Gosh, I sure hated to start out the new year so tired! 2 solid weeks of overnight company, plus extras, just really wore me out! I think I'm finally starting to feel like joining the land of the living again.
DH and I drove to Dallas last week to attend the Dallas Safari Club Convention and lose ourselves in all things hunting. This was our Christmas present to each other although in order to get rooms, you have to make reservations in February for the following January.
Dallas traffic. A trip to Dallas is not complete until I have commented on it so I posted this to some friends:
Made it to Dallas by the skin of our teeth and God's grace. All I can say is it was not pretty and I have aged 20 years in an hour. Lord have mercy! How do people live here?!
It was awful! I was gripping the door handle with a death lock and my hands were sweating profusely. I would arrive to work in tears every single day if I had to fight that.
Thankfully, we were able to wipe the stressful arrival from our minds by exploring over 1700 booths. We walked from 9 - 5:30 solid for two days. One of the safari guides we visited with said that he can stalk elephant for 20 hours a day with no problem, but standing on concrete convention hall floors just kills his back. We can relate. We didn't even stop to eat dinner so I think I got my walking in. :)
How fun would this be if you had a passel of grand kids to haul them around the ranch? LOL
Our accommodations were attached to the hotel so we only had to walk through an enclosed skywalk in order to reach our room and dining options which made everything very convenient. We ate twice at one of their restaurants called Texas Spice and it was very good although I couldn't quite get over paying $4 for 2 scrambled eggs. That's it. 2 scrambled eggs. $4. The menu pointed out repeatedly that they were 'cage free' eggs. Heck! I could make a fortune selling my chicken eggs! Somehow I think people here would laugh at me if I tried. I'm still shaking my head at $4 eggs.
On Friday night we were invited to the auction and dinner.
Dress was described as cocktail attire. *Snort* My closet is sadly lacking in cocktail attire, but they let me in anyway. :) Last year I did buy a very nice Alpaca sweater vest that goes to my knees when we were in Vegas and that, along with black britches and a black shirt and boots and some turquoise jewelry, is my "country mouse goes to the city and is invited to a fancy dinner" attire. I have worn it twice now. :)
This was the menu:
I didn't take a picture of the food because I sensed that would be terribly uncouth, but if it weren't for the menu, neither DH nor I would have had a clue what we were eating when the first course arrived. I will just say that it was an adventurous culinary experience. It wasn't bad, just different and it's good for us to climb out from under our rock and experience something new once in a blue moon.
It's a 7 hour drive back and it was a long one. When we left Dallas, we were tired of walking and when we arrived home, we were tired of sitting. :) And then DH and I went for a head clearing 6 mile walk this morning.
It was such a good weekend. We reconnected with old friends we hadn't seen in over a decade, and visited with new friends, and talked more than we do in a month. Can I just say that I am a sucker for accents? All I wanted to do was listen to people from Zimbabwe and South Africa talk.
Our girl is about to go back to begin her Spring semester, but she was still home and stayed to tend to the ranch and make the feed runs while we were away. A few games of cribbage are on the roster and we've got a night of UFC fights tonight...if we can keep our eyes open. I think that a nap is in order!