Day 3 Fort Worth/Dallas

 We woke up early to get a good start on our drive to Fort Worth. After a yummy breakfast we showered Mark with his Father’s Day love and loaded up for the day. We headed to “Cowtown” to watch them drive the longhorns and enjoyed the morning meeting all the horses and drovers and learning a little bit about the Stockyards and The Old West. (This was quite the awesome addition since we learned so much about "The Wild West" on our road trip last year). 

The girls loved meeting Charlie and learning about the drovers.

The cattle drive down Exchange Avenue was cool to see (though short and a bit cheesy) and you could tell that the longhorns were used to doing it a few times a day. They calmly walked through the streets showing off their long horns and sort of begged the question on what would happen if one of them decided to get ornery. We were glad we went in the morning as things started to heat up pretty quickly with a forecast of 109 degrees. 

The girls loved the “gun fight” in Stockyard Station (though the shots fired were a bit loud for everyone) and learning all about cowboys. 

We walked the Texas Trail of Fame reading all the names of those who had an impact on shaping the west and checked out the herd and had fun matching up each one and learning all of their names. 

The girls learned all about Wild Bill on our trip last year, so it was awesome to see his name here.

The big girls tried bull riding to see if they could stay on and learned just how hard it would be on the rodeo circuit. 

Grace was a bit nervous, but never fell off!

Emma looked like a pro, her facial expressions were priceless!

Stopping off at the "watering hole" for a bit of shade.

No one quite beats the longhorns!

Matching each longhorn up with a name.

It was a fun morning in “Cowtown.” Off to Dallas.

On the way to Dallas we had lunch, stopped off at our hotel to drop the cooler (since the car was getting so hot) and get checked in. The pool was calling us for a dip, but instead, we headed into Dallas so that we could see a few things before Mass. We started in Dealey Plaza, as Mark and I both got pretty into the JFK conspiracy when we were younger. 

The infamous Texas Book Depository building where Oswald "allegedly" shot JFK.

It amazes me that there can still be so much interest and controversy over this fateful day 50 years after it occurred. We walked the grassy knoll, showed the girls the famous window at the Texas Book Depository building and walked Elm and Houston streets to show them the route JFK took the day he was shot. 

Grace reading part of the speech that JFK was scheduled to deliver...in the distance you can see where he was shot.

We had a little ice cream treat on the grassy knoll to cool down and remember how lucky we are that we walk around feeling safe at the expense of others freedom and security.

Dealey Plaza was a bit more touristy (and annoying with all of the people trying to sell you their version of the conspiracy) than we expected so we had about an hour to kill before Mass started so we checked out Klyde Warren Park. 

Literally "toeing" the line of how far she can push it without getting her clothes wet.

This place was amazing. We started in the Childrens park splashing in the fountains and enjoying a little rest on the turf lawn under the shade trees. We played on the spinners and then headed towards the botanical gardens. It was a beautiful oasis in the middle of Dallas with food trucks, live music, plenty of green space and shade and offerings for all ages and interests. 

Just watching them spin makes me nauseous.  Ugg...

The girls loved that there was foosball and ping pong tables and you could borrow paddles and balls, books to read, games to play, etc. With an attendant overseeing and checking out supplies it was organized, relaxed and fun. 

Checking out the tree house!

Though shady and peaceful, it still didn’t stand a chance against the Texas heat so we were all ready when it was time for Mass. We headed to the Catedral Santuario de la Virgen de Guadalupe. This Cathedral Shrine serves one of the largest congregations in the United States with over 11,200 in attendance for its Sunday Masses. It’s a beautiful Gothic Revival style cathedral that (unfortunately for us) is under construction so most of the stained glass was missing as well as the main altar. It was an extremely welcoming place though and the girls were digging having front row seats in such a huge church. We joked with Grace that they would pick her as an altar server so it was fun to see her sweat a bit. J They had a blessing for Fathers today that was awesome to be a part of and it was especially nice when they had a special blessing for Fathers who had lost children. It seemed like the perfect place to celebrate Mass today.

After Mass we headed to El Felix for a little Tex Mex to celebrate Fathers Day. This famous restaurant is the oldest chain of Mexican restaurants in the US founded in 1918 and usually has lines out the door and clear up Alamo street. It had delicious food, incredible service, and we enjoyed celebrating Fathers day with the locals.Of course, once you load up on Tex Mex there is nothing better than a bit of swimming, right?! 

Even the hot tub felt cool compared to the heat we braved all day.

By 8pm the sun had eased up a bit, but it was still 94 degrees so the pool at the hotel called our names. We had the pool to ourselves and swam until it was too dark to see. The funky pool lights convinced the girls that we could swim all night and when the hotel staff came to close up the pool and saw we were the only ones there they locked us in and let us stay as long as we wanted. We had a great night racing each other in the pool, watching Norah swim all the way across by herself and relaxing in the hot tub. Good night, Dallas.