Dallas (but for real this time)

Howdy! This weekend we went on an adventure to Texas!

We'd had a layover in Dallas before, but this time we were here to visit for real and see our friend Asta. We flew Saturday afternoon, escaping a very wet day in SoCal, and arrived at Asta's apartment about 7:30pm. We'd started a food delivery order in the Uber on the way over, so it wasn't long before that arrived too. We spent the evening catching up about our Christmases, work and meeting Asta's new kitten Susu. He is a very cute black cat who likes to play fetch with bottle caps and to sniff feet. (Also it turns out I'm not allergic to cats - yay!)

Me and Susu hanging out

In the morning, we headed out to the Bishop's Arts District which is a colourful road with lots of plant shops, independent gift shops and places to get brunch. We ate at Odd Fellows and then looked around some of the shops.


I got some postcards from a local artist, and Asta got a pretty book. We then made our way to the Dallas Farmers Market. This was a big building with lots of food vendors, a bit like the foodlab in Riverside, but it had some shops too. One was selling whole cow hides for $199. 


On weekends they also open up a covered area across the road with local food stands selling everything from honey to soap to jerky. There was even one stall selling vegetables! We got a quick snack and then walked through Downtown Dallas to see the sights. We saw the giant eyeball, the AT&T Plaza statues, and lots and lots of very tall skyscrapers. 



Our end point of the afternoon was the Dallas 6th floor museum, an exhibit held in the building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. There was lots of information about Kennedy and his presidency, and about his plans to visit Dallas, followed by an account of what happened that day in 1963 and the events afterwards. You could even look out the very window where the shot was taken and see the X on the road where the bullet hit. It was very interesting to learn about and see how Dallas responded to the events which forever put them in the public consciousness. 


There were a few other historical sites to see in the area; the old council building, the grassy knoll, the oldest building in Dallas (built by a Mr Dallas) and the JFK memorial. 


We then walked around to the Historic West End area and visited the Western Store. That was interesting as it had whole walls of cowboy boots, chairs made out of cowhide and horns, and lots of hats, belts and Texas merchandise. It was an odd combination of tourist and things people really would wear every day. We did see several people wearing boots and hats on our visit, even in the city. 


We found a place for dinner and drinks and had a lovely evening with pizza, tiramisu and white wine. 


It was a lil windy

The next morning, we went for brunch again (I think Asta really likes brunch) at a very cute place called Honey Berry Pancake Cafe. We all got the veggie skillet with pancakes, and only Mitchell managed to finish his portion. 

Me and Asta packed ours up and took it with us to our morning destination, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanic Garden. We got in for cheap as it's winter and nothing much was in bloom, but it was still warm enough and we walked around all the small garden areas. There were lots of fountains and bridges connecting the areas, but it felt less like a botanic garden and more like a park, with families playing and having picnics on the grassy areas. 





After a stop in the gift shop, it was time to go back, pack our bags and head to the airport. It had been a lovely weekend, hanging out with Asta (and her cat) and seeing more of Dallas than the inside of the airport. We're even looking forward to going back! 

Thoughts on Dallas: it's even scarier to drive there than in LA. I think even I would be scared to drive on their immense freeways which seem to constantly overlap and cross over each other for miles and miles. The city centre was very walkable, but to get to anywhere but there you need a car. Lots of the restaurants we tried didn't have any vegetarian options at all which made it harder to find a place to eat. People dress up more there than they do in California, there were several groups all dressed up when we went for dinner, and there were people in heels (and heeled cowboy boots) at all times of day, even in the arboretum. 

A very tired

Emily and Mitchell (and Asta (and Susu))

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

England and Wales

After we arrived back in England, we managed to see a lot of friends and family over Christmas, but not everyone. So once the festivities were over, we went on a little tour to visit some more people we hadn't seen in a few years.  Right after Christmas, we headed to the North by visiting Mitchell's mum for a few days. We took some lovely walks through the countryside and along the beach. One day we walked from Sutton on Sea to Chapel St Leonards to visit the North Sea Observatory. We walked through fields and followed the coastline all the way down.  We also went to Donna Nook and saw some seals! On New Year's Day, Mitchell and his mum went for a dip in the ocean! Another day we did the Top of the Wolds trail, which was about 5 miles. We started in the little village of South Elkington, and about half way we stopped for lunch in Louth. At one point we could see all the way across the fields and back to Louth's church.  We also did a day trip to Lincoln to see the stree...
Read more

New Zealand

Image
 After Singapore, our next destination was New Zealand! This was something I'd been looking forward to, as it promised to be a mountain lover's dream.  We spent the first three days in Christchurch, exploring the city and catching up on sleep after our long flights. Our first full day, we walked around the city and running some errands. We had to print off our taxes so we went to the public library which was very fancy and had a rooftop garden.  We then had to post our taxes, so we went in search of a post office. We found a booth in a chemist and sent them off, so we don't have to worry about them any more for this year. Errands complete, we grabbed some lunch in a little shopping centre and then continued on exploring the city. There isn't a lot to see in the city centre itself, but we did find a very busy market food hall which we earmarked for dinner. We did get some milkshakes and take them down to the river to drink. There was a nice river walk which bordered the ...
Read more

Japan pt 1: Tokyo and Kyoto

We arrived later than expected into Japan as our first flight was delayed and we missed our connection. So we grabbed some food in the Shanghai airport while we waited for our new flight, but it wasn't long until we were touching down in Tokyo! On day one we went to a little cafe for breakfast that did veggie plates and rice balls, and then it was into the city to explore. We went to Akihabra, or electric town, which has tons of tech, video game and anime stores. We bought some fun headphones and a crepe and looked around some of the shops.  We also went to visit a bunny cafe! On day two, we went to the Shibuya scramble, one of the busiest crossings in the world. It was mainly busy with tourists taking photos, but all the light up billboards around the place were pretty iconic. We also went to visit the Hachiko statue of the most loyal dog who waited for his owner outside the station for nine years.  We then went to the Pokemon centre to look at all the Pokemon and other Ninte...
Read more