24 Hours of Dallas

My 24 hours in Dallas is coming to a close, and I've managed to fit in quite a few Texas must-haves in the short time I've been here. The caesar salad from La Madeleine was perfect, as always. Last night's outing provided nachos and tamales at a good Tex-Mex place. I have yet to find decent nachos or tamales in North Carolina... tacos and enchildas, yes... nachos and tamales, no.  What is so complicated about nachos for crying out loud?  It is beans and cheese on a chip! Why can't any restaurant in NC get that right?  Maybe that should be my next business venture - a nacho restaurant. That's how I'll make my millions... Ann's Nacho Hut, perhaps? Today, I got to introduce Elise to pecan (that's pronouced puh-kon for all you Carolinians reading that as pee-can) pralines... oh my! - a little blob of heaven wrapped in plastic wrap!  She is a fan. Maybe she'll bring one back for me at the end of her trip.

My parents moved out of my childhood home and into a condo a couple years ago. This morning, my mom said, "There is a park with a nice playground that I think is about a half mile or so from here. We can walk over there."  We started walking, and she would say, "I think it is just a couple more blocks this way." (famous last words). After those couple of blocks, she would say, "Or maybe it is the next street over."  This continued for a while until Elise started saying, "JoJo, I think you're losing your mind!" - gotta love a seven year old to call it how she sees it!  We finally asked a jogger how to find the park, and he said, "Oh,  you've gone a few blocks out of your way... I saw you walking a while ago."  Nice. So not only were we lost, people had noticed how completely lost we were. Fortunately, at this point, we were only a couple blocks from the park, so he pointed us in the right direction. The jaunt definitely provided a bit more exercise than we had planned for the morning.  Elise had fun, but she was a bit freaked out by all the grackles overhead. If you've never seen a Texas grackle, it is like a giant crow that caws like a prehistoric pterodactyl.  I'm not sure if Elise was more worried about being used as target practice for their excrement or being eaten alive by a flock of them. Either way, she was a bit anxious, so we didn't stay long.  The walk back was considerably shorter thanks to knowing where the heck we were going. Note to self... when mom says she "thinks" she knows where something is, have her scout it out by car first.

Off to Indianapolis now!  I missed out on Texas BBQ, but I'll just have to save that for the next trip.

Comments

[Suetta]

Mmmm, La Madeleine. I used to go to one in Houston's Rice Village when I was working at the Medical Center for 2 yrs. Brings back memories. Your trip to the park was funny, and typical.

[Armin]

Ann:

Wow...that's a lot of Texas Exceptionalism there. :) And if North Carolinians (including those who have departed for other venues) have trouble with certain concepts--such as pronouncing "pecan," please blame our public education system.

OBTW...dictionary.com offers the following phonetics: pi-KAHN, pi-KAN, PEE-kan.

So there. :P

Now excuse me while I go hit some acorns with a tennis racket. And for the record, it's pronounced "A-kern," not "A-korn." Double :P