Turning Megan Texan

My wonderful friend from California attended a conference over at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine. That's only 20-30 minutes from me…so Megan allocated some extra time too play! I was THRILLED. We haven't had ANY visitors from out of state since we moved here—so I've felt cut-off from my family and old friends. But a visit from Megan shortened the psychological distance and we had a lovely time!

DAY 1
Poor Megan told us she'd had a rough travel day. A bit of confusion left her running to her gate and her bag didn't make it. Consequently, after gathering her up from the airport, we went to Cane Rosso (Featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives) for lunch while we waited to hear if her bag had arrived on the next flight. Alas, we couldn't get word of it. So we took her home and decided to spend the afternoon in Fort Worth and watch the longhorns walk through town. It's a total touristy thing to do but still. Plus shopping at the stockyards is entertaining, especially for a couple of goobers like us. Furthermore, you can't be in Fort Worth Texas and NOT go to the Stockyards. It's as country cowboy as you can get.

PS. The horns are hollow. Which sparks the question…what if they get holes in them and fill up with water? Do they get infected? Do mosquitos lay their larvae in them…and then what? So on and so forth. Yes. Deep thinking went on over here. Deep. Thinking.

We discovered some interesting treats. These are the "original" worm snacks, whew…I HATE eating knockoffs—they don't taste quite right. And the suckers are sugar free, so you won't have any health concerns to worry about while you lick away at them. Just be careful, don't want any "added flavor" to get stuck in your teeth.

One of my favorite shops are olive oil and vinegar shops. Delicious. Megan is seen below licking the oil. Never thought I'd say those words together.

While Megan was in Texas she ate a lot of jalepeño. I could tell she was doing her darndist to become Texan. Was there a jalapeño vinegar, Megan?

The Sugar wall was another favorite. I liked the lime sugar. I think Megan tried…you guessed it; jalepeño.

A few hours later we drove across Fort Worth to Steel City Pops. It had been a HOT day and we were in no rush, so we each tried two flavors. Guess what one of the flavors Megan tried? Pineapple mixed with jalepeño.

We then couldn't wait any longer to hear about her bag. The airline's site had been down for the entirety of the day (for everyone) so there were no updates to be had. We went back into Dallas—lucky us, her bag had arrived! On our way home we ate at Chef Point (yet another spot on DDD.) Megan ordered the lobster bisque and LOVED IT. And then to bed.

I believe I've previously shared the story behind Chef Point but I'll do it again. When the owner of Chef Point went to the bank to get a loan to start his restaurant, he was rejected. But he WAS approved a loan to build a gas station. He built the gas station and then put his restaurant inside. It now serves award winning 4 star food, and is still a gas station. Good story huh?

DAY 2
The next morning we headed toward Dallas to visit a favorite accessory spot of mine, Sam Moon Trading Co. It has EVERYTHING, as you can see. We spent quite a bit of time laughing as well as shopping. Megan found a lot of Christmas presents, yay!

Then, into the city for lunch at Twisted Root (another DDD…and Megan promptly ordered jalapeños on her burger. Ha!) And after, we visited Knox street for additional window shopping. Megan found some fun dishes at Crate and Barrel which she took home. I found a fun cage which I left there.

Then off to Steel City Pops (again—this time the Dallas location) to end our day, and I took my friend to her hotel, which was AMAZING by the way. It has a glass covered atrium inside complete with rivers, running trail, gardens, and restaurants.

DAY 3
A few days later, when her conference was over, I retrieved Megan and she treated us to a tour of Jerryworld! I was excited, I've been wanting to tour it since construction completed.

What is a girl to do while waiting in the gift shop for the tour to start? Why this of course.

The stadium is incredibly massive inside.

I mean…look…there's a SEMI down there and it's itty bitty. And that screen? No matter where you sit it's in your face. It's ENORMOUS. The engineers designed the ceiling so that once the screen was installed it wouldn't cause the ceiling to sag more than 11 inches. It only sagged 5.

Where's all the grass? You'll see. They were setting up for Taylor Swift's 1989 concert tour to take place two days later.

Though we didn't take the art tour, we did pass by some of it. It's MASSIVE and covers foot upon foot of wall space. What fun those artists must have had. I would enjoy creating something like that.

Below: this was a gift from Mr. Jerry to his wife. Permission was obtained from the FAA before the piece was installed because the side that faces the sky is a convex mirror. Whoa! (That's the Rangers baseball stadium across the way.)

About to enter the Cowboy's locker room OoooOOOOoooohhh!

Fancy.

Tony Romo. Of course.

Aaaaaand no tour would be complete without seeing the cheerleaders' locker room. I think it's funny the girl's life-size photos are above the lockers—seems a little narcissistic. But after some thought, perhaps the pictures are there for those of us touring the facility. Yeah. That's it.

Here I am giving a passionate news conference to Megan.

She is an attentive reporter.

Pictured below are the rolls of grass. Each strip is 5 yards wide and they are latched together using Velcro. Some teams also store their own end zones here.

When the players leave the locker room for game commencement, they rally through this hallway and onto the field.

We finished off our day with lunch at Pepe's and Mitos (a DDD too.) And then I hugged my Megan and left her at the airport. It was sad.

I am SO GRATEFUL to Megan for coming. I have been looking forward to her visit for a while! It was fun driving us all over town (can we say I went into Dallas 4 different times that week, each from a different direction? I am now a pro! Thanks Megan for trusting me with your LIFE on these freeways!) I VERY much enjoyed her happy company. Together we are a couple of spazzes and I love it!!!

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Password: lightrunner

After the delicious discovery of Steel City Pops, I decided to make my own. I have a second popsicle mold on order so I can make even MORE! Now serving: Whenever and whatever I want.

Finding new places to cool off used to be our past time when we first moved here. I miss having those adventures with just the two of us. A few Saturdays back we found ourselves with a free day and I exclaimed my want—nay, my need—to float down the Brazos river with my man.

The drive is only about an hour away from home. And here's what you can expect:

You park and wait your turn, dripping in the heat to ride a prison looking bus with a door that swings open every time it turns left. Everyone crams in and "enjoys" a jolty, bumpy, sweat squeaking against the plastic seat kind of ride. People on board have already started drinking so you sit back and listen to the good natured conversations of adults who are looking forward to getting wet. You look around outside and it feels like you are in the boonies. After all, the company that's transporting you have named themselves Hillbilly Haven.

So, upon arrival you go get your hillbilly tube from the leathery tan lady whose cigarette is about used up, and off you scurry to splash down into the tepid brown water.

The Brazos is wide and slow. Not too deep, especially this time of year. You'll have to lift your bum and stiffen your body like a board in a few places to make it by safely without scraping bottom. It will take about three hours to float 2 miles. For us, the sun was behind clouds most of the time making the day quite lovely and kept our skin from getting burned on the BLACK tubes.

If you get lucky you may see an armadillo swimming across the river, hear Mexican music for a while until you float toward twangy country music, or perhaps you'll overhear the loud conversation of 3 smashed friends who had 20 minutes ago beat one another up, or maybe even smell some sweet Mary Jane wafting your way. And for sure, you'll enjoy the company of whomever you are with.

Do the Flamingo

As a reward for meeting company goals, Adam's bosses sent everyone and their significant other to Las Vegas for a weekend. I'm not even sure you could call it the weekend…it was more like a day. We arrived at the Flamingo and by the time we checked in it was already 5pm on Friday. (We left at 6:30 AM Sunday morning.)

The hotel was alright. Evidently we stayed in an updated part of the hotel. Everyone else was complaining about how run down the place was.

Our party wanted to meet in the lobby and then walk somewhere for dinner. Adam and I had an hour to kill before meeting and I couldn't resist escaping to explore a bit—it was 104° out, so We stopped for some yummy all natural Murash Turkish Ice Cream.  I nursed it as long as I could. It was flavorful and sticky. Yum.

Finally we all met up to head out for dinner. Directions to the place took us off the strip and was about a mile and a half away—our reservations were in 20 minutes! So we sped walked, and sped walked, and sped walked—in the heat, passing all kinds of adult businesses and a not so great part of town—the whole time doubting the directions. As we approached the building it became apparent the restaurant was part of a strip club. (Jaw drop with big eye-balls.) Luckily after a few jokes and "you've got to be kiddings" we discovered the place was only just next door with its own entrance. Whew!

The food was good. (Mexican…as if we can't get that here in Texas? Oh brother.)  It had a 4.5 rating on Yelp. However, as the evening wound down the person who recommended the restaurant confessed it wasn't the place he was thinking of, he'd remembered the name wrong! We pulled out our maps and found the right building, which was only about a 1 minute walk from our hotel. Errrrrr.

Because of the two hour time difference, we were tired after dinner.
We took a Taxi back (money well spent) and went to bed.

Now, I hadn't realized we were expected to stay with the group. So I'd done research on places to eat and things to do. So I was feeling a little disappointed when I realized it was more of a company retreat rather than a "here you go…go have fun" kind of a thing. Which was fine, but I did not want to give up my breakfast plans and eat the hotel breakfast. (Though I heard it was good.) I KNEW we could do better. Instead, Adam and I walked through a casino and rode an escalator up to Hash House A Go Go: Twisted Farm Food.

It was so delicious! Adam requested an apple cinnamon buttermilk flapjack—in which he barely made a hole. A chocolate breakfast drink was calling out to me along with griddled french toast dipped in banana cinnamon cream with pecan maple syrup, fried bananas, strawberries, and dusted powdered sugar. I almost made it through all 3 of those fantastically large slices.

Do you get excited about fun, delicious looking food? I do. I'm glad we went. We need a Hash House in Texas!

After our early breakfast we walked around—as it was much needed—for four hours exploring some of the casinos and architecture until we were hot and grumpy.

The Belagio is quite something to see, with its LONG walkways, fountains that dance at night, Chihuly glass installation, and flower arboretum.

Later Adam wanted to join the group who had been at the hotel pool since breakfast. I took one look at it from our window and thought…"really?" But down we went.

Vegas is loud. Music assaults you from every hotel, inside the casinos and outside on the street. It's all vying for attention. The pool was no different. Loud music, loud people—I hear that's a side effect of Vodka, heh heh. So you can imagine how the rest of the afternoon was. Still, the business paid for bottomless drinks so someone ordered a virgin piña colada for me which I enjoyed! And I kept cool for the rest of the day dipping in and out of the pool—which is about all a person could do in THAT pool anyway. I promptly took a shower after.

Dinner took us to Guy Fieri's Kitchen and Bar. We had burgers cooked smash style—I ordered the Triple B Burger ($19) seasoned with creole blackening spice and topped with crumbled blue cheese, ancho bacon LTOP and donkey sauce on a garlic-buttered brioche bun. And also ordered the Triple T fries to share ($14 ). Oh the fries! The description reads: Truffle, truffle, + more truffle! Julienne cut fries tossed with black truffle, truffle infused gouda cheese + a creamy white truffle dip.
They were some of the best fries I've had. I'd go back. Everything was delicious.

After dinner we went to the Belagio to watch the fountain performance. And then to bed. Adam went down to the hotel bar and hung out with the guys for another couple of hours (no drinking of course) and then vacation was officially over. We left early the next morning and flew home.
The great thing about this weekend—it was free! All of it! Because we stuck with the group and were around when Adam's boss was handing out cash, no meals came out of pocket. It was great! (Vegas can be fun if you have a lot money to burn.)

You might be wondering what some of the other food locations were that I had wanted to hit?
Well, let me tell you:

There's a Secret Pizzeria hidden in the Cosmopolitan with pizza slices for just $3.00—which is great for the strip. It would have made a lovely small lunch had we not been so engorged from breakfast. (We ended up skipping lunch altogether which was a good thing.) But we DID go looking for it during our walk. It took some exploring and internet searching for hints since it's not listed on the Cosmopolitan directory. We finally found it at the top floor down a hallway!

The other place is Café 6 at the Palms Casino. We actually made reservations twice and cancelled both times. We just couldn't make it happen. We wanted to get there for dinner and dessert. Oh well. Next time!!!

I actually think the best way to do food in Vegas—since there are SO MANY options—is to get to your hotel and then use yelp to find the close restaurants. Because really, on the strip, it's pretty much all good and you're going to want to find something within walking distance if you don't have transportation.