Dallas Cowboys

After spending a whole day in Dallas, I am convinced no honest-to-goodness stereotypical cowboys live here.  I wanted to see men wearing Stetsons, Wranglers, belt buckles, and cowboy boots.  I've mentioned before that I love wearing my cowboy boots so I made sure to bring them on this trip.  In fact, I wore them all day yesterday and I was the only person on my Sunday evening flight bound for Dallas wearing boots.  That kind of bummed me out but I figured I would see people wearing boots today.  Nope.  Well, my uncle Michael did.  But that's it.  No other boots to be seen today.  I've been told we're more likely to see cowboys in Austin so I'll hold out 'til then.

Anyways...  I'm sure you'd like for me to get off my cowboy rant and tell you about my day.  My mom and I only had plans to meet with our family at the hotel and we had about an hour to ourselves in the morning so we headed downtown to the infamous Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated.  It was kind of surreal to be there as a tourist almost celebrating such a tragedy.  What surprised me was seeing that they have a white "X" painted in the middle of the street in the spot where the fatal bullet hit.  I took this picture of the book depository while standing on that "X."  When I get home I want to find some JFK documentaries on Netflix or YouTube and watch everything while the layout of the plaza is still fresh in my mind.

Not sure what to do with the family, we were happy when one suggested going to Saltgrass Steak House.  I ordered chicken strips and swapped out the fries for a mini cast iron skillet of macaroni and cheese.  The chicken tenders were cooked perfectly but I did not care for the mac n cheese and only managed to eat one noodle.  My mom liked it though so people with normal palates would probably enjoy.  Everyone went back to the hotel after lunch where we digested our large meals with good conversation.

As it got later we needed a change in scenery.  Several hours had passed and some of us were starting to feel hungry so we went downtown to the Iron Cactus Mexican restaurant and tequila bar.  I didn't find any of the entree items appealing so I chose to have dessert and boy did I make the right move!  I hope I can find a place in Portland that does Rollo de Canela because it was amazing.  Basically cheesecake wrapped in a crispy cinnamon/sugar tortilla and drizzled with caramel sauce.  Mmm...  My mouth is watering just thinking about it now.  

Off the food for a minute...  Today was truly special getting to spend so much time with family.  While I'm looking forward to moving on to Austin tomorrow, I'm a little sad to be leaving Dallas without doing more touristy things and really checking it out.  To wrap things up, today's mention will be in honor of our fallen thirty-fifth president.