It’s been a great week but we are ready to head home and especially ready to pick up our fur baby tomorrow. Thanks to a late check out, we were able to sleep in, and then head down to breakfast. Michael has gotten pretty good at the waffle machine.

After breakfast, we had time to head back to the room, repack with our souvenirs along with the diet cokes/Gatorades that we had left from Galveston (that I refused to leave behind). Packed up and headed to the airport, we said goodbye to the HotWheels interchanges and funky bridges.

It is quite the journey to get to rental car return, on the bus to the airport, through the bag drop (thank goodness for online check-in), and through security at Terminal C… just in time for American Airlines to change your gate to Terminal D. So we got to add “tram ride” to our journey. Good thing we left the hotel at 12:15 for a 3pm flight!

We did like the weird walk-through art in the airport. They were so excited to take more photos 😉

One more flight…

And one more bus…

We have just a few more years with these two, and we have enjoyed every minute of this trip

33rd state visited covering 1,139 miles

Happy Birthday to Leo! Sometimes I worry that being gone on his birthday would bother him, but then I remembered that he has celebrated his birthday in some amazing places: underground in a cave in Tennessee; the Pro Football Hall of Fame and now the Pleasure Pier in Galveston, Texas!

We all slept in a little and Leo woke up to Happy Birthday signs and banners throughout the house (we had them hidden in my bag since we left home). We had a breakfast and packed up to say goodbye to our little beach house.

Before we could start the celebration, we needed to get the fish on its way home. We already cut everything into fillets and frozen in water into ziplocs. We saved our water bottles and half gallon milk jugs to act as our ice in shipping. Mike and Leo wrapped the fish bags and bottles in towels and then packed into the cooler. At the local shipping place, Galveston Pack and Ship, the Manager, Abe, was awesome! He helped us get the best rate and type of shipping – even threw in a little discount for us.

Tracking number received, off we went to celebrate our boy.

What could be better than amusement park rides over the ocean? A little background on the Pier: The Pleasure Pier was originally built back in 1906 and was known as the “Coney Island of the South” until 1961 when Hurricane Carla destroyed the pier. A hotel was built in its place and stood until 2008 when Hurricane Ike destroyed the hotel. The pier was finally rebuilt in its present state in 2012.

So to celebrate Leo, we are spending the morning (or enough time needed) to cover the pier. They started off getting completely soaked on the log ride…

They rode this crazy roller coast that went 90° straight up and then came down at almost the same angle.

They played midway games – yea! We won some $5 crap! (Good thing Sampson loves fair toys)

They even posed in the big red chair for a photo-op without many grumbles (it’s a vacation miracle)

And no amusement park on a pier or otherwise is complete without a swinging pirate ship

Pretty great way to start a birthday!

Mom’s Cafe apparently doesn’t have a Texas franchise so we’ve been either eating a big breakfast at hotel and then having appetizer for lunch, or just grabbing a quick bite while we’re moving. The lack of Mom’s Cafe on this trip has been primarily due to lack of eating space in the big cities… hard to find a picnic table in Dallas. Today, the birthday boy chose WhatABurger since we try to never eat things we could have at home when we travel. I have to say, this was one of the best burgers we’ve ever had, and the boys said the patty melts were just as good. So ✔️ WhatABurger!

As we ate, we started making our way back through Houston on our way back to Dallas. I knew we were close to Houston when a normal exit ramp wouldn’t due, and we started seeing the HotWheels style interchanges start appearing.

We couldn’t come through south central Texas without a stop on Brenham… Home of Blue Bell Ice Cream

Blue Bell has a great visitor’s center with props and exhibits telling the story of the Brenham Creamery which became Blue Bell Ice Cream. We even got to pose with one of the original Blue Bell delivery trucks.

Afterwards we headed into the store and ice cream parlor for some $1 scoops

We left Brenham and headed to College Station, Texas – the home of Texas A&M University. It was a beautiful campus, however, we didn’t realize that today was Ring Day (awarding of class rings to students). It is a BIG deal to the Aggie’s so this 5 minute detour took about 40 minutes.

As we continued on toward Dallas, I finally got to see a real-life oil derricks! ✔️ now my Texas trip is complete!

We decided to eat before we got to Dallas so once we were in the hotel we didn’t have to leave to go anywhere else. After a little research, we found Ruston Cattle Company in Ennis, Texas. Great reviews and great selection of steak (birthday boy’s choice).

What he didn’t know was that Ruston Cattle Company sold Wagyu beef. Leo has wanted to try wagyu beef since he watched some cooking video online… (Thanks internet!) In case you’re wondering, wagyu is beef that contains a higher percentage of Omega 3 and Omega 6, as well as more monounsaturated fats than any other beef. I’m not sure that that’s completely accurate, but the steaks were great! And the birthday banana pudding was a hit!

Leo refused to let me tell the waitress that we were celebrating his birthday, so had to settle for a picture on the porch. 🥳

After dinner, we were traveled the 30 miles to Dallas… we knew we were close when we say the Hotwheels interchanges again and the skyline.

Checked in and showered, we finished the night with some blackjack and old maid.

Tomorrow we head home from a Texas-sized week of memories ♥️

Today was a sleeping-in-slow-moving-beachy-kinda day. We didn’t manage to do anything other than eat until noon, and finally left the house and made it onto the beach around the crack-of-2pm. And while normally this would have been a complete waste of a vacation day, today it was just about perfect!

There was an unusually large crowd of older folks and folks with telephoto lens camera set up on the seawall when we arrived. As we got closer, we saw why. Huge wooden sailing ships dotted the ocean. After a little internet sleuthing, we discovered that today is the start of the “Tall Ships Challenge.” It’s a sailing regatta-style festival for antique ships. We tried to imagine crossing the ocean in these ships on a calm day, much less during storms 😬

These two again played their wrestle/catch style game in the ocean, and then convinced Mike to play (with the condition that they play near the edge of the water). I didn’t quite understand the rules, but they had a blast playing.

We ventured out on the jetty so boys could see what the fuss was about… apparently it was very Zen 🤣

Mike and I didn’t go to the end but we still snapped a few good pictures

We headed back and the ball-toss game restarted for a while, then switched to boogie boards, by then the boys were hungry (again) so we walked back to our little house.

We made a quick trip to Walmart for a couple of things for dinner tonight, but more importantly, we went for a new cooler to ship all of our fish from yesterday back home. The plan is to ship it overnight by Fed Ex, so it should arrive home about the time we do tomorrow. We thawed enough to fry for dinner tonight with rice pilaf and sautéed veggies, and it was outstanding! We had zero leftovers. Apparently, we were all hungry for home-cooking.

It was Leo’s night to pick the board game and he choose Apples to Apples. Clearly there were some disagreements about the judges’ ruling but we had so much fun and laughed at each other until our stomachs hurt. It is so fun seeing just how funny the boys are becoming. This has been my favorite part of vacation ♥️

Tonight was our last night with a 13 year old in the house, because tomorrow Leo turns 14! 🥳🥳🥳 We’ve got the birthday signs hung and a couple of fun things planned for his big day and our last full day of this trip.

Today started EARLY! Like wake up at 6am on vacation early, but it was well worth it to spend the morning in the Gulf of Mexico catching fish.

We met Captain Matt at 7am and hit the water. Since Leo and Mike get a little motion sick, we decided to do the inland jetty fishing trip. The jetties were hand-built rock walls built in 1905 after the 1900 Hurricane that hit Galveston. It was a way to try and keep the channels open following the storms. The jetties are 6 miles long, and we were about 5 miles out along the jetty where the fish like to hang out. Even though we weren’t in really open seas, the ocean was still pretty choppy today.

It was beautiful but a little windy. Someone did not listen to their mother about a sweatshirt and was freezing, although he would never admit it. (oh to be 15 again).

It was a great day for fishing! All the boys caught HUGE red drums, after a bit of a battle to get them in the boat

Mike actually caught his whooper on 25-pound line (smaller rod than boys) and had to battle him about half an hour before he was finally close enough to the boat to catch in the net. He was a 32-pound monster!

We also caught a few saltwater catfish, which I didn’t know until yesterday existed. You don’t eat these because they have an enzyme on their skin that can cause a terrible infection.

We have found that every time we go fishing one person in our group catches zero. Zero, like not even a nibble. This trip that was me. NOTHING came near my line, which was fine so I could take care of a couple in our group who felt pretty yucky.

Within a couple of hours, we caught our limit of the big red drums – even had to through Michael’s second one back because it was over the limit. And then look, a maritime miracle: we caught these two being friends not brothers ♥️

As we made our way back to Capt Matt’s slip, we had a couple of observers… who quickly multiplied when we started unloading the fish.

That’s a whole lotta fish!

We learned a few new random bits of trivia to share: fish gills look like giant teeth, pelicans will try to swallow stuff even if they can’t, and if you don’t stab a fish in the eye before throwing the head in the water, they will float back up after a day or so due to gases.

Eight gallon ziplocs bags full of fish, we headed back to our little VRBO. After our adventure getting into this place, everything has been perfect! Everyone has their own room and we’ve gotten all of our clothes washed and ready for the rest of the trip.

The boys and I decided to check out the beach after lunch, but I’m not sure how they swam in this cold water!

After a dip in the hot tub (to thaw out), we had a home cooked dinner with veggies, and then Michael challenged us to a game of Monopoly (because he never loses).

Until tonight!

Tomorrow, we have absolutely nothing to d0, and after getting up so early today we are all ready for an early bedtime tonight.

Day 5 of Vacation and I had to ask Mike “Where did we start today?” LOL

We started this morning earlier than we’ve been used to because we had timed entry tickets to the Alamo. Walking along the Riverwalk in the morning was gorgeous.

The Battle of the Alamo in 1836 was a turning point in Texas Revolution, especially because of the brutality of Santa Anna. He only left women, children and a former slave alive after the 13 day seige, with instructions to tell of what he had done. The only remaining original structures are free to visit but the audio tour is well worth the extra cost.

Inside the audio tour walks you through each part of the Battle. The boys were surprisingly into this story. Of course, it helped to have the individual audio devices so they could listen at their own speed/style.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather or crowd. They loved the outside portion of the tour and now are ready to visit Puerto Rico 🤷🏻‍♀️ because that’s what this reminded them of? It was gorgeous, but I’m just not sure where the Puerto Rico reference developed?

But they were happy together and not wrestling so I’ll definitely “Remember the Alamo!”

Couldn’t resist the chance to photo bomb Michael’s pictures!

The live re-enactments were interesting. The soliders didn’t use regular playing cards – no one wanted the good cards to be anything about a king or queen, so the best card was George Washington. It would be disrespectful to have a card with a real woman on it so they created one with greek goddess. The cards from the decks played another role beyond entertainment. Supporters of Texas were told to put a card in their hat so soldiers would know who NOT to shoot.

Our own Daniel Boone ♥️

This came up as my memory today… and when noticed the photo from today… They’ve changed a bit since taking this picture one year ago in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

We came, we toured, we’ll remember the Alamo!

We left our car at the hotel while we explored San Antonio. The city reminds us of Charleston, with some delicious conveniences, like a Voodoo Donuts – Yum! The VooDoo dozen has some crazy combinations (one of them had Capt Crunch cereal on it). But after snacking on a few, we thought they would travel well to Galveston for a few breakfasts when we dont have a buffet waiting 😉

We left San Antonio and meandered our way to Galveston… Meander means I’m absolutely going to find some random stuff to see… how about the World’s Oldest Largest Pecan in Seguin, Texas? What does Oldest Largest mean… well, this WAS the World’s Largest Pecan from 1962 to 1982 when a larger pecan was made in Brunswick Missouri. So, since 2nd largest pecan doesn’t sound nearly as good, this is the Oldest Largest Pecan. And now you know 🤣

As we traveled on, we needed gas and decided we’d stop at another Buc-ee’s.

This one isn’t as large (still size of small grocery store) BUT according to the sign out front and construction going on, this will be the world’s largest Buc-ee’s in 2024. We may have to come back to check. But seriously, look at the jerky counter… over 15 varieties… OF JERKY! Is there this much of a market for jerky?

We traveled on munching on our brisket sandwiches and beaver nuggets, and came across more Texas interchanges… we’ve become slightly obsessed with these. We’re going to be so depressed taking regular ‘ol exits off the interstate 😐

Finally, we made it to Houston – we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to travel.

We decided to see the Alamo story through to the end and visit the Memorial to the Battle of San Jacinto where the Texan army, still angered by the brutality of Santa Ana, defeated the Mexican Army in April of 1836 – the first victory for the Republic of Texas. The Monument is 567 feet tall (for comparison the Washington Monument is 554 feet tall)… there is also a rectangular pool to the right of the monument, which really makes it appear to be mimicking the Washington Monument reflecting pool BUT that wasn’t on a plaque so it’s truthfulness is questionable 😂

We rented a VRBO in Galveston for the next three nights, and were greeted with quite the surprise when we arrived. The Kitchen was dirty, the beds had piles of sheets on them, trash still in can, washer and dryer are running… Michael asked if we were in the right house?! I kept thinking “man, we’ve had the best luck with VRBO, and now where are we going to go?” So I called Mark, the owner, and politely asked for help. He was fantastic. He called the cleaning company. Turns out there was just a mix-up. The cleaning company thought we were coming Wednesday, so there weren’t in a rush to finish cleaning here. Mark venmo’d us $150 for dinner and gave some great suggestions. He told us to come back at 8pm unless we heard from him earlier. Again, we pointed out to boys how asking politely for help versus screaming about issues had actually worked everything out even better than we planned.

Now let me just say what a stroke of luck this turned out to be…because Mark suggested we have dinner at Katie’s Seafood House. We have eaten some great meals all across the country and this meal was easily in the top 5! And then the giant banana pudding! Only thing that could make it better was a great waiter, oh wait… we had the best waiter named Jimmy Ray!

As always, God just worked things out much better than we could have planned.

Tomorrow we are up bright and early for fishing so hopefully we’ll have a freezer full of fish this time tomorrow night. 🎣

After sleeping in, and of course a big ol breakfast, we spent today exploring Austin. We started our day with a tour of the Texas State Capital.

The tour was free and pretty interesting. (My only complaint would be that the tour guides aren’t allowed to use microphones, and we were in a group of 50 people. If we weren’t close to the guide, you couldn’t tell what he was saying.). The rotunda was stunning! It is over 200 feet from the Star at the top to the Star on the ground.

We saw the House floor, and the members’ voting desks, as well as the underground areas added in the 1990s due to overcrowding. These allowed for more office space, but they still wanted to have a view of the Rotunda… insert skylights.

Boys wanted to go all the way to the top level so we climbed all all all the stairs to the stop.

We grabbed a drink and snack in the Capital Grill and then headed to the Texas State History Museum. Mike and I visited the Museum when we were here about 8 years ago, and it was great. However, we soon learned, that the museum is open every day… except Monday… And today is… Monday 🤦🏻‍♀️

So, we pivoted and decided to take a drive through the University of Texas Austin campus.

The campus itself was nice but the surrounding area could use a little attention. We decided to start making our way toward San Antonio with a few stops along the way thanks to http://www.roadsideamerica.com. How about the Guiness Book of World Record’s World’s Largest Shovel?

Another quick side trip was to the first picture in the Mermaid March. Apparently long ago, there was an attraction called “Aquarena Springs” in San Marcos. One of the featured acts was Ralph, the diving pig from San Marcos. Well they had us at Pig ♥️

And then we headed to the world’s largest convenience store – Buckee’s in New Braunfels, Texas. This place was GIGANTIC! They had everything: clothes, food, grill items, every slushee flavor known to man, a deli specializing in homemade jerky, and quite possibly the greatest brisket sandwich we have ever had.

Next stop, Gruene, Texas: home of the Gruene Dance Hall. Gruene was settled by German cotton farmers in 1872. The story goes that the town eventually became like a ghost town until someone floating down the river saw the old dance hall and decided to revitalize it. Now it is the oldest dance hall in Texas! It also boasts a downtown area that looks straight of out a Hallmark movie

We finally made it to San Antonio around 5. When we checked in, we asked for a rollaway bed (the man-size children have a hard time sharing a bed), San Antonio Fire Marshall doesn’t allow rollaway beds in rooms with 2 beds. We’ve had this come up before in the larger cities so we politely so okay. I guess sweet Amanda at the front desk wasn’t used to a kind response to bad news, because she said let me see what we can. She upgraded us to a 2-room suite with king size bed and pullout sofa, and now we can get a rollaway bed. People nowadays are so rude that people are shocked when they receive kindness. It was great lesson for boys to witness. We dropped our bags and checked out the balcony, and then headed out to explore the River Walk.

The Riverwalk in San Antonio is a 15-mile waterway running through San Antonio. It was created in response to deadly flooding in 1921. It has been expanded several times since, usually to accomodate a new hotel’s request for a slice of “riverfront” property. While the water isn’t the cleanest, the Riverwalk is safe and provides beautiful views for a walk along the river.

After some time strolling the Riverwalk, we stopped for dinner at Iron Cactus. Mike and I found this place when we were in Austin a few years ago with a work trip, and we were so thankful it was still open. I was a little afraid we had built this place up to the boys too much, but it was just as good as we remembered. The tableside guacamole is the best we have ever had then and now!

Bellies full to capacity we strolled a bit more

and then came back to the hotel to rest a hot minute before squeezing in a last minute swim… I don’t think these 2 ever wear out

Tomorrow we remember the Alamo and head to the coast.

Another morning fueled by Texas Waffles, we hit the road to introduce the boys to a little more American culture. Yesterday we spent the day learning about American history and today, we are teaching them about American Pop Culture. But before that, we decided to detour through SMU. The campus was beautiful, and thankfully both boys said we didn’t have to worry about them coming to school this far away (Whew!)

Again, we were mystified by the Texas interchanges. Why do they not just have a regular cloverleaf like every other state? Our only guess is that it is one of those “everything is bigger in Texas” things

And then we headed north to Parker, Texas to the best known ranch in all of Texas… Southfork!!

Mike and I both spent Friday nights watching JR and Bobby Ewing and their crazy family. The boys couldn’t understand why so many people watched one show? We explained that you didn’t have 150 channels, you had 3! And we didn’t watch YouTube or have “influencers” who you imitated. You watched SueEllen, Pam and Luci to get the latest styles and fashions for the ladies (Who didn’t hot roll their hair trying to get Luci’s curls?)

We hoped on the tram (they were thrilled for another picture), and off we went. Our tour guide was the funniest lady! When one guy told her he was from California, and she said “that’s nice. Don’t move here.” 🤣

Oh my word, we are IN SOUTHFORK!!! How many breakfasts did we see them eat here? Or hear JR say “Mrs. Teresa, get me some coffee.”

Or see SueEllen pull up here in her convertible?

Now about the pool? This pool seemed gigantic when we watched it on television… not so much in person. We learned today that to increase the size, they filled the pool to even with the concrete and floated mirrors in the pool to increase the size in shooting. Also, when Bobby was seen swimming laps, because he was so tall, they would tether him under the diving board, and then the crew would move a screen along the pool to give the illusion that he was swimming through the pool. The magic of television!

We saw the dining room (the forks have “portion control guards” on them so the cast could only take small bits during filming), Mrs. Ellie’s kitchen (they never told us who the lady was sitting at the table?), the living room and bar (Mike and I were the extras for our guide), Luci’s bedroom and SueEllen’s bathroom.

We also got to see Jock’s Lincoln Continental, a long horn cow and I posed with JR himself!

One of the funniest displays was the Ewing Family Tree. Notice the bottom… it’s a chart of all the relationships of the more friendly characters 🥴😬🤣

Overall – Awesome tour and flashback to our childhood!

Since boys had been so great indulging Mike and I in our morning tour, we headed back to Plano, Texas for a surprise… Fowling!

What is Fowling? It is a combination of football and bowling (and maybe a little cornhole) A few friends created the game in the parking lot of the Indy 500 back in 2001. Now there are 8 Fowling Warehouses in the United States – and more franchises available.

It’s like bowling except you take turns throwing footballs are your pins until one team knocks down all their pins. And just like a bowling alley, we ordered appetizers and drinks and had a great time.

Perfect stop for the Browns!

Next stop, Waco. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit Waco’s most famous folks, Chip and Joanna, since it is Sunday, and Easter Sunday at that. But we still made a drive through Baylor – beautiful campus and huge! – and then a drive around Magnolia and the Silos. Magnolia has two full blocks of buildings, gardens and grassy areas. Perfectly manicured as only Joanna can.

We left the Silos and headed off to see 2 nearby items we found on roadsideattractions.com. (I love all things kitschy so these are my people). First, a 1929 Gulf station fully restored by 2 brothers who just wanted a place to work on their old cars. And second, Darwin the Gorilla, a 4 foot tall cement gorilla in someone’s yard. He is painted in whatever holiday or occasion. Today, he was a bunny, and it was absolutely worth the 3-minute detour!

We made it to Austin and after dropping our bags, we headed to dinner. We were in the mood for burgers, and the front desk recommended we try the Texas Chili Parlor. The outside didn’t look like much, which usually that means great food.

So the inside matched the outside but again, in our experience that means awesome food. This had to be one of the most eclectic crowds we’ve seen, but everyone was nice, and no one bothered us. Texas Chili Parlor has been open since 1976 and told the story of Chili or as Texans call it “a bowl of red.” Elizabeth Taylor even ordered 10 quarts to be shipped to her in Rome when she was filming Cleopatra.

Bellies full, we got back to the hotel for a little swimming on the roof which was too cool with the capital in the background.

Tomorrow is all things Texas as we tour the State Capital and the Texas State Museum before heading down to San Antonio.

We started this morning with Texas shaped waffles and didn’t stop until 11pm. Sprinkled in some American History, some exploring and shopping, and some Rodeo in the Stockyards of Fort Worth, and that’s a perfect vacation day!

The breakfast at the Hampton Inn was great especially the waffles 😉

We have also discovered where the wrestling gene came from…

Filled up with Texas waffles and sweaty from wrestlemania, we hit the road to explore Dallas.

First Stop: Dealy Plaza and the Texas Book Depository. The boys were not excited about this stop. They know the story of JFK but really had not heard a great deal about his assassination. BUT I am counting today as a win, because when we left they both said it was “pretty good.” We arrived before our tour time so we headed out to explore the Plaza and the Grassy Knoll.

Second gunman on the grassy knoll? Mystery solved

We headed inside for our tour of the Book Depository

We freely admit that we believe there is more to JFK’s assassination than a disgruntled Lee Harvey Oswald, but it was unsettling to be in the exact spot where they claim he was…

And see, it’s not just us… it’s on a plaque and that makes it true 😁

We explored downtown and found the JFK Memorial, and of course more plaques!

Most Texas pioneers settled in the “three forks” area in cabins like this, and we found another plaque!

With some time to explore, we HAD to find a sneaker store for Leo

The shoe store was in Deep Elam, a section of Dallas known for its jazz and blues clubs

We grabbed some drinks and snacks for lunch, and enjoyed the people watching… because there was a lot special folks to watch🤣🤣🤣

The Dallas Skyline and their crazy overpass interchanges are too cool (photo credits to Leo)

We scooted back to the hotel and changed to head to the Fort Worth Stockyards! Some of us used the drive to recharge…

Uptown Fort Worth was a typical city with standard architecture with a few interesting designs

And then we turned into the stockyard area. It was like going back in time and it was awesome!

Twice a day the cattle are walked through downtown, then the cowboys eat and then they rodeo… so when in Texas, the Browns did the same thing

We found the home of RFD TV (Rural Free Delivery) and Cowboy Channel. Mike likes the farm equipment show so he was happy with this find 🚜

You can’t visit Texas without a Rodeo! The Stockyards Championship Rodeo is the first indoor rodeo and runs year round on Friday and Saturday night in the Cowtown Coliseum 🐮 We love Rodeos – they always start with with a prayer and the Pledge of Alliance 🇺🇸

This is the real deal rodeo and we had the best time from the opening act to the last ride.

Michael and Leo got a little Cowboy fever from the Rodeo and decided to try out the mechanical bull… others of us decided the recovery from the bull would be too painful 🤣

Another view of Dallas’ skyline and we headed back to the hotel

Tomorrow we leave Dallas proper and head back to the 1980’s in Parker, Texas

We hit the road again clicking off state number 33 on our quest for all 50…. TEXAS, here we come!

This is our first Spring Break that required air travel. We have covered all states within an 8- hour radius of home, and that is the maximum daily travel distance for our crew. So off we went… wow! Good Friday travel is hectic! But with extra travel time and an extra measure of patience for the RDU parking situation, we made it to the airport, plane and ultimately – TEXAS!

Rental car located, off we go to downtown Dallas. We even found a bridge or two to qualify for Leo’s STEM assignment.

We are stepping away from our normal Holiday Inn Express this trip because we need more room. The boys are now like a man-child(s) and we need hotels with pull-out couches. (After more that one night sleep wrestling together, it’s like traveling with the Hulk). So Hampton Inn & Suites in Downtown Dallas for the win! The 17th floor has great views of the city and plenty of room. The front desk recommended we check out “The Exchange” for dinner… think fancy food court. Delicious and so fun! Leo tried out the Nashville style chicken place, Michael and Mike tried the Tex-Mex and I tried the fish tacos at the Seafood stall. Food was fantastic and pretty reasonably priced – that’s a win!

And then off we went to the American Airlines Center to watch the Dallas Mavericks/ Chicago Bulls game 🏀 It was a great game… came down to the last 10 seconds!

Tonight was Luka Doncic/Slovenia night which suited the boys who really like Luka. The half time show from the Slovenia Devils, a trampoline/dunk team and the pride of Slovenia. Their dance routines were the best! Imagine 90’s boy-band meets rhythmically challenged basketball players🤣 awesome!!🤣

The Mavericks ended up losing by 3, but it was so much fun… even if we may have been sitting behind the sister of Fran Stalinovskovichdavidovitchsky from the movie Dodgeball 🇸🇮

Dallas is a beautiful city especially when it’s all lit up. So after we caught an Uber back to the hotel, we saw the benefit of the 17th floor…

Tomorrow, we head to the grassy knoll for a little American history and then the Rodeo 🤠