a weekend to getaway

Last Thursday evening, Brandon told me that this coming Friday--my birthday--was the first night of a bachelor party weekend for one his good friends getting married in a few weeks. Then he asked me if I wanted to go to Dallas for the weekend and go shopping. At first I wasn't too sure about it because we hadn't made any plans for hotels or anything, and I'm a planner... but then we were looking on Priceline to see what a hotel would cost. I've never actually done the name your own price thing because I've always gotten cold feet when it asked for my credit card information before I knew what hotel it was, but we did it. Brandon put in a low price for a 4-star hotel in the galleria area, and to our surprise, it accepted it! So we got The Westin Park Central, 3 miles away. That made our decision right there.

So Friday rolled around and Bridger knew something was up. She would not let me out of her sight all afternoon.


Please excuse the shoe, I was cracking up at her and didn't have time to move it before I took the picture. This is what she would do to watch me move around the room. Instead of picking her head up, she would just turn it all the way around.

Brandon got home a little after 5 and we were off! We met some friends in Ft. Worth for dinner before continuing on to our hotel.

The next morning, we found an Einstein Bros. for breakfast and then headed to the Galleria. I didn't buy much, and what I did buy was on sale, shocking, I know, but it was so much fun to go to all the stores we don't have here.

After shopping, we stopped at one of Brandon's favorite childhood pasttimes, Crystal's Pizza. I told him we could go eat there because he and his brother always talk about how good it was and how awesome the place was. It's funny how things seem when you're a child, because it was neither. As we were walking up to the front doors, I looked up at the decorative and absurd exterior and noticed that the wood was rotting and things were falling off. Honestly, it looked as though it had been abandoned for several years, left to fend for itself in nature.

Once inside, I would agree with the article I linked to above, "think of it as a combination of Chuckie Cheese's and a haunted Southern Mansion... [with] a mishmash of Victorian Architecture [and] cheap, sticky, plastic furniture." The pizza was probably some of the worst I've had in a while, and Brandon agreed.

Though he was disappointed, he decided that the one that used to be in Abilene was much better.

Saturday night we went to the Rangers game with James and Bryan because I had never been to one. It's always fun to go to a professional baseball game and watch how rediculously into it the fans can be.

Brandon only agreed to take that picture if I would take this one below as well..

Sunday I woke up to breakfast in bed! Brandon woke up early and found a Grandys and brought back biscuits fo us! We checked out of our hotel and did a little more shopping because Saturday wasn't enough and then made our way to Ft. Worth for some lunch at Joe T. Garcia's. It. was. good.

If you have never eaten at Joe T's, grab your wallet (make sure you have cash or a check) and go! ti will be worth your while. Oh, and tell them you want to sit on the patio if it's not too hot, you probably wont have to wait as long for a table.

As we were headed to get back on I-30, we were driving through downtown Ft. Worth (a place I've never been in my life) and I saw a lot of cute shops I will be making it to on the next trip. We were almost to the highway when I saw the sign for the Ft. Worth Water Gardens and made Brandon turn around.

I have wanted to go to the Ft. Worth Water Gardens since I saw the movie Blank Check as a kid, and I finally got to go! The Water Gardens was also something I learned about in some of my Architectural History classes because it was designed by Philip Johnson who first became famous for his design of the Glass House in New Canaan, CT, which I will go see someday. Since then he designed numerous famous buildings and was one of the key leaders in postmodern architecture. But enough of your Architectural History lesson for the day...

Despite the heat and humidity, it was fun to climb down into the middle of all of the water and experience something designed by a person I learned about in school! Mom and Dad, I know you're glad.. :).

It was such a fun weekend to just get away and spend some time together!