The road trip from Dallas to Austin was longer than expected and laden with sporadic traffic jams. The checkpoint of hope beamed at Exit 353 along I-35. There were notices along the roadway that teased about the gluttonous glory awaiting at this exit… the Czech Stop and Little Czech Bakery… an edifice that housed hunger-satisfying happiness in the form of all things baked and delicious. (more…)
It’s embarrassing to admit that sometimes I’m still stuck in my childhood stereotype of how I expect a place to be. When I learned I was traveling to Texas, I excitedly imagined a “Fievel Goes West” destination with dusty grounds, blowing tumbleweed, lawless saloons, and lazy cattle.
Greeted by the towering structures and modern buildings in Dallas wasn’t unanticipated, but rather “not up to scratch” with my vision. Where were all the cowboys? I had been warned that Dallas was not my imagined Texas, yet I still longed for spurs and saloons, not suits and skyscrapers. (more…)
Something magical happens when traveling to a new place and different travel dots begin to connect. It’s like independent neurons in my brain crash into each other in a brilliant fireworks display. Or like that eureka moment when I realized that the names in Harry Potter novels had a deeper literary and contextual meaning. The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, TX is where these ah-ha connections happened for me.
When it’s a scorching 100° in Austin, TX and a climb up Mount Bonnell is on the day’s agenda, the unknowing tourist may start perspiring simply at the thought of a mountain hike. Trust me, I felt that way. But fear not! At about 780 feet above sea level, much of the mountain’s trek is up the winding roads via automobile. The journey that includes steps is not intimidating. Count to about 100 and you’ve overcome the climb. (more…)
“We HAVE to get chicken & waffles.” It wasn’t a question, it wasn’t a statement, it wasn’t even a thought… it was a definitive command.
My boyfriend (as he prefers a low-key online profile, for the sake of this blog, we shall call him Mystery Man (MM?) until he decides to reveal his secret identity) has raved about this chicken & waffles place since our first date. It’s crept up in conversations. Other chicken & waffle meals never compared. That bag of Lay;s Chicken & Waffles flavored potato chips only served as an unsatisfying reminder of this life-changing chicken & waffles restaurant in Texas. (more…)