Family

Cake, Corn and Pumpkins

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Debora

My very favorite time of year begins with the start of fall and ends on New Year’s Day. Yesterday after I got off work, the kids and I celebrated the arrival of the Holiday season with cake and cider at Buon Giorno…

…and then headed up the road to Hall’s Pumpkin Farm.

We played in the corn maze…

…saw lots and lots of pumpkins…

…and generally had a nice time welcoming in the Season of Light.

I’m determined to find a way to enjoy the Holidays even though I’m back in retail, and I think this is the secret: little experiences tucked in wherever we can fit them, and celebrating on our own schedule rather than tying ourselves to traditional timelines. Let the magic commence!

Categories: Family, Holidays, kids, Life, Weather | Tags: Buon Giorno, Hall's Pumpkin Farm | 1 Comment

Evening Walk

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Debora

The weather is turning to fall, and the trails are beckoning.

When I was working at Cheddar’s, a coworker told me that I should check out the trails at Bob Eden Park. Thursday afternoon, the kids and I finally got a chance to do that. Turns out Bob Eden Park is just the first in a charming string of parks connected by trails that follow Little Bear Creek. We have explored bits of that creek before, but this section was new to us. Here is the part that we covered on Thursday:

The trails are sort of a continuation of the ones I wrote about in this post, in the sense that they follow the same line of power poles for a while. Really they’re more of a sequel, though, since there is no direct footpath connecting the two areas.

So, Bob Eden Park.

It has sand volleyball…

…a playground…

…and wide open spaces.

It connects to Little Bear Creek Community Park…

…which has tennis courts…

…a picnic pavilion and restroom facilities…

…and more wide open spaces.

At this point the trail forks. We chose the left fork, but we’ll probably go back and explore the right fork at some point. The trail we followed wandered along between the creek and a couple of different roads.

Eventually we came to McCormick Park.

It has a nice gazebo…

…a playground…

…and a handy directory of the trails.

Also, this snake painted on a log:

A little farther along we found another gazebo…

…another playground…

…and this sign, which was tall and hard to photograph.

It says, “The Preserve at McCormick Park,” referencing features such as a bird-watching area and a historic grove.

We continued on…

…but by the time we got to the lake the sun was setting…

…so we headed back.

This is a wonderful trail system connecting some really lovely park areas. We will definitely be back to explore the rest of it.

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, environment, Family, kids, Life, trees, Weather | Tags: Bob Eden Park, Little Bear Creek, McCormick Park | Leave a comment

Texas State Fair

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Debora

The kids and I visited the Texas State Fair back in 2007 on our road trip from California to Georgia and back, when Luke was seven and Elizabeth was nine. We went on an uncrowded Thursday afternoon, had a ton of fun and made some great memories.

Yesterday I had a rare Saturday off, so back to the Fair we went.

It was a different experience this time. It was a lot more crowded, for one thing, and Luke and Elizabeth are a lot older and more worldly now, so most of the wide-eyed wonder was gone. Also, either the Fair has gotten a lot more expensive in the past eight years or it just seemed that way on our current budget.

Still, fun was had. The view from the Biggest Ferris Wheel In The Western Hemisphere is as wonderful as ever.

Obligatory ferris wheel selfie:

We were intrigued by the white things that look like giant swans on the lake in the distance, and a gray thing in the same area that looked like an elephant, so we walked over for a closer look. The giant swans turned out to be swan-shaped paddle boats, which for some reason I didn’t get any pics of other than this one…

…and the elephant turned out to be a sculpture of a mammoth just outside of the Dallas Museum of Natural History.

A nice shot of the ferris wheel from the white bridge on the swan-boat lake:

Of course the rides were the main focus of our day.

Interestingly, Luke and I had different limits when it came to which rides were too intense. For example, Luke would not go on the Viking Boat swing…

…while I wanted nothing to do with the Starship 3000.

Nothing is too intense for Elizabeth. She was the only one of us who was brave/crazy enough to go on this monstrosity. That’s her, second from the top in this pic:

She actually waved in mid-ride when she saw the camera.

We saw some really bizarre funhouses, but one of them had a mannequin in a rabbit suit that was just straight up creepy. It was riding a unicycle and…I can’t really explain it, it just gave me the wiggins.

Shudder.

I was hoping to see some freakishly large animals, but to my disappointment I only found some adorably small ones.

I did enjoy the pumpkin carvings.

And I LOVED the miniature train setup.

The display was labeled “Grapevine” at one end and “Fort Worth” at the other, a tribute to the real-life Grapevine Vintage Railroad.

Then there was this guy:

You can’t really see his face in the pics, but he was basically a dude dressed as a tree, on stilts. Very cool.

On the way home we stopped at Cheddar’s for dinner. I know I haven’t really talked about my recent work adventures here on the blog, but Cheddar’s is where I worked for four months between working in Softlines and my current job. They have some yummy food.

When we got home, the kids showered and got all gussied up for their school dance.

I don’t know where they get their energy. Me, I barely managed to stay awake until it was time to pick them up and bring them home.

All in all, a day (and a small fortune) well spent.

Categories: Family, kids, Life, Road trip, Travel | Tags: Texas State Fair | Leave a comment

A Plethora of Parks: Summit Park and McPherson Park

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Debora

I was chatting recently with one of my SoCal friends who, like me, loves to explore new places and loves public parks. I told her that the kids and I could go to a different DFW park every week and not run out of new ones for literally years. It’s one of my favorite things about the Metroplex.

That conversation got me thinking that maybe other people would enjoy reading about the parks here and what each of them has to offer. Some of them are big, sprawling places perfect for long, scenic walks, while others are more like little picnic spots. I was inspired to start a “collection” of local parks, with pics and descriptions of each one.

We can’t actually visit a different park each week. There’s no shortage of parks, just a shortage of time. But every time we do get to a new one, I’ll add it to my collection.

So yesterday the kids and I were at the Trader Joe’s in Southlake. There are two parks within easy walking distance of the store: Summit Park and McPherson Park.

Summit Park sits on a little hill surrounded by businesses:

The area is a lot prettier in person than it looks on Google Maps. Here’s a view of the park from the top level of the parking garage behind Trader Joe’s:

And here it is as seen from Cafe Express, where the kids and I had lunch:

There’s a little gazebo near the center of the park.

I would classify Summit Park as a picnic spot, because it only takes a few minutes to walk from one end to the other, but it’s a really lovely walk.

Here is the sign, to make Summit Park an official entry in my collection:

If you’re walking from Summit Park to McPherson Park, I would recommend going by way of Southlake Town Square. There is a pretty pond and a gazebo and a fountain…

Plus this guy.

There’s a directory next to the Town Square. Use it to make sure you walk through the courtyard behind Brio Tuscan Grille on your way to McPherson Park, because that’s worth seeing too.

McPherson Park:

There’s not much to say about McPherson Park; it’s basically a pond with a trail around it. It looked so uninspiring that we didn’t even walk around the pond, we just followed the trail far enough to snap a pic of the sign to make it official…

…and then looped back into the shopping district, which is gorgeous and a nice place to spend a lot of money if that’s your thing.

To summarize, Summit Park is a lovely little picnic spot. McPherson Park is nothing special, but I’m glad we went because we saw a lot of cool stuff during the walk there and back.

Hopefully I’ll be adding new parks to my collection at least once a month. If you live in the Metroplex and you have a favorite park that you’d like to see recognized here, feel free to leave a note in the comments.

Happy trails!

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, Family, food, Friends, kids, Life, maps | Tags: McPherson Park, Southlake Town Square, Summit Park | Leave a comment

Escapism

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Debora

The kids and I recently discovered The Escape Room. For a recovering rpg junkie like me, this may turn out to be my new drug of choice.

The basic premise is that you and your group are locked in a room, and you have one hour to figure out how to get out. There are puzzles to solve and clues to follow, and the room is actually a series of rooms and you’re never sure whether that next door is going to lead you out of the game or just into the next set of puzzles.

I first learned about The Escape Room on a Fort Worth subreddit. I did some research and found nothing but glowing reviews, so I posted a link to it on Facebook and my friend Mendy got as excited about it as I was. We decided to give it a shot.

You start by choosing your “episode.” Currently there are four scenarios to choose from, all set in the same world with certain interconnecting story elements. We chose Prison Break for our first adventure. In this episode you are a group of tourists in Asia who get captured and imprisoned by a terrorist group. You have one hour to make your escape.

Five of us played officially, plus a friend of Mendy’s who was doing a story about it. We each made our different contributions to the game: Elizabeth was super sharp at solving word-related clues, I did pretty well coming up with mechanical solutions to physical problems, and so on.

Here is a three-minute podcast from Mendy’s friend’s series, “Texas Road Trippin’.” You can hear me for about two seconds in the middle. (Warning: mild spoilers for one of the first puzzles.) And here is the shorter, spoiler-free “Around Town” version.

We had a blast. Next month we want to do the spookier “Confinement” scenario for Halloween. When we run out of episodes at the Southlake location, Google tells me that there are similar adventures to be had all over DFW, including one where you are trapped in a room with a zombie that is chained to a wall, and every few minutes the chains are let out a few inches, and if the zombie touches you the game is over.

Bring. It. On.

Categories: Family, Friends, Gaming, kids, Life | Tags: The Escape Room | Leave a comment