Stockyard Station

I already told you about our trip to Stockyard Station (read my earlier blog), but wanted to add information about it. It used to be the biggest & busiest livestock marketing center in the Southwest. They sold cattle, horses, mules, hogs and sheep. It is now a 125-acre Historic District, although the livestock auction is still operating there & they have an office in the historic livestock building. There are now restaurants, hotels on site, saloons, galleries, shopping & family entertainment.

I told you about our GPS self-guided tour, but you can also book a guided tour through the Visitors Center. It is a walking tour & includes a video about the history of Fort Worth. They have daily cattle drives, as well as several musuems. You can also take a ride on a restored 1896 steam-driven train. There are several gift shops & restaurants to choose from (see my blog to get info on the ones we chose). That's it...just a little more info to give you. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Travel to Texas

Never did get to finish my blog about Texas yesterday, so here goes. On our third day there we drove to Plano to visit the Heritage Farmstead Museum. It is the former home of sheep farmer Ammie Wilson. This Victorian homestead was built in 1891 & there are gardens, old barns & other out buildings along with farm animals. There are self-guided tours on Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 10am-2pm. Docent-guided tours are Thurdays and Fridays at 10am, 11:30am & 1:30pm as well as Saturdays and Sundays at 1pm & 2:45pm. Admission is $5 for adults, $3.50 for students & seniors, and children 4 and under are free.

Front of Victorian homestead



One room schoolhouse Another home on property

Barn with old vehicles Indian camp



Some of the farm animals Smokehouse

Outbuilding with cellar View of side of house look

We went on Friday but was too late for the last guided tour at 1:30, so we called ahead of time to see if we could still do the self-guided tour. They said it was OK but when we got there we were not able to go into the Victorian home because it was locked. We were able to go into some of the outbuildings but another home on the property & the one room school house were also locked. So I suggest if you want to do the self-guided tour you need to go on the times stated above. Apparantely there is a country store with handmade crafts and gifts but we never saw that & none of the staff there ever approached us or spoke to us. Anyway, it was an inexpensive outing for the day & the kids liked running around & playing (even though they complained the whole way there "no more old stuff...nothing historical").

My friend, Flor, used to live in Dallas & her husband made her promise she would bring back some food from a local Chinese restuarant that they used to eat at. They would go there at least once a week, so it is a definite local favorite. Not sure of the exact "city" it is in, sort of North Dallas & I think it is Reynolds or Reynoldsville (starts with an R anyway). It is on the corner of 15th & Greenville & the name is First Chinese BBQ. BBQ??? Yes, & it is excellent!

When we walked in the door there were whole roasted ducks hanging by the neck in a display case (reminiscent of the Christmas Story), along with roasted chickens. Chinese woman were cleaning vegetables out in the dining room on one of the tables & the menu showed it was truly an authentic Chinese restuarant. There were items I would never dare to try, but a wide variety was available for those of us who liked safe choices. There were 8 of us & we ordered Orange Chicken, Roasted Chicken, BBQ Pork, noodles with seafood, mixed vegetables, Chinese brocolli with Oyster Sauce & several other dishes. The food is served family style in big bowls & the food is placed on a lazy susan in the middle of the table so you can easily try all of the different dishes. I was totally amazed at the speed that our food came out...I am honest when I say we had ALL of our food within 10 minutes (if not faster). It was not cooked ahead of time but was freshly prepared & it was the best Chinese I have ever had! All of the food came to around $58.00 which feed all of us plus we had plenty of leftovers to take home. So if you are ever in the Dallas area & want to find a great local Chinese, you must try this!!!

Oh, & there is a Chinese bakery next door with fresh items baked daily. We purchased big pastries filled with custards, coconut fillings, & onion & meat...all awesome! So try it out & let me know how you enjoyed it. Well, I need to go eat my breakfast...hubby is home today & he cooked sausage gravy & biscuits..yum.

The Stockyard Station in Ft. Worth, Texas

Wanted to add these extra photos for Stockyard Station. Read my blog about The Stockyards for more information.

The Stockyards in Ft. Worth, Texas

Good evening everyone! I finally get a chance to sit down & continue my blog about traveling to Texas. Like I wrote yesterday, we arrived there last Monday. Tuesday was a relax & unwind day after driving almost 900 miles out there.

Wednesday we drove to Ft. Worth & visited "The Stockyard". It is an historic part of the city where cattle was brought to be sold at auction & loaded on trains. There are a lot of shops & restaurants to choose from, so the first thing we did was go eat lunch at Risques' BBQ (not exactly sure if that was the name) but close. (If any of you know the name & need to correct me let me know.) They have all you can eat BBQ Ribs plus a variety of great options to choose from. They even have BBQ spareribs on the kids menu which I thought had a better flavor than the adult ribs. My son did not want the kids meal, so I ordered him the kids spareribs & ate them myself. My son ordered a combo appetizer which had cheese sticks, corn fritters, BBQ shrimp & stuffed jalepenos. He loves shrimp & spicy peppers so this was a great option for him. Surprisingly he liked the corn fritters which is rare because he does not like corn, but he liked these. I tried some & I have to say they were some of the best corn fritters I have ever had. What really made the ribs tasty was the BBQ sauce which has great flavor with a touch of sweetness. The restaurant also had great decor & ambience....so we recommend this for your next visit.

After eating lunch we headed to the mechanical bull where two of our group decided to give it a try. My son was one of them & half way through he looked in distress but never yelled out for them to stop. He was finally thrown off but apparantely he obtained a slight muscle pull & limped around with a stiff leg for about an hour, but not long after that time he was off and running again. The cost for riding the bull is $5.00 per person, so a little pricey seeing that you spend less than a minute on the ride, but for a kid to get to be a cowboy for a brief moment it is worth it.

We then went to the Visitors Center & purchased a self guided tour for our group. For $15.00 you receive a GPS system which guides you around the Stockyard & takes you off the main road. As you arrive at each location on your tour it tells you the history & even has videos & photos that appear on the GPS screen which brings to life things that happened in that very spot. Since it is self-guided we were able to go at our own pace & hit some of the museums & gift shops along the way. In the Livestock Exchange building there is a musuem that is free for kids & adults are asked to pay a $2.00 donation. In that musuem is a light bulb that has been burning, without ever being turned off, for over 100 years. They even have T-shirts about the lightbulb, which my son just had to have.

After hitting another gift shop, to buy the all important cowboy hat, we finished our tour. One of our last stops was Billy Bob's, the largest Honky Tonk in the world?, or at least the country. It is a kid friendly place with video games, pool tables, food, etc. The only problem is it is not smoke free, it is a honky tonk after all, so take that into consideration before taking your kids. Regardless, it was a nice place to sit & relax. There is a $1.00 cover charge to go in but it is free with the tour. One of the last parts of the walking tour was following the footsteps of Bill Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, so there was a lot of history we would have missed if we had not had the GPS system with us.

The tour took us several hours so by the time we were done it was time for dinner, so we decided to eat at Habenero's. This restuarant has only been open for a couple of months (it used to be Risky Rita's). The service was excellent & the food was great. It is really fresh, original Mexican which was a nice change from what we get in Georgia. So I would also recommend this if you are in the mood for Mexican.

Well, it is late. Tomorrow I will try & finish up with the trip to Texas & will be telling you about an authentic Chinese place you MUST go to if you are in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. So sign up to be a follower of my blog so you don't miss it.

Travel to Texas

Well, I broke down & went to Texas with my friend & her children last week. We left Georgia after church last Sunday afternoon & stopped in Vicksburg, Miss for the night. We stayed at the LaQuinta & were very happy with the hotel. We had stopped earlier at a rest area & picked up a hotel coupon book & was able to get the room for $69.00. I believe this hotel would have cost at least $90.00 without the coupon. You can pick up hotel coupon books at any rest area & sometimes Shoney restaurants & save on your hotel expenses when you are traveling. Last year I was able to get a Courtyard Marriot for $48.00 a night, so really worth the effort. The LaQuinta was brand new with interior corridors, granite in the bathroom, hugh flat screen TV, bistro style decor, quilted comforters plus the normal micro/fridge, free Wifi, etc. They also had a great breakfast with an expanded continental style but also had bacon & sausage, yogurt, eggs, belgian waffles, etc. So if you are ever traveling through Vicksburg & need a room make sure to give the LaQuinta a try...we highly recommend it!

The next morning we left Vicksburg & drove into Texas. We stopped at the Texas Visitors Center (rest area) & were impressed with what it had to offer. It has been voted the best rest area in Texas & deserves the vote. They have a great assortment of brochures & travel guides, a video viewing room & very nice restrooms. So if you are driving into Texas on I-20 make sure you stop & check it out.

We then continued on to Aubrey, Texas which is north of Dallas. My friend I was travel with has friends there & we went to stay with them. They both work for American Airlines, the husband is a pilot & the wife is a flight attendant. They have a beautiful home on 25 acres so it was very restful.

Well, it is late. I will write more tomorrow about our trip & the things we did while we were there. Good night!