Awesome Weekend in Dallas

Saturday, November 1st, 2014 - To Dallas

About three months ago, I called up my friend Lynse Kae and asked her if she wanted to go to the Dallas Cowboys vs. Cardinals game. She is a big Cowboy fan and I'm a big Cardinals fan. I have been wanting to go to an away game for a while now so I thought this would work out great. 

My flight was at 9 am on Saturday. I had to go a little early because I decided to check my bag because I wanted to bring a bottle of Cline wine. We found the wine one night at Total Wine and we both liked it. So it is our wine. Hopefully, the bottle does break on the way.

The flight had a stop in El Paso, but we didn't need to change planes. 98 passengers stayed on the plane. I think everyone is going to watch the Cardinals play. 

Arrived in Dallas at 2 and it was much cooler than Phoenix. I didn't bring any jackets, but I packed pants instead of shorts! 

After the flight, I took a taxi to the Marriott Courtyard on Highlander Blvd. At first the taxi cab driver took me to Highland St., but it was quickly corrected. Lynse had arrived earlier than I did so she had already checked in. After getting my stuff put down we decided to go have lunch/dinner. 

The Marriott has a van service for anything within 3 miles. The driver's name was Jerre and he was 87 years old. He was very nice and he gave us a few recommendations. Also, he told us some stories about his life. We told Jerre that we wanted some Texas BBQ around. He recommended a place called Rudy's. I guess that it is pretty popular in Texas, because the person at the counter sounded shocked that we'd never been before. We both got brisket sandwiches and new potatoes. The meat was smoked just right! After the meal we sat and caught up. Lynse moved to Las Vegas four years ago and we hadn't seen each other since last September.

Once we were caught up, we went outside to look around. We thought we saw a bowling alley so we walked over to it, but it wasn't abandoned. So we decided to go to Chuy's to get Margarita's and Strawberry Daiquiris. We continued our talking there. After our cocktails we returned to the hotel. We spent even more talking and drinking wine. There is a bistro down in the lobby and we sat in there for a bit, but ended up in our rooms.

Sunday, November 2nd, 2014 - Dallas Texas

Bernadette and Lynse Kae

Since I was born and raised in Arizona, I have never experienced daylight savings time. So Sunday was the first day I got to fall back. I was grateful because we got to sleep in a little longer than we would have. After we were up, we got ready for the game and went to meet Jerre. He was giving us a ride to the stadium. Even though it wasn't within 3 miles he had the morning off and said he could get us to the stadium. When we got downstairs, we found out that Jose was going to give us a ride. Someone from the night before gave Jerre a ticket to the game, so he was going too! 

Unlike the Cardinals stadium the Cowboys Stadium was surrounded by houses and business. So it was interesting for me to see people walking from their houses to the game. Also, the tailgating is a little different. They had some in the parking lot like in Arizona, but once we got through security and had our tickets scanned in there was an outdoor tailgating that included bars, a stage with a band, and different activities. It was really cool to see. Since we had never been to the stadium before we had to walk go all the way up to level 400 in order to bypass the club level to get to our seats which were in section 203. It was quite a trek, but I got to see a lot of the stadium. It is huge. I only had a few people boo, or hiss at me for wearing a Cardinals jersey. 

Once we found our seats we decided to get something to eat, but made a detour to get a Cowboys jacket for Lynse. I got a hot dog and beer, Lynse got a hot dog and pretzel. Then we went back to our seats. It was just in time they just finished God Bless America. The opening ceremonies was really cool. They had fireworks and the cheerleaders were great dancers. Also, they had military people and a dog repel from the megatron! They had the coin for the coin toss. It was amazing! Cardinals won the toss so they decided to receive.

The game started with Cowboys ahead 10-0 at the end of the first quarter, but the Cardinals ended with 28-17. So Cardinals are now 7-1 better than any team in the league, the first time that has ever happened.

During the game I also got nachos and another beer, but I didn't finish the nachos, they were good, but too greasy. After the game we went outside and looked at the bricks around the Stadium. Lynse's family has a brick with their name on it so we tried to find it, but couldn't there were too many. Then, we walked down the street to the Quick Trip, so that we could be picked up by Jose. He took a little while getting there, but it all worked out. We rode back with a couple that said that dropped a lot of money on a lot of superbowl games in the past. They lost all the ones they talked about. Talk about unlucky!

Once we were back in the room we decided to get Mexican food at Mercado Juarez at Jerre's recommendation. I got Shrimp Fajitas which were so good. They had carrots and broccoli as some of the vegetables in the Fajitas, I've never had that before, but it was great! I also had another Margarita. Lynse had a chimichanga she said she has not had Mexican food in over a year. They don't have very good Mexican food in Las Vegas, I guess. 

After dinner we decided to go back to the hotel and see if we could catch the Broncos and Patriots game. It was still on but in the fourth quarter. We were both shocked to hear that the Broncos were losing. During the game we chatted, we chatted so much that we ended up watching the Steelers and Ravens game. What a football filled day!

Monday, November 3rd, 2014, Dallas to Phoenix

After all the greasy food from the last two days, Lynse and I decided to skip all the junk at the airport and fast for the day. We want to fast until Wednesday, then eat a raw food diet for two weeks. I don't know how well that will work, because there will be so much candy at work since it's the week after Halloween. 

Our flights left around 3 pm and we had to check out at noon so we went to the airport early. Jose drove us to the airport on his lunch break. We said goodbye to Jerre too. They were nice guys and very helpful and accommodating. We were at the the airport a little early so we just talked and waited for our planes. Lynse had to change gates twice for some reason, but it all worked out. We both had fun, but were glad to be getting home to see our dogs and families!