Dallas, Texas

Alison and I took a short trip to Dallas last fall.  I had a training class for a new certification in Dallas, Texas during the first week of October and I was able to work my magic to bring Alison and Lyla along with me.

We were excited to see Angie and Hyrum again.  They were able to make the drive up from Houston to join us in the festivities and we were sure glad that they did.

The Rangers were fighting for a spot in the playoffs and Alison and I were thrilled for the chance to visit another MLB ballpark.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us and the game got rained out.  Hyrum and I still paid to park at the stadium and even went in and sat longingly in our seats during the downpour, but it was all for naught.  The game was rescheduled, but unfortunately it got moved to a Sunday, so our tickets went to waste.

The game was a day game and that night we had tickets to see Les Miserables at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.  Amazingly, (and luckily for us), my good friend Sean from high school and his wife Makenna live in Carrolton, Texas, which is just north of Dallas.  We dropped Lyla off at their house and zipped to the performance hall.  Sadly, we were seconds late to the show and got there just after they had closed the theater doors.  We had to wait 10 minutes for the first break before we could sneak in and find our seats.  The Performance Hall was amazing.  It felt like we were in a European Performance Hall.  Bass Performance Hall opened in 1998, seats more than 2,000 people, has 4 balconies (we were on the floor) and has amazing acoustics.  We were thrilled to be able to go to the show while we were there, and we certainly couldn't have done it without Sean and Makenna's help.

On Sunday we visited a sacrament meeting in Fort Worth before brunch in downtown Dallas.  While down there, we picked up a walking audio tour of the JFK assassination sites.  I've been very interested in JFK's story ever since we visited the JFK Presidential Museum in 2005 and I read the 710 page book The Death of a President about the assassination.  It was really interested to finally see the places that I had read so much about.

Monday came and we dragged ourselves to the iconic Texas State Fair.  Luckily, Al's iconic boyfriend Big Tex hadn't yet erupted in flames, and we were able to sample "the world's largest Frito chili pie" in his shadow.  Highlights of the fair included checking out the Chevy Volts in the auto pavilion, deep fried Samoas, and the petting/feeding zoo where we were close-up to ostriches, goats, zebras, pigs, giraffes and a 4 hour-old baby llama.  The fair was huge, and certainly lived up to its billing.  We couldn't stay all day though, because Alison and I had other plans for the evening.

That night, we finally made it to our first NFL game.  We were there to watch the Bears and Cowboys play on Monday Night Football in the incredible Cowboy Stadium.  We were nervous about parking, because we had heard that it was generally pretty expensive (think in the range of $150-$200 and up).  Luckily for us, we were able to find a spot for $20 that was just over a mile away from the stadium.  We don't mind walking.

The game was nothing spectacular, except that Romo (the Cowboys QB) threw something like 5 interceptions.  We were sitting in the upper deck with a bunch of Bears fans and it felt like we were a mile from the field.  Luckily, there is a 60-yard long jumbotron, which makes it very easy to see all the action (just like everybody who was watching it at home on their TVs...).

The next morning, I had to get up early to leave for a class that went through Thursday.  Alison and Lyla caught a flight home, Angie caught a flight to New Orleans and Hyrum made his way back to Houston.  I stayed in Dallas for my class until Thursday afternoon, when I snuck out a little early and made it home just in time to catch the Utes game at Rice-Eccles Stadium against USC.  It sure was a fun trip and we appreciate everybody's help (watching kids, etc.) who made it possible.