Happy Birthday in Fort Worth
Note: I wrote this entry in December, but forgot to post it until now.
I celebrated my birthday earlier this month. For the last two years, the celebration included renting a margarita machine and having friends over at the house for a barbeque dinner. In early November, I had a change of heart about this year’s celebration and told Yvette that I wanted to spend a weekend with her in Fort Worth instead of having a party. It surprised her for a minute, but then she shot back “It’s your birthday and we’ll do whatever you want.” (I knew there was a reason I still love her so much after almost 12 years)
We departed Austin on Friday (Dec 5) and worked our way up I-35. In Waco, we detoured to a Sonic so that I could have a Caramel Java Chiller, a cross between an iced coffee and a shake. Yvette decided that she wanted to try their new chocolate cheesecake bites. The coffee was good, but the cheesecake bites were too sweet for us. With Yvette’s diabetes and my struggle with weight, we don’t eat that much sugar.
We continued on to Dallas where we stopped by the side of the highway to take pictures of Texas Stadium. From there, we headed on to Los Colinas to see The Mustangs of Los Colinas sculpture and museum. We had heard about the sculpture during previous trips, but had not stopped by. This was probably one of Yvette’s favorite stops because of the horses. We spent about an hour and then took a break for lunch.
We stopped at Sonny Bryan’s a Dallas-area barbeque restaurant. The food was good, but we like our Austin-area barbecue better.
Following lunch, we traveled to the Gaylord Texan Hotel in Grapevine to see ICE! At Gaylord Texan. The exhibit, which is housed in a 14,000 square foot tent kept at a chili 9 degrees, featured many large ice sculptures and scenes carved out of 2 million pounds of ice. They bundled us up in bright blue parkas before we entered. I asked one of the attendants whether the cold would affect my camera, he said “no” since I would only be in there for 15 minutes. Well, I was in there approximately 20 minutes and I could feel the cold in every part of body. The sculptures were beautiful.
From the Gaylord, we stopped briefly at the Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine. It is much bigger than our Cabela’s in Buda. By this time, Yvette and I, who were both suffering from colds, decided to call it an early evening. We continued on to Fort Worth, stopping at Wal-Mart for medicine, and the hotel and dinner. In the hotel that evening, I figured out that Fort Worth had a Federal money printing facility that gave tours; unfortunately, it was only open on the weekdays.
On Saturday morning, we headed off to the Fort Worth Stockyards where we walked a lot, shopped a little, and saw the cattle drive. I convinced Yvette to ride a mechanical bull, but she convinced the operator not to toss her off. I ran through a stockyard maze trying to find four stations with hole punches that spelled out MAZE. It took me 14 minutes, which was a little
worse than average. Yvette and I also took a tour of Billy Bob’s, which was smaller than we both expected.
We took a bus downtown, thinking that we would find something. We ended up eating hamburgers and then walking several blocks to the see the Fort Worth Water Gardens. I climbed down into one of the fountains, which was permitted, while Yvette watched. Afterwards, we struggled to find a bus back because a “holiday run/walk” had many of the downtown streets blocked off. We finally made it back and then decided to go dancing and play poll at a small bar just west of the Stockyards. We stayed late then walk back into the Stockyards for a snack before heading back to the hotel.
On Sunday morning, we stopped at a Hispanic grocery store and restaurant, similar to one in San Marcos, had a great breakfast and then headed home. In all, besides feeling sick, it was a great birthday trip.
Check out the some of the pictures from out trip.
