I would love to travel all the time (who wouldn’t?). This spring I had the opportunity to visit places I had either never been to, or didn’t remember driving through on family vacations long ago. The first place we went to was Dallas, Texas and the area surrounding. My idea of what Texas looked like was completely different from how it actually was. I guess I was thinking cowboy ranches and cactus plants. But in April, it was beautiful, green and much cooler than where I live in South Florida (fondly nicknamed “The Tropics”.) I actually needed a warmer jacket than the T-shirt thin pseudo-hoodie I had packed, never thinking I would be cold at night and in the early morning hours.

Depository Building, Dallas TX

We arrived at the HUGE airport pretty early in the day, got our rental car and  the journey began.  First stop, the downtown city of Dallas, full of large buildings and interesting side streets.  We parked near Dealy Plaza to explore where history took place, the assassination of President Kennedy. I had watched many documentaries on the subject, seen the famous Zapruder film dozens of times and was familiar with the Depository Building facade as well.  To see all these places in person really brought the whole piece of history to life.  There was an “X” painted on the street right where the shooting took place, and the Depository Building had been turned into a museum with the shooting window half open just as it was that day.   After this moving experience  we walked the streets a bit and found a Tex-Mex restaurant to have some lunch.  Wonderful food!  So much better than the Mexican offerings at the restaurants in South Florida, it tasted smoky and full of flavor.  We both devoured everything put in front of us, remarking that this was really, really GOOD, sipped Margaritas and enjoyed the beautiful non-humid weather.  Afterwards , we walked off lunch, exploring the museum at the Depository building and gift shop. Finally, deciding our room must be ready by now, we climbed back in the rental car to our hotel destination.  

     Allen, TX was great. Our hotel/convention center was right across the street from a gigantic Whole Foods (everything IS big in Texas) with a large outdoor patio equipped with a fire pit for those chilly evenings aforementioned.

Parking Lot Car Show

The weekend we were there, a classic car show had taken residence in the back area of the parking lot and Mark had a blast looking at all the old cars and trucks. Adjacent to the store was an outdoor mall of high-scale and popular shops and restaurants with interesting little park-like pockets of trees and benches to rest your shopping-weary feet. The next morning I decided to spend the day at this little shopping mall while Mark and his business associates met. A lot of walking, but fun as well. I ended my jaunt at the huge Whole Foods to put together a healthy late lunch to enjoy outside before the final walk back to the hotel.

   We only had little more than a weekend in Dallas, this being the business trip part of the getaway before the fun trip part. On Sunday we attended a Christian Fellowship home meeting at old friends of Mark’s (he had lived there years earlier) and enjoyed a beautiful Sunday in the country outskirts of the city. Before too long, it was time to say goodbye,  pack it up and head to our next destination- Vegas, baby.