Texas Recap: Texas State Fair (Dallas)

Finally, we've reached the end of my Texas recaps!  I apologize that it took so long, but I'm a slacker what can I say?

The last stop on our little road-trip through Texas was the Dallas/Arlington area.  Antoine was born and raised in Arlington so we had a long list of friends and family to visit.  And I happen to have a couple of relatives who live just north of Dallas, so we got to have dinner with them which was nice.  But with a list of people to see, Dallas ended up being a busy end to our trip.  We didn't really have much time to go sightseeing, though we did set aside one afternoon to go to the Texas State Fair.  Hence all my pictures of Dallas are of the State Fair.  Antoine had never been to the Texas State Fair, and I've only been to little county fairs, so we were both pretty psyched.  We ended up going on a Wednesday, so the variety of events was limited but we did manage to get $3 tickets by bringing canned food to donate, which was pretty cool.

The new Big Tex.  The original caught on fire last year. 

You buy everything with food & drink coupons, which is interesting.  We were told by many people to get the corn dogs, and we did...as soon as we got through the gates!

This guy wanted to be my friend, which I was totally cool with!

Or maybe he just wanted his picture taken.

Sheep shearing demo.

My favorite part of the fair (besides the corn dogs and funnel cake)?  The petting zoo!  I realize that it was really geared toward kids, but it was so much fun to see so many types of animals in one place, and to be able to touch them.  And there were so many adorable baby animals!  I made Antoine go in with me a second time before we left, because I'm apparently five years old!

It was pretty neat, you could buy little cups of grain and feed the animals, which the goats especially seemed to enjoy.

This ornery donkey just wanted to steal the little feeding shovel from a little boy.   It was kind of adorable!

I'm not a fan of pigs, in general.  Growing up on a farm they were the messiest and often not the nicest.  BUT little piglets are just the cutest!

Out of all the different animals I gotta say that the baby goats were just the funniest and up to no good.  It was absolutely adorable when one would all of a sudden start bucking and hopping around for no apparent reason.  Then, there was this little mischief maker who acted like he was the king of the herd...

...until a bigger goat came along and showed him who was really in charge!

When we stopped by later in the afternoon, before heading back to our hotel, most of the animals were exhausted from a morning of kids hand-feeding them.

We had a great time at the State Fair and everywhere we went in Texas.  I gotta say that I didn't think I was going to like Texas as much as I did.  It surprised me!  Though it's probably no surprise to anyone that I liked Austin the best and I would like to go back again sometime.  However, I'm not sure when...Antoine and I have a long list of places we want to visit and see, so it might be awhile.  Our next big trip is to Hawaii (yay!!), but that's a little over six months away.

Anyway, happy Friday everyone!  I have a long weekend ahead of me since I get Veteran's day off, but I'll be back next week with some autumn goodness from my recent trip to northern Ohio.  Have a great weekend!

Cow Chewing Cud

Because my brain hurts today and I probably couldn't form full thoughts if I tried, here's a gif of a cow from the Texas State Fair, doing what they do...

Texas Recap: Fort Worth

Well, it's Monday again.  How was your beautiful, autumnal weekend?  Mine was pretty good.  My sister and I went up to visit my parents and grandparents, which was nice.  And I got a chance to see my HLP, Amanda, and her boyfriend which is always nice.  Amanda surprised me with a card and revealed that yesterday was her and my 10 year friend-iversary!  How awesome is that?!  On November 3rd, 2003 we hung out together for the first time outside of class, I was a freshman and she was a second year transfer to Xavier.  We both went to a Mermaid Tavern meeting (an English group), with my crazy roommate at the time.  Mermaid Tavern ended up being incredibly boring, but after that Amanda and I started to hangout and study together.  And once my crazy roommate went full-on nuts, Amanda and I decided to get an apartment together the following year in the building she was living in.  That was the beginning of what has been the best and most fulfilling friendship of my life.  We've been study-buddies, roommates, proof-readers, traveling companions, relationship counselors, and heterosexual life partners.  Love you bunches, Amanda!  Here's to 10 more years of awesomeness!

Alright, enough sappy friend-love (just kidding!), back to Texas.  After our relaxing night in San Antonio, we really weren't looking forward to the 4+ hour drive to Dallas, most of which was under construction.  But I had planned it so that we didn't go straight to Dallas, instead we were planning a little detour to Fort Worth because we wanted to see the cattle drive, which happens every day at 11:30am and 4pm.  So, we had a schedule to keep if we wanted to see the 4pm cattle drive, which is a good thing for us since it keeps us on track and motivated.  Luckily we made it to Fort Worth with time to spare, so we decided to check out the Fort Worth Water Gardens really quick before heading over to the Stock Yards.

I wasn't wearing the best footwear, so we didn't go to the bottom of the water gardens, but it was still cool to see.

After the water gardens we headed over to Exchange Ave to find a parking spot and check out the herd of longhorns.  Nowadays, the twice-daily cattle drive is all for show.  These guys don't have to worry about becoming anyone supper anytime soon.  I know it's kind of touristy, but it's still fun.  And coming from Ohio, where longhorns aren't a common sight, it's pretty cool to see them up close!

We visited their holding pen before the cattle drive and got to see the cowboys get them up off their butts and lead them to Exchange Ave.  (This basically just involved some whooping and once the main longhorn with the bell around his neck got up they all started getting up like old pros.)

See the black and white one with the bell, who's name is Duramax, I guess he's the ringleader of the group.

I couldn't resist a couple of black and white shots.  The longhorns are just so big and majestic and I loved the contrast of their spots and the shadows their giant horns cast on the street.

It was a fun experience and I'm totally glad we went.  I'm not sure if we'd do it again if we went back, once might be enough, but I'd definitely want to check out the Botanic Gardens if we found ourselves in Forth Worth again.  I've still got photos from the Texas State Fair to share, so please stay tuned!

Texas Recap: San Antonio

Happy Friday!  I'm so glad that the weekend is almost here, but I can't believe it's November already!  I feel like my favorite month has just flown by and it'll be winter before you know it.

Anyway, back to recapping our Texas trip.  After Austin we headed down to San Antonio for a night, just to relax and take it easy after all the ACL festival madness.

Our first stop in San Antonio was the Alamo.  Antoine said it was a must see, so what the heck.  My knowledge of Texas history is limited, but I've watched the Drunk History episode about the Alamo, so had a general idea of the story and what happened.  (In my opinion, Drunk History is the best way to learn about historical events.  Period.  FYI, the Lewis and Clark one is my favorite!)

The monument in front of the Alamo.

The Alamo itself is pretty small, and unfortunately they don't allow photos inside, which even from a preservation standpoint I don't get, but oh well.

Still, it's totally worth the visit though.  There's some interesting artifacts and exhibits inside and in the surrounding buildings.  And the grounds and gardens surrounding the Alamo are very pretty.

Isn't this tree insane!?  Look how some of it's limbs are actually being supported by metal rods!

After the Alamo we checked into our bed & breakfast, Eva's Escape at the Gardenia Inn, just a few minutes away.

We stayed in the Magnolia room, which had access to the front balcony through a walkout window.  We sat out there and enjoyed our complimentary afternoon hors d'oeuvres, it was very relaxing to just sit after 3 days of what felt like nonstop moving.  

After plans to have dinner at Dough (a really awesome looking pizzeria featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives that I was REALLY looking forward to) fell through, because of an unexpected closure for renovations, we headed to the Riverwalk to find something to eat.  

The Riverwalk was cool, though touristy.  We found a Tex Mex place and sat on the Riverwalk.  I decided to have a huge margarita for dinner and then got slightly drunk and proceeded to feed all the ducks and fish in the vacinity.  So, I obviously had a blast.  I mean, I got to hangout with that handsome guy, so how could I not have a great time?!

San Antonio was fun, even if we didn't see much.  It was the nice, quiet break we needed in between the craziness of Austin and Dallas.  But more on Dallas next week...have a great weekend, everyone!