Audio By Carbonatix
Last year you took your mom out to brunch on Mother’s Day. You did that the year before, too. In fact, everybody does that, every year. And while brunching is undeniably one of life’s best things, brunching on Mother’s Day is one of its worst. So many moms, so many weak mimosas, so few tables.
Luckily, there are plenty of non-brunch mom-day options in Dallas. Here are five of our favorites:
Picnic at the Arboretum (above)
If there is one thing moms like more than flowers, it’s taking pictures of you with her in front of flowers. With its endless pathways winding through perfectly manicured gardens, the Dallas Arboretum was made for Mother’s Day strolls and family photo shoots.
Don’t get suckered into making reservations for afternoon tea at the DeGolyer mansion; you’ll end up spending over a hundred bucks on dry, crustless sandwiches and sad, tasteless desserts. For half that price you can take advantage of the Arboretum’s BYOB policy and treat Mom to a picnic. Pack your own or rent a basket from Scardello; it will come with everything you need for a picnic, including your choice of three cheeses and a bottle of wine. A one-day pass for the arboretum is $15 and a Scardello basket for two will run you $49.
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Swiss Avenue’s Annual Home Tour
Yes, we know, when you make your first million, the first thing you’ll do is buy your mom a mansion. Until then, spring for tickets to the Swiss Avenue Historic District’s annual Mother’s Day home tour so that together, you and your mom can voyeuristically gawk at other people’s mansions.
Once a year, the homeowners of Swiss Avenue’s gigantic old estates generously throw open their massive front doors and invite you and your mom to check out their digs. You can snag tickets ahead of time for $20 or procrastinate and spend $25 on Mother’s Day.
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The Fort Worth Opera Festival
Put on your Sunday best, sip Champagne, heel-click across marble floors and sink into the plush red seats of downtown Fort Worth’s opulent Bass Hall. Before the first note of the opera, you and your mom are already off to a pretty lovely afternoon.
Fort Worth Opera’s annual festival wraps up this weekend with a Sunday matinee performance of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, a beautiful, extravagant and hilarious few hours of musical entertainment that’s equally appealing to novices and hardcore opera fans. This year’s festival has proven the Fort Worth Opera deserves its budding reputation for producing exceptionally well-sung and acted operas that sizzle with energy and life.
Museum Stroll in the Arts District
Take your mom for a museum date, because 10 out of 10 moms say the Nasher’s always-perfect garden is pretty much heaven. Also, Ken Price’s globular mounds of mesmerizing painted ceramics at the Nasher Sculpture Center will be gone after this weekend, so this is your last chance to check out this stunning retrospective of his work.
The Dallas Museum of Art also has a couple of great exhibits running right now, including the bizarre photography of Cindy Sherman, rich, colorful paintings of Marc Chagall, and ancient marble and bronze statues from Greece.
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Dig for Diamonds
If your mom is more of a betting-on-horses-while-sipping-on-bourbon kind of lady, head to Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie for the annual Mother’s Day Diamond Dig Contest. In addition to an afternoon of horse races, the first 500 moms who enter park gates will have the opportunity to participate in a kind of absurd, muddy egg hunt for a diamond solitaire valued at $2,500. Picture it: 500 moms digging frantically in the dirt for a diamond ring. At best, Mom gets a diamond ring. At the very least, it will be an utterly Instagramable Mother’s Day.
