Dallas, Part Two

(I'm totally back dating these posts. We were in Dallas last week. Actually, the events that follow occurred exactly one week ago. Though now I've changed the date on the post, so sometime in the future we might wonder "Was it one week before June 22?" No, indeed, this was written June 29, even though it's dated June 22. This is more complicated than an episode of Star Trek where they mess with the space-time continuum.)

Our second full day in Texas, we visited Fort Worth. I've been told this should never, ever be written as "Ft. Worth." We had a nice leisurely morning around the house, and arrived in Fort Worth in time for lunch.

Now the whole time I've known Nathan, he's been, well, I'll just say it, a bit snobbish about the Mexican food available in California. And all this time, I've sort of thought that he was, essentially, wrong about this. That his complaints about Californian Mexican food were just an expression of his fondness for Texas, rather than an actual difference in the quality of the food.

Then we went to lunch at Joe T. Garcias. Heavens to Betsy the food was good. The rice was great, the tortillas were incredible. Even the Dr. Pepper was outstanding. It was, quite simply, the best Mexican restaurant I've ever been to. I'd eat there every day, if I happened to live closer. I. Stand. Corrected.

Joe T. Garcias has a spectacular garden out back. It keeps going and going, they could seat hundreds of people out there. I'm sure they do on warm summer evenings. The place was full at 2 p.m. on a Friday, I'm sure it's stuffed at more traditional eating times.

After gorging at Joe T. Garcias, we went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. It's a small little place, with some cool stuff for kids. Outside (I can't believe they were outside in the heat, but kids are crazy this way) there was a giant sand pit where you could dig for dinosaur bones. The main attraction for us, however, was an exhibit of Star Wars stuff. For me, not quite as thrilling at the Lord of the Rings exhibit in Wellington, but still pretty darn cool. There were the models they'd used in filming, costumes, little movies about how they'd done special effects. Also cool, all sorts of "check out the science of Star Wars" stations. You could make a little ship that levitated magnetically. I spent a heck of a long time trying to figure out how to get a pair of robot legs to walk three feet. (Walking, way more complicated than you might think.) And Jean, this picture is for you: they had a display about robots in our lives today, and proud in the center was the Roomba. For the best shots of the Star Wars stuff, I'll have to link you to Nathan's photos. He was working some magic with the wide angle lens.

Here's Nathan, taking a picture of an At-At (right? that's what these thingers are?) with R2D2 in the background.

We had tickets for an IMAX movie that wasn't scheduled to start for a bit, so we wandered next door to the Cowgirl Museum. Sadly, I have no pictures of the Cowgirl Museum, since they don't let you take pictures in there. Which is too bad, really. It's sort of a small museum, at this point, as it's fairly new. But it's really beautiful. They've got a lovely new building, and the displays are bright and shiny. We learned a lot about The Cowgirl Spirit. It's important to note that one does not need to be associated with classic cowgirl pastimes to display The Cowgirl Spirit. I think one need only be plucky. Or spunky. I *do* think it helps to be female. Gives you a leg up, if you know what I mean.

Back over at the Museum of Science and History, we enjoyed the IMAX movie about Special Effects. It was fun to be in a large, planetarium like theater as well. We all discussed the last time we'd been in such a place. Good times, good times. After the movie we headed home for delicious ribs and shrimp left overs, plus....sooooo goood, left over apple pie.