Having traveled enough we have learned a few tricks to get steals on flights. Grant’s favorite trick is to use Skiplagged- an app that looks at layovers rather than final destinations to see if there may be a discounted rate. A trip from San Diego to Dallas direct was $200, however, a trip from San Diego to Dallas to Denver was only $100. We grabbed the cheaper one and we’re off to Dallas to celebrate Grant’s 35th birthday. This is not our usual birthday celebration for him, but since Vegas or Palm Springs is out— this works! Plus, I have been told that we are doing a mid-year birthday celebration to make up for missed time celebrating with friends. Everyone save the date in July!
Grant made it out on Friday, while I decided to come in on Saturday. He wanted to go to Carrabba's and see a show that I had no interest in. When I got in on Saturday we high-tailed it to Six Flags Over Texas. Prices were dirt cheap to get in, but be sure to bring your own water bottle as it’s $5 per bottle there since you are trapped. The park was empty and made the experience quite magical. When you’re passing line queue after line queue and walk directly on a ride you know would typically have at least an hour wait— you know you are having a rare moment at an amusement park.
There must have been 15 rides that we rode within a matter of two and a half hours. Any ride that we wanted to go on we did and didn’t think twice about it. The one downside is that going on one ride after an hour is fine as a kid, but that whiplash takes a toll on us old 33 and 35-year-olds. By the last ride, I had a good headache and my stomach was rumbling for some Texas BBQ.
We did a search of the best BBQ in Dallas and Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum kept coming up as the place to go to. A quick car ride later and we were in the heart of this area walking around like tourists. I ordered way too much food, which should not come as a shock to anyone and we chowed down on the grub. It was good, not great. We think the food would have been better if it was not under a heat lamp so long. Without the crowd to keep things fresh, the product sits and dries out a bit. Plus the presentation of the sausage made it look like someone had pooped on our plate, which isn’t appetizing to us.
With our bodies full and a bit beat up from the rides— the hotel room was calling. We laid around and watched TV for a bit. Out of nowhere, the phone rang and there was a delivery for us waiting. Our lovely, sweet, caring...you get the point..friend Wendy (aka Love Cousin) had ordered chocolate chip cookies and vanilla blue bell ice cream for Grant. Such a sweet and thoughtful gesture that was instantly inhaled by the two of us. We always say it’s better to have quality friends over quantity and she proves that point and then some.
Our empty tanks were replaced with sugar and that gave us the energy for a fun evening. As a running joke, I always tell Grant during the two months between our birthdays that he is a cougar. He is technically two years older than I am during this time. This for some reason resonated when he looked for our evening entertainment and he procured us tickets to Cougar Drag.
Mind you, I had no idea that he bought these tickets and he was excited. Drag can be fun if it’s campy and comedic — it can also be fun if it’s really bad. This show was hysterical and not because of the comedy. This was a “senior drag show” and the performers were all over the age of 40+. It also means that none of them could move like they use to and stood in place shimmying rather than moving around. The host had to sit down on a stool or one of the couches because she kept getting winded. After we ran out of tip money we had to coordinate our departure as the host kept sitting next to Grant as she was exhausted.
After a coordinated effort, we escaped and decided to hit up a movie theater since they were open. A movie that we had been wanting to see for a while— Promising Young Woman - was playing and we were excited to see it. We had not seen it due to a deal the theaters struck with Universal, which allowed the theater to hold exclusive distribution rights for something like 21 days before it could be streamed. The movie was great and well worth seeing so if you need something to watch be on the lookout for this one! Afterward, we drove back to the hotel and called it a night.
Grant kept saying that the weather in Dallas was cold and it was going to snow. I did not believe him because when I looked at the weather app it did not mention snow. My phone kept alerting me about Denver weather and made me excited about the snow there. So I kept asking him... should I have continued to Denver? He said Dallas will come through. Well, low and behold when we woke up the next morning... there was NO snow!
Warning. If you want to hear a stupid debate amongst Grant and me feel free to continue reading otherwise skip head— last warning... I think Whole Foods has better organic fresh squeezed orange juice than Central Market. Grant thinks the opposite. I drink a glass of OJ a day so I am extremely judgmental about this stuff. Grant got Central Market OJ. I drank it, but kind of with my nose in the air disgusted that he thought this was OJ. I went to Whole Foods to solve the debate. And in the head to head match up of Whole Foods vs. Central Market OJ...We both agreed— Whole Foods. The debate is over and it was not much of a contest. Moving forward we can now stop at one overpriced grocery store instead of two.
We had a tight schedule due to our flight being in the middle of the day so we got started by going to Carrabas. Yes, Grant wanted this again, it was his birthday weekend, and since it was technically my first time on this trip I agreed to go. After a bit, we looked out the window, and low and behold the snow started falling. Grant said it was a Carrabas miracle. Since snow is a foreign concept in California, we definitely left the table a few times to run around in the parking lot to catch some snow flurries. After eating and playing in the snow, we left to go see Wendy.
Wendy was waiting for us on her front porch and it was great to have the gang back together. She had been working out hard and you could tell she was getting fitter. Good for her! We chatted for a bit and snapped a photo before we had to depart for our final stop— Spa Castle.
Spa Castle is a Korean spa that has more pools, hot tubs, saunas, jacuzzis than they know what to do with. You literally will need a tour of the facility to make sure you don’t miss something. Even after having been a few times, I still had to ask Grant — what’s that over there? Our favorite part was being able to hang out in the outside jacuzzis with the snow falling on us. Our top half’s being snowed on and our bottoms boiling in 100-degree water was epic. Not as great as being in Colorado at the hot springs, but a close second. Grant could spend all day there, but after a few hours, we thawed our tops and dried our bottoms to make it to the airport on time.
Altogether I am glad that I got off in Dallas and not in Denver. While Dallas is not my favorite location in the world— it was great eating inside, seeing friends, watching movies, and living life. Plus...Denver is shut down more than Dallas so it would have won by default. :)