Skip to main content

Day 158: Dallas

Brian and I flew off to Dallas for the weekend. Everyone asks us why. The answer is pretty simple. The flights were cheap, and we have never been to Texas.

Our first day was a lot of fun. We started the trip out right by upgrading our rental car. For only 30 more dollars we bypassed the Ford Focus and got a red, 2014 Ford Mustang:


Our first stop in the Mustang: In-N-Out Burger.


Now you may recall, we have been to In-N-Out before (during our trip to Phoenix). What we regretted after that experience was not ordering off the famous secret menu. At In-N-Out, the board only lists a few options (hamburger, cheeseburger, double burger and fries). However, they do not tell you that there are a ton of customizations you can make to each burger.

After doing some Internet research, I decided I wanted my burger "animal style." This inlcudes grilled onions, mustard-grilled patty, extra pickles, and extra thousand island. The animal style burger is the one on the right:


This burger officially ties Matt's Bar for best burger Alicia has ever had. I am now even more sad that In-N-Out is not in Minnesota. Of course, that may be a good thing, since I don't need to eat a burger every single day.

Our next stop was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. That is the place where they make our paper money. I wish I could have taken pictures, but they didn't let us bring our cameras into the facility. The only picture I could get was this distant one from the visitor parking lot. There were actually two rows of fence/barbed wire separating us from the facility from this parking lot, with about ten yards of gravel between. I've never seen that level of security before (besides in movies involving prisons). It was pretty intimidating.


See that pyramid-topped building way back there? That is where about 50% of U.S. paper money comes from.

Next, we drove into downtown Dallas to check-in to the hotel. Since we saved on our flight costs, we were able to splurge on our hotel. We stayed in a suite at the Joule. The place was so fancy, they gave us complimentary champagne during check in.


Here's Brian next to the bed that was so comfortable, I forgot I wasn't in my bed at home:


The bathroom was epic, and it included a huge tub with jets. I've already used the tub once and plan to use it again:


Our final stop of the day was to a bar I read about, the Meddlesome Moth. I got to test out a flight of Texan beers at the bar:



Here's a happy Brian at our table on the patio:


We got some deviled eggs that were pretty awesome. They boiled them twice, once the normal way and a second time deshelled in a soy sauce mixture. That is why they look brown:


We also got some Texan quail, which was delicious:


That's it for day one in Texas!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spareribs, Sauerkraut and Dumplings

For Valentine's Day this year I cooked a dish that reminds me of home like no other.  It's a family recipe that my Mom knows by heart and my Dad gets on special holidays. Spareribs, sauerkraut and dumplings: Here's my plate before I started inhaling it.     Not everyone likes it.  I didn't like it until I was an adult and came across a very similar dish in the Czech Republic.  I craved home-cooked food at the time and I instantly became obsessed with the dish. The tricky part about the recipe is that it wasn't really written down.  My Grandmother, Anita, wrote a copy for my Mom a long time ago but my Mom has since changed parts to simplify the recipe.  This is the recipe that my Mom told me and I adjusted on my own. For the Dumplings: These are the dumpling when they were boiling, as they start to get done, they float to the top of the water. 3 c bread crumbs (about a half of a loaf dried on a tray for a day and broken up in a food process...

Halloween Project 2009: Zombie Box

I love zombie movies. My first date with Brian, I made the poor guy watch Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead . A while back I saw a photo of a glass case that held a fake shotgun that said "in case of zombies break glass" (click here for my original inspiration). Of course, I wanted one. However, they were a promotional item for a videogame. Plus, the shotguns were fake, not at all useful if zombies actually were going to attack. I tried to see if I could buy one of those fire cases that hold fire extinguishers and fire blankets and just adapt it. Those boxes, it turns out, cost at least a hundred dollars. I decided to take matters into my own hands and build myself an emergency box to prepare for the zombie apocalypse. I bought a frame for a few bucks from a discount store and hand painted the glass: The objects surrounding the glass were part of my "cat deterrence system." Oddly it worked. Livia prefers to sit on my paper projects anyways. I built a...

May 2017 Update

Despite the appearance of my blog over the past year, I am still alive and kicking. I've had a great past year. It was filled with adventures and good times. What have I been up to? 1. I'm walking a ton. At a minimum, I try to walk 10,000 steps a day. When you work a desk job, that is a lot of steps. If I work from home, don't go anywhere, and don't make an effort, I can walk around 2,000 steps in a day. To hit 10,000, I have to make a serious effort. This leads to long rambles to Minnehaha Falls, the Mississippi River, Fort Snelling and circles around the Mall of America. I try to snap cool videos and photos while I walk. I took a short video of Minnehaha Falls this spring: I also snap pictures of the wildlife I manage to stumble across, like this adorable duck family: 2. I've traveled a bit. I went with friends to Massachusetts and Maine a month or so ago. Best selfie from the trip: Brian and I also took a trip to Hawaii in November. I...