My fiancé's birthday is on Veterans Day, so for the holiday, we decided to go to Dallas to visit his best friend. Plus, his team, the Giants, were playing the Cowboys that weekend, so it was perfect timing!
Here were the highlights of the trip:
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| President George W. Bush did the coin toss! |
The Cowboys vs. Giants Football Game
Clearly, this was the best part of the trip! I was excited to go to "Jerry World" and take in all the chaos of a Dallas football game. It did not disappoint! There were SO many people there (they sell tons of standing-room-only spots, so there are always people milling around), and the energy was buzzing (with nowhere to escape because the roof was closed). We enjoyed chicken tenders (which were actually quite good), a couple drinks, and some Blue Bell ice cream (we still think Ben & Jerry's is better). The Giants have had a horrible season, so we already knew they would lose, but it was still fun to watch the action (we were pretty close to one end zone) and be surrounded by the whole experience.
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| Lee Greenwood was there and sang the song, "God Bless the USA." I LOVE that song, so to hear him sing in live, in honor of Veterans Day, was amazing. |
And the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are INCREDIBLE. You've always heard about them, but seeing them perform in real life was so cool. Here's a video from a previous game:
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| "Moonbird" by Joan Miró looks like a unicorn to me! |
I always appreciate going to art museums and the like (I visited the Met just a few weeks ago in NYC), so I was happy to visit this sculpture garden in downtown Dallas, which was created from the arts collection of Nasher, the creator of the first indoor mall (which still exists!). As we were walking around, I was surprised (and proud of myself) to recognize many of the pieces as art from artists I've seen before, particularly ones that I saw when I visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden: Mark di Suvero (who also has a piece at Dartmouth College), Richard Serra (who has a very similar but bigger piece at Glenstone), and Tony Cragg to name a few. After our walk around the garden, we had lunch at the Henry, which was quite good. It has the perfect rooftop for brunch, too!
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| Pumpkins near the Henry. In Dallas, it seems like everyone does big piles of pumpkins on their front steps! |
Exercising
Ok, I realize this is a pretty weird thing to put on a list of things I did on vacation. But I love to work out, and I was pumped to take both a Pure Barre class and Orangetheory Fitness class, both in Allen, Texas. The Pure Barre was within walking distance of the friend's home, and it's located in a cute little shopping center called Watters Creek. All the stores were already decked out for the holidays; I was almost feeling the Christmas spirit myself! And the coach at OTF was awesome (it was such a small studio that you got a lot of personal attention from the coach). We also went on a couple of walks, so we got to burn lots of calories even while on vacation! (which was good, since we got dessert to-go from the Cheesecake Factory...)
Eating
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| Behind Mi Cocina are two horse sculptures which everyone climbs on! I had to do it, too :) |
Speaking of the Cheesecake Factory, we also had some other good food while we were down there. I don't eat meat, so barbeque and steaks were out (bummer!), but we went to a couple of good restaurants. We visited Mi Cocina in the same lovely shopping center, where we had delicious queso blanco and a Mambo Taxi cocktail (like a frozen margarita with sangria in it). We enjoyed the official birthday dinner at Fork & Fire, which had wonderful ambiance, delicious cocktails, and a special broccoli mash (think mashed potatoes with broccoli pureed in)*. Yum! And while less fancy, I did get to try Whattaburger for the first time at the airport for breakfast; the honey butter chicken biscuit was pretty good (as was the limited-time white chocolate raspberry shake).
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| Such a fun double-date birthday dinner at Fork & Fire! |
This was such a fun trip! We would like to go back to visit this friend again, maybe to go to the Texas State Fair or to see the rodeo. Either way, I can promise you this won't be my last trip to Texas!
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