Against All Odds

Despite some truly awful storms in Texas, I made it to Dallas to spend the weekend with Queen B!

I'm not kidding when I say that I was less than optimistic about my chances of the flight actually taking off; I received travel alerts no less than every five minutes in the day leading up to the trip. Each time I got an alert, it was followed by a text letting me know that I could reschedule my trip for free, if my travel plans were flexible.

That is probably why I was able to upgrade to first class, come to think of it.

Anyhoodle, I stayed the course, crossing my fingers and praying to the heavens that my trip would go without a hitch, and, it did!

I will say, however, that first class accommodation on a flight between Hooterville and DFW is a far cry from first class on a flight between Denver and Oahu, which was my only prior experience with the upgrade. I won't complain, though because; the extra $83 got me on, and off, the plane first, as well as providing me with wine for the duration of the flight.

Once I landed in Texas, Queen B picked me up and we were off on a whirlwind weekend of shopping!

My purpose in flying to Texas for shopping was to find a dress for the Man-Cub's wedding, and, while my quest was unsuccessful, I still had fun with my firstborn.

The first thing we did was check into our hotel, where we dropped our bags and made a plan for the next two days. Dinner was our first order of business for the day, so we grabbed food at a restaurant near the hotel. I had a deep dish ziti that was tasty, but awfully greasy. Queen B polished off half her plate of grilled chicken with steamed broccoli, and, in hindsight, I probably should have joined her in that healthier option.

Saturday morning, we hit the Galleria in Dallas as soon as it opened, snagging a sweet parking spot in the covered garage (which proved fortuitous, given the hail storm that hit the mall while we were shopping).

We decided to fortify ourselves with breakfast at The Corner Bakery before hitting the stores. We hadn't eaten at a Corner Bakery since the kids were young and we would frequent one on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver (that was before Denver became a cesspool. It's far too dangerous and disgusting to even step foot on 16th Street, now). 

The food was as good as we remembered it, which was awesome.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent in the elusive search for the perfect dress, and, while I didn't find mine at the Galleria, we did find an absolutely precious dress for Queen B to wear to the rehearsal dinner, so not all was lost.

We then attempted to find a bridal store that Queen B's GPS assured us existed in a smaller mall, not far from our hotel. What we found, instead, was a half-abandoned mall that would have featured nicely in a zombie apocalypse movie, if not in an actual apocalypse. It was so eerie, and we were anxious to leave it in the rearview.

Luckily, the sun peeked out just long enough for us to lay out by the pool for a couple of hours before heading to an early dinner at The Cracker Barrel and some more shopping, so we booked it back to the hotel for just that.

Sunday morning, we were up early for my return flight home, which, was also a total crapshoot, given the continued storms in the area.

And, after a two hour delay, I was on my way home. It was a quick trip, and not completely fruitful, but I'll take a few days with my daughter, anytime.

And, I still have some time to find a dress, so I'm not panicking, just yet.