Big "D". little "a", Double "L", "a" "s"

Thursday, 3 July, right after work, we jumped in the car and headed west - this time to Dallas Texas where Matt (and family) is doing a rotation at the Baylor Medical Center. We got as far at Pell City, Alabama for our planned overnight stay at the Hampton Inn. (Hotel was very nice so we rate it a Target level hotel. See other hotels below for more ratings :-) )

Friday, 4th of July we got up early and continued on to Texas. We discovered that not only is Chick-fil-a closed on Sunday, but they also don't do breakfast on the 4th of July! We found an open McDonald's so we didn't starve :-) Lunch was a Subway in Monroe, La. We arrived in Big D around 3:30 pm.

The military is renting a one-bedroom "penthouse" apartment in an uptown Dallas neighborhood for their medical interns doing rotations at Baylor. In this case, penthouse just means it is on the top (7th) floor, but really isn't any different than the apartments on the lower floors.  It is in a very nice part of town, with tree-lined streets, upscale shops and sidewalk cafes. The complex has a pool, community room, a concierge and is pretty close to the hospital, so Matt generally doesn't have to fight much traffic going to and coming from work. They are living the life of sparkling urbanites in their temporary digs.

When we got to the apartment in Dallas, we were met by Matt's whole family on the street in front of the apartment building. Joshua didn't know we were coming that day and was surprised and excited to see us. We all jumped into M&V's new (very nice) Odyssey van and headed to the Texas State Fairgrounds for some Independence day fun. We got there at about 4:20 pm, only to find most of the things we wanted to do closed at 5! We did a quick free 10-minute tour of the Museum of Natural History and took some pictures around the area before heading back to the apartment area for supper.

Pizza at Grimaldi's

We decided on a "New York style" pizza place called Grimaldi's, which also happened to be just across the street from the apartment. The pizza was prepared in a coal fired brick oven and was really good, but the prices (like everywhere we tried in the uptown area) were pretty high. After supper, we went back to the apartment and visited a little while and made plans for the next day. Then we went to our hotel - a La Quinta Inn near Dallas Love Airport (see below for more about the hotel). It would be the only time we made the trip via freeway as we later discovered surface streets worked better.

Saturday morning, we got up and went down to the fitness room and Gary ran 2 miles on the treadmill and JoAnne did about 25 minutes on the elliptical thingy. The exercise room didn't have air conditioner controls and was a little warm, but we survived. We ate breakfast - which was pretty good, then headed back to the apartment.

The activity for the day was a visit to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. Military and retirees got in free (but we still had to pay $10 for parking.) It was pretty nice and we got there before it got too hot. (This is July in Texas after all!)

After the garden, we looked for a local place to eat and ended up at Maracas Cocina Mexicana for lunch. It was in an interesting part of town (San Francisco or Little 5 points in Atlanta come to mind) but the food was pretty good. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around the apartment, playing with the kids and visiting. Joshua got a bubble fan that he took out on the balcony and blew bubbles to the wind. It was fast Sunday the next day so we didn't have supper.

Dallas Temple

Sunday, we all went to Sacrament meeting in the Lakewood ward. It was kind of interesting - lots of young couples with little kids. Hymns were posted in both English and Spanish, and there was a missionary farewell rather than the usual fast and testimony meeting. There was a translator up front for the Spanish speakers. She doubled as the English translator when the missionary's mother (who spoke Spanish) talked. Needless to say, Sacrament meeting ran long. We didn't stay for Sunday School or RS/Priesthood. Nathan was ready for a nap!

We went back to the apartment and had chicken salad for lunch. We got a little stir crazy mid afternoon, so we drove up to the Dallas Temple. Since it was Sunday, all the gates were locked but we were able to take some pictures through the fence. When we got back to the apartment it was decided that we would take the van and Matt our car, so we could do some fun stuff on Monday.

That evening, when we got back to the hotel, the room was pretty warm. We turned on the AC, but it was not blowing very hard and was taking forever to cool the room. JoAnne complained and they put us in the room next door, which was a little better, but still not great. The problem was they had put motion detectors in the room, so if you aren't there, the AC doesn't run. Also, the units just didn't blow very hard. Fortunately we had taken a box fan with us, so between the AC and the fan we were able to cool the room down to reasonably comfortable level. Also, the first night we were there, Gary slipped in the tub and fell down.He caught himself and didn't get hurt, but there was no "anti-skid" in the bottom of the tubs so with soap and water they could get pretty slippery. Also, we discovered the doors at the bottom of the stairwell would not open - a fire hazard. We reported both issues to the front desk. Now don't get a totally negative vibe about the place. The rooms were clean, the staff was friendly, and as mentioned before, breakfast was really good. They are also pet friendly so lots of people with dogs were staying there. Price was reasonable. So we rated it a Walmart level hotel :-) . (You will notice we don't stay and Nordstrums or Saks level hotels!)

Finally - Bulkhead seats

Monday, Matt had to go to work. We got up, ran 2.25 miles and then had breakfast. (We aiming for a 2 mile run, but missed a street we were supposed to turn on and went a little farther than planned.) Vanessa called while we were getting ready and asked if we could come over early and watch the kids while she went on her 5 mile run. So we headed her direction, picking up a couple of drinks on the way at QT. Nathan was in bed for his morning nap, so we hung out with Joshua. After Vanessa came back from her run and got dressed, and Nathan got up, we headed over to the Frontiers of Flight Museam. You will never guess whose idea this was. Actually, the museum is affiliated with the Smithsonian and was pretty nice. Their collection of airplanes was somewhat limited but covered everything from the Wright Flyer (which they had a copy of) to modern airliners. This included some Vietnam era fighters, and the Apollo 7 space capsule. Southwest Airlines (which is headquartered at Dallas Love field) had donated the cockpit of a Boeing 737-200

Nathan, JoAnne, Joshua, Gary
Apollo 7 capsule

airliner, and a complete Boeing 737-300 (the first 737-300 to enter service). Biggest thing missing was World War II airplanes, but they did have an exhibit about POW camps during the war. Everyone seemed to have a good time, but I know Joshua and Gary had a great time!

In front of a T-33
Like Grandpa Ed learned to fly jets in

We had planned on going to eatZies for lunch (European specialty grocer offering prepared meals, wine, pantry items, baked goods & deli fare) but it was very crowded and Nathan was getting cranky so we settled for leftover chicken salad. The adventure for the afternoon was a trip to Albertson's for groceries. That evening when Matt came home, we all walked over to Pop Diner for supper. This is a burger joint, and the burgers and hot dogs were pretty good, but Vanessa's salad left a lot to be desired. To their credit they replaced the salad. Once again a little over priced, and I think we would have been just as happy with Smashburger or 5 Guys. 

McKinney Ave Trolley
Green Dragon

Tuesday. Time to go home, but not before our morning walk/run, and watching the boys so Vanessa could exercise. Since we didn't plan to leave until noon or 1 pm, we had time to go on one more adventure. Right downtown Dallas, they had covered over a freeway and built Klyde Warren Park. There is a children's park with water fountains you can play in, plus things you can climb on. There are food trucks offering a variety of things to eat. And even better, we could take the FREE McKinney Avenue Trolley (M-Line) to get there. This is a restored street car line that runs right outside the apartment building to the

arts area of Dallas. It was set up when they tore up McKinney Avenue for repairs and found the old street car rails still there. They have collected street cars from as far away as Australia and restored them to working order. Some have had air conditioning installed, some not. Anyway, we took the trolley (#186 Green Dragon) to the park and let the kids play for a while. We got lunch at the food trucks. It was getting pretty warm, plus it was time to start home so we jumped on #369 Matilda for the ride back to the apartment.

About 1 pm we sadly got back in the car, and

after some creative routing, headed out of Dallas on our way back to Rock Hill. Since it was also our anniversary we wanted to have something a little nicer than fast food for supper. We looked for placed in Trip Advisor, but most were too far off the freeway. We were about to settle on a Cracker Barrel in Monroe, Louisiana, when we passed by a Genghis Grill and decided to stop there for supper. Timing is everything. After we got our Mongolian BBQ, an entire girls softball team came in.

That evening we stayed at the Sleep Inn and Suites Airport at Pearl (Jackson), Mississippi. Again basic hotel. Room was clean and cool and the price was right, because we used our points to pay for it. Breakfast was so-so:  not really warm yet at the time we left. We rated it a Walmart hotel. JoAnne said maybe K-mart. Gary hates K-mart and didn't hate this place so hewas thinking maybe the hotel in Dallas was Walmart super store, and this was just a plain Walmart. It met the needs we had for the night.

Wednesday we got on the road early for a pretty uneventful drive home. Traffic wasn't bad and we made pretty good time. Even though Google showed Atlanta and I-85 traffic okay we elected to go home via I-20 through Columbia. It adds about 20 minutes to the trip but I-20 traffic is so much easier to deal with. We had lunch at a very busy Chick-fil-a in Conyers and managed to avoid most of a construction slowdown at Covington when we got off the freeway for gas. We finally got home around 6pm. There had just been a thunderstorm in Rock Hill so the temperature was about 71 compared to mid-90's in Dallas (though it was a pretty steamy 71). Kira and the animals were glad to see us and we were glad to get out of the car.

We really had to good time in Dallas. It was fun to play Urban Professional for a couple of days, and Joshua and Nathan are just a hoot to be around. We enjoyed our time with Matt and Vanessa like we always do although we are afraid we really blew Vanessa's healthy diet completely out of the water while we were there. (You mean bratwurst and double hamburgers are not health foods???)

Blowing bubbles from the penthouse balconey

Ready to go see some Southwest airliners

Best view for seeing the botanical gardens

At Frontiers of Flight museum

Nathan and PopPop ride 1st Class

Christmas 2013 - Act II

Charlotte

Chicago

Dec 31. Tuesday afternoon, we headed out to the Charlotte airport for the second part of the adventure.  We caught our flight (about 45 minutes late coming in from Houston) from Charlotte to Chicago Midway. We didn’t change planes at Chicago so we didn’t have to worry about making the connection to Vegas. Good thing, too. Chicago was a mess. Snowing and cold we were running over an hour late by the time we got de-iced and took off to Vegas. When we got there, Mike met us at the passenger pick up area, and took us to his house. Dad was there with Kelly when we arrived and we were able to visit for a while that evening. Since it was about 1am according to our Eastern Standard Time bodies, we didn’t visit for too long.

On New Year’s Day, we packed up Kira’s car and headed to where else…. Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast. Then we headed to Cedar City. We met Jessi and Peter at Cracker Barrel for brunch in St George. Peter and Gary took Kira’s car and headed up to Cedar, but us ladies needed a “shopping” fix. We shopped for a couple of hours and picked up some dresses for the girls, had lots of fun and then headed to Cedar in the Accord. That evening everyone pitched in to help wrap Christmas presents and we went to Smith’s to get food for “Christmas Dinner”.  No ham of course, but we made do with a pork roast.

Jessi wanted to do a tradition Turek Christmas morning, so we got up early on Thursday Jan 2, to open

presents. Everyone had lots of fun and I think got pretty much what they wanted.  Gary and I even got a little something.  I got some fantastic caramel sauce the girls had picked up for me in SLC. That was easier for us from the east coast that for the locals. Peter made us crepes for breakfast, which were fantastic and then we watched a movie, “The Kid” that afternoon. We also made some of our famous candy cane pastries and Peter made rolls. We had a good dinner and then we once again played iPad Charades, and once again we had a GREAT time.  We laughed and were very silly. To top it all off, Peter had a wonderful fire going to enhance the atmosphere.

On Friday Jan 3, we got up fairly early and went down to St George to do a temple session. Gary and I really enjoyed the session at St George. It seemed to go quicker and there was a lot less stress for some reason. We had been sealed in St. George when we got married and I don’t think we had been back.  It

was a wonderful experience.  Afterward we took some pictures outside the temple. There was still some snow on the ground from a storm they had before we got there.  We were all hungry and since Kira had been craving a good hamburger, we headed to Smashburgers for lunch. It was very good.  There were some shops back behind the Smashburgers, and we found some really good deals at DownEast. We then stopped at Target before heading back to Cedar. That evening we tried to go to Café Rio, but it was too busy, so we went to another Mexican restaurant called Brodys which Jess and Peter had eaten at before.  It wasn’t busy and the food  was pretty good, too.  As you can see Eating is a BIG part of our trips.

Smashburger in St George

On Saturday, we kind of puttered around the apartment, helped take down some Christmas decorations so Jess wouldn’t have to worry about them before going back to school and then we packed up to go to Vegas. We tried Café Rio again and this time we were able to eat there. We really like Café Rio and since we don’t have them back in SC we wanted to get our fix before coming home. When we got to Mike and Kelly’s house, they already had Kevin and Anna staying there  We told Mike and Kelly we would be back

Visting at Erin's house

on Saturday, but somehow forgot to mention that Jessi and Peter were coming back with us. Oops. Sorry about that. We had to do a little shuffling but everyone had a place to sleep that night and we all slept well. We had planned on going to Macayos with the whole family that evening, but when we got there it was going to be a ridiculous wait to get a table for about 20 people. We finally gave up and headed to Erin’s house to have pizza. It actually worked out better because we could visit with more people, not just the one we were sitting near at the table.

Sunday morning, we got up and went to church with Grandpa Ed. Afterwards we went to Sherri’s house where Sherri, Kira, Jessi and I made chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. We relaxed around the house for a while. Peter and Grandpa and Jason watched TV while Gary, the girls, and I went out to Lake Las Vegas.

 
 
This is a reproduction Italian village (a la DisneylandJ) on some lakes they made by damming up Las Vegas wash. I want to go back the next time we are in Vegas and do a little more roaming around.  We hung around out there until late afternoon then headed back to town. We had to tell Jessi and Peter goodbye (sniff) and send them back to Cedar, and we had to go back to Mike and Kelly’s to pack up ourselves.

Monday morning, 6 January. Some of the worst weather in a long time was plaguing the country, including Chicago where we had to change planes. Gary checked our flights first thing in the morning and they were all running. We went for a walk with Kelly and Kira early, but then Kira had to go off to work. She was NOT ready to go to work and have us leave at the same time. That was really hard for all of us.
BUT, it gets better. I checked again on the flights and the flight from Vegas to Chicago was running so late there was no way we were going to make our connection to Charlotte. And we DID NOT want to get trapped in Chicago. I got on the phone with Southwest airlines and the best they could do was a flight on Wednesday going through Baltimore. I had to scramble to get a substitute for Tuesday and Wednesday and Gary called Renee and let her know. He was able to work some on Tuesday remotely. I called my school and found out I wasn’t the only one stuck out. There were a couple of other teachers who were stuck in Chicago. Kira was pretty happy when we texted her and asked where she wanted to have lunch. We met her at Café Zuppas. That evening we fixed chicken enchiladas and 7 layer treats for supper for Mike and Kelly.Tuesday I worked from Mike and Kelly’s living room until we went out to Deseret Books with Kelly. Other than that we just visited. 

Wednesday morning, we were finally going to get out of town. We said our goodbyes and headed to the airport. The plane was running on time, and soon we were on our way to Baltimore. (We won’t talk about the overweight passenger who sat next to me and made the trip very uncomfortable.) The flight to Charlotte was running late, but soon we were back home. Both Gary and I had to be at work the next day, so we just dumped everything and went to bed. 

Ready for push-back in Las Vegas

Christmas 2013 - Intermission

Christmas day we arrived back in Rock Hill early in the evening. We had told the kids we would open our Christmas presents from them when we got home, so as soon as we could unload the truck we started a

video hangout. The kids found Gary an out-of-production model of the Cutty Sark  to build when he finishes the Constitution. It is the original 1959 edition and they found it on eBay. Who keeps this stuff that long????

I got a Sodastream home soda maker, something I had looked at for a couple of years.  Basically it is a machine for carbonating water, then you add syrups of the flavors you want. There are dozens of flavors for it. I found a cola flavor to replace my daily Pepsi with about ½ the calories. Gary likes root beer and Country Time lemonade with Dasani Strawberry Kiwi flavor added. The Ocean Spray Cranberry juice is pretty good, too.  When the CO₂ cartridge runs out you can exchange it at Target or Wal-Mart for about $15. We are really enjoying it.

Boxing Day (26 Dec) Gary started back to work for the rest of the week and Kira and I started getting ready for the next trip.  I hadn't finished all of my Christmas shopping and we were supposed to go to Athens Saturday for my family’s Christmas.  However as the day progressed, I felt worse.  I had managed to bring home a stomach virus thanks to Nathan. He loved his Nani so much he wanted to make sure she took part of him home with her.  J After Gary got home from work, he and Kira went to see the movie Frozen (Gary for the 3^rd time, Kira for the first.) They really enjoyed that.

Friday through Sunday (27-29 Dec) was not so much fun for me. I spent much of that time on the couch pretty much out of commission with the stomach bug. Gary and Kira spent the whole time drinking my sodas (with my reluctant permission). We had planned on going to Athens to visit with Bambudder and PawPaw, but we didn’t want to take the virus to them, so we didn’t go. Martha was going to be there so I was pretty bummed out that we didn’t make it. Gary and Kira were able to go to Sacrament meeting on Sunday though.

Gary still had to work on Monday and Tuesday morning and Kira and I spent the time getting packed up and getting ready to go to Vegas. Tuesday morning, Kira and I packed up and took the dogs and Demon to the kennel, got the car packed up and were ready to go. Gary got home a little early and we were off to Charlotte Douglas airport for our next adventure to Las Vegas and Cedar City. Gary and I were a lot more excited about going than Kira was, for whom the trip was the first step to heading back to work in Vegas.

Christmas 2013, Act I

Gary and I knew that Christmas was going to be really different this year.  We were going to Houston on December 21^st and flying home on Christmas Day; we then were to spend a week at home with a trip to my parents for the weekend and then we were flying to Vegas on December 31^st to have a second Christmas with Jess and Peter.  Kira was meeting us in Houston and then flying back with us on New Year’s Eve to Vegas.  We even decided to not do much holiday decorating, because we wouldn’t be home, so we bought a little pre-lit tree at Wally World and some tree decorations to go on it.  That was the sum of our decorations. 

Christmas Break finally got here after what seemed like a year from Thanksgiving. On Friday, December 20^th after work, we took the dogs to the kennel, and then on

GSP

Saturday, December 21^st, we caught our flight on Southwest Airlines from Greenville-Spartanburg airport to Houston. We were so excited to see Kira and spend time with her, Matthew, Vanessa, Joshua, and Nathan.  Matt was doing a rotation at a hospital in Houston and had a one-bedroom apartment there. Vanessa and the boys had driven there to be with him at Christmas, and now we were joining them. Our flight was fine, but there was a huge cold front running from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico that was causing major problems for the airlines. We timed our arrival in Houston Hobby pretty well, because we got there just after the storms had gone through. We had no problems landing, but had to sit on the ramp for about 10 minutes waiting for the lightning to get far enough away so the ramp personnel could block the airplane at the gate. We got our bags, caught the shuttle to Budget car rental and picked up our vehicle. We drove to the Hampton Inn in the hospital district, met Matt and family for lunch at Smashburgers, and then pick up some groceries at Target.  We then went back to the apartment and visited until we had to pick up Kira.  It was so good to see M, V, J and N.  We had seen them at Thanksgiving, but Nathan had changed in the three weeks we had been gone. 

Kira and Nathan

Later that evening, we drove back out to the airport to pick up Kira who was flying in from Vegas. Her flight was running late to begin with, but when she landed, there wasn't a gate for them to pull into due to all the disruption across the country from that line of thunderstorms. She had to sit in the airplane out on the ramp for an hour before a flight finally left to go somewhere opening up a gate. (This same line of storms would dump 4 inches of rain in Rock Hill.) We finally we got back to the hotel around 11 pm.

On Sunday, December 22^nd, we all dressed up and headed to church.  Gary, Kira and I

made it to the ward building, but just as Matt and Vanessa pulled in, Matt got a call to come to work.  They immediately turned around and headed back.  We stayed through the Sacrament, but left right after, because we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them.  That was the reason we were in Houston.  We changed clothes at the hotel and headed to the apartment.  Luckily Matt was able to come home before too long, so we decided to do our “Christmas” that afternoon.  Matt, Vanessa, Kira and the boys went for a walk, while Gary and I played Nani Clause and put out the loot.  We had a great time opening gifts and Joshua really enjoyed his new digital camera.  Nathan thought the paper was a pretty great toy also.  It was a good time!

Nani Claus has been here

Lobster Pajamas from Maine

Unloading at the USS Texas

On Monday, December 23^rd, Matthew was off, so we needed something to do we could all participate in. We started off the morning with a big breakfast of our favorite stuffed French toast. Then, Gary suggested we go see the USS Texas, a battleship from World War I and II, which was about 20 minutes away. We were able to wander all over the ship, although some of the areas like the bridge were pretty high up and you had to go up some pretty steep ladders to get there, so not everyone got to those locations. The only surviving “dreadnought,” the Texas is not as big as the newer World War II battleships, like the USS Alabama, so you didn't feel like you were completely lost when you went below decks. She is getting pretty old, and there is a lot of work being done on her. We spent about 45 minutes wandering around the ship, but it was pretty chilly and we were hungry. 

View from the bridge

After visiting the Texas, we wanted to go someplace to eat. Matt suggested Gringos, a Tex-Mex restaurant that was only about 10 minutes away. We laughed at the “Welcome to Gringos” sign that imitated the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” signs – especially when Gary, Kira, and I would be flying out to Vegas in about a week. The food was pretty good. They had a tortilla making machine that reminded us of the donut making machines you see at Krispy Kreme.

Houston Metro

That evening, we took the Houston Metro light rail to the Houston Zoo for their big Christmas light display. The weather was pretty cool out that evening, especially for Southeastern Texas, but we had a good time enjoying the lights and music. We managed to miss the shortcut turn off, so we wound up walking ALL the way around the zoo to get to the entrance.  Joshua said the lights he enjoyed the most were the tunnel of lights.  I had to laugh, because that was not my favorite part at all. Of course we had to stop at the gift shop on the way out of the zoo and since they had a sale going on, I had to get Joshua a big stuffed animal.  Since we had opened our presents the day before, it was hard to remember that for most people it was still two days until Christmas. Joshua also really liked riding the light rail train to and from the zoo, which worked out really well for us also.  Parking would not have been fun.

Didn't really snow, but it felt cold enough for snow

Dec 24

Christmas Eve was kind of a regular day for us. We just kind of puttered around and Matt had to work so we just sort of hung out.  Joshua, Vanessa, and I put together a gingerbread village for fun. I think Vanessa had kind of thought Joshua and I could manage to do it by ourselves, but thankfully she took pity on us and helped us figure it out.  PopPop helped a little bit, which actually turned out to be a big help, because he could figure out how they went together.  That evening we played iPad Charades and had a great time together.

Dec 25

Christmas day was really a big letdown, because sadly, it was time to go home. We checked out of the hotel, hung out a little while with Vanessa and the boys and said our goodbyes and headed out to Houston Hobby airport. Flying on Christmas day we really expected to find the place half empty. Wrong again!! There were a lot of people traveling and the plane was nearly full. The flight to Greenville was uneventful and all of our luggage made the trip. The weather in South Carolina was still very cold (for South Carolina) and we had parked way out from the terminal because the lots were about full when we left on our trip, so we had a cold walk back to the car. I think Kira thought we were going to freeze her before we got to the truck. However, we got it loaded up and headed back to Rock Hill.

Christmas: Houston Hobby Airport