Dallas was our destination. During our research, we didn't find a massive amount of stuff we particularly wanted to do in this city, so it would be a 1-night stay.
Sam was our driver for the majority of the 4.5 hour journey, which I was very grateful for as I was a bit jaded. We swapped back over at a gas station as we started to reach the city limits.
Dallas has by far the most complicated road system we have encountered so far. Sam, now navigator, coped well with the spaghetti-like intersections and we only had a few unwanted detours.
We checked into the Hyatt Place in Uptown, which is more of a long-term accommodation. As such, the room felt more like an apartment and had all the facilities for a long stay including cooker and food disposal unit!
After a swift check-in we headed out to see if we could find a place showing the second half of the England-Tunisia game. After a few red herrings we found one, and got there in time for a couple of beers and Harry's winner. Yay!
We then headed downtown, which was very businessy with not an awful lot to do. We stopped at a park - Klyde Warren Park - which straddles the Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
We visited the JFK memorial, one of the first log cabins built in Dallas (moved from original location) and Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture.
Dodging a sudden torrential downpour, we then headed to Dealey Plaza, which was the location of JFK's assassination on November 22nd 1963. We spent some time at the memorial, filling in the gaps in our knowledge about the event. It was quite strange standing on the grassy knoll, with the book depository over your shoulder. Having seen the famous footage of the assassination many times, it was very easy to mentally superimpose those images into the view of the street in front of you. Unbelievably, Sam had never seen the footage, so it was a little less moving for her I think!
The rain returned, and so we ducked into a shopfront for some shelter. It soon passed, and we were on our way again.
We were planning to head back to Uptown for evening food and drinks, but our Uber driver recommended the area of Deep Ellum, so we changed our plans. We were glad we did - although it was a Monday night, the area had a really cool hip and grungy vibe. A rock band, HammerFall, were playing that night, so there was plenty of activity. We later found out that the Polyphonic Spree played in Deep Ellum the previous Friday, and were consequently gutted about our poor timing!
We had a beer at Braindead Brewery, and food at Dot's Hop House & Cocktail Courtyard. I had a kind of chilli and Sam had fried chicken in a jelly and peanut butter sauce with grits. This description will certainly not do the food justice - it was delicious!
After a nightcap at the Anvil Pub, we grabbed another Uber back to our hotel and off to bed.
Glad you managed to see some of the footie, hope you are up to date on the WC, getting a bit exciting now!!
ReplyDeleteI'd totally forgotten about Dallas being the site of the assassination when I saw an entry on your blog, but of course it must have been amazing seeing such an iconic location and must have brought back memories of the Stone JFK film.
gutted you missed out on the Spree but looks like Deep Ellum was a cool place to visit.
Some great pics, especially of the JK stuff and good to see Lee taking some of the load in terms of writing blog entries!!
The Dallas trip looked very interesting and with you mentioning the JFK assassination even in my memory it came back as if it only happened a couple of years ago. Liked the photos my favourite is pic 43 with your shadowing shyluettes was cool.
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