I went to Dallas and visited my friends and let me tell you I found that EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas! I thought that was a myth but its not even the dogs are bigger-my friend had a bull mastiff which I just wanted to throw a saddle on and ride around the house.
Welcome to Texas! First you land at the country's largest airport DFW which stands for Dallas Fort Worth since Dallas and Fort Worth are right next to each other like the twin cities in Minnesota. The airport covers thirty square miles, and where I saw the biggest American flag ever!
One of the tricky things about DFW is that when you exit the airport there are many tollways. Check with your rental car company whether they have an agreement with the tollways or if you have to stop and pay as many of the tollways have the drive through and we'll bill ya later option or hopefully you have an TxT tag in your window so its automatically paid.
If you are limited on time, like I was, there are some must see things. I chose to go to the new Cowboys stadium and as not fun as that might sound from a girl who only marginally watches football, the stadium was awesome! We took the tour with 30 other people from all over the country at a cost of around 30 dollars per person. I thought that was kind of spendy for a stadium tour but hey we are in Texas where everything is bigger including cost. The tour was fabulous and we got to go into the locker rooms of the team, and the cheerleaders. (Did you know the team runs through a bar to get on the field? Nothing like the poor Baltimore ravens who go down into a basement!)
Beef brisket seems to be a staple in Dallas and you can get it in fancy restaurants and delicatessens -all I have to say on that subject (other than the portion was huge!) is yum. Not to forget of course the Mexican food, different from ours in the midwest as its probably more authentic and again gets the rating of Yum!
My friend and I decided to take the greyhound from Dallas to San Antonio to save money. Sounds good right? Until you realize you have mom's spilling their kids milk (and let me tell you it was a hot stinky ride to san antonio) kids running all over the place and of course there are the drunk guys in the back few rows of the bus that helped me decide to hold it till I got to a greyhound station. Greyhound stations are not typically in the best of neighborhoods and San Antonio was no different it was however close to downtown and although we might have walked all the way down to the hotel, we chose to cab it with our luggage. We got to the riverwalk area which was a whole new lifestyle. There were no homeless people (we heard that they were encouraged to go elsewhere during the conference since we rented out all of the hotels by the riverwalk) The riverwalk itself was gorgeous its a definite must see not only for San Antonio but for the state as well. There are sidewalks running down each side of the river and you can walk for probably a half hour in one directions if you don't stop at the various boutiques and restaurants. We went to Texas in July and it was HOT! No kidding ! Walking along the riverwalk was pretty cool temperature wise because its a little below ground of everything else. The restaurants are fabulous and its just a generally nice time. We popped the 11 bucks it cost to go on the river tour by boat and I thought it was worth spending the money once. If you want to find out the events going on you should check out Sanantonioriverwalk.com
We saw the alamo but I wasn't terribly impressed with all that . The history was interesting, there was however these great shops across the street from the alamo which sold all sorts of tourist stuff for dead cheap. Don't waste your money buying souveniors anywhere else! The other fave spot in San Antinio was the market square. Its bright colors and mexican flavor is a must for any shopper worth her weight. There is dancing and singing and of course there is bargains to be had even a little haggling went on with the merchants and the food, while limited, was yummy. I bought the prettiest dress there to wear with my, you guessed it -cowboy hat, at the suggestion of my sweetie and I love it! I didn't buy any boots though, you need to spend time and money of boots in Texas!
We rented a car to drive back to Dallas and it was a pretty easy quick ride considering... The flight home was very welcome as I was very worn out after a week in Texas!
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