8:50 a.m. train for the 55 kilometer train ride to the ITC station in Fort Worth.
We like the Fort Worth ITC station because it links up (true to its "intermodal" acronym) with buses to the Fort Worth attractions, bicycles for rent, and even to Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses all over the country. We caught the 7 bus to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. When we first arrived, we heard and saw Carolina Wrens singing. We walked in the gardens for an hour, which were lovely.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area experienced a huge onset of rose rossette disease, which has devasted almost all local roses. The Fort Worth Botanic Garden replaced its rose garden with a pleasing assortment of other red flowers. The strategy worked, as the "rose garden" is now an "all sorts red garden", or so I christen it.
I took a photo of a dark swallowtail butterfly on milkweed. After I got home, I tried to sort out its species, as there are 4 similar dark swallowtails (3 imitate the 4th, as the 4th, the Pipevine Swallowtail, tastes bad to birds). When I took the photo, I thought it was a dark morph Tiger Swallowtail female, but after looking at guides on the internet I am now fairly certain it was a Spice Bush Swallowtail.
.
We caught a bus to the Kimball Museum. This was perhaps our only error, as we could have walked to the museum in the time we waited for the bus. But we did make it to the Kimball, and had a great meal at its Buffet, a kind of one-plate limited-menu meal.
After lunch, we went to the Amon Carter to see the exhibition of Norman Lewis works on show. We arrived just as a guide expertly led a tour. We found the
exhibition amazing. We felt fortunate to see it. We caught our buses and trains back home, picking up some food at Market Street on the way. We had a grand day.
Now we hope the clouds clear tonight or tomorrow so that we can try to see the tail end of the Perseid meteor shower.