Jamie made a couple uber drives - one of them was a Brit who flew in for wrestlemania - seriously who knew it was still a thing? but to fly in all that way specifically for it...and there were like 110k people there last night! crazy. All I ever recall is Randy Savage and the Heartbreak twins? I thought it died back in the 80's.
Regardless - the Brit was staying in a terrible part of town and was ubering cause the "public transit took too long."
From talking to people and reading travel feeds...I really think a lot of people are doing Texas tourism wrong.
I was talking to a colleague in New York on the phone the other day and she says she pictures mountains and desert for Texas.
That's West Texas only! oy...they have no concept that to see all of Texas you have to cross time zones! Levelland to Hill Country to the Gulf etc.
no wonder they go back home and go "eh Texas." I said the same thing about New Orleans the first time I visited and now it's my top 3 favorite city!!! ya gotta research or at least ask questions...especially with the magnitude of options!
So I thought ok - for next time someone asks
about "doing Texas" below's what I got...
March/April/May/September are probably the best months.
Why? cause summer is freaking hot so unless you're around water of some sort you'll be miserable AND there's a ton of festivals and almost every sporting activity going on. That's what we do here.
Land DFW - rent a car or if you'd rather not - uber. Taxi's are ridiculous.
Public transportation is an option but EVERYTHING is spread out it will take a while to get anywhere.
- Dallas - I'd stay at the Belmont - it has personality - and still close enough to our "mostly boring " downtown that connects all major street arteries.
Def don't stay in Arlington! AirB&B - maybe? never tried it?
and so JFK memorial sure but festival (food, balloon, flowers, paddy's day, music, beer, state fair, arts - look it up) or major sports all here.
Best bar hopping - Deep Ellum or lowest Greenville Restaurant hopping - trinity groves or lowest Greenville. Best local food places - babes chicken dinner house, neighborhood services, mama's daughters diner, meso maya, blind butcher, el pueblito in Plano - and queso, the Bob Armstrong @ Mattitos. Old school Dallas steakhouse? Dunston's on Lovers.
Fort Worth way - Sundance square, Woodshed smokehouse, Stockyards sure...
Shopping? - as in this case NOT downtown - Galleria, North Park Mall or Highland Park Village for pricey things. Quite frankly I'd steer someone to Richardson Mercantile for local regional things. Can't think of anything else.
Don't plan on staying more than 2 or 3 days in North Texas, there's not really much else to see here.
Austin- from Dallas I'd take Vonlane bus (pricey but worth the nice/easy. Heard megabus is ok DON'T greyhound - scary) to Austin, check out 6th street/rainey street/soco, good shopping here/capital? then rent a car and drive down and stay near Gruene Hall (pronounced GREEN) and use that as your base for the next 2-3 days. Why? Day trips to hill country Fredericksburg wineries, Luckenbach? and San Antonio (the riverwalk - good cocktails at "Esquire Bar" overlooking it)/Alamo/mexican food - nothing else to see here...unless you want to see missions?). Really though...imo Gruene /New Braunfels is still real Texas. Especially Gruene, good shopping and best music venue. Wurstfest, or Float the Comal river too, if it's warm enough. Return car in Austin and Vonlane to Houston.
- ugh Houston - there is a fun crawfish festival up in in Spring in April though. Their renaissance festival way up north is fun...and apparently their "rodeo" is the thing to do? The Woodlands is alright. Spring has ok shopping? NASA is pretty cool, Kemah is nice, Galveston eh.... That's all I got. Houston brings me down... get on a plane and fly to El Paso do not drive, the 10+ hour drive is brutal and BORING.
- ah EP my hometown - honestly what i miss? the mexican food, the mountain and the desert sunsets. So Scenic drive i guess sure, 4th of July off i-10 is awesome. Those small catholic church festivals were fun too. Jamie liked the bars across from UTEP. Really a lot of people get together on weekends...if you're friendly and curious enough there's a chance you'd be invited. I've never met a not nice person from El Paso. Carlsbad Caverns? White Sands is apparently really cool during a full moon...i still haven't done it. Juarez used to be really cool - no longer and it's such a shame.
Besides that EP county eh....
It's 4? hours to Big Bend - heard it's great and that Terlingua is definitely unique, never been that way or even an of the rest of border cities - I do love ruidoso though (not TX but much closer and glorious mountains, cool, fresh air.)
I missed all the middle parts of TX - the state is freakin big...what can i say. Panhandle's boring but Lubbock Tech football games and Spanky's across the street for the best fried cheese ever. A good idea is to go BBQ hopping across the state also go see college football games in the middle parts like College Station...thats an interesting experience.
March/April/May/September are probably the best months.
Why? cause summer is freaking hot so unless you're around water of some sort you'll be miserable AND there's a ton of festivals and almost every sporting activity going on. That's what we do here.
Land DFW - rent a car or if you'd rather not - uber. Taxi's are ridiculous.
Public transportation is an option but EVERYTHING is spread out it will take a while to get anywhere.
- Dallas - I'd stay at the Belmont - it has personality - and still close enough to our "mostly boring " downtown that connects all major street arteries.
Def don't stay in Arlington! AirB&B - maybe? never tried it?
and so JFK memorial sure but festival (food, balloon, flowers, paddy's day, music, beer, state fair, arts - look it up) or major sports all here.
Best bar hopping - Deep Ellum or lowest Greenville Restaurant hopping - trinity groves or lowest Greenville. Best local food places - babes chicken dinner house, neighborhood services, mama's daughters diner, meso maya, blind butcher, el pueblito in Plano - and queso, the Bob Armstrong @ Mattitos. Old school Dallas steakhouse? Dunston's on Lovers.
Fort Worth way - Sundance square, Woodshed smokehouse, Stockyards sure...
Shopping? - as in this case NOT downtown - Galleria, North Park Mall or Highland Park Village for pricey things. Quite frankly I'd steer someone to Richardson Mercantile for local regional things. Can't think of anything else.
Don't plan on staying more than 2 or 3 days in North Texas, there's not really much else to see here.
Austin- from Dallas I'd take Vonlane bus (pricey but worth the nice/easy. Heard megabus is ok DON'T greyhound - scary) to Austin, check out 6th street/rainey street/soco, good shopping here/capital? then rent a car and drive down and stay near Gruene Hall (pronounced GREEN) and use that as your base for the next 2-3 days. Why? Day trips to hill country Fredericksburg wineries, Luckenbach? and San Antonio (the riverwalk - good cocktails at "Esquire Bar" overlooking it)/Alamo/mexican food - nothing else to see here...unless you want to see missions?). Really though...imo Gruene /New Braunfels is still real Texas. Especially Gruene, good shopping and best music venue. Wurstfest, or Float the Comal river too, if it's warm enough. Return car in Austin and Vonlane to Houston.
- ugh Houston - there is a fun crawfish festival up in in Spring in April though. Their renaissance festival way up north is fun...and apparently their "rodeo" is the thing to do? The Woodlands is alright. Spring has ok shopping? NASA is pretty cool, Kemah is nice, Galveston eh.... That's all I got. Houston brings me down... get on a plane and fly to El Paso do not drive, the 10+ hour drive is brutal and BORING.
- ah EP my hometown - honestly what i miss? the mexican food, the mountain and the desert sunsets. So Scenic drive i guess sure, 4th of July off i-10 is awesome. Those small catholic church festivals were fun too. Jamie liked the bars across from UTEP. Really a lot of people get together on weekends...if you're friendly and curious enough there's a chance you'd be invited. I've never met a not nice person from El Paso. Carlsbad Caverns? White Sands is apparently really cool during a full moon...i still haven't done it. Juarez used to be really cool - no longer and it's such a shame.
Besides that EP county eh....
It's 4? hours to Big Bend - heard it's great and that Terlingua is definitely unique, never been that way or even an of the rest of border cities - I do love ruidoso though (not TX but much closer and glorious mountains, cool, fresh air.)
I missed all the middle parts of TX - the state is freakin big...what can i say. Panhandle's boring but Lubbock Tech football games and Spanky's across the street for the best fried cheese ever. A good idea is to go BBQ hopping across the state also go see college football games in the middle parts like College Station...thats an interesting experience.
Moving on -
saw Me, Earl and the Dying Girl - didn't think I'd like it but I did! good movie!
Books:
Terri Meeker - Not Quite Darcy - I do like the time travel books - she had a good way of turning a not so interesting character interesting with the male lead
Sophie Jordan - Wicked in Your Arms - liked that they didn't like each other at first but I didn't really believe the 180
Lillian Grant - Male Order - pony stallion bleh
Lora Leigh - Forbidden Pleasure - she knows how to write male leads it's the story i lose interest in...and one without the other i lose interest.
Rangers opening day today #nevereverquit....and so of all the Texas songs why not this one?
But at a dance hall down in Texas
That's the finest place to be
The women they all look beautiful
And their men will buy your beer for free
