Ritzy view

This was one of the views we enjoyed from a thirteenth floor balcony of The Tower Residences at the Ritz-Carlton last Thursday.  And what were we doing there?  Attending an Arts District Volunteer Appreciation Reception spread throughout three of the model residences which truly deserve the term "luxurious."  We certainly felt appreciated.  There were drinks in the contemporary residence looking north across Uptown.  A buffet in the spacious, more traditional home with its sweeping views toward downtown and the west.  Coffee and sweets in the vibrant red and mirrored north-east facing residence. All overseen by smartly uniformed and obliging staff from the Ritz-Carlton.  A sincere thank-you to Veletta Forsythe Lill, the Executive Director of Dallas Arts District, and Doug Thompson, the ever-ebullient Volunteer Coordinator, for such a lovely evening and the opportunity to take a lofty look over urban Dallas. 

An aside...  Despite having had my little Canon Power Shot A540 for a few years, I had never tried out the Stitch Assist feature for shooting panoramic views which I used on the photo above.  But the real magic was with Photoshop.  Just click Automate > Photomerge, point it to the photos, and sit back while it does the rest!  It whirred away, throwing up what looked like empty windows, and taking its time, and then, voila! there were my four shots, all melded seamlessly together, leaving me nothing else to do but crop the somewhat raggedy top and bottom. I wonder if anyone has ever penned an ode to Photoshop, because it certainly makes me want to rhapsodize about it.

A peek at "The Park"

 Thursday evening we Arts District volunteers got a great opportunity to attend a special presentation about "The Park."  That is the five soon-to-be-fabulous acres decking Woodall Rodgers Freeway between Uptown and the Arts District.  Come this fall we can expect to be taking our ease on a bench in a grove of oak trees, having a bite to eat at the pavilion restaurant, pitching a ball for Fido in the dog park, strolling through the botanical garden,  bringing the kids to their very own play area, watching a performance on the great lawn....  Well, I could go on and on, but the best thing to do is to click on over to their very lovely and informative website. This is the sort of thing that makes you want to live in Dallas.

An additional perk of the evening was a chance to take in the marvelous view from The Park office's fourth floor balcony overlooking the nascent park (see the first of the trees!) with the Arts District and downtown beyond.