Dallas, Texas

I have lived in Dallas for most of my life, being born in Colombia, but I moved away to live in the town where my University is at. I have always been passionate about the history of Dallas, I have been a museum geek when it comes to the museums there. I have always been interested in JFK’s life and in Dallas we have a Museum called the Sixth Floor Museum in the School Depository at Dealey Plaza. If I had an option I would go to Dealey Plaza numerous times. Over the years I have learned more things about Dealey Plaza, the Sixth Floor and JFK’s assassination that I have became even more intrigued to research and learn more. Dealey Plaza is in the west end district of Downtown Dallas. Dealey Plaza is full of many historic places like the sixth floor museum, the grassy knoll where Abraham Zapruder was when he filmed everything, two fountains, and a statue of George Bannerman Dealey. The sixth floor museum is one of the most impactful museum of the area, when you go through the whole thing there are some parts that are heartbreaking to where it feels like you’re present through the whole thing. The grassy knoll impacted me the most because people were standing there during the assassination of President JFK, and it has a good view of the freeway. There are two fountains on the way out of Dealey Plaza, one is facing towards Union Station and the other one is located in front of Dallas County Administration Building, what was known as the Texas School Book Depository. The two fountains are somewhat big and are always on for ‘decoration’ and to show respect for the George Bannerman Dealey statue.
There are different districts in Dallas but the famous one is The Historic West End District of Downtown Dallas. Here, there are famous museums and historical places like the Sixth Floor Museum, The Old Red Museum, The Holocaust Museum, Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Dallas World Aquarium, and the very first Cabin in Dallas known as John Neely Bryan’s cabin. The Old Red Museum, shown the on the right corner, is a museum about the history of Dallas. This museum symbolizes Dallas’ Heritage, along with the city’s historical artifacts. The Dallas Aquarium is full of diversity of animals, they have exhibits based on the animal’s normal environment. My all time favorite exhibit is the Rainforest because it reminds me of Colombia, since there is a rainforest in South America . Then there is the Holocaust Museum, this museum was founded by a survivor of the holocaust who was known by the name of Mike Jacob, he died about 5 years ago. Mr. Mike Jacobs wrote an amazing memoir about his experience in the extermination camps, he was first transported to Treblinka (Poland), then eventually was transported to Austrowiec (Poland), then Auschwitz/Birkenau (Poland), and the Mathausen-Gusen II (Austria). He was free at last when the Americans liberated Mathausen-Gusen II (Austria) on May 5, 1945. He wrote the book and founded the Dallas Holocaust Museum because he wanted other people to learn from the events that happened during the Holocaust Museum and to speak of the lessons he learned during the Holocaust. I have always been fascinated by the Holocaust and learning about that time period mostly because I am part Jewish and I have always been wanting to learn more about my family’s ancestry. The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is one of the go to Dallas attraction, even though it’s been opened since 2006 the museum is always busy. It has four floors full of interesting exhibits. Each floor has different types of science, like the basement is known as the sports hall where they have all kinds of hand on activities where the visitors can participate. The basement currently has an exhibit where paintings from Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Da Vinci are recreated with Legos. Paintings such as the Mona Lisa, the Scream, The Arnolfini Portrait, etc. The second floor is know as the Being Human Hall where there is a mock laboratory where there is four different experiments that you can work on. The second floor is split into two exhibits the second one is known as the Engineering and Innovation Hall where you can try some engineering expirements, this one was my dad’s favorite exhibit because he is an Engineer and it made him feel like he was going through engineering classes all over again. The third floor is known as the Life Hall, where there are different animal exhibits and on the floor ontop the exhibit is about the different types of birds. John Neely Bryan’s cabin, shown on the bottom left corner, was the first cabin built in what is now known as Downtown Dallas and it’s in the Historic West End District.