Dallas Day Trip

Yesterday, while the rest of Texas was sinking into the sofa for the Cowboys game, we were driving north on 75 for the next in our series of day trips from Dallas. Our destination? McKinney, Texas, where, on the weekend before the third Monday of each month, hundreds of vendors set up shop at Third Monday Trade Days. Should you be in the market for a handcrafted oak cutting board, an old license plate, or a puppy —this is the place for you. And should you grow weary from browsing, a bounty of state-fair grub—corn dogs, turkey legs, tater tornados—is available for the noshing. We managed to keep to our shoestring budget, picking up only a $1 wall-mountable bottle opener and two wooden bowls ($3 each).

Shopped out, but with plenty of daylight hours still left to burn, we headed to McKinney's downtown square, where we encountered a historic village,

(surprise!) antique shops —and, thankfully, a wine bar where we could take a breather. Now, it was time for our final stop, Rockwall, abutting the shores of Lake Ray Hubbard—30-some-odd miles southeast. We ended our adventure at the Flying Saucer, a taphouse on the water.

Check out the photo montage!

Perfectly Pickled Cukes

My new obsession: Habenero Dills from Hill Country Homestyle Canning. We picked up a jar at a farmstand on 281 somewhere between San Antonio and Dallas. I ate six on the way home. And I just had another...and another...and another.

Road Trip!

We took of first Texas road trip over the weekend! The reason, above all, was that we were attending a party on Saturday night in San Antonio...

On our honeymoon back in September, we met five couples from San Antonio on our small cruise ship. Granted, they're my parents' age, but still, we had a great time hanging out with them that week. At the end, we were officially invited to the party they throw annually the second week of November.

So, on Friday afternoon we got in the Jeep and headed to Austin, where we spent the night to break up the trip (it's a five-hour drive to San Antonio). We had a fantastic dinner at East Side Cafe. It's tucked into the leafy neighborhood of Cherrywood, and housed in...a house. It's one of those places that has had its own garden since way before it was cool to do so. For starters, we ordered the crudité plate full of radishes and carrots fresh from the garden. My favorite was the watermelon radish - it's fairly mild for a radish, and when it's sliced it looks like little watermelon pieces. Dip it in a little kosher salt. Mmm.

The next morning we parked downtown and had brunch at Taverna. Freakin' good breakfast potatoes and $1 mimosas and bellinis! We meandered around downtown, stopping to partake in the Green City Festival and the farmers' market. Yes, Austin is every bit as chilled out, green, and delicious as we'd been told.

There were three items on our San Antonio to-do list: 1.) the Alamo, 2.) the Riverwalk, and 3.) El Mercado, the cluster of Mexican shops (if you went to Mexico and didn't bring back souvenirs, just come here). By 6 o'clock, we'd done it all, and that includes the educational video at the Alamo and a pit stop for margaritas.

Rather than taking the interstate home from on Sunday we took 281, which is a long stretch of country road that passes cattle ranches and small towns that post their population numbers on their welcome signs, as in EVANT, TEXAS. POPULATION 393. We passed through LBJ's hometown, (surprise!) Johnson City. We even pulled over at a farm stand to sample some fresh pecans. We passed the entrance to the Chisholm Trail, and the place where we'd turn to get to Dinosaur Valley State Park, which we're eagerly awaiting to check out on our next long, lazy drive...