That's right y'all. A few weeks ago, we got to spend some days in the great state of Texas. Zack's mom had a nursing conference in Dallas. His dad went along too, just for fun, and they invited us along to mooch off their hotel room also. And we had a mighty fine time.
We flew in on a Saturday evening (we ate Texas cheese fries at the Chilis in the airport while we waited for Zack's mom's flight to come in). Since we flew Southwest, we all flew into Love Field, which is the airport close to downtown. But our hotel was out by the other airport, about a half and hour away. Figures.
So Sunday, we basically just drove around to see various areas where Zack served his mission. Sadly, we only took a couple of pictures. In Oak Cliff, we saw the the Texas Theater, where Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended.
And this is a picture of a gorgeous park that Zack used to ride his bike through often. (He also got in a terrible bike wreck there once).
We saw 3 of Zack's areas. We didn't make it out to Athens, TX because it was a bit far out in the boondocks. I kinda adored Oak Cliff, and I decided that if we ever have occasion to move to Dallas, that would be a good place to be. They even have Aldi, our favorite grocery store. I didn't see a Rite Aid though, so I'd have to think about that. For lunch we went to Texas Roadhouse. Hee hee. Sunday evening is when Zack's dad flew in.
On Monday, Zack's mom began conferencing it up, so it was just us and Z's dad. We decided to do some sightseeing around downtown Dallas. We started out (after paying only $3 for all day parking!) at the Texas Schoolbook Depository.
The museum there was not open yet so we walked around Dealey Plaza and saw the place where JFK was shot. Then we walked to Pioneer Plaza and saw these babies.....
LONGHORNS.
Here's Zack getting impaled by one.
Cute. Very Texas-ish. We saw the ugly monstrosity that is City Hall
(we much prefer our lovely Philly monstrosity).
We went inside this strange church (basically just a small chapel inside.)
Here's what the ceiling looks like.
Pretty. After that, we got the chance to go back to the Schoolbook Depository to see the very well done Sixth Floor Museum. It highlights the presidency and, of course, assassination of JFK. It walks you through the events of the day he was killed through written words, an audio tour, movies, and pictures. It was seriously just riveting. After some barbeque for lunch, we made our way over the one of the tallest buildings on the Dallas skyline, which we kept calling the keyhole building because it looks like this.
We were able to go up in it (for free!) and catch some great views of the city below.
Then we headed back to pick Z's mom up from her conference and grab some dinner. While we were out, we swung by the Dallas Temple.
Tuesday was our last day in Dallas and we spent it checking out the Texas State Fair, the biggest state fair in the country. We actually had a really nice time. The weather was basically to die for. We found a deal online that helped us get a whole lot off admission price, which also helped. We saw a bird show, including a singing bird that was pretty amazing. We went into a butterfly house.
I admit that I am actually pretty scared of butterflies. Weird, I know. I think they are pretty but when it comes down to it, they are still nasty bugs and I don't want them to land on me.
It was still fun to walk through and look at the different pretty varieties.
We also ate some fried food (Zack's dad did not join us in that), watched some BMX bike stunts, rode the skyride, and looked at various fair type things.
And if you needed proof that everything's bigger in Texas, here's Big Tex, some huge random scary thing at the fair. Our Texas food for the day besides the fried fair food was steak at a steakhouse.
The next day, we got up, hopped on a plane, and came home.
Our many thanks to Zack's parents for inviting us along on their trip and making it all possible for us.
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