February 15, 2011: DART RAIL

Hola, All! Today my friend from Cuba, Aida, and I rode the DART train from the Frankford station to downtown Dallas. Even though Aida doesn't speak much English, and my Spanish is a work in progress, we seem to understand each other most of the time. Or, I just let her yak and nod my head. The danger in doing that is I might be nodding 'yes' when shaking my head 'no' is a more proper response. Oh well! When we got to the parking lot, we were very fortunate to find a parking place near the platform. It was encouraging to find that this lot was packed; there is another lot beside it that wasn't full. I'm so glad to see the citizens of Carrollton using DART rail. There are 3 machines where you can buy a ticket, but we couldn't get any of them to take our money. (Rats, right!) I talked to the man driving the train and he said he had already called it in, so we just got on the train and paid for our ticket on the other end. A one day pass is $3.50 - $4.00. One reason I wanted to ride the train was to see where it stopped. Besides Carrollton and Farmers Branch, it stopped near Love Field. You have to get off the train and catch a bus to the airport, but you get to use your same rail ticket. It also stopped close to Children's Hospital and Parkland, but if I were really sick, I'm not sure I could walk to the hospital since it looked like it was a hike. We got off the train downtown and walked around the West End, eating at The Corner Bakery........yum! We then walked to The Red Courthouse where there is a tourist bureau inside. If you go there, they will give you a map and show you where the most interesting places are to visit. As far as free places, he mentioned the Kennedy memorial, Neiman Marcos, the Crow collection of Asian Art, and the Guadalupe Cathedral. Another place is Thanksgiving Square. We didn't visit any of those places since we had to be back by a certain time, but I plan to return, this time with an agenda of places to see. It was an interesting, enjoyable day, and I highly recommend experiencing the train from Carrollton to downtown Dallas and beyond.
Enjoy your trip!
Dawnie