Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/280564
B M & T ••• January/February 2014 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 14 tilleries, breweries, wineries and popular restaurants Places to Stay The Portland area has 190 hotels with more than 22,500 rooms available. In just the City of Portland, there are 94 hotels with 13,165 hotel rooms available. The airport is approximately 13 miles from downtown Portland. It's 25 minutes driving or 40 minutes by light rail. With the launch of new direct air serv- ice in several key markets, it's easy to visit Portland. Portland International Airport's new non-stop routes include: Alaska Airlines daily flights to Atlanta and Bellingham, Wash.; two daily American Airlines flights to Chicago O'Hare; four daily Delta flights to Los Angeles; three daily Virgin America flights to San Francisco; and Alaska Airlines daily flights to Dallas/Fort Worth, Tucson, Ariz. and Reno, Nev. FORT WORTH,TX Legend has it that everything is big in Texas. Fort Worth, TX, whose city motto is City of Cowboys & Culture, knows how to do it up big. The newly renovated 300,000 sq. ft. Fort Worth Convention Center, is a convention center and indoor arena that includes an 11,200-seat multi-purpose arena. It has state-of-the-art communications technolo- gies and a convenient downtown location. The city, with a population of 77,992, boasts 6.5 million visitors per year. And, of course, there is a lot for visi- tors to see. Fort Worth is home to five districts all within 2.5 miles of each other: Downtown/-Sundance Square, Cultural District, Stockyards National Historic District, West 7th Street District and Camp Bowie/-University. You can't miss Sundance Square. Down-town Fort Worth has a 35-block Sundance Square entertainment and shopping district where both locals and visitors go for food, fun, live theater, shop- ping and big events such as the Main Street Arts Festival. A relatively new attraction (it opened Nov. 2013) is the Sundance Square Plaza, a distinctive mix of the historic and mod- ern, the area boasts 55,000 sq. ft. The plaza features a permanent stage for con- certs and movies, as well as three new restaurants: Del Frisco's Grille, Taco Diner and Bird Café. Stunning water fea- tures and 32-ft. Teflon umbrellas with LED lights highlight the plaza. There is much to see in Ft. Worth. For instance: The Stockyards National Historic District is filled with sites from the Old West, great Texas-themed shop- ping and cuisine, rodeos, Western saloons, Billy Bob's Texas — the world's largest honky-tonk, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, and the Fort Worth Herd twice-daily cattle drive. There are also Stockyards Station shops and restaurants in the old sheep and hog barns. www.fortworth- stockyards.org The Fort Worth Herd is a spectacle to behold. The Old West comes to life before your eyes as a team of cowhands drives a herd of longhorns along Exchange Avenue through the Stockyards during the Fort Worth Herd's twice-daily cattle drive. www.fortworth.com/cowboys-culture/herd Wanna take a walk? There are several walkable tours in Fort Worth including: Cowtown Segway Tours which glide around FortWorth'sTrinity Park, Downtown Area or Stockyards on your personal Segway.There is also a Stockyards Historic Walking Tour.Tour guides walk guests through the Historic Stockyards, while sharing historical facts, cul- ture and stories. On the GPS Historical Walking Tour, rodeo legends, Bob Tallman and Pam Minick, describing the stories, culture and history of the Stockyards National Historic District. If you want to soak up some local culture, Forth Worth's Cultural District is located a few miles west of downtown. It is one of the largest arts districts in the nation. The Fort Worth Cultural District features five interna- tionally recognized museums all acclaimed for their architecture, quality collections and programs. www.FortWorth.com -Museums include: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, nationally known as one of the top muse- ums of 19th- and early 20-century American art — with masterworks by Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, and John Singer Sargent, Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, among many oth- ers. Admission is free. www.cartermuse- um.org The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History incorporates a major new center for the Cattle Raisers Museum. Exhibits include DinoLabs; Paluxysaurus jonesi, the official dinosaur of Texas; the Noble Planetarium; the Fort Worth Children's Museum; Innovation Studios; six glass- walled spaces near the main entrance offering hands-on demonstrations; and the Omni Imax Theater. www.fwmuseum.org; The Kimbell Art Museum is known as "America's best small museum" and is the •pg_12-21__BMT_pg3-58 2/27/14 4:37 PM Page 14