Waking up our first morning we were ready to hit the city. Today we would be exploring Fort Worth. I had lived in the county that Fort Worth was located in for a few years growing up but never had actually seen the city so I was pretty excited for the day. Julie – per the usual was excited for the day as well. The drive from our campground in Arlington didn’t take too long and before we knew it we were heading into downtown. We found parking and started to explore. The day started in Sundance Square located in the heart of the city. It was pretty neat with music playing; fountains flowing and a mural depicting a cattle drive on the side of the building. We were immediately impressed. We explored a little more around central Fort Worth before heading down the main artery towards the convention center. It was here; almost in front of the convention center was where John F. Kennedy made his last speech before heading over towards Dallas. This was pretty neat to see as there were pictures and quotes from JFK’s short time in Fort Worth as well as a few quotes from his last speech. There were a few people there with us and they seemed as moved as we were. After lunch at a downtown BBQ Joint (BBQ spreadsheet coming soon!) it was time to visit the famous Fort Worth Stockyards. The stockyards were once where over 1 million cattle, sheep and hogs were bought, sold and slaughtered. Today it is a big tourist attraction where people come to see how Fort Worth got its “Cow Town” name.
The Stockyards were much bigger than either of us had imagined. They were huge and crawling with people. We wandered past your normal touristy stores with tee shirts, post cards and cheap gifts before making our way into the heart of the complex. Here they had an actual rodeo going on as well as small-motorized cows that kids could ride. We wandered past this to Billy Bob’s Texas, which bills itself as the “Largest Honkey Tonk” in the world. A Honkey Tonk is a country style bar or saloon with a stage (or in this case stages) where country singers perform. After paying a small entrance fee we were in. As it was pretty early in the afternoon not much was going on but the place was sure huge. There were at least 6 bars, a BBQ restaurant, 2 music stages and even its own small actual bull riding ring in the building. It was pretty insane. Julie and I each had a Lone Star beer while we walked around and checked the place out. From Billy Bob’s we headed to the West Magnolia section of town and found a small brewpub to relax at. What a fun day!
The next morning we woke up ready to explore the other side of the Metroplex. It was our Dallas day. As we were staying in Arlington and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium (or AT&T Stadium) was on the way we decided to stop by first. As the saying goes “Everything is bigger in Texas”. This stadium went along with that saying to the T. It is huge. As we had in Green Bay we stopped in the front of the stadium, took a few pictures (in our Buffalo Bills hats of course) then parked and went into the team store. The team store as you would expect was huge as well. We walked around it for a while searching for a postcard before finally finding one all the way in the back. After our purchase we jumped in Bubbles and headed to Dallas.
First stop for the day in Dallas was the JFK memorial. After exploring Dealey Plaza we walked over to the Grassy Knoll where a large memorial was set up. This was one of the places that while it is very famous in terms of American history its also a place where an assassination happened. It was one of the places, which makes you contemplate good and evil in the world, which transformed a normal street into a memorial that will be there forever.
From Dealey Plaza we made our way over to the American Airlines arena. We were lucky in our timing in visiting Dallas as the NCAA Basketball tournament was going on and Dallas just happened to be one of the host cities. While we did not have tickets we took a few pictures with big blown up NCAA logos and had a good time watching as fans of multiple teams came into the arena. From the arena we walked to the Uptown neighborhood and found a great little sushi place for lunch. As the neighborhood was mainly made up of restaurants and bars (many of which didn’t open till the evening) we didn’t stick around for too long. From the Uptown neighborhood we made our way back downtown then to the Deep Ellum neighborhood. Julie and I both loved this area of Dallas. It is one of the cities oldest neighborhoods getting its start in the late 1800’s. Most of the buildings were historic with bars, restaurants and shops tucked into almost every one. Here we stopped for a beer then checked out some of the funky shops that the neighborhood had to offer. One shop owner even let us play his collection of vintage pinball machines for free! From Deep Ellum we made our way back to Bubbles and back to our campground for the night.
Waking up to our third morning in the Metroplex, it was time to go explore some of the area’s suburbs. Growing up I had spent 2 years in the Fort Worth suburb of Southlake. As such Julie wanted to see where a younger Bryan had lived. We packed up Bubbles and we were off. Southlake was only about half an hour from the campground in Arlington. When we got there I was shocked to see how much the town had grown. Back in 95-97 there had been a few neighborhoods that were for the most part surrounded by farmland. This farmland was now gone, replaced by more neighborhoods and business districts. The town was almost unrecognizable to me. Thankfully other than the trees and bushes being bigger, my old house had stayed the same. It was fun being back at an old residence. Thinking of the memories of piloting my remote control boat in the pond behind the house and seeing the driveway where I played 1000 games of hockey. Julie also liked to finally see the place that I had talked about for the past 6 years of our relationship.
From Southlake we drove a little north to the suburb of Grapevine. We had lunch in a park overlooking Grapevine Lake while plane spotting planes as they came in for a landing at DFW airport. Most of the rest of the day was spent hanging out enjoying each other’s company as we relaxed in the park. It was the perfect ending to our 3 days in the Metroplex of Dallas & Fort Worth.
Next up….We venture outside of Texas and head to Oklahoma City!
