(please excuse any formatting errors as I post this day from my phone in a meeting - yes I'm listening too - so I will have a chance later to pull it up on my computer and correct any errors)
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I inadvertently forgot to mention that at the end of day six when we checked in to our hotel....
THEY HAD NO RESERVATION FOR US!!!
Let's just say it is NOT my cup of tea! I love my dear husband and I love my dear husband with a gotee - HOWEVER I cannot keep a straight face when I look at him or go to kiss him! Lol I continually bust up laughing! I don't know what it is or maybe WHO it is! He just looked soooo different! I'm sure there are some men out there who look strikingly handsome with a similar stache, just not used to it on my Prince Charming! By the way, I wonder what that style of stache is called?
The next morning I was THRILLED to be able to have some work out equipment to get the endorphins pumping in my body! It had been way too long away from my elliptical! So I awoke before all and joined the strangers also trying to break a sweat and planned our sight seeing while ellipticaling (not a word till now) away! Our day would include a trip to the Dallas Reunion Tower, then by the Forth Worth JFK Memorial and onto the Forth Worth Stockyards. Yes, Stockyards cause this is Dallas Y'ALL!!! :D I've so wanted to use that word, thanks for indulging me!
Okay here's the one she corrected for the Mr... ah much better! But I don't know, the first one was pretty funny! Lol
Grandma survived the heights - barely! And we headed back to the motor home and on our way stopped by the Dallas JFK Memorial... all in 150 degree weather.
We ate a quick bite to eat in the motor home (love that feature)!
Then we drove towards the Forth Worth Stockyards. That was a warm and fun time!
On the way home, we decided we better feed the masses or we'd have a mutiny on our hands. We knew from the time we entered Texas that we didn't want to eat at any place we had back at home. So the suggestion of Cheesecake Factory came up. We googled it, found a location and off we went to direct the tin can in that direction. It was on the outside of a mall, like many of them are. We parked in the back 40 like normal, hauled everyone out for the 5 mile jaunt up to the restaurant. I went in to put our name in and ask what the wait was (I should have known considering 3/4ths of Texas was waiting outside). The host took my name and then I asked what he estimated the wait to be, that must be a strange question for this part of the country because his response was... "please wait over here and the manager can help you with that." SERIOUSLY? I didn't ask for a table in the NE corner of the restaurant at a height of approximately 33.78" for 46.3 people only to be served Tuna from the Arabian Sea that was freshly caught yesterday! Talk to the manager? He gallivanted around the restaurant looking busy in his pink shirt and tie while I waited for him with my supposedly odd question. He finally comes up to assist us and says it's going to be 1 hr and 15 min to 1 hr 30 min for the 8 of us. SHEESH! That was a difficult answer! Thanks for going to all that work to let us know that {again... insert heavy sarcasm}. Sarah asks if we sit on the patio would that be quicker!?! The pink shirt and tie manager says, "Oh I might have something on the patio. Let me go check." Well that would be just fabulous if that was the case but somehow I can't believe that the 3/4th of Texas standing around waiting for tables and NONE of them wanted to sit on the patio. lol However, he gave us hope with his answer. Again, we wait on pins and needles for his much anticipated return. He comes back to say, "Ya, the patio is going to be 45 min - 1 hr also." Hmmm....... that's a big difference from his original answer about the patio. But oh well, after this arduous process I guess we are going to have to politely decline your kind offer Mr Manager. lol Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Cheesecake Factory is a thriving money-making enterprise, that's fabulous! But you might want to work on your operational procedures for checking in guests, that's all! :)
We ended up at Chik-fil-a in the mall, which was fabulous since we've never been to one and that was definitely on our short list of wanting to try while we are in this area! It was delicious and 1/2 of us became addicted to their Polynesian Sauce. I think Reed would have drank it, if we'd have let him! lol
Tired soles that we were, we crawled back to the motor home and our handsome chauffeur kindly got us back to our cozy hotel!
Phew... what a wonderfully fun filled tiring-with-a-grin kind of day! :)
Thanks for comin' along.... see you tomorrow!
Let me remind you of the circumstances... we have just driven for 12 hours (with stops), ate dinner with Sarah and now finally found our hotel AFTER Siri led us astray! So needless to say, we were all ready for bed times 10!!! Okay, now back to the reservation... I had made these reservations back in February! What was the dealio!?! Seriously is this a joke? Can we not just have one smooth day go according to plan? Lol I feel like we are on a show called... "How many hurdles can you jump through?" The very nice manager figured out that our reservations didn't begin until the NEXT night! Uggghhhh!!!! We must have changed our travel itinerary after I made the reservations and never called to change the hotel reservations. LOVELY! So like I said, the manager was a very nice man who was trying to do his best for this tired and weary mama who could've kicked herself right about now! Lol We finally settled on 2 rooms that were not connecting but right next door to each other and then we'd have to switch to our real rooms the next night when our reservation was supposed to begin! Not my ideal solution, I mean moving luggage for 7 people who kind of threw everything in bags after living in a motor home for a week, is not a fun job but at this point we were all just happy to have beds to curl up in and close our eyes!
For the first time in four days, my husband also decided to take a shower! Maybe that's more than you wanted to know - sorry. So a little background info.... we have a no-facial-hair policy at our stores so although my husband sported a gote for our wedding, it doesn't happen anymore now because of our policy. Therefore, when we go on vacation for more than a few days, he usually has the opportunity to shave a gotee again. Thus.... when he was showering and shaving for the first time in four days, he had some facial hair growth to shave into a gotee. He comes out of the bathroom and shows me his gottee, except we have one problem.... it's NOT a goatee!!!! No, he thought, while in Texas, be Texan...
For the first time in four days, my husband also decided to take a shower! Maybe that's more than you wanted to know - sorry. So a little background info.... we have a no-facial-hair policy at our stores so although my husband sported a gote for our wedding, it doesn't happen anymore now because of our policy. Therefore, when we go on vacation for more than a few days, he usually has the opportunity to shave a gotee again. Thus.... when he was showering and shaving for the first time in four days, he had some facial hair growth to shave into a gotee. He comes out of the bathroom and shows me his gottee, except we have one problem.... it's NOT a goatee!!!! No, he thought, while in Texas, be Texan...
Let's just say it is NOT my cup of tea! I love my dear husband and I love my dear husband with a gotee - HOWEVER I cannot keep a straight face when I look at him or go to kiss him! Lol I continually bust up laughing! I don't know what it is or maybe WHO it is! He just looked soooo different! I'm sure there are some men out there who look strikingly handsome with a similar stache, just not used to it on my Prince Charming! By the way, I wonder what that style of stache is called?The next morning I was THRILLED to be able to have some work out equipment to get the endorphins pumping in my body! It had been way too long away from my elliptical! So I awoke before all and joined the strangers also trying to break a sweat and planned our sight seeing while ellipticaling (not a word till now) away! Our day would include a trip to the Dallas Reunion Tower, then by the Forth Worth JFK Memorial and onto the Forth Worth Stockyards. Yes, Stockyards cause this is Dallas Y'ALL!!! :D I've so wanted to use that word, thanks for indulging me!
Oh.... listen to this! So glory hallelujah there is a Starbucks right next to our hotel, well down the street just a bit! Yaaaa!!!!! So excited!
Saturday morning we finally got our act together and headed towards Reunion Tower after our priority #1 stop. However, the priority #1 stop was like a time machine back to WY! :( I promise not to write a book this time but let's just say that even though we were talking and chatting with Sarah (so clearly pre-occupied) it still took us the LONGEST I have ever seen to receive our drinks! The poorly managed and trained staff behind the counter didn't know who was on first or the right hand didnt know what the left hand was doing. There was a very nice lady running the register but only one person making drinks for the drive-thru AND inside! I think everyone else was just running around like a chicken with their head cut off. Lol The drinks were made satisfactorily, one mocha we ordered had no whip, but other than that our drinks weren't too complicated.
However, the visit did have a bright side...
OPERATION DALLAS MUG... success!
On the road again towards Reunion Tower (basically like Sears Tower or Seattle Space Needle). After you pay and enter the line for the elevator, there is, of course, the normal 'we'll take your photo and charge you $500 if you'd like to buy it at the end of the tour.' So we pasted on our perms grins and stood in front of the green screen and got all 8 of us to stand model perfect for the million dollar photo.
We then took a grand elevator ride up 470 feet into the air with Grandma covering her eyes and standing as far away from the windows as possible. Yep - you guessed it - Grandma is NOT a fan of heights! Lol But she was such a trooper just to go up with us. :) We saw our photo up top on a monitor and here's how it turned out...
Okay here's the one she corrected for the Mr... ah much better! But I don't know, the first one was pretty funny! Lol
This place was pretty cool on the photo end of things. You could choose to buy the cool, super spectacular, impressive, once-in-a-lifetime, awesome printed photo for a million dollars OR you could email the photos to yourself for FREEEEEEE! :)
I don't think I've explained previously that Sarah started helping us with the kids back in 2008 (?) when there were only TWO kids! Lol Then she had an incredible opportunity to go back to school here in Texas. Needless to say she is near and dear to our hearts in so many ways! ❤️ So when the Mr and I chatted about making this trip, his first comment was... "only if Sarah is available!" And we have enjoyed every second she's gotten to spend with us despite approaching her finals!
Grandma survived the heights - barely! And we headed back to the motor home and on our way stopped by the Dallas JFK Memorial... all in 150 degree weather.
We ate a quick bite to eat in the motor home (love that feature)!
And sometimes you just can't stand being buckled into your car seat one more time! Lol Oh poor sweet girl...
After driving a 31' motor home through downtown Dallas and finding a superb parking spot for the tin can, our chauffeur so graciously plugged TWO parking meters for us (where each quarter only got us 10 MINUTES for each meter!!!). Lol :)
Then we drove towards the Forth Worth Stockyards. That was a warm and fun time!
Above is just plain wrong! I think you know what I mean... just plain wrong!!! lol
On the way home, we decided we better feed the masses or we'd have a mutiny on our hands. We knew from the time we entered Texas that we didn't want to eat at any place we had back at home. So the suggestion of Cheesecake Factory came up. We googled it, found a location and off we went to direct the tin can in that direction. It was on the outside of a mall, like many of them are. We parked in the back 40 like normal, hauled everyone out for the 5 mile jaunt up to the restaurant. I went in to put our name in and ask what the wait was (I should have known considering 3/4ths of Texas was waiting outside). The host took my name and then I asked what he estimated the wait to be, that must be a strange question for this part of the country because his response was... "please wait over here and the manager can help you with that." SERIOUSLY? I didn't ask for a table in the NE corner of the restaurant at a height of approximately 33.78" for 46.3 people only to be served Tuna from the Arabian Sea that was freshly caught yesterday! Talk to the manager? He gallivanted around the restaurant looking busy in his pink shirt and tie while I waited for him with my supposedly odd question. He finally comes up to assist us and says it's going to be 1 hr and 15 min to 1 hr 30 min for the 8 of us. SHEESH! That was a difficult answer! Thanks for going to all that work to let us know that {again... insert heavy sarcasm}. Sarah asks if we sit on the patio would that be quicker!?! The pink shirt and tie manager says, "Oh I might have something on the patio. Let me go check." Well that would be just fabulous if that was the case but somehow I can't believe that the 3/4th of Texas standing around waiting for tables and NONE of them wanted to sit on the patio. lol However, he gave us hope with his answer. Again, we wait on pins and needles for his much anticipated return. He comes back to say, "Ya, the patio is going to be 45 min - 1 hr also." Hmmm....... that's a big difference from his original answer about the patio. But oh well, after this arduous process I guess we are going to have to politely decline your kind offer Mr Manager. lol Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Cheesecake Factory is a thriving money-making enterprise, that's fabulous! But you might want to work on your operational procedures for checking in guests, that's all! :)
Tired soles that we were, we crawled back to the motor home and our handsome chauffeur kindly got us back to our cozy hotel!
Phew... what a wonderfully fun filled tiring-with-a-grin kind of day! :)
Thanks for comin' along.... see you tomorrow!
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