Getting from Dallas to Fort Worth should have been easy. The two cities are next door to each other with an interstate between but the spaghetti junction style interstate crossings and roadworks led to me having a Navigators Meltdown* when we missed our exit. We ended up seeing a lot of Fort Worth that we didn't need to see until finally turning around and going the way we should have gone.
The first day we arrived we spent exploring Sundance Square. We walked up and down main street and the two roads either side and then between 2nd and 6th. Sundance Square has a lovely chilled feel to it. It's not too touristy but also not too businessy, just somewhere in the middle. The square itself is a lovely place to chill out and relax. Music is playing all day, there is a fountain and places to sit. Had we come at a weekend, I think there would have been a concert on in this square.
For dinner, we took a recommendation from a bartender. He told us all the locals go to a place called Angelos BBQ. We looked it up on TripAdvisor and it was the number 1 BBQ in Fort Worth so we grabbed an Uber and headed over. The beer was served in huge goblets and the food was awesome! We had to order extra beef ribs as they tasted so good! There were no tourists here, it was a local hangout and that made it even better.
The next day, Lee downloaded an app to track the buses in Fort Worth (there is a live update on where each us is and where it is going) and we hopped on the number 15 to Stockyards. Stockyards is awesome! There is a cattle drive twice a day up and down the street, with Texas Longhorns who have extremely long horns! There is so much to see and do here. Unfortunately, we went on a weekday as at the weekends, there is even more to do including seeing a Rodeo and going to a Honky Tonk.
We had fillet steak wrapped in bacon in H3 Ranch, a really cool restaurant where the bar has saddles instead of stools and there are buffalo heads and bums on the walls. The steak was out of this world! I'm scared to have another steak on our trip as its going to be difficult to be as good as this one!
We visited Billy Bob's which is the largest Honky Tonk in the world. It was just a shame that when we visited, it was being used for a blood drive and was actually empty although the cheeky buggers still charged us a $2 entry fee and drinks in here were not reasonably priced!
NB: For those needing a definition of a Honky Tonk, my favourite description is the Top Definition on Urban Dictionary.
After spending all day in the Stockyards, we headed back on the bus to Sundance Square where we then jumped on the free shuttle called Molly who does a big loops around this area, and headed to the Water Gardens.
The Water Gardens were not what either of us expected. There are not your standard fountains in a park. They are huge! There are three pools in the Water Gardens:
- The Meditation Pool which is surrounded by cypress trees and a huge wall with water running down vertically. When you enter this pool you do feel really calm and relaxed.
- The Aerating Pool which contains lots of little spray fountains which change in colour.
- The Active Pool which is like a waterfall! It is 38 feet high and you can walk from the top all the way down to the bottom where there is a small pool. As you walk down the steps, you are surrounded by the water crashing down, it feels like you're going to be pushed off the steps even though the water is not touching you. The noise is so loud, it just reminds you of the power of water.
We finished the evening following a local photography group who to Sundance Square to take pictures of the sun setting and the lights in the evening before having a drink and a snack in the Flying Saucer and watching a couple of songs on the dueling pianos at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar.
Added by Lee
* Navigators Meltdown involves cold, clammy hands that are unable to facilitate a phone touch screen, raised heart rate and respiration, nervous and babbled speech, and an unfulfilled desire to stop the car, get out, and have a cry.
Wow Fort Worth looked pretty cool place to visit, I didn't think there'd be much to see/do but it looks really neat and clean and very cosmopolitan, Sundance square in particular. Some great architecture in the buildings too.
ReplyDeleteAngelos looked a great find although it didn't look like much from the outside. A bit of Belgium about the beers in goblets too.
Somewhat surreal to see them drive cattle down the road and longhorn doesn't do it justice some of the cattle had freaking mahoosive horns on em!! they must weigh a ton and can't be comfortable or practical. Cool 'dukes of hazard' car.
Some cool photos, especially of you on the cattle. They all looked knackered for the afternoon drive though, plodding down the street.
cool to be able to go into a bar with the swinging gable doors, even if it was a dive!
The water gardens looked amazing and would have loved a trip to see them. You can really hear how loud the active pool is too.
yay and a post credits scene too - very funny with your cunning plan to video the car!
Well we would say Day 43/44 was very interesting. We could not believe how calm and orderly the cattle drive were. And some of those horns were amazing and a bit frightening. The video was great and you both looked super cool in your cowboy boots. The water garden very very attractive.
ReplyDeleteMum & Dad xx