Back to the Real World (This is a long one)

I'm back at work now after being off for a week. Our anniversary trip was great. We had so much fun, and I hated to come back to little old Monroe. I love Dallas! There's so much to do and to see. There's actually culture there. I'm actually working on getting a job there. I think that I will really be able to advance my career in that town. But back to the trip.

We left Monroe after dropping the dogs off at Rob's parent's house at 7 Saturday morning. We met up with my brother, Corey, his girlfriend, Janet, her son, Alex and his friend, Connor at my brother's apartment in Plano. We all loaded in my bro's SUV and headed to Six Flags. We had a great time. My throat was sore from screaming my head off so many times. My favorite conquest for that day was the foot-long corn dog and curly fries! Our last ride was the Texas Giant which is a huge wooden roller coaster. OMG! That ride was so rough it left with bruises on my legs. A lot has changed in the 8 years since I last went to Six Flags. My body just doesn't appreciate being shaken like a rag doll.

We were so tired after driving for 5 hours and then being at Six Flags for 6 hours I just wanted to get a bath and crash. But Janet's family was having a party that night. A lot of her family was in town from Columbia and they really, really wanted to meet us. So we got to the party at 10 PM and stayed until 3:30AM. I had a blast!!! There was so much food and booze. Every time you turned around someone was handing you a shot. Her family is the liveliest bunch of people I've ever met. Even though we couldn't understand the words of the music or a lot of conversations we still felt at home. The food her aunt made was amazing. And there was tons of it. My favorite were the fresh empanadas and ceviche. Yum!!! It was wonderful to really let my hair down and just party. I really want to learn to speak Spanish now so next time we will have even more fun.

Sunday we slept late and just chilled out. Rob and I drove to a great sushi place, Sushi Sakana, and had some amazing rolls. Their tempura plate was so good! It had shrimp, sweet potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, and onions all fried in my best fattening friend, tempura! My favorite was the rainbow roll and a huge foot long roll that had crab,shrimp, avocado, tuna, and tempura. The calamari roll was delicious. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about the yummy fresh fish. This place was wonderful because it was small and cozy with great service. The rest of the day we just chilled out around the house. Rob and I played Magic for a couple of hours and then went for some take out late that night.

Monday we went shopping at the Asian Market and then hit the outlet mall in Allen. That place was amazing. I love, love, love outlets and this place was full of the best. We hit Farberware for lots of kitchen goodies, Nike, Adidas, Carters, Reebok, and too many more to mention. Then we went to Sam Moon which was great. I love jewelry and that place is full of it! We both got some cute picture frames for our desks at work to put Maddie's picture in. Mine looks like a rocking horse with teddy bears and the top of the frame has a pink bow with Sweetheart written above it. That evening we checked into our hotel which was more gorgeous than the pictures online. We've never stayed at a 4 or 5 star hotel before so this was a new experience for us.

The restaurant we originally planned on eating at was closed on Labor Day, but we didn't know that until we went there. So to avoid just wandering around looking for somewhere we ate at the Bistro in the hotel. OMG! That place was not what we would call a bistro. We were thinking casual place with simple meals. But boy were we wrong. It was a beautiful, classy, elegant 4 star place. I had the some of the best food in my life. My steak in a burgundy sauce was delicious. The calamari with lime ranch dipping sauce was so good. Robert had salmon topped with jump lump crab meat covered in a hollandaise sauce. So our 2nd choice place ended up being a great decision.





Tuesday we decided to keep it low key. We got up late and walked to a small Thai restaurant I had found a review for online called Tuk Tuk Asain Cuisine. The prices were great and the so was the service. I've always wanted to try Pad Thai, but it's kind of hard when there are no Thai restaurants in your town. So I got seafood Pad Thai after I asked the waitress what was included in the seafood. She said shrimp, scallops, and crab. But what I got was shrimp, scallops, squid, and mussels. Um No! I hate mussels especially on the half shell. I tried to eat it, but all I could taste were the mussels. So my sweetheart traded meals with me. He loved mine and I loved his beef and peppers dish.

Then we walked to the Dallas Art Museum. That place is huge! I've never been to a museum that amazing in my life. We were there for hours and still didn't get to see everything. We plan to go back in the future. Rob especially enjoyed himself since he's an artist. He laughs at me because I'm always finding other pictures within the abstract paintings. One of the sculptures that I was especially attracted to was a tumba or shrine figure of a woman kneeling with a child at her knee.
These figures usually serve as the guardian of the grave of important people in the village. They think the figure was of a mother that had lost a child. Her eyes were made of a reflective material that made it look like she's looking at you, but also looking into another world. I could see her pain in her face. I have those same eyes now. I've been looking beyond this world for what seems like a long time now.

My brother took us to dinner that night to a nice Mexican restaurant in downtown Dallas. We really enjoyed it there since they had items on the menu that you don't typically find. I had shrimp and crab enchiladas. Yummy.

Wednesday we slept late and had a nice lunch in the Texas Roadhouse grill in the hotel before we checked out. We visited one the aquariums in town before we got on the road. I got to see a 130 year old alligator snapping turtle along with lots of other turtles. I love turtles if you haven't figured that out yet. Our trip home was nice except being stuck in traffic outside of Killgore, TX for over an hour due to a 6 car wreck on the bridge. I don't think anyone was hurt, but it took forever to get the road cleared for traffic to continue.

Once we got home we just bummed around the house for the rest of the week which was a nice end to our holiday. If you want to see the rest of pictures I took on the trip here's the link.
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