Dallas Part 2

Now we're going to head back south and finish up Kevin and my 4th of July trip to visit Uncle Mike in Dallas. Check out part one from a few weeks ago too ... there might be awesome BBQ photos ... and by might I mean there are awesome BBQ photos.

The 4th of July started of visiting the Perot Museum of Natural History. Since I'm a crazy museum person I naturally did an entire post dedicated to our visit! Definitely on the list to visit again next time we're there, hopefully during a school day when there are less kids! Uncle Mike ended up having to show some houses that morning so we were on our own and met up with him for lunch.

Yes we went to another BBQ place. Seriously though who goes to Texas and only eats at one BBQ place? Crazy people that's who! Along with Pecan Lodge, Lockhart Smokehouse was the other BBQ place that ended up on everyone's list it seems. So of course we're going to check it out! It was fabulous and I'm pretty sure I could eat that mac & cheese every day. I'd weigh 500 lbs but it might just be worth it. After lunch we meandered through the Bishop Arts District, snagged some ice cream and then headed back to Uncle Mike's apartment in the Design District.

Checking to see if we might be able to see the fireworks from the top of Uncle Mike's building

The rest of the afternoon was spent just hanging out, talking, watching Woodstock and waiting for dinner and the fireworks to roll around. Yup, we watched the entirety of Woodstock. If you know me you'd actually be surprised that I've never seen the whole thing. Between the three of us and our totally different tastes in movies that was all we could agree on! It was nice because at times we'd just tune it out and talk. With Uncle Mike living so far away and all of us having such busy schedules it makes it hard to keep up with life sometimes.

Plus having so much chat time we definitely heard some hilarious stories. Like Kevin's dad's friends getting him drop down drunk on his 21st. Which was also the night Uncle Mike (who is the younger one and I'm guessing wasn't 21!) got so drunk, ate too many black olives and ... well I think we've all been there right? Let's just say black olives are not a food he enjoys anymore.

After a wonderful steak dinner and more hang out time we finally decided to brave the crazy and go see the fireworks at Fair Park. We should have left earlier. Traffic on the highways was Chicago style with major back ups and accidents all over. We ended up getting off on the side streets and attempting to get closer that way. In the end we just pulled over and joined the crazy amount of people just watching from parking lots and shooting off their own fireworks in the middle of the streets. The street shows ended up being better than the real show! From what we could see the fireworks only lasted 10 minutes. It was crazy and a bit disappointed when this was touted as the big Dallas show.

We ended up going back to the top of the building and just checking out the skyline. It was a great view. Ended up getting a couple of nice shots of downtown all lit up. I really like the second photo with the American flag on Reunion Tower. Turned out very nice!

Sunday I actually ended up sleeping in, which for me these days means 8! We did a late brunch at a killer Tex-Mex restaurant, Fernando's Mexican Cuisine. Favorite part? The $2.50 drink special that goes on during brunch. Seriously who can beat that deal for mimosas and bloody Marys? The tacos I had were a knock out too with their melt in your mouth chicken and crisp, fresh shells. Their terrace had a wonderful cross breeze going and it was just a nice little place. Definitely will be adding that to my go again list.

Since we didn't have too much time before we needed to get to the airport Uncle Mike showed us around a bit more. We ended up visit the Southern Methodist University campus and stopping by the Gamma Phi Beta house. I actually got the courage to go up to the house and see if we could look around. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone there but  I did get to see the outside and the campus which was very nice.

Our trip ended with a nice little 7 minute trek through check in and security at the airport then we were on our way back home. I am so glad we ended up booking the trip it was such a great weekend hanging out the two of us and with Uncle Mike. Can't wait until our next visit to Dallas!