Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Adventures in Dallas

The old homestead

Last week, Hubby and I made the three and one-half hour trek from OKC to Big D. Why? Simply to spend a couple nights away from home in one of our favorite places. Back in the 1970-1980s, when lived in a suburb near Dallas, our kids were in elementary and pre-school, we had several young couples as neighbors, and life was golden in that halcyonic way that one's mind remembers good times. In spite of my passion for Oklahoma, the lure of Dallas is still strong.

Of course we did a drive-by of the old house, and what shocked us more than anything was the size of the trees. In a former neighbor's yard, a tree that was 10 feet tall when we helped plant it is now 35-40 feet tall and nearly overwhelms the yard. And a former drainage ditch at the end of the street is now a lovely, park-like bayou with walking trails. Sadly, our old house was minus the loquat trees we placed in front, and other landscape details we established were missing.

Also on our agenda was a visit to a shooting range, where I discharged my new .22 for the first time. Learning to competently handle a gun is high on my to-do list this year. While I felt marginally comfortable shooting the .22, firing Hubby's .38 almost knocked me down. I fearlessly shot and destroyed the clip holding the target as well as a chunk of the ceiling. I feel certain that the gentlemen marksmen in nearby lanes feared for their lives. Hubby laughed bravely.


We purchased cupcakes at Sprinkles, attended a gun show in Mesquite, and wait, there's more--we shopped at a Kroger Signature grocery store, where we purchased gourmet goodies for a picnic dinner on our hotel bed. Oklahoma has no Kroger stores, and we keenly miss them.

Mostly we relaxed, ate what we wanted when we wanted to, took dorky self-photos, and enjoyed having no pressing plans. Good times in Dallas. But we were happy to go home to Okie-Land.

7 comments:

  1. Wow! The old house...it still looks great. I loved that place. Glad you guys had such a nice time. And great pic of you two. Love ya!

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  2. Lovely & well written, Linda!

    It looks that you 2 had a great time together visiting your old neighbourhood!

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  3. Going down memory lane can be fun! Love the gun toting Granny!

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  4. LOL about the dorky self photos!!!

    I do that too, visit the old neighborhoods.

    Sweet photo of you and your beloved; you made me smile BIG.

    It sounds as if you had a terrific time, doing those things and seeing the sights you wouldn't have at home.

    So how big was that hole in the ceiling you shot hahahahahah!!!!

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  5. Granny - I love all the pics! I'm glad you had such a great time. :)

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  6. Jenni--thanks for helping out so we could go! Love you too. ;)

    Sophie, what a lovely compliment, and I'm so glad you visited my blog.

    HoneyB, glad my gun totin' didn't scare you. ;)

    Katy, the chunk that fell off the ceiling was about a foot long (shocked face here). Thank you for your comments!!

    Susie, thank you & glad you enjoyed the pics!

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  7. I love gourmet picnics on hotel beds. I don't remember the last time I did that (and I know it probably wasn't gourmet- it was probably pizza hut!) but I want to now. :D

    We love dorky self-photos too. I never want to do them in front of other people because then they feel sorry for us and ask to take our photo, but we LIKE to take dorky self-photos!

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