On my way to Town Talk today I stopped at Oakland Lake Park to walk around the drought shrunken Fosdic Lake.
The Fosdic Lake Fosducks continue to struggle with the HOT temperatures. Today they were huddling in their regular shade spot on the eastern shore of the shrinking lake.
The Fosducks were doing a lot of quacking today. I think a heat-demented squirrel acting squirrelly was upsetting the Fosducks.
You can see the squirrel in the picture. I think it thought it was a duck. The Fosducks seemed accepting of the new bird in their flock.
Changing subjects from Fosducks and squirrels to Elsie Hotpepper. This morning Elsie Hotpepper shocked me by telling me I can be difficult. I have no idea what that means.
In addition to Elsie Hotpepper being difficult this morning I visited Leadville, Colorado and Baby Doe's Matchless Mine.
When I first moved to Texas a structure visible from Interstate 35E, in Dallas, intrigued me. The structure was by a big Coors billboard that had a waterfall falling out of it. Eventually I learned that the intriguing structure was Baby Doe's Matchless Mine.
Eventually I visited Baby Doe's Matchless Mine in Dallas. Finding ones way to Baby Doe's was a bit tricky. And required valet parking.
I can see why Baby Doe's eventually went out of business, though once you did mange to find your way to its entry it was rather cool, like entering a mine. With an excellent view of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Dallas, with Reunion Tower putting on its nightime light show.
I believe there were several Baby Doe's Matchless Mines in various locations in America, inspired by the original in Leadville, Colorado. I do not know if the other Baby Doe's Matchless Mines have met the same fate as the Matchless Mine in Dallas.
I never visited Baby Doe's though I drove past it and the waterfall billboard many, many times visiting friends in Oak Lawn. I'm glad I think to Google before I shoot my mouth ... er, fingers off typing, because I immediately thought of the old Luminarias restaurant in your Tandy Hills. So, by looking first, I discovered you have written about that place before.
ReplyDeleteMy wedding reception/dinner was held there in May 1978. You did walk in over a water feature that had koi swimming in it. The several patios were at different levels stepped down the hillside and yes, each one had a fire pit. It really did have a great view of downtown. It would have been a great location if it weren't so confounding to get to. I imagine the allure of its siting was also a large part of its undoing.
Somewhere I have some pictures. One of my new brothers-in-law had a Saturday tradition of always wearing red socks, but his wife told him he couldn't wear red socks to the wedding. There are pictures of him sitting on a Luminarias patio, peeling off his brown socks to reveal his red socks underneath.
The restaurant didn't last and the marriage didn't either. I miss seeing the restaurant up on the hill. The marriage, not so much.
CatsPaw---
ReplyDeleteThe ruins of that restaurant on the bluff at the end of Ben Street still stood when I moved to Texas. If you read the comments to that blogging, a recent one was from someone closely associated with that restaurant. I don't remember if I replied to his offer of pictures. With almost 4,000 blog posts I sift through an appalling number of blog comments a day.
Anyway, send me your pics of that place if you can find them and I'll blog them. I've yet to see a picture of the restaurant in operation.
That big Coors billboard with the waterfall has been there a LONG time. I remember it from my childhood, growing up in Irving in the late 60s and 70s.
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