The Shirleys do Dallas

When our Dallas tour was cancelled Friday, we were able to switch it to Saturday.  This tour talked about JFK some, but ventured out to the rest of Dallas.  Although it was hop on hop off, it was different than other cities we have toured as only one bus did the route 4 times.  So hopping off meant you would not get picked up again until 1.5 hours later.  She did let us hop off for pictures at a few spots; and we got off at the Farmer's Market and were able to shop and get lunch.

There are a lot of Pegasus in Dallas, this being the biggest.

We stopped at Pioneer Plaza again

Golden Boy

 

Founders Plaza

A really cool looking bridge

Dallas skyline

American Airlines Center where the Dallas Mavericks play

Stopping at the Farmer's Market was a great choice.  It is a really nice market and I wish I could have bought produce and baked goods to bring home.  I did have a great grilled cheese at Scardello.  This was one of many food choices at the market.  

I was able to get some Texas grape soda!

After we finished our tour, we walked to a few places before leaving Dallas.  Our first stop was the Reunion Tower GeO-Deck to get a birds eye view of Dallas.

We also went to the JKF memorial.  It is supposed to look like an open tomb, but the concept was lost on us and it just looked like a big box.

The red courthouse through the trees

Someone is always watching!

We went into Neiman Marcus to see a fancy department store.  So fancy they have a champagne vending machine!

When we left Dallas, we found my boots at The Boot Barn in Arlington.  Not a cute little boot store, but a store in Texas!  They need to be broken in and/or stretched, but I really like them.

 Charleston picture of my Texas boots 

Then was our pizza dinner to prepare for the race on Sunday.  We chose Cane Rosso because Guy Fieri visited their downtown location for Diners Drive-ins and Dives.  We went to the Arlington location because it was closer to our hotel.  Their pizza is known for a softer center that you have to eat with a fork or it will fall apart.

After pizza, we walked around Arlington.  It is a nice town and we found a cool sculpture in addition to a free concert in a park.  

Our day in Dallas had been a lot of fun and I got my boots!  It was a great day before race day! 

Cowtown

Friday morning I woke up to a text from our tour operator for our Dallas tour that said it was canceled for the day due to sickness.  So we pivoted and changed our Fort Worth tour to Friday.  And it was such a good tour!  I didn't find my boots this day, but we did get to see the longhorn steers.

The tour started our at Sundance Square, which is a nod to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  There was evidence of the town getting ready for the World Cup.

The beginning of the tour took us to the sights of Fort Worth outside of the stockyards.  And our tour guide was really knowledgeable and we learned a lot of interesting things.  

Someone once said the town of Fort Worth was so tame a panther could sleep there.  The town decided to use the panther as one of their mascots.

There was a really cool water sculpture park with three different water features.  One was a waterfall and you could walk down into it.  It was really neat!

This pool was supposed to appear like tiles that you could walk on.

The quiet pool

The next stop where we got out was a memorial to JFK.  This was the last place he spoke before he was assassinated.  He and Jackie stayed in the hotel beside the memorial.  They said they put paintings like Picassos in their hotel room.

 Our last stop of the day was at the Stockyards.  We got there in time to see the cattle drive.  Well, the cattle walked down the street, but they weren't being sold off or used for meat.  It was cool seeing them!  

We had time to eat lunch at Shake Shack and look in a few stores.  We were looking for boots and steak knives, and we didn't find any that we wanted.  But the smash burgers were good.

Since we had to head back to Dallas for race packet pickup, we decided to go to the George W Bush Presidential Library next.  It was a really good museum that took us back to our lives in the early 2000's.  They also had a replica of the Oval Office and a Texas rose garden.  The videos were interesting, especially the one his girls made talking about his sense of humor.  

On the Medal of Honor wall, I saw the man who inspired the Murph exercise challenge.  I think the docent thought I was strange when I told her why I was interested in his picture!

After packet pickup, we went for our Texas steak dinner.  We found a local steakhouse that wasn't crazy expensive.  It was nice to get a steak, salad and potato for dinner.  The name of the restaurant was Dunston's.

We could see where they cooked our steaks

We ended our evening with a trip to the mall and we found steak knives.  This is what Dave wanted from Texas.  It had been a good day!