Dallas: Sunday

For the long Labor Day weekend, we decided to take a trip to Dallas for a couple of days.  Why Dallas?  We hadn't been there before (just through), and we could get a pretty inexpensive hotel room right downtowm.  So we headed out Saturday after Tim got off of work.  After a hotel mixup (that threatened to significantly increase our hotel bill, but then ended up with a suite at the VERY lovely Hotel Adolphus for $135/night) and forgotten items that forced an hour long extension to our drive... we arrived in Dallas in time for dinner.  We got checked into the hotel (possibly the supreme excitement for Maya of the trip was the fact that she got to stay in a hotel) and then were suggested a restaurant around the corner for dinner.  It was alright.  We took a stroll around downtown, then went back to the hotel for the night.

Sunday, we got up and first went to the Dallas World Aquarium.  It was simply awesome.  It was way more than an aquarium, and the animals they had in this block of buildings right in downtown Dallas was just impressive.  We'd highly recommend it.  It was expensive, but I think it was worth it.  The highlights were the manatee (thanks to a book from Aunt Theresa, Maya loves manatees now) and the flamingos.  We also got to see two Cape Penguins... not quite as impressive as the hundreds on the Cape Peninsula, but cool to see.  After the aquarium. we went to lunch at a recommended barbecue place (thanks dad!) called Sonny Bryans.  It was really delicious.  We walked through downtown Dallas a bit (saw the Old Red (the old courthouse), Dealey Plaza, a monument to JFK, and some modern art) so Maya would take a nap in her stroller.  We ended up down at the Dallas Farmers Market which was simply impressive.  Puts the Austin Farmers Markets (at least the ones we've been to) completely to shame... reminded us some of the Saint Louis Farmers Market in some ways.  It's in the old school open buildings, with just loads of farmers from all over.  We walked back north to the Dallas Art Museum.  They had a great setup for kids to do an art project, and then we wandered through the museum looking at the art and then outside at the sculptures.  It was lovely.  We wandered back to the hotel through Fountain Place, and then we cleaned up and rested up.  We went to dinner at a fancy restaurant that catered exceedingly well to kids.  We got delicious food and wine, and the chef prepared Maya some special grilled shrimp (though she was basically offered whatever she could conceive... "we don't have a children's menu, but I've got everything back there... chicken, burgers, whatever..."

Here are some photos of our day.  Monday we got up and went to the Dallas Zoo before returning to Austin... I'll catch that in a separate post.