DAY 21 – TUESDAY 9/15/15 – AUSTIN, TX TO DALLAS, TX

September 15, 2015 Road Trip 2015  No comments

We slept in until about 8 or so and left around 9 to get breakfast tacos at Tacodeli. Apparently, breakfast tacos are a HUGE thing in Austin because Dan Ecoff highly recommended Tacodeli while my cousin Sarah was all about Torchy’s. I looked into it and there have been debates about which one is better for several years. The guys at Tacodeli (sorry, Sarah) were super friendly and helpful. We each got 2 breakfast tacos, as recommended by one of the workers, and each of us also got the taco with chorizo, migas, avocado, cheese, and eggs as recommended by a different guy. They were phenomenal! Simple creations with fresh ingredients – tough to beat. And the raspberry pineapple juice I had was really nice too.

After breakfast we drove to where Sarah worked to drop off her house key that she lent to us to lock up when we left. The receptionist called her down – super official – gave her the key, and left for the Texas State Capitol building which was 15 minutes away downtown. We arrived at 10:15 am and explored the ground and visitor’s center for a bit. We were directed to the main building for the 10:45 tour. Nancy, our tour guide, was really informative and engaging with our group because she found out we were road tripping and from NY and Miami, another couple was from South Africa, and 2 other couples were from the Netherlands. We learned all about Texas’ history, the state senate and house, the history of the building, and got to explore the Capitol building, which is the largest state capitol building in the USA. Everything’s bigger in Texas.

Next, we headed to Dallas around 11:45 am. On the way we stopped to get beef jerky and sausage at Robertson’s Jerky in Salado, Texas, which was also near Sugar Shack (a nice vegan place…just kidding, a candy store). Such a desolate town, but their jerky and candy were damn good. We got into Dallas around 3, which was an hour and a half before we were meant to meet Becky Mates (now Becky Wood) in Garland, Texas. We were also caught in some traffic when we got near the main city, so we exited to waste some time.

We landed on the Dallas Heritage Museum, which aims to preserve and present Dallas like it was way back in the day. We wanted to explore the park assuming it was free, which we found out was not the case when we spoke to the women working at reception. We charmed them, as always, and asked to use the bathroom. The younger woman had no problem and deferred to the older woman to make sure it was OK. We were able to circumvent the $9 regular admission, which then turned into $5 when we said we had student IDs, by donating $1 each to the museum as our tribute to the park and permission to use the restroom. That allowed us to walk around the entire site and use the restroom, which took about 10 minutes because it was super tiny. Team Handsome FTW!

After the museum we headed to where Becky lived, stopping first in Plano, Texas to get a much needed car wash. We arrived at Becky’s house in Garland at 4:30, where she greeted us with her adorable baby girl, Charlotte. We also met her husband, Hunter, when we walked in. Her house and neighborhood is really nice and suburb-y, despite having an issue with their water pipes that day. It was so good to see Becky and meet her baby. Becky’s a phenomenal mom and enjoying her married life and job as an English department chair at a middle school. We hadn’t seen her since 2011 when she last worked at Wekeela, so it was great to catch up.

We spent about an hour and a half before we left to go to my aunt and uncle’s house in main Dallas. I had never been to Texas, so this visit was LONG overdue for me to visit the Dallas branch of the Haskels. We arrive around 6:15 where we were greeted by my cousin, Michael, who I expected to be at college in Philly but found out he was home for the week the day before. We parked, got our stuff, and went to their nice, new townhouse right across from the farmer’s market. My uncle Peter greeted us along with my other cousin, Alex. I had seen Alex a few weeks before in New York with my Aunt Lynn, but I hadn’t seen my uncle since my Bar Mitzvah in 2003. We didn’t spend much time there before heading to dinner.

My family gave us a driving tour of Dallas before heading to the restaurant. We passed the grassy knoll where JFK was shot, the giant eye ball, red Pegasus, Dallas court house (where my uncle works), Alex’s school, and a few other key buildings. Dinner was at Baker’s Ribs BBQ. I got brisket, pulled pork, mac and cheese, and potato salad. Alex got 51 meats and 37 sides, or something like that for huge people (btw – I assume Alex never reads any of these, so I’m going to start saying some random things about him to see if he ever finds out for himself). Food was delicious! My aunt Anne (my uncle’s and dad’s sister) met us there when she got back from Fort Worth. What a nice family reunion!

After dinner my cousins, Alex, and I walked around Deep Ellum, the neighborhood adjacent to the restaurant and where a lot of bars and comedy clubs and music venues are. We also went to a really fun candy store – ABBA ZABBA YOU MY ONLY FRIEND!! We then walked back to their house and relaxed for the rest of the night. We both did laundry, planned some more of our road trip, went up to their roof to check out the Dallas skyline at night, watched some TV, and went to bed around midnight.

 

[huge_it_gallery id=”32″]

Leave a reply