Dallas and the Stockyards
I wanted to start this travel "blog" whenever I made this site for a couple of different reasons...
1) To document and keep up with everything for myself
2) Be able to have something tangible to show my clients
I am a pro at "short weekend" trips. A lot of my travels have been based around concerts or music festivals, but we still make the most out of our time there.
This trip is honestly what started my travel bug. I randomly saw a flight for $98 PER PERSON to Dallas Labor Day weekend. I called my mom and told her I'd pay for her ticket if she went with me. I think we booked this trip literally the Monday before we left.
We arrived at Dallas/Ft. Worth Intl Airport and got our rental car. We went straight to our hotel to check in to our room and drop our bags off. We immediately went to find food. We stumbled upon the cutest little restaurant with salmon bites that I still dream of. Fun fact about me, when I go out of town, I'm going to find local places to eat that I'm not going to find at home. I may swing through McDonalds for a quick snack or something, but I want the local food I can't get back at home. From there we decided to venture on over to the Stockyards. It's just as fun as they tell you. We sat and ate a quick snack and grabbed a drink, experienced the petty zoo, saw the daily cattle drive through the street and most importantly.......adventured into the JOHN WAYNE EXHIBIT! I'm not sure if it's still there to this day, but when we saw it - it was a must. My grandaddy was a huge John Wayne fan. Obsessed may be a better word. We were watching it the morning he passed. It was honestly fantastic... it had costumes, hats, a car, all things from his career and stained glass windows painted with him in different scenes.
"I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please." - John Wayne
Truly words to live by. Afterwards we walked through shops, stopped at Cowtown Winery for a snack and then made our way back to our hotel. We had been up since 1am so we hit the sheets early.
The next day, honestly you guys, may be my favorite. We woke up wondering what we should do because guess what - Ashleyn didn't check to see when the Silos in Waco were open so we missed that haha. However, I found out just down the road from where we were at was the 6th Floor Museum & The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. My mom and I are both super nerds, so this peeked our interest immediately. We started in the Holocaust Museum and if you ever have the chance to go - I implore you to visit. I had chill bumps the whole time. One of our favorite parts was the audio recordings. There were recordings from survivors who had moved to Texas. I'm getting chill bumps now thinking about it. There was a map of all of the concentration camps, real clothes worn there and even a box car that had been bought and given to the museum that was used to transport prisoners back and forth. It was very eerie, standing in a spot where someone may have passed away. An absolute must do on my list.
Next we walked across the street to the 6th story museum and to see the spots where JFK was assassinated. I have since gotten into this conspiracy theory, and while I won't get in to that, it was still super neat to get to stand in those spots. They have them marked in the street with X's. You can walk out and stand in them as the traffic seems minimal in this area. Or maybe it just was at the time of day we were there. If you love history and conspiracy theories, make this a must do on your list.
That afternoon we headed back over to the Stockyards to infamous "Cowboy Coliseum" for a good ole' fashion rodeo! If youre at the stockyards and don't do a rodeo.... did you even go to the stockyards? Haha. That night we went to a local restaurant that I found on Open Table. If you're looking for somewhere to eat and want to make a reservation at the same time, I highly recommend downloading Open Table. It's such a great resource! It was called Haywire and it was fabulous.
That wrapped up our little adventure... it was short, but we packed so much into a short amount of time. Honestly, this is still on my bucket list. There is so much we didn't get to do that I haven't fully checked it off yet.
