I went to Texas Y'all

Yes, I went to Texas for about a week to visit my sister and die in the heat. No, I'm not kidding, well I didn't die, but the heat was more then I usually can stand, I mean you can barely stay outside for a few minutes and would melt.

My flight to Texas was long two stops before I got to my final destination, but at least there was not plane change, that helped since the first departure was delayed due to a lane being closed at the airport. Long flight, and some what exhausting day but I got there in one piece, and a little hungry.

have to tell you now, I almost thought about bringing a sweatshirt, almost, and I was glad I didn't since I really didn't need it. I arrived in jeans the first day, and glad that I packed shorts. The next morning when we were headed out, I walk outside the door and the first words that come out of my mouth are "oh, its hot", I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and we had just walked out of a house with air conditioning, so yeah it was hot.

We did a little sight seeing that day the newly built bridge that is pictured above, the big fancy basketball Stadium, Fair Park Staduim, I got a nice view of Downtown Dallas, we saw the JFK memorial in downtown.

I also got a nice view of this ferris wheel, it says Texas Star if you can't see it completely. If I remember correctly it was the biggest ferris wheel built in the world or US, but I guess now there is something bigger somewhere. That was Sundays adventures, driving around doing a little sight seeing, and buying cupcakes that were a little dry. Oh well, we still ate them.

Monday it was just Tanya and I. We went to the Dallas World Aquarium. They had all sorts of animals, it wasn't just fish, sharks, and other underwater animals that you might expect at an Aquarium. There was a giant anteater, a couple types of toucans, a golden-headed manakin, red-handed tamarin, there were lizards and frogs, vampire bats, and flamingos.

There was also the Three-toed sloth which wasn't fenced off, caged up or covered in glass, but there was a sign that said do not touch the sloth. He was awesome, and so cute. We had to come back because the first time he was sleeping, when we came back I got a nice picture and one with him. He was eating too.

There was penguins, we kind of had to circle around once since the penguins were one one side and the flamingos, fish and toads were in a different direction. This penguin in particular reminds me of one of the penguins from the movie, Mr. Poppers Penguins, am I right, or am I right?

There was a cenote with all sorts of sharks in it. There was an eagle ray, a bonnethead shark, the brown shark, and the sawfish which was just chilling on top of the glass. It was funny, Tanya and I were trying to figure out what it was exactly and didn't think it would be that simple, of course of a sword fish has a head like a sword, why wouldn't a sawfish have a head like a saw.
There was a main aquarium part, where they sectioned off and had different little aquariums from different places around the world, there was Fiji, New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Japan, and Southern Australia. Yay! Jellyfish.

The aquarium was a lot of fun! Lots to see, and lots more to see.

I the part I love the most was when I was texting my mom, told her we were at the Aquarium, and she mentioned seeing otters, I said yes, and monkeys. Her reply was classic, "What did they give you? Monkeys do not live in an aquarium. the heat must be getting to you." No mom, there were really monkeys there, I'm not delusional.

The next few days were shopping days. The first mall we went to was well, big. I don't know how else to describe it but big. We were walking through, and saw the above. There were ducks and turtles in the pond, and while both Tanya and I thought they were fake statues, suddenly one of the ducks moved. Nope, they are not fake but real ducks and turtles living inside this mall. That was a little crazy for both of us.

The next day we went to the Allen Outlets. It was a decent drive, and along the way was the High Five Interchange. It is five levels of roadway all stacked on top of each other. Can you see all five? It was hard to get a picture of it all while in a moving vehicle, when I wasn't sure what I was looking at at first. We did a little more shopping at the outlets this time, walked just about the whole thing trying to stay in the shade and walk into a store every so often to cool off a little bit. I wasn't kidding when I said it was hot, and all those stores are air conditioned for a reason.

The next day was even more shopping. We went to yet another mall. Yes, there are lots of places to shop in Dallas, at least based on what we did during the week. Although the big to-do was the fact that I hadn't eaten Chick-Fil-A yet and it was already Thursday. Its one of those places that is amazingly popular in Texas and a few other states and not really heard of in California. Unlike most fast food places, Chick-fil-A serves, surprise, mostly chicken. We only had the Chick-fil-A nuggets, and the Waffle Potato Fries, with the Chick-Fil-A sauce, which I have to say was delicious. We would have gotten a chicken sandwich, but it was getting a little late, and its a little easier to move with finger food then with a whole sandwich. Mmmm Chick-Fil-A.

Friday was a relaxing sort of day. We were just a little shopped out, and there were a few other things that we could have done, although going to the arboretum was a little to hot to be walking around, so that was out of the question. We did a little driving around, went and got a Sundae, that was more like a soda, of well it was still nice and refreshing.

Then we went to look at the big houses, but for real, they are Huge. Swiss Avenue is just a few blocks of houses that just take over a lot of space, have extra rooms, and little houses in the back for I guess guests or visitors or something. I don't know they were just big houses.

Later at night we went and found more big houses, I think they were even bigger. I mean, there was a good like five hours difference in looking at the houses, but I do believe the ones we saw later in the day were bigger, took up more space, and were HUGE.

Saturday was my last full day in Texas. We had a plan to go to Fort Worth, since this time Ashton (Tanya's boyfriend) could come with us and knew of a few places to go in Fort Worth. Tanya wasn't much help. The first place we stopped at was the Fort Worth Water Gardens which had a few different cool places. There was the quiet pool, the aerated pool and the active pool. The thing about the active pool was that you really had to watch your step, some what slippery, and only one way up/down so you might be sharing steps with someone.

Then we headed to the Fort Worth Stockyards, which is like a real "fake" western experience. There were people dresses as cowboys, riding around on horses. There was shops and places to eat, and little fun things to do, like mechanical bull riding, and a carriage ride. We stopped and waited for the running of the bulls, but they weren't really running, it was still fun to watch though.

After that we went to get the Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich since I couldn't leave without having that experience. Everyone enjoyed the food, and a nice cold drink to go with it. I had the chick-fil-A spicy sandwich, which was spicy and delicious.

The flight home wasn't as long or as bad as the flight there since well, there weren't multiple stops in between, I also didn't land in 100 degrees heat with humidity, although it was hotter then it was when I left California. It was a nice and fun trip, but I am glad to be home where it doesn't quite get so hot and you can actually stand being outside for more then 5 minutes.