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Dallas Zoo's New Africa Exhibit is Frankly Pretty Impressive

It was a busy June at the Dallas Zoo, where the May 28 opening of the Giants of the Savanna habitat led to skyrocketing attendance and forced the zoo to extend their hours. The 11 acre section is just the latest addition to the 122 year old zoo, which itself covers over 100 acres. Now that things have calmed down a little bit, it's the perfect time to see the new exhibit, which brought more than 40,000 people to the zoological park in one month.

You can take a virtual tour of the entire exhibit here, via a fairly impressive animated video. During the tour you'll get to see how they've divided up the exhibits of various African animals - giraffes, lions, elephants, and so on. If you look very closely next to the giraffes you'll see a kind of balcony, which is the new feeding station. Visitors have the opportunity to climb up there and feed the giraffes lettuce leaves, which can be purchased on the spot.

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Spanish Fashion in Dallas

We like museums as much as anyone when traveling, but sometimes contemporary art shows are a little cerebral for our jet lag addled brains. That's why we were thrilled to hear that the Balenciaga show has been held over at the Meadows Museum in Dallas.

No stodgy painting and sculpture show, the museum has dozens of Balenciaga designs on view--including dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn and Laura Bush. The work of other fashion icons will compliment the show: look for stuff from Oscar de la Renta and Givenchy in particular.

Since the Meadows focuses on Spanish art--and has one of the largest collection of it outside of Spain--it's a fitting venue for the show. It's only the third solo exhibition of Balenciaga's work in the US, and it comes to a close June 17.

Related Stories:
· Meadows Museum [Official Site]
· Jaunted's Museums coverage [Jaunted]
· Dallas Hotels [HotelChatter]

[Photo: Jonathan Frey]

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Henri Does Dallas

With pieces like the above from American sculptor Jonathan Borofsky, the Nasher Sculpture Center gets high marks from us for bending the outdated perception that Dallas ain't got no art.

Designed by Renzo Piano, and celebrating only its third year of operation this month, the indoor/outdoor gallery features a collection of hundreds of modern and contemporary sculptures by plenty of important artists, Miró, Picasso and Rodin among them.

Now that the museum has established itself in the city's art scene, it's collaborating with the Dallas Museum of Art, as well as the Baltimore Museum of Art, to host "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor." The exhibition, which opens January 21, has hundreds of works from the Frenchman organized thematically to highlight his creative process. If a trip to Texas isn't in your future, not to worry. When the show wraps in Dallas, it's headed to San Francisco and then Baltimore.

[Photo: Skept]

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Destination: Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant

Don't let the name fool you: There's nothing remotely Egyptian about Campisi's, except for the old "restaurant" sign out front--the space was previously an Egyptian restaurant. Serving some of the best (and loved) pizza in Dallas, Campisi's opened in 1946, and claims to have "introduced pizza to Dallas."

Fans crave the salami pizza, formerly known as the pepperoni pie. Toppings range from artichoke hearts to green olives and a large pie only runs you $11. Be sure to get there and be prepared for a wait, sometimes as long 30-45 minutes.

Bonus Campisi's fact: The night before Kennedy's assassination, Jack Ruby (Lee Harvey Oswald's killer) chowed down there.

[Image via MacArtist/Flickr]