Back in Dallas

Sunday morning we headed back to Dallas where we met our friends, Jenni & Tyrone.  Sunday night we decided to explore some Dallas nightlife and catch the Cowboys game.  The football game didn't end like Nick had hoped but we did have a blast and discovered the coolest bar.  The Katie Trail- it has great indoor outdoor space with fire pits and the best part- they had blankets to help keep us warm.  We would highly recommend this bar.

Jenni and I enjoying the night

Monday morning we went on a tour of Cowboy's Stadium.  The next best thing to actually going to a game.  I must say that place was pretty amazing.  Here are some of the highlights:

After our Cowboy's Stadium adventure we had a lazy afternoon watching the Tulsa University Bowl game before our big NYE.  Our night started with drinks at the top of the Reunion Tower (http://www.reuniontower.com/)- the big ball in the sky.  After drinks we headed to Big D NYE, a time square esque event outside the American Airlines Center.

We had some yummy food truck food and listened to good music until midnight when this happened:

It was a great low key night spent with good friends- can't think of a better way to ring in the new year.

New year's day we packed up, said goodbye to Jenni and Tyrone and headed to The Sixth Floor Museum, the museum that chronicles the assassination of JFK- you didn't think we would pass up on an opportunity for a little more history before we headed out of town.

We didn't get to do everything we had hoped to do while in Texas but all in all it was a great trip with a good balance between hanging out with some amazing friends and experiencing some of the great things Texas has to offer.

Going Through the Big D...and We Do Mean Dallas (and Austin)

Our original post Christmas plan was to head back to St. Louis the day after Christmas. That would put us home late in the day with just enough time to re-pack, get a little sleep and be up early Thursday to catch our flight to Texas.  That didn't quite go as planned.  With an impending snow storm hitting Indiana early Wednesday morning we were worried we might get stuck in Ohio so we decided to leave late in the day on Christmas.  We ended up getting home around midnight which gave us a good 24 hours plus to un-pack, do laundry, and get ready for Texas.  We felt rested and ready to go.  Then we got to the airport and it was busier than I have ever seen it.  We ended up waiting in line for over an hour to get through security and missed our flight- not a great way to start a vacation-trust me!  Luckily we got the last two seats on the next flight out of St. Louis to Dallas and landed in Dallas only a few hours behind schedule.  After that little hiccup luckily the rest of our trip was a blast.

Our first stop was the Fort Worth Stockyards (http://www.fortworthstockyards.org/).  The stockyards is the old part of town where the livestock industry did business turned tourist trap.  Even though it was oozing with tourist traps (think cheap t-shirt and shot glass kinda stores, and old time photo kinda places) we had a great time wondering around and checking out the sites.  That night we enjoyed some music and dancing at Billy Bob's Texas: The World's Largest Honky Tonk.

Cute vintage train that runs through the Stockyards 

Daily long horn cattle drive

World's Largest Belt Buckle at Billy Bob's

The next morning we headed to Austin.  We had nowhere we had to be until the rehearsal dinner latter that night so we decided to stop at the Lydon Baines Johnson Presidential Museum on our way into town.  You know we can't pass up a good presidential museum!  As always I learned lots of interesting things and the obligatory picture with Mr. President:

After the museum we decided it was time for some good Texas BBQ.  My aunt, Hildy, who used to live in Austin recommended we check out The Salt Lick (http://www.saltlickbbq.com/).  Not only was the food out of this world we also got to drive a little ways into the Texas country and it was beautiful.  The food was so good we couldn't resist a picture. If you were ever in Austin this is well worth the drive.

That evening we had another amazing meal and a great time celebrating Sara and Will's last night before their wedding and somehow I ended up with zero pictures from that evening.

The next morning we woke up and headed out early to hit up some more Austin sights.  We started the morning at the Texas State Museum and then headed to the Texas State Capitol.

Nick and the Star at the Museum

At the capitol with the dome

Nick and Governor George Bush

After our educational adventure we met our friend Katie for lunch and wondered around town before it was time to get ready for the big wedding.   It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time celebrating Will and Sara!

We had a great time in Austin celebrating the newlyweds and the next day it was back to Dallas, but this post is getting a little long so I will share that fun in another post.

1 year later...

Monday Nick and I celebrated our first anniversary.  It is hard to believe it has already been a year since the big day!  We decided to just get away for a short little trip over the long weekend.  So we booked a cabin overlooking the river in Grafton, IL.  We arrived late in the afternoon and got dressed up for drinks overlooking the river and a nice dinner.

On the deck of our cabin

After dinner we went to another restaurant on the river and just sat and watched the boats.  It was quite nice not to have anything we had to do for a couple of hours.  We spent the rest of the evening rereading all of our wedding cards.  We also brought along a bottle of pineapple wine that we brought home from our honeymoon.

We had decided we would save it for a special occasion, but I think we may have saved it a little too long because we both took one drink and decided that was enough and poured the rest down the drain...oops!

The next morning we slept in and then decided to have some wedding cake for breakfast.

Nick's reaction pretty much sums up how the cake was.  It wasn't terrible, (much better than the wine) just not as good as it was a year ago nor was it good enough to really want to eat more than a few bites.  Nonetheless, I'm glad we saved it; it was a fun little tradition. 

We spent the rest of the day exploring the stores in Grafton and the little towns around there before heading home.  

It wasn't an elaborate weekend, but it was nice to get away from home for a little while with no agenda and just enjoy our surroundings.  

Honeymoon Part 4: "Happy Thanksgiving!"

**Sorry I just realized I forgot to hit publish on this post a couple weeks ago


As I mentioned in a previous post we decided to go to the Dominican the week of Thanksgiving both because of cost and because it allowed me to only have to take a couple of personal days.  I was bummed to be missing my favorite holiday at home with family but we ended up having a great day even without Turkey.

Most of the day was similar to how we spent any other day; we started the day relaxing on the beach and ended the afternoon at the pool.  We had decided early in the week that one night we wanted to have dinner on the beach.  The resort provided private candle light dinners on the beach and we decided this would be a suitable substitute for missing Thanksgiving dinner.  So after relaxing all day we got dressed up and headed to the beach:

A picture of us all dressed up before the humidity attacked my hair

Our table on the beach

The meal was like a 7 course dinner that consisted of:
Grouper Ceviche
Salad Symphony
Portobello Mushroom Soup

Lobster and Vegetables
Grilled Chicken and Potatoes
Passion Fruit Sorbet
You & Me Black & White Chocolate Cake

I took pictures of each course but the pictures really didn't capture the yummieness of dinner.  Our waiter, however, noticed me taking pictures and when he brought us our dessert insisted on not only taking a picture of the dessert for us: 

But then also insisted on taking pictures of us feeding each other:

We were also surprised by a mariachi band that serenaded us during dinner:

While it was no turkey and mashed potatoes it turned out to be a pretty great Thanksgiving dinner!

After dinner we were headed back to our room and walked past the buffet and discovered this little beauty:

How fantastic is he?  We also noticed a sign that said the buffet was serving Thanksgiving dinner so I thought it would be interesting to just go look and see their interpretation of the American tradition.  Let's just say I'm glad I didn't get my hopes up.  There was not a single thing on the buffet that even remotely resembled a good ol' American Thanksgiving.  Good thing they had Mr. Turkey out front to make up for it. 

Every Thursday on the resort was also "White Beach Party" night so we decided to take a walk down to the other side and check out the festivities.  The party consisted on lots of performances by men in little white shorts included a bar tending show, dancing, and flame throwing and don't worry there was a pretty fantastic conga line thrown in as well.  Sadly the darkness mixed with the glow sticks we didn't get many pictures but here are a few to hopefully give you an idea:

 All in all it was a pretty great Thanksgiving and one we definitely won't forget.

So that is the end of the wedding and honeymoon recaps.  Now I suppose we need to get to getting on house stuff so I have more stuff to post about!  Hopefully I will have a couple house posts soon.  

Honeymoon Part 3: "The Real Dominican"

We knew before we even got to Punta Cana that we would want to go on an adventure (or excursion)  we just didn't know what we wanted to do.  The first full day we were at the resort we had an introductory meeting with our travel agency and they provided us with a book of adventures to choose from.  We had a hard time deciding what we wanted to do and in the end it came down to an afternoon cruise on a party boat or a day experiencing "The Real Dominican."  Because we are huge nerds (mostly just me this time) we decided to go with the second choice.  Now I'm smart enough to know we didn't really experience a day in the life of a "The Real Dominican"  but we did learn some things, met some new people, saw some of the island beyond our resort and had an enjoyable day so I think it was a success.

Just after breakfast we boarded this truck/bus thing:

and our tour guide "Rudy"  immediately started serving drinks. We decided with a tour guide/bar tender like Rudy it was sure to be a good day.  Once we were all loaded with drink in hand we were off.  Here is a view of the countryside on the way to our first stop:

Our first stop along the way was a school.  Rudy explained that kids go to school for a half day each day in a one room school house and then another group of kids comes in the afternoon.  It looked like there were probably kids in the classroom from about 1st grade to probably about 8th grade. We spent about 10 minutes at the school before loading the bus again on to our next adventure.

We drove on some interesting "road" and a couple of times I was a bit worried we were going to get stuck but we managed to make it even after getting stopped by a herd of cows:

Some more pictures of the country side:

Our next stop was a "restaurant" owned by the tour company where we had a traditional Dominican meal, learned how cigars are made, and saw some wildlife:

Pineapple Plants- I had no idea each plant only produces 1 fruit 

Iguanas

Crocodiles 

Making Cigars

Lunch- fried chicken, rice, tomato salad, and potatoes- Very yummy!

After lunch we went to a coca bean and coffee bean farm where we learned how both are made.

The cement pad is where they dry coffee beans

Coffee Beans

Coca seeds- raw seeds are very slimy right out of the pod!

Coca beans and pods

After we left the farm it was off to the beach to enjoy some boogie boarding:

It was a very fun day and while most people probably think I am crazy for going on an educational adventure I thought it was the best of both worlds.  We got to enjoy beach time and learned some new things, but yes I can admit I am a giant nerd and Nick is a trooper for going along with my nerdiness.