glance – no one comes here for the scenic vistas – a little digging reveals a city with a surprising array of activities
for everyone from culture vultures to shopaholics.
Of course
everything in Dallas has to be the biggest. Or the best. So, Dallas has
one of the largest concentrations of Art Deco buildings in the nation
at Fair Park; one of the top collections of Spanish Art outside Spain
(at the Meadows Museum); and one of the acoustically best concert halls
in the world (the Meyerson).
The city features
a private house that's a copy of Mount Vernon – only bigger, of course.
(It's the H. L. Hunt home on White Rock Lake). And not one but at least
six nightlife districts. Dallas also has pretensions to being one of the
top restaurant cities in the country – thanks to a per capita restaurant
count that rivals New York's.
Historic buildings
are not Dallas' strong point, but if you search, you'll find. You
can learn more than you ever wanted to know about the Kennedy assassination
at the Sixth Floor Museum. You can see how the turn-of-the century rich
lived with a drive past Swiss Avenue's mansions. Or get a sense of the
grandeur of the 1936 State Fair of Texas by visiting Fair Park.
But this is
a city that lives in the present. It celebrates what's sleek, stylish
and contemporary. No wonder that Dallas' second favorite sporting event
– after Dallas Cowboys games – is shopping, and its most famous export is
Neiman Marcus.
Population
(1998)
City of Dallas - 1,052,300
Greater Dallas area - 4,718,991
© 2002 GuideLive.com
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