Easter Weekend in Dallas

Me at the Arboretum

Google Flights has become my go-to online tool to determine where to spend some of my long weekends this year.   A few weeks back, I started searching for the cheapest direct flight out of Boston.  A couple clicks later, I was planning an itinerary for Easter weekend in Dallas.  After socializing my plans, my Mom spoke with her friend who lives in Dallas, and we turned a group of two into four!

We arrived at the DFW airport Friday morning around 10:00 AM.  The place was really quiet and it took a while for us to find where to go to get the rental car.  Once we picked up our car, we headed directly to the Dallas World Aquarium.  There was a bit of a line, but it was mostly congested on the inside.  I was blown away by the number of exotic birds and monkeys they have!  It should really be renamed to a zoo or aviary in addition to aquarium.  Looking back on it, the animals may have outnumbered the fish!  After we got through the initial part where the crowd was congregated, it was much easier to move through the place and see the different exhibits.  The penguins outside were cute (but we have many more Penguins at the NEAQ, yea!) and it made me smile to see a sloth since I just came back from Costa Rica.  They even have an art gallery.  After a few hours there, we walked back outside to see the GIANT line waiting to get inside.  I am so glad we got there relatively early.  I would not have waited in that line.

After the aquarium, we went for lunch at a "Modern Texas" restaurant called Stampede 66.  I loved the decorations and we had great service.  I ordered a Passion-Chile Margarita and the Hell's Eggs appetizer to start.  My frozen margarita was good... the only problem was that it was served with a metal straw and every time I tried to drink from it, my lips would stick to the metal.  I'm not sure how anyone else could do it! After a good laugh, I eventually gave in and asked for a plastic one.   The appetizer was a delicious take on deviled eggs and my entree, the chicken verde tacos, were served with a plate of toppings that I could pile on top.  All in all, it was a delicious, but slightly pricey, lunch.  I don't normally blog about the food when I go visit places, so you can tell I was impressed.

After lunch we went to the 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza to learn about JFK's assassination.   We had to buy timed entry tickets for an hour after we arrived, so we sat around outside and soaked in the sun until we could go in.  I've been to a couple of exhibits like this in the past; a few that stand out to me are the MLK Jr one in Memphis and the Norman Rockwell museum in the Berkshires.  I like to learn about history, but I can't seem to get into looking at photos on a wall and listening to an audio guide the whole time.  After about 45 minutes, I lose interest.  A lot of other people seemed very intrigued however, so don't let my opinion sway you.

That evening we met up with the rest of the group and socialized for the remainder of the evening.  After a late breakfast Saturday afternoon at a nearby diner, we went to the Arboretum for the Dallas Blooms exhibit.  There were so many people there, we were taken to a nearby parking garage to park.  The Arboretum was beautiful!  The gardens were full of blooming flowers and people were having picnics on the grass while listening to live music.  It was hard to decide which gardens to take pictures of because they were all so nice.  After walking around for a bit, we enjoyed a glass of Champagne at the terrace restaurant and just soaked it all in.  I'm very glad we got to see this.

Saturday night we drove up to Oklahoma to go to the Winstar Casino.  I learned some interesting things about gambling laws in that state, including that they can't have dice or roulette balls and that I had to pay an ante for each round of each game I played (the second one might just be specific to that casino, not sure).  I didn't enjoy those laws and after a few hours of spending money, we went back to Dallas.  Sunday was pretty casual since we had to fly out that afternoon.  We spent an hour or so at a local park to see some Easter festivities before going back to the airport.

Dallas was an interesting city.  It was a lot more spread out than I expected and I didn't get too much of a charm factor (like how San Antonio was very cute and charming).  The people were very nice and welcoming, but I'm not sure that I would go out of my way to go back anytime soon.

Such pretty gardens!

Let's Rodeo San Antonio!

The Alamo

There are times when I time a trip perfectly, and there are times when things just do not want to cooperate.  The weekend before my flight down to San Antonio, Boston was hit with a giant Nor' Easter and we were covered in 2 feet of snow.  Fortunately I was not trying to travel during the storm, because I would have never made it.  I sure was itching to get some sunshine, and a weekend in sunny Texas was just what I needed! 

This trip was partially for tourism reasons and partially to visit family.  Being my first visit to Texas, there were a few things I had to do like buy a cowboy hat and boots, and there were things I planned for while being in San Antonio specifically, like visiting the Alamo, the River Walk, and Rodeo!  I flew into San Antonio airport, with a brief layover in Dallas, late Friday night.  My mom and Ricky picked us up from the airport and it was only a short ride to the Sheraton Gunter hotel.  I will admit that I sometimes don't pick the best places to stay, and the reviews online had me a bit worried, but the hotel was very nice!  The lobby was large and looked very well preserved.  They had lots of cool antiques like an old switchboard and mail shoots near the elevators.  We had no problems checking in. Our room was big!  There was plenty of space for a big bed, couch, desk, dresser, and room to walk around.  The bathroom was also very spacious and clean.  Since it was already late, we just went down to the hotel bar, McLeod's, for a nightcap before turning in. The cocktail list was appealing, and I had a skinny margarita to celebrate being so close to Mexico.

Riverwalk during the day

The next morning, we woke up pretty early to start our day at the Starbucks across the street.  Yum, coffee!  Walking towards The Alamo, we made a quick detour and walked along the river walk.  It was very quiet at 8:30am and was nice for taking pictures.  When I went back later that night it was incredibly busy, and I would not have had the chance to appreciate it's charm.  The Alamo opened to the public at 9am.  At first, it was not too busy, but within 1/2 hour it picked up.  Entrance is free, but I think we could have paid to rent an audio tour.  We just walked around and read the signs posted everywhere.  Overall, it was pretty small but a nice activity to fill an hour or two.  There are only a few rooms you can walk around in, and you are not allowed to take any pictures of the relics.  There is a nice, big, gift shop with lots of neat souvenirs!  I bought a Christmas ornament for my tree.

After the Alamo, we walked around in search of a breakfast place.  The concierge at the hotel pointed us in the opposite direction of the tourist sites where we found a Mexican cafe, Oasis Cafe.  The food was just okay, but it was cheap and enough to sustain us for the next few hours as we drove off to the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.  We lucked out and got a parking spot very close, so by around 11am we were through the front gate.  My initial thought was that the grounds were much larger than I expected!  There were several large buildings setup with pigs, horses, and cows (well, I saw two cows).  There were even more venders selling clothings, accesories, furniture, and even tractors, though I guess that should have been expected.  I didn't get a chance to see any of the animal auctions, but I sure got my fill of pigs.  By around 12:30, we made our way into the arena for the rodeo and concert.

Rodeo Events!

Watching the rodeo was a lot of fun!  They had different events including roping events, mutton bustin', barrel racing, and of course, bull riding!  Those poor rodeo clowns.  The one we saw go thrown by an angry bull while he was hiding in his barrel.  At first, I felt a little sad for the animals, especially the calves being roped, but my mom pointed out that they are trained for that and are actually pretty calm as they wait for them to come untie the ropes.  The rodeo events lasted about 2 hours, and then there was a 30 minute break before the Lady Antebellum concert.  The concert was great!  The opened with some songs that I did not recognize, but then all the goods ones came out.  The stage was one of those small spinning circles, and it was a little small for the venue, but the sound was good and that's what really matters!  We spent another hour or so trying out some of the food trucks before making a quick detour for me to pickup my boots and hat at Cavender's before dinner.

After a quick refresher back at the hotel, we headed out to the River Walk to find dinner.  I don't want to use the saying, "it was like night and day" to describe this, because we really did visit the River Walk during both night and day, but it was drastically different.  It was so busy, that we had to walk down the path single file and I was still scared someone was going to get pushed into the water!  This is obviously the area people go out to at night to drink and go to bars.  Every restaurant we went to had a wait of 1.5 hours, so we continued to walk until we found a place that did not.  That should have been a sign, when we were seated right away at Ostra, but we ignored it because we were hungry.  The menu looked appetising and the places were pretty high considering what we just walked past (hard rock cafe, mexican place, etc).  Our service was horrible!  We waited over an hour for our food, and while it was good, it wasn't worth the wait.  We probably would have been served faster if we went to one of the other restaurants with an hour wait!  Since we didn't finish our meal until well after 10pm, that was it for the night.

Close up of a Longhorn

The next morning we drove out to my mom's house for some family time.  That afternoon, we visited a ranch that had longhorns so that I could see them in person.  They were surprisingly docile.... I guess they are just cows with big horns.  I can definitely see how someone could get hurt if they get in the way, those horns are pointy!  They also had no problem coming right up to the truck to get some treats.  Fortunately for me, their big horns limited just how far they could stick their mouth in through the window!

The next day we had breakfast at a nearby Mexican restaurant and made our way to the airport.  It was another short weekend, but a lot of fun!  Hopefully my next trip down there, I'll get to explore Austin!