The View From Here

I love spur of the moment vacations.  A couple weeks ago (that is spur of the moment for us) my brother and I were talking and he asked when we could come up to Dallas to see them.  I told him I wasn’t sure but asked when would be good for them.  He told me that the weekend coming up wasn’t good but the weekend after was.  I checked with my wife and, bada-bing, we went.  Here is how our extra long weekend went.

Fortunately, both Lacey and I were able to get off work Thursday and Friday so we thought we would drive down Wednesday night when we got off work in order to maximize our time with my brother and sister-in-law (and Crispin, their dog).  Thursday we slept in to start the day.  I can’t do this very often but I am willing to make an exception since we were on vacation.  My brother and his wife had not seen The Dark Knight yet so we tried to go catch it at the IMAX but all showings were sold out until the next Monday.  That movie is going crazy at the box office.  We watched it at a regular theater instead.  I loved it the first time I saw it but the second time was even better.

After the movie we lounged around for a bit before going to (probably) the best restaurant at which I have eaten.  Texas de Brazil is a steak house, but not your ordinary steakhouse.  You start your meal off with their salad bar that could substitute for your whole meal if you let it.  Everything I had off of it was great.  Then they bring out a couple more side dishes.  You are given a token that you put next to you plate that is green on one side and red on the other and when you are ready for the meat you put it on green.  The different cuts of meat are brought around on skewers by servers who ask you if you want some of what they are offering.  If so, they slice you off a piece.  It was fantastic.  I highly recommend it if you are in the Dallas area.  It is expensive so be prepared.  We finished the day off with some Guitar Hero 3.  I haven’t played this game too much so it was really fun to learn it.

Friday, we got up somewhat early and headed towards Glen Rose Texas to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Preserve.  It is set up so you stay in your vehicle and drive around the roads seeing the different animals, sometimes up close and personal.  We had zebras sticking their heads in the truck to be fed.  This was a lot of fun.  It took almost two hours to drive through the whole thing so there was lots to see.  We headed home and grilled out that evening.  Of course we had some time for some Guitar Hero as well.

Saturday was shopping day.  Lacey and I are about to work on fixing the fireplace in our house but that required that we get a new entertainment center since the one we currently used is built in over the fireplace.  So we started looking at IKEA (great store) and the first thing we saw became the item we bought.  We did look at some other furniture stores but didn’t find anything we liked.  After shopping for an entertainment center we went looking for a store for Lacey to look at cellos.  We found one and Lacey played her first notes on a cello there.  I can’t wait until we have enough saved for her to get one.

Next came Half Priced Books, one of the best stores known to man.  We ate dinner at Pasado’s which was good and then we headed home to hang out and to, you guessed it, play some Guitar Hero.

My brother and his wife are trying to find a church to attend in their area so we tried out a new one with them on Sunday.  For lunch we had to go to Freebirds since I don’t get it very often.  Since we were close we stopped by another Half Priced Books (the largest one in the Dallas area).  I always enjoy picking up hardback books for the same price as paperback ones, don’t you?  Next we swung by IKEA to pick up the boxes for our entertainment center we bought.  I am really excited about this since it signifies the beginning of our fireplace project.  After that we loaded up and headed out of town.

I praise the Lord for my brother and sister-in-law!  We had so much fun being with them.  Being on vacation just made it that much better.

Brian