On Tuesday afternoon the traveling horde (about half the size of the outbound group) made its way back from Cozumel to Dallas. The flight, immigration process, and drive home were all very smooth – just a slight hiccup with the minivan selection at Hertz. Everyone was quite tired and ready to relax when we hit Boulder Lake Rd.
Wednesday’s highlight was a trip to the iPIC movie theater and the luxurious lounge chairs to see Wonder Woman. I got way too comfortable and fell asleep about 30 minutes into the movie. I woke up towards the end as things got noisy and am reasonably comfortable that I still got most of the plot. The Halls loved the comfy chairs and food and drink service at your seat.
Ten pin bowling was the main activity for Thursday. I had no idea how competitive Elspeth and David were at this pastime. I think I came in third or fourth on both games but just broke 100 on each which is always my goal. Struan definitely had the most force behind his bowling ball while David seemed to rise to the challenge from Elspeth in the last couple of frames of each game.
For Mum and Dad’s last night in McKinney we treated them to dinner at Gregory’s – a local French restaurant that we’ve been visiting in various locations for several years. The new location in Adriatica (a community styled after a Croatian village and in walking distance of our home) is by far their best. Diana had the nightly special – scallops in a saffron broth with lobster and mushrooms – absolutely delicious. I had my usual sea bass on a bed of lobster risotto while Dad enjoyed the rack of lamb.
Friday started with shuttling Mum and Dad to the airport for their flights to Philadelphia and then back to Glasgow. Speaking of Philly – Struan is a huge fan of cheesesteaks. So we found the best local place – Big Tony’s Cheesesteaks and he loved his meal. Leaving lunch I thought it would be fun to show the Halls the crazy Allen high school football stadium on our way to Best Buy. The route I selected was a bit rough with a large unexpected dip that sent both McD and McHeather airborne in the way back minivan seat. After some complaints and head rubbing we were back on track again with sunglasses intact.
David loved browsing Best Buy and trying to talk us into a much larger and fancier TV for the living room. A quick stop at Total Wines to amaze the Halls with the selection and we were home again.
The evening included sushi at Wasabi in Adriatica (owned by Gregory and Lydia – so we ate in their restaurants two nights in a row) and the “Secret Agent Men” performing at Zin Zen (a local wine bar with music on the weekend). Wasabi was amazing – soft shell crab, Korean BBQ ribs, and crab Rangoon all delicious. We all enjoyed the music at Zin Zen – surf music blended with the Shadows. We missed “Apache” but did get a request in for another Hank Marvin and the Shadows tune.
A lazy afternoon by the pool on Saturday was followed by a trip to the Granada theater on Greenville Avenue to see Carolyn Wonderland perform. We started with a relaxing and somewhat healthy dinner on the patio at Sundown next door. Diana’s hair fared much better after we convinced the manager to turn off the misters (it really wasn’t that hot).
Carolyn provided her usual combination of Janis Joplinesque vocals and solid blues guitar chops. A cover of The Band’s “Don’t Do It” was as much of highlight as when we heard it first with Denny and Anne at the Kessler.
Manual labor kicked off Sunday. We needed to disassemble the beds in Diana’s office, move them back upstairs, and then move Diana’s desk back into the office. Only problem was the desk being about an inch wider than the door opening. Solved by removing the door from the hinges – much easier done with Struan and David than with Keith and Diana prior to everyone arriving. Then the Halls headed off for their trip home.
Our home already feels very spacious and quiet. We miss having family around all the time – such a nice treat for the last 2 weeks.
ayou) on Oak Street – another newly opened spot – Denny keeps his eyes and ears open for anything new popping up in his city. DTB is billed as a modern Creole Cajun restaurant and menu choices included crispy duck confit, cornmeal gnocchi, and mushroom boudin balls. Another great find by Mr. Denny.
The first of four excellent musical experiences followed dinner – we saw Reckless Kelly perform at Tipitina’s. This was a country rock band with a bit of an Irish flavor that we all enjoyed – including Timmy (a rare moment when he wasn’t complaining about our musical choices being too “esoteric”). We were able to see the newly awarded Anders Osborne plate on the pavement outside Tipitina’s in recognition of his contributions to New Orleans music.
best we had ever tasted.
nobody you really must see and have to fight in early to box out a space. We saw the Iguanas at Fais Do Dos, New Orleans Nightcrawlers (my highlight) at the Heritage stage, Herb Alpert in the Jazz tent, 10 mins or so of Widespread Panic on the Acura stage, a couple of minutes of Tower of Power on the Congo Square stage and then finished up with Darius Rucker on the Gentilly Stage (Diana’s highlight as evidenced by her happy music face).
managed to work in oysters at the paddock and trips into the CD/Vinyl tent for better champagne than was on sale at the normal booths.
There was a summer of love theme going with a VW bug and bus decorated with flowers and a flower power booth manned by “D”. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed a picnic on the lawn by White Rock lake and a nap in the sun.
excursions. This time to the Kessler to see 10,000 maniacs. We enjoyed dinner at Bolsa and then a great concert courtesy of the Wahbas. So many fun activities around downtown Dallas but a bit too long of a drive in traffic to go as often as we’d like.
Dan’s now serves food from Texas Tapas next door and we really enjoyed green curry meatballs, mushroom tacos, and truffle parmesan tater tots (which are becoming a common item on menus these days).
To recover from the exertion of the tour, we stopped into Pepper Smash for some of their delicious blistered shishito peppers, Calbrese flatbread (creamy basil puree, charred tomato jam, sausage, and arugula) and cocktails. They have some very creative drinks, including the Cotton Candy Martini – which sounds way too sweet fo
r either of us to try. We walked across the street to the Angelika movie theater and saw T2 Trainspotting. This is a very Scottish movie set in Edinburgh. The language and content are a bit harsh but certainly lighter than Danny Boyle’s original.
rinity Groves with Patty and Brent. This is a new area on the opposite side of the Margaret Hunt bridge from downtown Dallas. There is a walking path along the Trinity river levee which provides great views of downtown. We stopped into the Cake Bar where Patty picked up a slice of cake for later. It appears to very popular as 
most all of the cakes were sold out before 5pm. Kate Weiser chocolate next door had some of the most creative and colorful treats I’ve seen. The Easter eggs were especially impressive.
ncert that was the main reason for our trip. We saw the Southern Soul Assembly perform at the City Winery. This is a group of 4 singer songwriters – Anders Osborne, Marc Broussard, JJ Grey, and Luther Dickinson – who usually perform on their own but did this short acoustic tour where they each take turns singing with acoustic guitars. The music and the venue were both excellent – we appreciated the table seating with food and drink service and the sound was very precise. We had heard Anders and Marc perform separately before and both agreed that JJ Grey was the star of the show. Here are JJ Grey, Anders, and Marc – you can decide which you like best but the variety was really entertaining.
Friday started with coffee and the crossword followed by a workout on the elliptical machines. We had lunch at a restaurant called the Little Octopus near the hotel. We were disappointed they didn’t have ceviche at lunch but enjoyed the Caribbean style food very much.
had a pleasant couple of hours exploring the exhibits and learned quite a bit about the local Nashville session musicians who played on music by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Johnny Cash and a host of others.
On the walk back to the hotel we stopped for a picture of Diana with her new angel wings – do you see the guitars in the wing design? We laughed as Diana jumped in between a group of silly young girls who were taking forever to take multiple typical teenage poses in front of the wings. There was another couple waiting patiently and Diana told them, “That’s how it’s done”.
Thursday night’s routine with a trip to the rooftop bar at the hotel – quite a bit colder this time though so we sat inside. Then it was a quick Uber ride over to the Butcher and Bee restaurant – excellent Mediterranean food. The night finished with a quick visit to the Sambuca music club across from the hotel where we enjoyed a good cover band.
er in
Record factory and store. This is run by Jack White of the White Stripes band. Have you heard of them? Diana hadn’t and didn’t recognize their song “Seven Nation Army” when I played it on my phone on the walk over.
That evening we tried the Searsucker restaurant in the gas lamp district to see if it lived up to the Yelp reviews. It did for the most part with creative food, a nice casual setting and great service.
did a much better job than Captain Molly who took over the wheel just when Diana was downstairs in the head and learned quickly that large movements of the wheel cause the boat to turn very quickly and the boom to swing over. The official captain was quite entertained by the exploits.
On Saturday evening Diana and I ventured out to the gas lamp district again and found a fantastic bar/restaurant called the Whiskey House. This place had over 1,000 whiskeys from all over the world around the walls and a very impressive menu of whiskey based cocktails. The ones we sampled were perfectly made and delicious. We had a snack of scotch eggs and were wishing we had an appetite to try more from the great looking menu.
After dinner Denny consulted the extensive listing of concerts happening in New Orleans that night and we decided on Marc Stone at the Columns hotel. He was playing in the front room and at one point there were just the four of us listening to him. Denny had a good chat with Marc and didn’t forget to slip in some “Wash Dat” marketing activity. I thoroughly enjoyed his show. So much fantastic music is happening all over New Orleans every night. We headed to Dos Jefes cigar bar next to listen to a Japanese trombone player with what appeared to be a band composed of local music students – a great finish to our first night in New Orleans. We’re always amazed at how much ground we cover in a day when there.
erage Museum). Toups meatery has a restaurant inside and I loved the goat tacos that I had for lunch. There were lots of interesting exhibits on food and cocktails over the years. Next we had a coffee at “Morning Call” – a 24 hour coffee and beignet shop close to City Park and also to the restaurant where Denny had last left his credit card. Next to the coffee shop was the outdoor sculpture garden and we had a pleasant wander through it while enjoying the beautiful weather. Here’s a picture of my favorite sculpture – it seems to represent the evolution of man but I can’t remember the official name.
The boys always enjoy torturing “Miss Diana” when she comes to town. She’s in the middle of some kind of protest here. I see the boys play about once a year and am amazed at how much they progress – the team played really well.
