Fun in "Big D"

Although I always thought "Big D" referred to the glamorous "D" east coast cities, DC, Delaware, Baltimore (oops no D in Baltimore), apparently it does refer to Dallas, where we visited to watch Joel's nephew Alex graduate high school. It was surreal for Joel to be back after spending a good amount of his childhood there, but it had changed a lot since then.

We braved the 100 degree weather and humidity to visit the Dallas Arboretum Botanical Gardens, which were absolutely stunning.

 

After a few hours of melting these New Mexicans needed to get into some AC, but apparently the rest of Dallas had the same idea. When we arrived at the Sixth Floor Museum, a tribute to the life and death of President John F. Kennedy, the line was nearly 2 hours long! We decided to skip that but did walk around the former Dallas book depository, the infamous sixth floor, and the Grassy Knoll.  

The X marks the spot JFK was shot

View from the Grassy Knoll of the sixth floor window of the former book depository

 After seeing the sites Joel was hungry for some classic Tex-Mex, and  Julie and Alex agreed I was out-numbered so on we went to eat what Texas tries to call "Mexican" food. However, it wasn't all bad since after we embarked on a 2 hour long trek for my belated birthday present, a Micheal Kor's purse! After the first store didn't have the color I wanted, Joel, being the wonderful husband that he is, drove us an hour to another store to get it. At least we got to see more of Dallas!

After some more family time on Sunday we tried to find some wine on the way home, and up to that point had only been able to get what I like to call gas station wine (ick) only to find out that all liquor stores in Dallas close at 9pm. 9pm! And they call it "Big D"! Hmmmphh! So we settled for Wal-Mart, although we did find a delicious Bogle Pinot for only $9. After all the graduation festivities we were too tired to drink it and figured we could just pack it in our suitcase and fly it home. As it turns out, wine has to be properly "packed", and the Southwest lady was super helpful in packing it up for us. Despite being one of the most turbulent flights we have ever been on, us and our wine made it home safely.

Of course Vesper was happy to see us. She had a wonderful time swimming and playing at the pet resort.

"I am one spoiled pup!"