New to the Area and Looking for Weekend Fun for the Family

I read all the suggestions, but didn't see one about the Dallas Farmers Market in downtown Dallas. It is on Young Street and it is a lot of fun. You can walk thru and see the wares....taste....and buy if you like.

Although there are not a lot of local farmers there right now, there are still plenty of choices. I just went last weekend and tasted fresh strawberries, pineapple, papaya, oranges, tangerines, grapefruit.....also bought roasted corn and enjoyed strolling thru the flower market.

You have some great advice. When my kids were young I became a member of the dallas zoo. Free visits and parking all year long and free visits to many other zoos. We were also members of the Dallas World Aquarium Free visits all year plus a membership brunch (free) and other member perks. It was nice because we could go as much as we wanted and it was free we also did not feel like we had to stay all day.
Have a wonderful day.
S.

I signed up for intheloopkids.com and it has a lot of great ideas sent to you each week. Also try Dallas Child, a magazine which is put out monthly.

How far are you willing to drive? If you miss the mountains and woods of Utah you'll like the Oklahoma Arbuckle mountain areas. Broken Bow State Park has cabins and streams. You just won't see tall peaks. For close by, if you're on the Ft. Worth side of things, go to the Ft. Worth Zoo. It's the best in the area in my opinion. Take the little train car ride along the Trinity river. A cheap day out. If you've gone that far, you may as well go up Camp Bowie boulevard from there (west) to Kincaid's Grocery and get one of the best homemade hamburgers in the world. Another Ft. Worth freebie is the Watergardens downtown. Beautiful, restful and amazing. Pack a lunch or go by Kincaids. If you like history, the Plano Heritage Farmstead has a living museum with animals your toddler may like, but if your 1 year old is still a baby it may be too boring. Bob Woodruff park on the east side has a beautiful trail to the north through a wooded area, and a lovely little lake for a sidewalk stroll as well as a great playground and barbecue facilities. Nee Nee's Tea room in Cobweb's Antiques in downtown Plano is a kid-friendly place with good home cooked food. They are on the McCall plaza to the south of the Inter-Urban museum. There is also a neat old fashioned park there with a gazebo. That whole area in old downtown Plano is full of neat places to eat and shop including clothing, decorating, antiques, art, ice cream and chocolate shops. There is a little theater which also does children's productions. It's all right on the Dart Rail Line, which can take you into Dallas for even more adventures. Back to Ft. Worth, take a scheduled tour of the Bass Performance Hall. It is one of the most exquisite halls ever built, all with private donations. Stunning architecture and decor. Close to Sundance Square. I also recommend the whole Ft. Worth Museum District, the Dallas Arboretum, and the Science Place along with the Aquarium in Dallas's fair park. Go during the day in Dallas.

welcome to the area! there is really a lot to do here and this weekend the weather is great! i guess it depends on where you live and how far you are willing to drive. i have to work this morning or my family would be going to the zoo or the arbortitum. we will go next weekend. i intend on buying an annual pass to whichever one we go to for my v-day present. the arboritum is beautiful and your daughter can walk (if she does that yet). you can even take a picnic lunch or they have a few food things you can buy. one of my favorite shopping walking around areas is in allen called watters creek at bethany and 75. there are several restaurants, great shops, a grassy area to stretch and get out of the stroller for abit. also there is a bookstore and i think at 10-ish on saturday mornings is storytime in the kids area. someone else mentioned shops at legacy...nice too, not as kid friendly in my opinion. ft worth and grapevine are both great areas to walk around outdoors, just a little bit of a drive. knox street has great shops and some great restaurants. try chuy's...best mexican ever and now that you live in tx!!! there is katy trail down there as well for some exercise. and around here the parks/playgrounds are endless. you can just take a lunch with you and play play play. good luck. let me know what you end up doing!!

You've got a lot of great responses. We had an unexpected surprise when making a few returns & spending some gift cards after Christmas. We went to Firewheel Towne Center in North Garland off of the Bush (190). Great outdoor shopping, a little train, a fountain. We did lots of baby shopping & our daughter had more fun in her stroller. She was 7 months at the time & let us shop for 5 hours (we ate there, too)! Google firewheel garland tx and check out the site if you are not too far away from the Bush.
Oh, the downtown aquarium mentioned in an entry below is actually called the Dallas World Aquarium (there's an aquarium at fair park, too). It's lots of fun, especially the rainforest, but not cheap!
Have fun wherever you go!

Hi A.,

Welcome to Texas.

Here are a couple of free things going on this weekend:

Visit the Crow Collection of Asian Art for their annual Chinese Lantern Festival from 10AM - 2PM. Get more information about this family-friendly event. http://www.guidelive.com/portal/page?_pageid=33,97347&amp...

Activity 2:
NorthPark Center is celebrating Valentine’s Day with a number of free cooking demonstrations and tastings in the NorthCourt between Nordstrom and Macy’s.

12:00pm - McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant
Experience McCormick & Schmick’s signature chocolate bag dessert.

1:00pm - Godiva Chocolatier
Learn the art of dipping chocolate covered strawberries and creating chocolate drizzled strawberry and banana kabobs.

2:00pm - Luna De Noche Tex-Mex Grill
Experience chocolate mousse grand marnier.

3:00pm- NOKA Chocolate
View NOKA’s Limited Edition Red Valentine’s Day Collections along with a variety of samples for tasting.

4:00pm - Caffé & Ristorante Cibus by Lombardi
Enjoy tastes of chocolate hazelnut mille feuilles with fresh raspberry and chambord coulis.

5:00pm - Maggiano’s Little Italy
Watch as an entire Valentine’s Day dinner comes together, complete with lobster tail, asparagus and orzo, topped off with a special Valentine’s dessert.

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If you are near the Dallas Arboretum, I highly recommend getting an annual membership. They have all sorts of fun activities for families. We don't go as much now, but I went all the time when my daughter was 1-3 years old.

What area of Dallas are you in? On weekends, sometimes we go to the Dallas Aquarium. Its amazing. It's in downtown Dallas. Then when exitingthe aquarium,we walk a few blocks to the West End and grab lunch. There are a bunch of horse and carriages trotting the streets in this area and lots of people watching. Great little spots for lunch.
The West Village in uptown is great as well. Lots of great shopping. My son loves to ride the McKinney Ave trolley.
Another great area is in Victory PArk near the American Airlines center. Lots of great stuff to look at:hotels,shopping,architecture,and great places to eat.
Katy Trail is a great place for a nice jog with the stroller or a long walk. Then you can get off the trail straight onto Knox Street to grab lunch. All the restaurants there have patios.

Welcome to Texas, A.!

My hubby and I have a one year old boy, and we know it can be challenging to find activities that can sustain a little one's attention. One of our new favorite things to do is go to The Science Museum- the bottom floor is the Children's Museum and they have SO many neat things to do! We got a year membership for $60 and with the membership you can take a friend for free.
Another thing that we like doing is going to Northpark Mall. They just built an outside area and we love to bring our son there and just let him run around. We can shop for a little, and then just play outside.
The zoo is also a really great place to go!

Hope you guys have a great time!

Ft. Worth zoo is great! Not too expensive. I think your daughter would get in free.

A.,
This Saturday (TODAY, FEB 7) the Nasher Sculpture Center (in Dallas in the museum district) has free admission 10am-2pm as part of their Target "First Saturdays" program. I've never been, but keep putting it on my calendar with the intent to bring my young kiddos & husband as a family outing. Their site is NasherSculptureCenter.org and the blurb on their site about this program reads: Target First Saturdays
Experience the exhibition in a new way on the first Saturday of every month with an interactive and fun-filled day of family activities designed around a Big Idea theme of the month. Admission is FREE from 10 am – 2 pm.
Hope this is fun!
M.

The Dallas Arboretum is a great place to go. It's beautiful grounds. http://www.dallasarboretum.org/

Welcome to Texas! Welcome to Dallas! I'm from Texas, but are somewhat new to Dallas. We moved here end of August 2008.

Main Street in Grapevine is fun. There is the Texas Teddy Bear factory - you can pick your own toy to stuff and name etc. There is also a place to get ggod chocolate!! Lots of antique shops, wine shop and other misc stores.

Judi

This weekend there is a GREAT event going on! It is in the Grapevine convention center. It is called the "Pampered Princess Party". It is held by lets pretend tea parties in grapevine and Radio Disney will be there. You pay an entrance fee for any little girls that want to be princesses and they will get a manicure, pedicure, make-up, hair style, and I think a twirl on a runway. go to www.letspretendteaparty.com for more details. There will also be lots of shopping for Mom and Dad with handmade vendors all around.

I hope you have a great weekend!!!

try the dallas morning news "guide" there's always a bunch of stuff to do...

It looks like others have written lots of suggestions. You can also find books about what to do in DFW at Barnes and Noble, Borders, or possibly even Half Price Books.

Good luck and welcome to Texas!

B.

It is fun to walk around Sundance Square in Ft. Worth, get lunch out there. There's a great Barnes and Noble on the square. The most beautiful place is the Dallas Botanical Gardens-- but it does cost to get in. We live in Denton and often just go to the square here, get a slice of pizza, and spread out on the lawn. There are plenty of stores to window shop too-- locally owned ones, mostly home decore and such. My kids have loved growing up here-- we moved here when they were little as well.

I'm not sure where in the DFW area you are, but here are a few fun places to get you started:
Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens
Ft. Worth Zoo
Dallas Arboretum
Dallas Aquarium
Grapevine Main Street
Southlake Towne Square
Ft. Worth Sundance Square
Grapevine Vintage Train (can take this into Ft. Worth Stockyards)
Kimball Art Museum in Ft. Worth

Welcome to Texas!
Have fun...there is always LOTS going on!!!

Based on your description "walk aroun, window shop, get lunch" I would recommend going to Grapevine, McKinney, Denton Squares (or any like it). We love walking around them. If you enjoy wine Grapevine and McKinney have some wine tasting you can do. There is the Tarantual Train @ Grapevine you can look at for free or ride to the Stockyards... (The Stockyards are another free place to walk around). We are not from around here (I'm from New Jersey and my husband is from Iowa) so we love being tourists in our own backyard. There is also a site, Ican't remember the exact wording, but its something like 50 free things to do in Dallas. I don't remember many but one is seeing the Stampeed of cattle over by the convention center.

Enjoy!

There are some outdoor shopping areas in town as well. You can window shop, and there is often nice outdoor music and restaurants integrated into the plan.

My favorite is Southlake town square on 1707 just of 114. It is across from a Central Market, which is one of my favorite grocery stores.

There are several others including:

The Shops at Legacy in Plano
Not my favorite, but it's growing and I haven't been in over a year.

There is one in Flower Mound at 407. It wasn't big, but it had good variety. It's closest to us, so it's nice for a weekday evening.

I know there are more in the metroplex as they are popular concepts.

I also love Downtown Fort Worth. It's fun and you can find free parking on the weekend. They've got lots of fun restaraunts. If your up for a nice dinner out w/o the kids, go to Reata's it's great!!

Check out guide live online. The website lets you search through all kinds of categories like family or free or festivals etc. There is always more going on than we can get to. Have fun!

My little family is from Utah as well. We moved here for school (Parker) and so I totally understand the 'inexpensive' part of your request. It really all depends on where you are located, but one thing we love is the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve on Parker Rd in Plano. It is gorgeous (except for the dog poop here and there, so watch out for that) and quite a peaceful place. We also really like the Ft Worth Zoo - but on the weekend it can be expensive. I think it's like $12 a person, but your daughter would be free. Wednesdays are 1/2 price, which is when we usually go. DFW airport has Observation Station where you can go watch tons of planes take off and land if your little on is into airplanes. They have picnic areas and I think it's free. Oh, and there's Fountain Place in downtown Dallas - google it cuz it's pretty cool.

Southlake Town Square is awesome. There's also a similar place in Highland Village that's cool too.

Have fun!

M.
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In Plano at Legacy and the Dallas North Tollway (on the east side of the tollway) is The Shops at Legacy. It now spans both sides of Legacy and offers lots of shopping, restaurants, an ice cream shop, a large fountain, a large pond that your family can stroll around, a movie theater and more. Another area not too far from there is a very large park in Plano (west of Parker and the Dallas North Tollway) called Arbor Hills. It's like a nature preserve with lots of paved and some unpaved walking/biking trails. They also have a fun, large playground for kids. The area is beautiful.

Grapevine Mills is alot of fun to just walk around and window shop plus they have a rainforest cafe which is kinda fun. You could also go walk downtown grapevine. They have alot of little shops and its kinda fun to just walk around.

Galleria Mall in Dallas could be fun to go walk around.