Wes & Erica's vacation photo album //DFW, TX - Art//March 2026

We went to the 🎈Balloon Museum: Let's Fly Dallas🎈 after lunch on the first day we were on our trip. It was a Tuesday around 3pm. Taking vacation in the middle of the week with no other public or school holidays is my absolute favorite! Besides us, there was only a pair of teens, another couple, and like 2 or 3 families at the art exhibit, and we all came in staggered times, so we had each of the rooms (mostly) to ourselves. Although, ironically, I kind of wish there was another couple or two with us in some of the rooms because several of the immersive activities were for multiple people, so it was hard for me to play by myself (Wes was too cool to join in 😒). Each room housed a balloon and/or air themed installation. I took pictures of each one with descriptions below, except for 3 - a VR video we watched (there was nothing to take a picture of), the one above of the inflatable polygons (it was pretty boring), and a room with an upside-down red tree (also boring). 

MY FAVORITE!!! OMG

The first room we entered was the best. It was a tunnel of mirrors with changing colors. I could have stood in there forever; so so pretty!!😍 Like, how do I get one of these installed at home? LOL The swirling lights were made by AI using tons of data from Excel spreadsheets. I texted my boss & coworker that I literally can't get away from Excel, not even on vacation! LOL

You can't walk from a bright mirrored tunnel into a dark room with two weird objects and not feel a little let down. 😕

The next room was pretty disappointing after the light tunnel. It was a giant Fleur de Lis with a kaleidoscope in the background. The kaleidoscope was made from images of naked dolls and the placard read that it symbolizes how the artist is truly exposed when we view her art.

The placard stated that this must have been what dinosaurs danced under. 🐉

As weird as the Fleur de Lis room was, the next one was the worst. 😑 I mean, the art was cool but the concept behind it was a bit creepy. It was a humungous disco ball that slowly inflated and deflated. It looked really neat and the entire room reflected it's light. The creepy part is that it represents the female orgasm. The artist said, Her Joy, over & over again and it played out of a speaker at the base of the ball. The tone and inflection of the words elongated as the ball inflated & deflated. The speaker was loud so we heard it the next few rooms, too. It felt like we stumbled into someone else's intimate moment and really should go, but we couldn't leave.

I tried to take some pictures to show how small I was compared to the inflated faces but I'm not sure if my lackluster photography skills did the trick.

Next, we walked into a plain room with some cartoon faces. We were meant to feel small amongst the giant smiles. The ceiling was domed inward to make the illusion work. 👀 An aside, I am the very slow and annoying museum goer who reads each placard, which is why I remember all the artists' intents and concepts behind each room. I won't read it if the art is self-explanatory, but I definitely will with this contemporary stuff. 

The next room reminded me of Yayoi Kusama's work, and I was really glad to get into a room that I enjoyed. (I wasn't impressed with anything we saw after the initial light tunnel, and I started to worry this was a waste of our afternoon.) I loved the feeling of standing in the middle of the glass balls; I must just like anything with mirrors. 😀 I think it was after this that we went into the VR room. We watched a video where we flew through Balloon Land (it reminded me of the Candyland boardgame) with inflatable versions of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, and I think at one point, the Queen ate us. LOL The rest of the rooms were great, and the immersive/interactive part of the exhibits really ramped up. Oh, and I think the room after this was the first one where you could no longer hear the Her Joy orgasm blaring in the background. Yay!🎉

 🦋There was a giant LED butterfly hanging from the ceiling in the next room. You had to sit on a bench with some buddies and swing to light up the butterfly and make its wings flap & change colors. Wes wasn't super into it (or in to this this part of our trip in general) but I couldn't operate the butterfly by myself, so he had to help. There were lots of patchwork pillows scattered around for spectators to lay back and watch the butterfly take flight. Since we were the only ones in the room, we couldn't swing and watch, so we skipped the watching part.

These weren't supposed to be anything but they reminded me of a tardigrade floating through space.

The next room had a row of giant inner tubes and nothing else; it was completely white with some gentle music in the background. 🩰The artist described it as a "mesmerizing ballet", which sounds ridiculous, but I felt it. The inner tubes slowly undulated with the music. It was really simple but one of my favorite rooms in the museum.

Super hard to manage the ball on my own, but I did it!

After the peaceful tardigrade dance, we moved into a room of chaos. 😲This was the first room where I wished to discard my introvert ways and play with strangers. LOL The room had an extremely large beach ball with charcoal nibs sticking out. The point was the work as a team to guide the ball around and draw a picture. I was wearing a white shirt (that I sewed myself 💅) so I probably shouldn't have been playing with charcoal, but the museum employee told me there was a wash station right outside this room. Wes didn't want to play so I was on my own. The walls and ceiling were completely marked so I wanted to draw my picture on the floor.✎ It took a lot of effort to bounce the ball all the way down, but I managed a couple of lines. LOL

An inflatable city was in the next room, or at least what the artist imagined an inflatable city would look like. 🏨We were encouraged to walk around, over and under all the "buildings". I liked the colors & geometric patterns, and the eyes were cool, but this probably isn't a city I'd move to. LOL The tunnel out of the city lead to one of those desk perpetual motion machines, like the one with the balls that swing back & forth.

I really wished I had someone else to play with in this room because I couldn't push all the balls in time to get their perpetual motion thing going. 🏃I ran around like a madwoman swinging them all but couldn't manage it.🏃 Right as I was leaving, a small child & her mom came in. I almost went back to see if the mom would help me but I was also afraid that all the balls I left wildly swinging in there would knock over her child, so I quickly fled the scene. 😰

I brought home a pink souvenir Ginjo magnet. She lives on our fridge now with all our other travel trinkets.

Next, we entered the alien land of Ginjos. Their giant eyes followed us as we walked around their whimsical land. 👀 They were made from those stand-up punching bags so they wobbled about as we walked by. Wes noticed that the mural on the wall was one continuous painting. I assumed that it looped around but all four walls were different. Wes said this was the only exhibit that he actually felt "immersed" in. I, on the other hand, am a sucker and eat this stuff up.

This is probably tied with the Excel spreadsheet light tunnel as my favorite room in the museum.

The next room was a cyclone.🌪 I didn't get it at first because we walked in right after one ended and before it started up again. The balloons started swirling and flying all over the small room! I know it was just balloons and air, but the effect of them combined with how small the room is was just so neat!😲 Wes told me to walk right in the middle of it for a perfect photo op (ok, I came up with the photo op part, but don't I look cool in the top left picture!) Wes really doesn't like installation, contemporary, or immersive art but when pressed, he did admit that this room was his favorite.

❤Emo ❤Disco ❤Ball pit❤

After we left the cyclone, we walked down a long hallway to the grand finale! It was an enormous ball pit with strobe lights & disco balls that flashed in a light show every 10 minutes ❤ I am an only child so I'm used to playing by myself, and am comfortable in my own company, but man, did I wish for some friends to frolic around in this with me; in fairness, Wes was a good sport and did jump in for a bit. Regardless, I still had a blast wading through the balls, tossing them in time with the lights, and laying back to watch the show.

I wasn't 100% in love with the Balloon Museum-- some rooms were lame, but the rooms that I did enjoy, I truly ENJOYED 💓 And Wes & I got to be pretend Texans for the day. LOL The lady at the ticket counter asked if we were TX residents. I said no, and she asked if we'd like to be. I assumed she was wanting us to donate to the Chamber of Commerce or an art fund, but when I asked her to clarify, she was like, if you say you are, you'll get a discount. So, we lied and saved $8. 😂

The reason why I decided on Dallas in March was for the International Surrealism exhibit at the art museum. The starfish wearing the high heel was my favorite piece in the collection. 👠 The other 4 paintings were also super neat!

The other museum we went to, while still my idea, was more Wes's style. The next morning, we headed downtown for the Dallas Museum of Art (with no pretend resident discount 😒). There were two temporary exhibits that I wanted to see - International Surrealism (Wes was actually pretty excited for this one, too) and Constellations (contemporary jewelry). Our tactic of going on a weekday completely backfired on us, as it must have been school field trip day. The museum was overrun by teens😖; there was probably at least 2 or 3 high schools there. Luckily, they were all behaved and old enough to have assignments so instead of running around, they were walking with their teachers and completing their worksheets.

Along with the temporary exhibits, the museum just acquired some pieces by Roy Lichtenstein. This was the complete opposite of yesterday's experience -- Wes is a huge fan of the pop artist, while I was just meh. 😂  

I immediately recognized the Miró and Dalí (top) and Wes gravitated toward the Massons (bottom)

We headed into International Surrealism first. 😵 Salvador Dalí is the only Surrealist I am familiar with, but I like the movement so I knew I had to know some other artists. I didn't see anything familiar until I saw the Miró. Wes likes André Masson, and there was a couple of his works on display, too. Hard to see in the picture above, but his drawing of the hand holding the mermaids is a good one.

🎨 I won't ramble on about the Surrealists and how much I admire their imagination and ability to literally paint their random scattered thoughts, so above are some more works and we'll move onto the next exhibit.💍 Actually, just as we were about to walk into the jewelry room, a huge group of students went in... so we veered away and revisited some of our other friends at the museum. 

Wes & I have been watching the Lost Treasures of Egypt on Disney+ so it was cool to see the artifacts here on display and kind of know a little bit about how the archeologists come to find and study them.

I had to say hi to the mummy (there was a group of students who were also very impressed by her) and Wes went to the Japanese and Hindu art rooms. 👹 I'm glad we've already seen everything on previous trips because it was difficult to navigate with a bunch of teens running around everywhere.

The middle left broach and bottom necklace was all over the DMA website & Instagram for promo, so I assumed that we'd see them along with a handful of other pieces but there was SO MUCH MORE in Constellations. 

After a quick run through of the second & third floors of the museum, we headed back downstairs for the Constellations jewelry exhibit.💠 I assumed the exhibit would have a couple of really innovative and creative pieces ... like "a couple" as in maybe 10 or 20. Oh no... there was probably over 500 pieces of jewelry on display.💎It was insane and probably way too much to take in in one go around. 

One of my pen pals collects pressed pennies; Lorie, I couldn't find a pressed penny machine on our trip but I took the picture of the penny necklace (top left) for you! And the bottom right pin cushion broach and center sewn cloud necklace #yaysewing ✂

As we walked in, a museum staff member was folding these gigantic pieces of paper into accordions. She told us they were the descriptions for each piece of jewelry and asked if I wanted one. I wish I took a picture of me holding the foldout paper because it looked ridiculous. 😂 Imagine a cartoon of a stereotypical tourist holding a comically large map. At first, I read the description of each piece of jewelry, but it got too overwhelming after the first 15-20 items.

The exhibit was organized into where on the body the jewelry would be worn. So, all the necklaces in one room, headdresses in another, then all the rings, etc. I liked that part, but within each room, everything seemed haphazardly displayed. 😫 When I was following along with the foldout, I had to go from piece #3 along one wall to the complete opposite wall to find piece #4. You know how most museums try to tell a story and guide the viewer through each exhibit with a path; it might not be a marked path, but it still subconsciously guides your eyes & feet... well, there was absolutely none of that here. I had no idea where my eye was supposed to go toward and I felt like I must have missed something because I was just bouncing around from the wall to the center of the room back to the wall.

Wes wanted to show me the top two pieces - the necklace made from real cicadas and the necklace made from egg cartons. I liked the bottom display that showed jewelry made from everything in an egg carton.

One more gripe and we'll move onto the pros. The rooms were HOT😡 not like, oh it's a little warm in here, but legitimately hot & stuffy like the thermostat was set to 80℉ and it was physically uncomfortable to be in there (maybe the materials and gems needed to rest at a certain temperature?). I started sweating toward the last leg of displays, but I paid my $20 and I was going to look at each piece of jewelry. So I powered through. LOL 

I really liked how the artists stretched the boundaries of what "jewelry" could be. 💎None of the pieces could be worn in a practical setting but they just looked so damn cool 😎 I especially like the pieces that were made from unconventional materials, like egg cartons and recycled plastic bags. I'm ending with what I felt were the most spectacular pieces (above).