Dallas Tejas – the layover

Day 1 – What do we do with a 3yr old in Dallas, more to the point, what can we do with a toddler in near arctic temperatures? The weather wasn’t really conducive for outside activities but we weren’t exactly keen on staying inside our hotel room for the next 2.5 days. It was meant to be a cool 13 C day or so we thought so we got an Uber to the Zoo – it had many good ratings on Google so it looked like the place to go plus it was only 7mins from the hotel. Bonus! We don’t need another long transit.

Agus purchased tickets online last night so we breezed right through the gates only to be hit in the face with a blisteringly cold breeze and radiating cold from the concrete jungle we had just entered. It was a good thing we packed Alfie’s thermals as our first stop was the toilets to do a total clothing change for him. I’m regretting leaving my beanie and scarf in the hotel now. Meanwhile the local security guards are patrolling in short sleeve shirts (though they all had obviously been stockpiling preparing for winter as their personal insulation was much thicker than mine).

Ok we are back on track to finding animals that would brave this weather and display themselves for our viewing pleasure. First stop – a Kangaroo statue. Really did I fly 16hrs to see an Aussie mammal? Alfie enjoyed riding it though, he also rode a lamb and an elephant…hey, whatever keeps him happy.

To be honest the zoo was a pretty bleak place and nothing like we have come to expect from the excellent ones in Australia. The reptile house was however a nice reprieve from the now very cold weather. The displays were nice and Alfie enjoyed spotting lizards, crocs, snakes and tarantulas (Agus’ favourite was the bird eating one). It was so hot and humid inside we had to strip off all of our heavy layers..but after a while Alfie was stewing in his thermals so it was back outside. We braved visiting the tiger enclosure and the elephants but that was it, it was too much now and Alfie’s hands were so cold that he was crying.

We called an Uber and headed for lunch in Bishop’s Art District. I needed to try Texas BBQ and on a tip from a mate back home we went to Lockhart Smokehouse. Nice little place with a bar in the front and the food section out the back. You order there, they wrap it in butchers paper and you take it back out the front to one of the tables. BBQ meat is by the pound – we got 1/2lb of the brisket and pork ribs. They have heaps of sides (watch out for the house slaw – it’s spicy!) and all condiments (pickles, pickled red onion, jalapeños) are free. I don’t really get why they give you a stack of white bread though – obviously Alfie at it, and the pickles and a side of brisket.

It was always going to happen and we had been avoiding it since breakfast – Alfie wanted an ice-cream. We spotted an ice-cream parlour directly across the street, but thankfully Agus talked him out of it as it must have been 0 C now and the wind was bitter. She did the old bait and switch for a hot chocolate and we went into of all things a Brazilian coffee shop. It was pretty shitty..and the hot chocolate was at best tepid, ok, it was cold. We decided to put Alfie back into the stroller and walk around the Art’s district, sneakily we were hoping for him to fall asleep. We rugged him up and after a couple of blocks he did. We walked a few more and checked out a few shops, bought some chocolate from a guy who knew Maradona and had watched Kempes play but didn’t know Messi..go figure.

We called it a day as it bitterly cold, called an Uber and went back to the hotel. Alfie slept all the way to the hotel room (bonus) & I may have taken a nap beside him on the bed. I think that it was only about 5mins, Agus says I was snoring for 1/2hr before she left. They say gym people are a bit crazy and Agus is no exception though she will deny this. She found an F45 in the centre of Dallas 20mins walk away. Apparently she got 1/2 a block from the hotel, turned around, came back, ordered an Uber. She had signed up for a free 7-day trial (told them her husband had been relocated for work) and met some Texans who felt sorry for her as our government had oppressed us for so long and made us take a vaccine that we didn’t want. She ran back to the hotel after the class – like I said before un poco loco!

We had dinner at a bar in the AT&T Discovery District (city centre) on Jaxon St that Agus ran past earlier. Alfie had an ice-cream – brain freezes are now par for the course. They have a huge visual art installation there that was showing DC comic book art which was pretty cool. We stopped and checked it out after dinner, but not for long as we were cooked. I later found out that it was 3 C but with the windchill it was -5 C at midday and it didn’t start warming up until 10pm that night when it got to a balmy 6.7 C.

Day 2 – What do an Aquarium, Steak, Cowboys & JFK have in common? You can find all of this in Dallas, well maybe not the last one…he’s buried somewhere else, but there is a memorial.

Weather isn’t looking as bad today, apparently it will hit a high of 8 C. So it’s off to the Dallas Aquarium for us – it’s all indoor unlike the zoo so we should be good. We head down the lift and along to the corridor past the valets that have become very fond of Alfie over the past couple of days – “hey little man, where you off to today?” <insert excited “Alfish” speak here and something about fish> Fist bumps all round and we are off into our Uber. The minute we got to the aquarium we immediately knew that this was going to be way better than the zoo and it was. They have based it around a rainforest environment so it is not just water animals, there are birds & monkeys on the upper levels. And as you descend through the levels you start to see reptiles, arachnids, crocs, turtles, manta rays until finally on the lower levels you are underwater looking at lots of different fish species including massive catfish, a manatee, coral, crabs etc. There is even a penguin exhibit outside though we didn’t get that far as Alfie was fading fast and needed sustenance (ice-cream obviously). If you are in Dallas, even without kids, it is worthwhile going to see this…it is way, way, way better than their zoo.

Alfie has cracked it – we had to manhandle him away from a penny flattening machine with a steering wheel that was 2m away from the exit. We both cop some damage whilst strapping him into the stroller…we are out on the street now and frantically search for a lunch spot. The taco place (closest restaurant on Google maps) looks shit, we spot a Texas steak joint and make a bee line for it. Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse in the historic part of Dallas and has apparently been around for 100+ years or maybe that is just the building it is in? Alfie orders ice-cream straight out of the gate as soon as we are seated. We try to distract him and buy some time by showing him all the animals that have been mounted on the walls. A soda water (bubble water) arrives for him and calm is restored so we can order. My steak is great, Alfie has eaten half of his hamburger (considering it is the size of his head, that’s a pretty good effort) and Agus made the rookie mistake of not asking for the salad dressing to come on the side. Her salad is more like lettuce on top of a soup, but the prawns are tasty. Alfie coerces us into another bowl of icecream for desert – obligatory brain freeze and shivers follow. We are now using his puffer jacket hood to help curtail them. Agus orders a coffee, I try another local beer and contemplate our next move. We have the room until 5pm and our flight is at 9pm so we need to be at the airport by 6 – 3 more hours to kill…

There is a cowboy store across the road, albeit a very touristy one. The plan is to walk around a bit with Alfie in the stroller to get him to sleep for a bit as we are trying to avoid 1) a ratty child at the airport tonight and 2) a child running a muck in a store. Well that didn’t work…he’s insisting on pushing the pram himself now – I’m trying to stop him crashing into people at a tram stop. We do a couple of loops around the block, see a JFK plaque (more on that later) and finally just give in and go into Wild Bill’s Western Store. It is as I thought it would be, chocked to the rafters with hats, boots and all other types of memorabilia (aka over priced tourist crap). Also no actual cowboys in sight, just some Texicans helping people find their perfect hat shape. I looked at a few Stetsons and decided against purchasing one as the I think the Australian Akubra hat is actually a lot nicer. Alfie was pseudo-uncontrollable so Agus took him outside for attempt #2 of getting him to dose off for a nap. I managed to eventually purchase a couple of small presents for friends in Argentina after enduring a group of tween girls using phrases like “this hat changes my whole life vision” and “oh those are so cute but you should get them in blue” at the check out line. Then on my way out I spotted a Cisco brand in a display cabinet – it seems that I’m not out of the company’s reach just yet.

Yay, Alfie is out in the stroller. We head back to the hotel past the where JFK was shot in his presidential limo (we didn’t visit the memorial where he gave his speech). There is not much to it, it’s a field in the middle of a freeway with some column gates now at the top to mark the site. The plaque we saw earlier was on the side of the book depository from where he was shot. We got back to the hotel around 4pm and were greeted again by the valets – “little man’s had another big day. the aquarium too much for him?” They were lovely guys – one had worked at the Hyatt for 42yrs! We finalised packing our luggage, called for a valet got everything into our Uber XL (double counted our 13 bags) and headed to DFW airport.