Lone Star State Of Mind

I know I have written many times I don't want my blog to just be a travel log. I want it to be a place where I can write funny rants, espouse my philosophies, and cryptically (and not so cryptically) discuss my life. And yet it seems that recently it has been a lot of me recounting the trips I have been on. In order to remember the things I do for posterity, I need to make a record of it. I don't know if people like these posts, but I kind of like writing them.

Ever since my sister Jennifer moved to Dallas I have gained quite an appreciation for her newly adopted home. With the exception of the ocean it has just about everything you need. Granted I have not been there in August but the times I have been there I have enjoyed tremendously. I hadn't seen my sister or her kids in much too long, this coupled with a BYU football game made a trip to the the "Big D" a no brainer. The original plan was to have a big pilgrimage to see the game but when the season went south it seemed like enthusiasm for the trip went down the tubes for most. 


Our first stop was a Costa Vida, which is a lot like Cafe Rio. It was of course delicious and also notable because it is located in the hometown of  regular Pete Chat reader and occasional photographic contributor Heather Hickson. We refer to her a Hickson Texas Ranger. I snapped this picture and sent it to her to prove that I was in fact in her hometown.

It isn't the most interesting subject for a photograph but it is indeed Coleyville. I didn't get a chance to stop by her house but I am confident I would have been welcomed with open arms. I went with my sister to get Gelatto with the kids and hung out for the rest of the evening, since it was a school night for Savannah and Kate,  we didn't stay up too late.

Will and I

Friday I worked in the morning and then had an important lunch with Savannah at her school. Lakewood Elementary runs a tight ship. I met all of Savannah's friends. I asked Savannah what she liked to do at recess. Without hesitation, she told me "Chase the boys." I then proceeded to spend the rest of the lunch hours watch the first grade boys chase the first grade girls and vice versa. The boys really liked my Chewbacca T-Shirt.

 Besides the BYU game I was excited to visit the Texas State Fair. As LA County Milk Drinking Champion I have a discerning taste when it comes to fairs. The Utah Fair is kind of meh, the county fair I went to in Maryland was fun, but the Texas State Fair is huge. How many fairs have a football stadium on the grounds. Texas does, the Cotton bowl. When you walk into the fair you are greeted by "Big Tex" a large animotronic cowboy. Thanks to Dr. Pepper we got in for just five dollars. The fair is a little overwhelming and I feel like you could go there many many times before you saw everything.

Jeff and Corrine and their sweet baby Holden came along for the fair. It was a blast. The only thing I wanted to do was eat a lot of junk food. I succeeded spectacularly with a Corny Dog, Fried Twinkie, Fried Cheesecake, some of Joe's fried Potato thingy, root beer and Chocolate milk. I was so stuffed when I was done.

I enjoy this picture because so much is going on. Eating a fried cheesecake, taking a phone call, wearing  a Chewbacca t-shirt, standing in front of the Cotton Bowl. BYU beat KSU here on 1-1-1997.

One of the the highlights of the fair was the petting zoo. This was no ordinary petty zoo with some un interested goats, no they pigs, longhorns, zebras, bison, yaks, giraffe, and most terrifying of all the Ostrich. I am so thankful we don;;t have dinosaurs running around because the ostrich is bad enough. It looks at you with it's cold dead eyes, and and goes full force after the feed. I can not press upon you enough how terrifying these beasts are. I think I would rather meet a tiger in the wild than an ostrich. Jeff recorded my interaction with the avian beast.

Tall, thin, handsome. Also there was a giraffe.

On Saturday the whole gang got together for breakfast at Kuby's. They serve traditional German food and I had one of the most delicious breakfasts in sometime. Apparently the owner of Kuby's was a German butcher who is LDS and emigrated to the US. I decided that I needed to take a picture of the German guy on the menu. 

My sister Jennifer often has her hands full, literally and figuratively. She and Marc are parents to three cute and enthusiastic kids. Getting them to mind can be a challenge but she takes it in stride. Besides mothering the kids and running the household she is a newly minted Daisy Girl Scout leader, and spent what unscheduled time she had over the weekend planning here first meeting.

Saturday afternoon meant the main event. The BYU TCU game. What I did see of the TCU campus was very nice. I'm not sure if they serve alcohol at the stadium but I did not see any Cougars knocking back cold ones. We had totally boss seats right on the front row at the goal line. Unfortunately the Cougs didn't do anything on our end of the field (they didn't do much on the other side either.) As is custom when you travel to a BYU game you run into a familiar face or two. I saw that Amy had made the pilgrimage as well as Jocelyn and Zack. Despite the wholesomeness that made up our end of the stadium it was not to be. The Cougars were hanging until the the last 1:40 of the first half, then the the wheel's utterly and complete came off.

Joe who took this picture, along with my sister Jennifer and my brother in law Marc all had on this year's BYU shirt. I think some of the lack of success that the Cougars are having this year can be attributed to the fact that all of "THE QUEST" shirts have not been destroyed. I think the sensible thing to do would to burn all of them. It's just a thought.

 I was so excited to spend time with my nieces and nephew. They were all generally glad to see me. Kate looks so much like my sister. She loves to dance, is a bit of an environmentalist and is just a delight.

On Saturday the whole family went to Savannah's soccer game. The level of play of first grade girls was not all that different from the World Cup earlier this year. There was however less histrionics and flopping in the first graders game. I alos enjoyed the fact that one of the teams on the field but not playing at the time was called "The Situation". Savannah's team is called the Sparkle-ettes. Not to be confused with Sparkletts

Like his Uncle Peter, my nephew Will is a big fan of Mad Men. Even though Will is just 16 months even he couldn't believe what Don Draper did in the season finale. 

After church on Sunday, Joe and I headed to the Sixth Floor Museum. If you know your Dallas history, you are aware that Dallas is the place that JFK was assassinated. The book depository is now a museum and one is able to see where Oswald took the shot. I know there are a lot of conspiracy theories out there, but it seemed pretty clear to me that Oswald was the shooter.

Here's Joe on the Grassy Knoll.

On Monday I worked, went to lunch with my sister and the Watkins' and spent the afternoon with my nephew which was harder than I thought it would be. He was great the first hour and a half but when it was time to put him down for his nap, he would have none of it. I just couldn't listen to him cry so I walked around and held him and that was good enough until his mom got home.

Before I knew it, Tuesday had come and I was on my way back to DC. I would say I am once again committed to considering Texas for graduate school.