Sunday, March 15, 2009

Bathroom Breaks

I don't know what it is about traveling, but taking bathroom breaks need to be made into a science. As I am spending about 2 solid days on a bus going down to Florida, I have had time to reflect on this issue. First, you start drinking water. Then, you stop to get coffee. Then, you are back on the road again and are in dire need of using some facilities. I'm not sure what it is, but once you realize you have to go to the bathroom, there is some kind of chemical imbalance that happens in the brain which makes you think you are actually more thirsty with a full bladder. I am going to blame this on an overactive hypothalamus. There has to be some correlation between buses and the hypothalamus.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Dallas Tidbits...

I recently took a trip to Dallas, Texas. I was kind of hitching a ride with my family because my brother-in-law, Mitch, was attending an annual swine conference. My mom and sister went too. Here are a few of the highlights of the trip:

Highlight #1: The food.
My mom and I are officially pros at finding the best restaurants in town…well, in walking distance of our hotel. Food favorites include a grilled salmon salad, EatZi’s (because of the awesome food and super fun atmosphere), and finally a fun cafĂ© for breakfast with great coffee. All of the places we went to had outdoor seating…so we took full advantage of that! Our last stop was in the big KC. We ate at a fun breakfast place where there were a lot of business people having meetings. My favorite part was when Kate politely thanked an innocent customer for the service thinking he worked there. I was rolling for a while over that one!

Highlight #2: Catchin’ up on the zzz’s.
Kate and Mitch’s hotel was about 4 miles away, and I might add that they had the free parking ramp. So we (my mom and me) had to be dropped off at night before they went to their dinner outings. It seemed fine, but now that I write it out...Yea, basically our chaperon. Without out a car, we couldn't really do much besides go to dinner that was walking distance of our hotel and then come back. After those long days of walking everywhere, we were alright with cashing in early. One night we brought back some delicious food and wine and ordered Slumdog Millionaire. It was awesome!

Highlight #3: Zoo & Museum Day
. Our day started off with some cloudy weather, so we headed to the 6th Floor Museum (JFK). It was super interesting and I learned a lot. Then, as we headed out, the clouds cleared and the sky was beautiful with the sun shining! We headed to the Dallas Zoo and enjoyed some tours, awesome animals (My favorite was definitely the Zebras!), and the sunshine!

Highlight #4: Luxuriously small gas station restrooms. Need I say more?

Highlight #5: “Very Important” things that you pack but somehow don’t even use. I am admittedly one of the worst packers and don’t enjoy any part of it. There is always the stress of forgetting something, or realizing you have to pay up the wazoo for some dumb item you already have. This time, I had floss and mouthwash I used once (I’m not ashamed), 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of jeans, 3 shirts and one pair of sandals I didn’t even touch. I also brought about 4 books--read about 10 pages in 1, skimmed another book, and didn’t touch the others.

pictures still to come....