We started the day off by heading to the car rental place & picked up our car for the next 7 weeks, a Mazda 6 which so far is a great ride.
Next stop was Target to buy a GPS complete with very cool bean bag kind of thing to mount it on so no need to attach it to the dash, just lift it on & off. We also took the opportunity to stock up on some basics, washing up stuff, tissues, breakfast supplies etc. taking the easy way out we hit Denny's for breakfast, sensible high protein for me & the full heart attack disaster for Pete lol.
Back to the hotel to safely stash the shopping in the room then we headed out.
First stop was the Dallas Aquarium which includes a Sth American rainforest section -which was very cool :-) it put the likes of Mooloolabah's underwater world to shame.Note to self - next time don't come to the US during school hols! There was a huge line up to get in made bearable by the very cool aviaries along the way with the exotic Sth American birds in them & the cooling mists of water they spray to keep the tempers down :-)
After fighting the crowds there we walked the few blocks to Dealey Plaza, site of the JFK shooting. We took a look around the grassy knoll which is in the pic along with the road he was on when shot. There are X marks the spot marks on the road to mark the places his car was when he was shot, somewhat macabre. We then did the museum which is in the 6th floor of the book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald shot from if the official theory is to be believed. A very interesting bit of history, something that happened when I was very young & well before Pete was born but still something we both grew up very aware of.
Pete's back was chucking a hissy fit so we then headed back to the room to get that massaged, do some emails etc while sampling some Vermont ciders we picked up while shopping at Target, as you do lol
My massage did the trick so after a shower we headed off for a night out in Fort Worth Stockyards. It's very much a cowboy part of town, lots of cowboy hats & boots. Much to Pete's delight the standard uniform for the girls was short shorts, skimpy top and cowboy boots; his new fave look lol
There were horses and riders engaged in a rodeo, free concerts, loads of steak restaurants, country and western bars, a number of boot manufacturers shops and a generally very up beat, fun atmosphere.
Along the way in our wanders we patted some if the horses in the rodeo and did a lot of people watching.
We went to Billy Bobs, the worlds largest honky tonk bar. It is massive with multiple bars, pool tables, arcade games, restaurant, performance areas and even a bull riding ring! One of the bars had a lot of signed guitars presumably by we'll known C & W stars, Leanne Rimes was the only one we recognised. In the restaurant they had hundreds of signed hamburger buns all mounted & proudly displayed lmao bizarre!
In furtherance of Pete's American food education we had ribs & chilli cheese fries for dinner.
Heading back to Dallas we got stuck in a 30 minute traffic jam. The roads here are worse than LA, we expected the whole spaghetti junction look there but its by far more prevalent here with a lot of construction going on creating yet more fly overs.