Time a Fort Worth trip for the Cowtown race weekend

The 1907 Stockyards Hotel on East Exchange Avenue is closed for a major renovation, and the Stockyards website lists it as returning in 2027. The H3 Ranch restaurant next door is part of the work. If you were counting on a stay in the old hotel, confirm the reopening before planning around it. Other hotels in the…

Mayfest takes over Trinity Park, on the Trinity River west of downtown, on the first weekend of May. It brings live music on several stages, festival food, carnival rides, performing arts and an art and gift market with well over a hundred vendors. Senior and military discounts are offered. Check the official site for…

Sundance Square Plaza hosts live music on Wednesday to Sunday evenings, right in the middle of downtown. It is an easy first stop before dinner, with restaurants on every side of the plaza. A recent guide advises arriving early to get a seat. Check the Sundance Square event calendar for the week's acts, since the…

Scat Jazz Lounge is a basement jazz club at 111 West Fourth Street downtown. Look for the colorful neon sign in the alley off Fourth Street and take the elevator down. Expect mainly straight-ahead jazz from local, regional and touring musicians, in a room with no TVs. The official page lists Thursday to Sunday…

M.L. Leddy's has made boots and saddles by hand since the 1920s, and the fourth generation of the family runs it today. The Fort Worth shop is on North Main Street in the Stockyards. Its own site now lists only two stores, this one and San Angelo, since the Sundance Square store closed years ago and moved inventory…

The Sid Richardson Museum at 309 Main Street is a small downtown gallery of Western art, with exhibitions built around Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. Admission is always free, and it is open on Mondays, when the big Cultural District museums are closed. Allow about an hour. Friday hours run later into the…

Inspiration Point Shelter House is a 1927 limestone pavilion on a bluff in Marion Sansom Park, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. The bluff looks out over Lake Worth, and the rustic stonework gives you a frame for wide shots. Go in late afternoon for softer light, and bring a picnic since the…

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art states that admission is free, so you can drop in for an hour without planning a ticket. It keeps longer hours on Thursdays, open until 8 pm, which suits a late afternoon visit after the Stockyards or the zoo. It sits on Camp Bowie Boulevard in the Cultural District, within…