Melissa’s Birthday

Friday was Melissa’s birthday and to celebrate we took a trip to Dallas to have dinner at a place she had been wanting to go to for awhile, Medieval Times. We went ahead and got a hotel along with making some plans for Saturday. My mom was keeping the kids for us which was great. We hadn’t had a night without the kids since May of last year. We normally don’t go anywhere without the kids besides a couple of times a year so a much needed break was in order. Overall it turned out to be an awesome night.

Neither of us had been to Medieval Times before so we were looking forward to it. Unsure of what to expect it was a great experience. As you enter you are greeted as My Lord and Lady and start by meeting the King. They have a pretty nice gift shop area with two bars and a nice collection of swords. They have a small walk-through museum with some methods of torture. Some of which are pretty crazy not only in design but in there uses.

We are still in the midst of our 20 Day/20 Pounds diet, so this trip to Dallas marked a free day from it. In fact this was our first time having meat in 7 days, so to be honest, I was looking forward to the food. I had heard that the food isn’t great, but I thought differently. You start off with some tomato bisque and garlic bread which was good. Then out comes the chicken which tasted great along with the potato and spare rib. Last for the meal was a turnover. They do rush you through the meal and your drink. You get a max of one refill and only when they come around (which is only one) and they come by pretty quickly to clear off the plates. Eating with only your hands made it that much better. In fact, I’m trying to convince the wife to let us do it at home, the kids would love it.

Of course you are there for the show. The story was good but the tournament was great. Mixed with sword fighting, jousting, horses and lots of cheering for your knight, its a great time. We sat in first row, center in the Black & White Knight section. We loved the time and look forward to going again very soon and taking the kids.

After the show we headed to the hotel, we stayed at the Hilton Lincoln. First off the hotel was crazy nice. We were on the 6th floor and had a great view of Dallas out a big window. First thing the next morning we ordered room service as we didn’t want to get up yet. However, the cost of room service is not near enough to want to stay in bed. After we ate we went walking around outside. The hotel has a nice big pool, a reflecting pool, and big lake with lots of ducks and was very relaxing. Exactly what we needed. Finally we figured we should check out and head to our next stop.

The Dallas World Aquarium had been on my list of places to visit for awhile and we finally got the chance. Again it was nothing like I expected. I figured it was more cages and glass but was awesome how open the place was. With birds flying around, a sloth in the tree next to you and the enormous amount of fish it was amazing. Like Medieval Times we also are planning to make the trip down there again real soon and take the kids. Its worth the money and the drive.

What’s a trip to Dallas without Joe’s Crab Shack? A lousy trip, thats what. My first time at Joe’s was a few months back with John coming back from the Code Works ’09 conference. Having crab cakes for the first time was awesome. So, I try to make a point of going there every time I’m in Dallas. This time I tried calamari for the first time and man is it good. What do we need to do to get a Crab Shack here in Wichita Falls? Now back to our regular scheduled 20 Days/20 Pounds.