Train ride and Tut's 3000 year old cow

Friday the 13th---We woke to an overcast day that was promising rain. We had mapped out how to get to the TRE rail station and knew how to change trains to get to downtown Dallas. Sara was wonderful, taking us right to the Center Point station much quicker than we thought. Rain had begun and traffic was moderate to light. Bought tickets for $5 each for the entire day's travel from a kiosk at the train stop. Really easy to accomplish Our train didn't leave til 8:50 and we had a while to wait in the icy weather. We had borrowed rain jackets from B & Nki, and had other jackets on under them, but we still weren't WARM. Train arrived, we got on, walked up to the observation level and settled in. It was comfortably warm and we watched the countryside whip by thinking how smart B and Nki were to suggest this way to get to the museum. Changed trains w/ no problem ---second one not quite as comfortable as the first, but we were only on it for a little while. The brochure mentioned that the museum is only a short walking distance from the DART St. Paul station going up Harwood St. Remember, it is raining hard and the weather seems icy. I was visualizing a block or two walk. After 2 blocks we began checking addresses--we were at the 600 block of Harwood and the museum's address is 1717 Harwood. YIKES! That's 11 more blocks--not bad on a balmy spring day, but not today. We walked two more blocks or so and there it was. No clue what is up w/ that address, but it was only 2 or 3 more icy blocks rather than 11.

Our hearts kinda sank when we say row on row of school buses lined up, empty. Having both been in the school business, we know that kids on field trips are not always a credit to their parents. Besides even the best behaved children can be a problem when there are hundreds and hundreds of them.

As we entered the building we saw a queue of tightly packed youngsters that doubled back on itself about 8 to 10 times in a huge area. No, I'm not even going to hazard a guess how many there were. Online, we had bought tickets for the 3-D movie that accompanies the exhibit, so we decided to go there first for 30 min, hoping that the line would diminish some during that time.

Movie was interesting, not great 3-D, but effective. Explained the process of mummification in Ancient Egypt and how it would be done today. DNA testing was shown on the ancient mummies. And when it was over there were fewer people filling the velvet ropes going back and forth. Finally entering the exhibit, we used the audio tour device to have Omar Sharif describe what we were seeing. It was crowded, but not oppressive. I must commend the people who administer the exhibit's entry procedures, they were able to keep the number of visitors coming in at a constant level, so as not to overwhelm any one area. And we didn't feel rushed, we were able to spend as much time in any given area as we wanted.

The artifacts and statuary, both large and small, were very impressive. There were carved and molded busts of people and animals made of alabaster, of wood, of metal covered w/ gold, and of inlaid metals. Personal ornamentation (in the form of cobras, large birds and jackels) were found wrapped into the windings of King Tut's mummy and also was found when other remains were unwound. We saw jars of alabaster and metal covered with gold which were designed to hold the mummy's internal organs. One for the liver, one for the lungs, etc. The heart was returned to the body after being cleaned and prepared. We saw gold coffins for tiny mummies of unborn children--it is guessed that one of these was for Tut's own son. One of the most impressive items discovered in Tut's pyramid was a wooden carving of a cow. A regular ole black and white cow which was painted 3000 years ago and looked as if it had been painted last week. Now that was good paint. We saw a sarcophagus of Tut's wife (his wasn't on display) and it was covered in gold. Everywhere you looked gold, gold, gold and more GOLD.

I don't have any King Tut pictures to show you here because they were forbidden. So just visualize dark rooms, filled w/ people reading and listening and looking at shiny stuff and lots of children filling out question booklets that I'm sure the museum sent to their teachers. We had to be careful to look where we were stepping-- many of the children were sitting and lying on the floor to record their answers.


EGYPTIAN OBELISK BEHIND NICK--ONE OF THE FEW PLACES WE COULD TAKE PICTURES

When we had as much Egypt as we could stand, we headed for the Atruim--the casual cafe in the museum. There is a more elegant restaurant on the Mezzanine, but decided against it. We had chicken ceasar salads (I thought the Ceasar part interesting in light of his involvement w/ later Egypt) and soup. I did take a picture of a very pretty salad. This was not just thrown together as I might do at home, it was ARRANGED and very attractive.
(Although the picture does not do it justice.)


I checked out the gift shop (of course), but didn't think I needed any of the Egyptian jewelry that ranged from $2,400 to $65 (for a cartouche of my name in silver) I did get a mood ring for $3. And it has an Egyptian design around it.

After reclaiming our numerous coats at the FREE coat check area (at least we didn't have to wag them around the whole time), we saw a very interesting activity down a hall way. Picture a round table sized fan, plugged into the ceiling which is about 50 feet above our heads (super long cord). It is swaying and swooping and bobbing as if alive. It was so interesting, that I forgot I was in the "take no pictures" museum AND I DID. OOPS! I was yelled at about it, and the picture isn't particularly good, but here it is.

The fan is at the top center--a round black blob. The sculpture in the picture was also rather unusual.

Back out into the rain, back to the train station where we waited maybe 2 minutes for the train that whisked us to Union Station. We waited there (inside and warm) for about 50 minutes. The rest of the trip was just a reverse of the earlier trek.


UNION STATION

We picked up a map of the train route at Union station and discovered that we had gone right by "the grassy knoll", Dely Plaza and the JFK museum area twice without even being aware of it. Next time, we'll get off there, if it isn't raining.

Got back to Nki and B's house with only a little difficulty--Sara told us to get on I-30 at a particular place but she didn't know that that particular on ramp is closed because of all the road work taking place to provide better access to the new stadium. We figured it out finally and got to the house, changed wet socks and pants and had some hot tea.

A really fun day.