The second part of our vacation is a stay with my dad in Dallas (well, more accurately, Plano), Texas.

July 11th, Thursday

We had a 5:30am hotel shuttle to SeaTac airport, but successfully navigated that complication, and boarded the flight. We arrived in Dallas Love Field – I haven’t flown into that airport in years – and went to rent a car. We got back to Dad’s place slightly before 4pm, which worked out well for his 4pm meeting, and I talked with Lisa about what we should do for dinner.

Since it is Lisa’s birthday, I thought we would go out to a nice steakhouse, but she said that she was tired of eating out, and wanted to cook. So we headed out to H-E-B where she deliberated over the amazingly cheap steak choices, and went back to make some rice and steak dinner. She also cooked up a salmon filet for dad. We couldn’t find dad’s rice cooker (I had bought a Japanese rice cooker for him a long, long time ago) but dad’s neighbor came by, saw the lack of a rice cooker, and brought over hers. We returned it the next day.

We opened up a nice bottle of wine from Chelan, and had a great dinner.

The plan in Dallas is to take it easy, and do one or two things a day, a great reduction from our hectic pace in Washington, and what we expect to be a hectic pace at Disney World.

July 12th, Friday

According to plan, we had a relaxed day. We went swimming at the local Plano Parks and Rec pool in the afternoon, and had dinner at Joe’s, dad’s favorite Italian place. Kenneth joined us for dinner.

July 13th, Saturday

We actually had something planned today – since we had so much fun at the WNBA game in Seattle, I got us tickets to the Dallas Wings vs. LA Sparks game. It was an afternoon game, and by chance, also the Pride event for the Wings – the game we saw in Seattle was the pride event as well. The game was down at UT Arlington, so about 40 minutes from where we were. We had cheap seats, but they were still a good view of the game.

I like the Pegasus mascot / logo for the Dallas Wings. It was a fun game, and close until the end, but the Wings lost. They also lost in Seattle, so that was consistent (had they won, we have have been consistent in picking the home winning team).

After we got back, we had dinner at Chuy’s, with dad’s friend Paul and Jay, the person working on the shelving in his house, joining.

July 14th, Sunday

We didn’t have too much planned for Sunday, but first up was a haircut at dad’s barber. Dad, myself, and Alan all got multiple hairs cut. We came out looking pretty good!

In the afternoon we went down to Jay Jr’s house and went swimming at his pool with Jack and Dylan. Alan and Momo both thought this was the highlight of the trip – well, Alan also said looking at dad’s 1954 Hudson was a highlight, but we didn’t even pull it out of the garage or get in. I’ll have to try to make sure we can drive around in some of the older cars next time.

Dinner was Pizza at Jay’s, and all the kids had a good time. It was a great day!

July 15th, Monday

Today was my day to work. So I spent the morning hours getting through email and doing some work. Things went well. I got two of the most important things that I needed to do done, but didn’t make much progress on two things that were lower priority. That’s ok; I’ve schedule time to work on them when we go to San Diego when they become critical priorities. I wish I was able to completely disconnect during my vacation, but there are a few things that I need to get done during the month. Still, I’m doing better at disconnecting this time than I usually do!

After dad finished his meetings, he asked if we want to have lunch today at Cafe 43, the restaurant at the Bush Library on the SMU campus. It’s his favorite place to eat on campus, and we usually end up there at least once when we come and visit. So we drove down to SMU and had a nice lunch there.

This whole trip Alan has been eating off of the adult menu. He’s had some good stuff! He chose the same thing as what Dad always gets, Mrs. Bush’s favorite sandwich. I had the pulled pork BBQ sandwich. It was all good.

We went back home, and I did some more work.

For dinner we went to Yukihana Kaitensushi, a new place (though most places are new to me now). It was a nice sushi dinner, but not my favorite place in the area. I liked Tokyo Shokudou better.

July 16th, Tuesday

Today was another relaxed day. We got a later start, and at leftovers (we had collected quite a few by this point) and then went out to see Inside Out 2 in movie theaters. Before doing that, Momo and Lisa played out in the backyard with bubbles. They also checked out the 2019 cement where we put hand prints.

For dinner, we went to SaltGrass Steakhouse. I had their Texas Dip, like a French Dip but with more steak. Lisa and Alan had nice steaks. It was good!

After we got back, Alan wanted to see the Hudson Hornet, so we went out to the garage and poked around there. Next time we’ll have to see if we can get some of the old cars out and running! It’s a tall order in the Texas heat, we really should try to come at some other time of year. Hard to line up school breaks for that now though.

We did the laundry, and I stayed up later than I wanted to with Dad watching the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

July 17th, Wednesday

I got up at 6:30am and folded clothes, then packed. We all managed to get packed and get in the rental car by 8:30am, and made it to the rental returns place a bit after 9am. We got through security fine, and had a bit more than half an hour to wait at our gate for the flight to Orlando, and on to the third segment of our 2024 Summer vacation: Disney World.