Larry and Gina flew to Texas in an attempt to squeeze in as much of the Lone Star State as possible in five days. Catching an early morning flight out of Nashville, we arrived in Dallas, TX at 9:35am ready to hit the ground running. After picking up a rental car, our first stop was Meow Wolf in Grapevine, TX. Billed as the Real Unreal, the adventure begins as you enter the Delaney House at night. The house appears very realistic, giving the impression of being transported to an ordinary farm house in the middle of the night. Once inside the house, nothing is ordinary. The house is a maze of rooms, hallways, refrigerators you can open and walk through to different rooms, dryers you can open and slide down into other realms, and it all can be summed up as weird, artsy, colorful, odd, and interesting.

Our next stop was lunch at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, serving coastal and French Quarter classics, from live lobster to crispy alligator to gumbo, and swamp-things. We went for their lobster bisque which unfortunately was off the menu, however the food and drinks were delicious.

Next, we headed to Dallas where we walked through the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. The heat was unbearable and honestly the layout of the gardens kept us walking in circles, so we cut our visit short and headed downtown. The plan was to go to the Kennedy Memorial Plaza, but the skies opened and rain came pouring down. We drove past the Texas School Book Depository and grassy knoll in the rain before heading to our hotel connected to the Reunion Tower.

The Reunion Tower stands 561 feet tall and has an observation deck and an upscale restaurant at the very top, offering a 360-degree view of downtown Dallas. The food was delicious, we celebrated Larry’s birthday, and watched as a storm moved into the downtown area. We highly recommend this restaurant when you visit Dallas.

Day 2 started with a 40-minute drive to the Fort Worth Stockyards, where we spent the entire day. We experienced the twice daily cattle herd drive, sat on a Long Horn Steer, and browsed the shops and restaurants in the Stockyard Station. Unfortunately, the live rodeo was not taking place as the arena was being prepared for another event.

Day 3 began with an hour and a half drive to Waco, TX where we visited the Magnolia Market, which was started by Chip & Joanna Gaines from the TV show “Fixer Upper”. It was easy to spot the two giant silos which seemed out of place as we drove into the area. The Gaines transformed the entire block into a series of home décor & food shops, gardens, event venue, and even a little league baseball field. Just a short walk around the corner was the Dr. Pepper Museum with three floors of iconic memorabilia cataloging the early beginnings of this soft drink and through the years of advertising. After walking through the museum, we each received our own Dr. Pepper soda fountain drink. The next stop, just a short drive away but highly recommended for lunch, was the Magnolia Table. The food was delicious and the service was top notch. From there we drove to the Waco Suspension Bridge, built in 1870 and is the oldest suspension bridge still standing in Texas. It was the first bridge across the Brazos River and was used to drive longhorn cattle across the river. From there, we drove to the site of the Branch Davidian Compound that burned down during a standoff between David Koresh & his followers versus the US Government in 1993. All that remains is the inground compound pool and one small building. Then a quick stop at Dancing Bee Winery, known for their Mead, Wine, and Honey Bees. Then we met up with our Texas brother for dinner and enjoyed a nice visit catching up.

Days 4 and 5 were spent in San Antonio staying on the Riverwalk which was walking distance to a lot of historic sites, such as The Alamo (we highly recommend taking the guided tour), lunch at the Crocket Hotel (which is supposed to be haunted), visiting the Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum (which has more stuffed animals than you can imagine, plus the history of the Texas Rangers, and even a believe or not oddity area), and we even went on a virtual reality tour of the Titanic.

Texas has so much to see and do that it can’t be squeezed into a week, but we certainly tried.