TRIP TO DALLAS - MAY/JUNE 2007
We have been away in Dallas for a couple of weeks (TT fortnight) and had an
absolutely brilliant time! Bob took tons of pics with his digital camera..
and now people want to see them and that's the trouble with digital cameras..
unless you lend them the disc and let them breeze thru it.. there's no hard
copies! Printing them out on paper doesn't seem to capture the essence of
the pic and colour toner is expensive!! So I thought I would put it all on
the web, pictures included!
We stayed with a friend of mine, Curry, in his apartment in the University Park
area of Dallas (a relatively nice suburb within 5 miles of Dallas); apartment
complex had a lovely pool (we only found 1, there were 5). Curry's girlfriend is
Leigh Ann. Her 2 yr old son is Ethan. Her mom is Sam. Anna is
Curry's mom. Temperature was in the high 80's to early 90's peaking at 102 one
day (that's 30-40 C), humidity was around 65% rising to 95% on the hottest day.
Curry had taken 1 day off plus the bank holiday Monday, the rest of the days he
was at work (new job).
Quick synopsis of our trip:
Sat 26/5 Arrive Dallas pm,
Saltgrass Steakhouse for dinner; Curry made a 3 milk cake for Leigh Ann's Mom's
birthday; (oops forgot to pack a nightie)
Sun 27/5 Went to Leigh Ann's house for BBQ & birthday cake; went to Target store for mobile phone,
jelly bellies, Reese's peanut butter cups & pieces and a huge t-shirt
nightie for me! Outback Steakhouse for dinner!
Leigh Ann cooking up the BBQ!
Mon 28/5 Coffee & Krispy
Kreme Donuts for breakfast; then Anna's wedding rehearsal at Fort Worth
Botanical Gardens; Texmex restaurant for lunch; Fort Worth Mall for dress
shopping (Anna's wedding); BBQ at Glen's house 2 hrs out of Fort Worth (Anna's fiancé)
& buffet; then 'Drive-Thru Starbucks' for the trip back to Dallas. Grocery
shopping for beer!
Rose Garden area
Peek a boo!
Bob & Jane
The Wedding Cake
Tues 29/5 Steak leftovers for
my breakfast, then hit the pool for swimming and sunbathing. Discovered
Wedding was off - they'd had a huge argument after we left the BBQ and called
the whole thing off! (so the Groom did get away!) Dinner at BJ's Pizza place in Plano. Had half a pizza
& pizookie between us!
Wed 30/5 Melted to the
shopping precinct area (15 min walk); cooled down in Central Market (which is
where we got our beer) before looking for Starbucks in the precinct area.
Flopped down onto a bench, only to find it in the sun & texted Curry to
please collect us on his way home! He said of course! Yay! We
then found the Starbucks, drank a refreshing Mocha
Frappuccino Vente (my fave); then Curry collected us. British Rose Karaoke in
the evening (Bob got his fix & rave reviews)!
Bob strutting his stuff!
Steve Z the Karaoke Master
Thurs 31/5 Relaxed in the air-con; did the
laundry in the laundry room (outside the apt); nursed our sunburn with Novocain
spray; went out to Boot Town for cowboy boots for Bob (looked at hats but they
didn't have one that suited him - hats are not his thing) and I got him a pair
for his birthday; then we went home and to a Sushi place (Bob loved it) which
was brilliant.. the most expensive meal we had at £50 for 3! Everything
was so cheap!
Fri 1 Jun Curry's day off ..
we went to the Dallas Aquarium; Tempest Teas for an iced drink (I had Honeydew
blended Bubble tea [it had gelatin spheres in it!] & Bob had Banana Bubble
tea, Curry had Macha Blended tea); Taco Bell for tea and then the Western
Dancing arena (glitter saddle in the middle; huge place with about 6 bars dotted
around; lots of Stetsons; dancing lessons; mechanical rodeo bull [Bob had a go];
and live band; Leigh Ann was determined I would be inebriated so we had many
beers, shots and whathaveyou) then when we left at 2 am it was thundering down
with rain so we drove to an IHOP (international house of pancakes) for
breakfast! I got my pancake fix & Bob tried (and loved) them! 4
different types of syrup! Bob got a picture of a real live cop!
In the Canopy.
No glitter balls here..
Love those boots!
A friendly chap offered to take our picture... and then we couldn't get rid
of him! He had taken rather a shine to Bob!
IHOP at 2 am. Looks like a singer & backing band, doesn't it?!?!
Sat 2 Jun Too hot to do
anything but some laundry. So relaxed around the apartment in the cooooool air-conditioning
and went to the British Rose Karaoke at night.
Sun 3 Jun Scottish
Festival at University of Texas at Arlington; baking day; all the clans seemed to be
represented with individual marquees; lots of tartan cloth on sale; many kilts
worn and being sold; had a root beer float; cotton candy (candy floss); found a
home-brew beer marquee and stayed there trying out different beers (free); heard
the bagpipes, watched caber tossers (lol);
asked to take a picture of a cop but he said he wasn't allowed to!; went back to
Leigh Ann's for home-made lasagna (delicious) and watched a couple of movies
(she has a huge house & huge TV); fireflies in the garden at night.
No Scottish festival is complete without a piper!
Mon 4 Jun Planned to walk to
the precinct again but was a massive thunderstorm so watched that instead; lots
of forked lightning! Awesome! Went to Central Market for ingredients for
Curry's Chili and then he cooked it with corn bread (and we vowed to take home a
packet mix of it but forgot); Leigh Ann came over for Chili.
Tues 5 Jun Walked to the
Starbucks in the Tom Thumb supermarket; then went looking for postcards to no
avail; Curry picked us up again; Movie & dinner at the Studio Grill at Plano
(tables in the cinema so you get your food in the dark whilst watching the
movie! novel!) where we saw Shrek 3.
Wed 6 Jun Swimming at the
pool; Sam picked us up for lunch at 'El Fenix' Mexican restaurant in town; saw a
squad car outside the restaurant and it turned out to be a friend of Sam's so we
got pictures of him & his car!; then she dropped us at Dealey Plaza where we
did the JFK tour (was where he was shot) and got some souvenirs [postcards at
last]; Curry took us for
Vietnamese for dinner.
Burt doing the tourist thing.
Thurs 7 Jun Relaxed in the
apartment during the day [far too hot to go anywhere]; then went to a baseball
game late afternoon [it was baking - 102 F & 95% rh] Texas Rangers vs.
Detroit Tigers; had loaded dogs (foot long hotdogs with curry, chili, onions,
ketchup & mushrooms) and beer for dinner & ice-cream for dessert; then a
huge 1.25 litre cup of root beer each; plus all the fun of the game. It finished
at 10 pm ish.
Dressed the part!
Watching the game
Dinner! A loaded dog!
Very hot people drinking very cool drinks.
Fri 8 Jun Sam picked us up and
we went to the Wild Bill's Western store in town where I got an Annie Oakley
cowboy (girl?) hat & Bob got a hand tooled belt and a free buckle; next door
to TGI Friday's for a drink (I had a Raspberry/Cherry Margarita) then to meet
Curry for steak at Hoffbrau Steakhouse (Bob & I had T-bones); more shopping
with Sam; Went to the Park-up Sonic and a guy on roller skates delivered our
order [Bob & I had root beer floats again]; Kohl's department store where I
bought lots of clothes; then Kelley's Hamburgers which was another Park-up place
a bit like a drive-in except for food and no movie though lots of old cars &
bikes to watch.
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Where I got my cowboy hat.. and Bob, his belt.
Me wearing my latest acquisition (the hat) at TGI Friday's
The DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) Trolley car
Sat 9 Jun IHOP for brunch and
such a lovely hot day; finally I get acclimatised to the weather the day we
left! Typical!! Quickly wrote the postcards and posted them at the post office
on the way back to the apartment. Packed and left for airport.
Curry, Jane & Bob outside the terminal building at Dallas Fort Worth
International Airport
Parting is such sweet sorrow...
Sun 10 Jun Arrived early morning Gatwick and
hung around for 8 hours before flight to IOM.