After a roller-coaster weekend at UNT Law, we had a half of a day left in Dallas before returning to SHSU. We decided to use it by having a little fun and enjoying good food.
We could have had both in Klyde Warren Park, one of Dallas’s newest success stories. Known as the “front lawn of the arts district: for its proximity to the arts district, the park provides an interesting 5-acre public space for families to enjoy a morning or afternoon. It also has a ring of food trucks, offering fare of every kind, making it a great place for a group as diverse as ours to go. But because we like to explore, we had our fun at Klyde Warren Park, before moving elsewhere for lunch.
There are large green spaces at Klyde Warren, with a .45-mile walking trail around it. Along the trail or mini-recreation areas: a kids’ park, a board-game station, a reading library station,
a putting green, a Foosball table, and an amphitheater. The amphitheater can be used for bands and such at night, but is used for yoga at 10am daily. The day we were there, almost 100 people were participating in the yoga relaxation/exercise techniques.
But our primary purpose was to throw the frisbee around, and we soon learned who could catch.
Austin, for example, can catch. In the picture above, notice the Jordanesque-shadow. Of course, he played college football until this year, so we expected him to be athletic.
As it turns out, though, Kaitlyn Tyra can also catch, and she may be a dark-horse for our Spring 2015 Charity Football game.
Professor Yawn is getting up there in age, but we let him play because he grades us.
We think Megan can catch, but we aren’t really sure. She had a strict rule to only move one step in any direction, which earned her the name “One-Step Chapa.” Here she is impersonating a stork.
But the day wasn’t particularly intense for any of us.
Notice the halo over Professor Yawn’s head.
Following some more fun, we had to call it a day at the park…
…and return to the hotel. As we preparing to check out, the hotel went dark. The electricity went out. The LEAP Center Ambassadors pride themselves on adaptability, but this was difficult for Constance Gabel, who was stuck in the hotel elevator. The fire department was called…
…and Constance was extricated from the hotel elevator.
Just in time for us to eat at Twisted Root, a restaurant that specializes in burgers and root beer. Their burgers are wonderful, and their root beer is interesting. The flavor of the day was “Irish Creme Root Beer,” which was better than the root beer from the last time we were there: Grape Root Beer. Of course, that was better than their “Coconut Root Beer.” Their regular root beer is excellent. And their burgers are great.
One of the interesting aspects of their restaurant is that, when you order, they provide you with a name from popular culture as your signal that your burger is ready. In our group, we had Eva Mendes (Kaitlyn), Serena Williams (Beatriz), Apollo Creed (Austin, of course), Matlock (Yawn), Mike Modano (Brian Aldaco), and others. It was interesting to see who knew which references, a process that led Austin to say, “Son, you need to watch more television” to one of the newer members.
With a general consensus that Twisted Root is a good place to lunch, we allowed Constance one more groupie for the weekend…
…and headed home.
But not for rest and relaxation! The week ahead involved our weekly meeting (Monday), a law-school application workshop (Wednesday), a Moot Court Practice (Thursday), a volunteer meeting (Thursday), the showing of Nosferatu (Thursday, whew), a Mock LSAT (Saturday), and a volunteer event (Saturday).
More to come!
Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics 