And Texas..
Was interesting.
Saturday
The flight out was delayed enough to cause us to miss the connecting flight in Chicago (and the following flight), so we eventually arrived in Dallas at 10pm local time - only about 22 hours after starting out from York. I was happy that my phone was still US-enabled, allowing me to message kingwamba so that he wouldn't try to pick us up from the earlier flight.
On the plus side, we were upgraded to "Economy Plus" on both flights.
At 10pm, Dallas is still "damn hot" in August (about 28 degrees, and that's about as "cool" as it got all week)
Sunday
I nice day out in the middle of Dallas to the Dealy plaza, where many very stupid people walk out into traffic to take pictures from the crosses marking the "hit locations". Stood on the grassy knoll, woo.
The museum in the old book repository is interesting, with plenty of factual stuff (including the FBI model of the plaza) though it's heavily biased towards the "Oswald did it" line. After looking from the window, he could have done it - but we didn't go to the conspiracy museum to find out all the "other bits" that were either ignored by the 6th floor museum or were made up by conspiracy nuts.
Coming out of the museum we were treated to Dallas weather.... a very very very heavy rainstorm that was short-lived, but soaked us anyway!
With food, map buying, more food and some wandering around we turned in for the night.
Monday
With kayjabee at work, and kingwamba working for the morning, we just chilled out - and had lunch and looked at boots and hats, more wet weather. Not much exciting really, but we were still adjusting to US time. The power did go out in the supermarket before we could go through the checkout though.
Tuesday
A trip to Fort Worth involved wandering around the Kimbell art museum (interesting), and heading down to the Stockyards for cowboy action. The free museum, though small, is very good with lots of stuff in. The cowboy hall of fame is not worth it unless you're in to rodeo stuff. But we did get an "olde worlde" photo of us - looking kinda cool :)
Got a hat - cueing a cease in the wet weather.
Wednesday
First of two days without our hosts, so we picked up a Pontiac Sunfire (nice nippy little sports compact) and pootled around the Dallas World Aquarium. Mmmmm fishes! Venturing out into the heat afterwards, we concluded that it was "too damned hot", and retired back to the house (after getting some fruit and more healthy nibbles!)
Barbeque with friends across the street... it's not just big portions in the restaurants!
Thursday
The Dallas Museum of Art occupied us on thursday (for many, many hours). There is lots and lots to see here, of varied quality. Some of the exhibits were very good, with some great artwork on display - from all over the world; others were not so good.
Again, retired back to the house early in the afternoon.
Friday
Time for a road trip to San Antonio, travel time 4 hours. The riverwalk is pretty, and there are good places for Mexican food.
Saturday
Seaworld: dolphins, sharks, stingrays (which we fed and petted), and my camera decided it was too hot to take proper pictures. Overpriced greasy food, surprised that we didn't get dehydrated and malnourished! :)
Cajun style dinner from "Pat O'Brians" - a slightly odd experience.
Sunday
The Alamo (interesting, but very hot), a little shopping and back to Dallas.
Monday
Time to fly home. Got on standby for an earlier flight to Chicago, upgraded again (woo). Then the flight back to Manchester was hellish - with little legroom that we had restricted by an inconsiderate family in front of us who thought that their seats would be better if they could force them to the horizontal.
Arrived home at 10:30am (Tuesday), 18 hours after leaving Dallas. Still have our luggage!
Saturday
The flight out was delayed enough to cause us to miss the connecting flight in Chicago (and the following flight), so we eventually arrived in Dallas at 10pm local time - only about 22 hours after starting out from York. I was happy that my phone was still US-enabled, allowing me to message kingwamba so that he wouldn't try to pick us up from the earlier flight.
On the plus side, we were upgraded to "Economy Plus" on both flights.
At 10pm, Dallas is still "damn hot" in August (about 28 degrees, and that's about as "cool" as it got all week)
Sunday
I nice day out in the middle of Dallas to the Dealy plaza, where many very stupid people walk out into traffic to take pictures from the crosses marking the "hit locations". Stood on the grassy knoll, woo.
The museum in the old book repository is interesting, with plenty of factual stuff (including the FBI model of the plaza) though it's heavily biased towards the "Oswald did it" line. After looking from the window, he could have done it - but we didn't go to the conspiracy museum to find out all the "other bits" that were either ignored by the 6th floor museum or were made up by conspiracy nuts.
Coming out of the museum we were treated to Dallas weather.... a very very very heavy rainstorm that was short-lived, but soaked us anyway!
With food, map buying, more food and some wandering around we turned in for the night.
Monday
With kayjabee at work, and kingwamba working for the morning, we just chilled out - and had lunch and looked at boots and hats, more wet weather. Not much exciting really, but we were still adjusting to US time. The power did go out in the supermarket before we could go through the checkout though.
Tuesday
A trip to Fort Worth involved wandering around the Kimbell art museum (interesting), and heading down to the Stockyards for cowboy action. The free museum, though small, is very good with lots of stuff in. The cowboy hall of fame is not worth it unless you're in to rodeo stuff. But we did get an "olde worlde" photo of us - looking kinda cool :)
Got a hat - cueing a cease in the wet weather.
Wednesday
First of two days without our hosts, so we picked up a Pontiac Sunfire (nice nippy little sports compact) and pootled around the Dallas World Aquarium. Mmmmm fishes! Venturing out into the heat afterwards, we concluded that it was "too damned hot", and retired back to the house (after getting some fruit and more healthy nibbles!)
Barbeque with friends across the street... it's not just big portions in the restaurants!
Thursday
The Dallas Museum of Art occupied us on thursday (for many, many hours). There is lots and lots to see here, of varied quality. Some of the exhibits were very good, with some great artwork on display - from all over the world; others were not so good.
Again, retired back to the house early in the afternoon.
Friday
Time for a road trip to San Antonio, travel time 4 hours. The riverwalk is pretty, and there are good places for Mexican food.
Saturday
Seaworld: dolphins, sharks, stingrays (which we fed and petted), and my camera decided it was too hot to take proper pictures. Overpriced greasy food, surprised that we didn't get dehydrated and malnourished! :)
Cajun style dinner from "Pat O'Brians" - a slightly odd experience.
Sunday
The Alamo (interesting, but very hot), a little shopping and back to Dallas.
Monday
Time to fly home. Got on standby for an earlier flight to Chicago, upgraded again (woo). Then the flight back to Manchester was hellish - with little legroom that we had restricted by an inconsiderate family in front of us who thought that their seats would be better if they could force them to the horizontal.
Arrived home at 10:30am (Tuesday), 18 hours after leaving Dallas. Still have our luggage!