Dallas – Day Two – April 2017

Day one hadn’t really involved much. I’d planned to get in to Dallas around lunchtime and a police stop added about an hour on to our journey, by the time I’d checked in and stuff it wasn’t worthwhile doing much else before grabbing dinner with Amber and Macie before a few drinks followed. You can read more about that here.

Anyway, the next morning allowed me a chance to get my first real glimpse of Dallas and find my bearings. From a tourist point of view there isn’t huge amounts to do in Dallas so I didn’t have any major plans for my time in the city, my visit was based around visiting friends.

One of the few things I did know about Dallas was that it was the location of the famous JFK assassination so I decided I’d start my day with something JFK related and visit the JFK memorial.

Don’t bother!

Everybody interprets art differently but I just didn’t “get it”.. It’s an eye-sore and walking up to it you wouldn’t have a clue what it’s a memorial for. The USA has some incredible memorials but this isn’t one of them and I found it a real shame. I’d gone to see the memorial and instead my eyes were drawn to a pretty building across the street. The memorial was such a disappointment!

My plan afterwards had been to visit one of the museums which had been recommended to me – the 6th floor museum which overlooks Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated but I’d had enough JFK disappointment for one day and decided I’d have to have a re-think. In the end I opted to go to Dallas’ aquarium instead.

The aquarium was busy, I think there were a few school groups on a day out so I felt like I spent a chunk of my time there trying to hurdle children. It was alright but not the best aquarium I’ve been to. When I visited Atlanta a year earlier, its aquarium proclaimed itself as the best in North America and I’d have to agree Atlanta’s was better than Dallas’. It’s still a good day out for the kids though.

Following on from a bit of time at the aquarium my attention switched to lunch. For those that have followed my travels you’ll possibly know that I’m a bit of a Hard Rock Café fanatic and in close vicinity of the aquarium was Dallas’ own HRC so it seemed a good lunch spot.

Unfortunately the HRC had other ideas, they were closed to the public due to a private party! I didn’t even know you could do that! Consequently it meant I wouldn’t be adding Dallas to the list of Hard Rock Café’s I’ve been to, I suppose it gives me an additional reason to return to Dallas though!

Seeing as I wouldn’t be eating at the HRC I contemplated where else I could go and decided I’d try find somewhere close to where I’d had dinner last night as there seemed to be a few places in the area.

On route I passed one of Dallas’ weirdest points of interest. The good thing about exploring on foot is you tend to see a lot more and I was taking in all of the views when I felt like I was being watched! Something on the opposite side of the street caught my attention – a massive eye ball!

I’d only passed it by chance but had to cross the street to get a better look, you can’t get particularly close to it but it was interesting nonetheless. Swiftly moving on eventually saw me arriving in to the Dallas area known as “Deep Ellum”. I passed the bar we’d eaten at the night before which was perhaps on the outskirts of Deep Ellum because once you get in to the heart of the area what you’ll find is street art everywhere!

It was quite the surprise! The whole area is full of art covered walls and murals. I was in amazement at the amount of art in the area on street after street after street. It’s an area you HAVE to visit in Dallas, particularly if like myself you’ve got an interest in seeing street art when you travel. I allowed myself to get lost for what felt like ages – every time I thought I was finished admiring it I’d spot another mural on the next street along.

My favourite piece was probably the proposal. I spotted a wall with “I LOVE YOU” written in massive writing and then on the corner of the wall a sweet little message asking the girl to get married. I thought it was such a clever idea and hopefully wasn’t wasted with a rejection! If anyone knows, please tell me she said yes? Haha.

My street art admiration had completely distracted from my original intentions which were to find food! Eventually I stumbled upon a pizza place called “Serious Pizza” and it felt a pretty apt name. This was a serious pizza! The size of the slices were huge! I ordered a slice and it was still bigger than I’d anticipated! Two hands definitely needed!
Serious pizza wasn’t just serious about its food, the local area had obviously offered some inspiration and the walls were covered with their own murals which I thought were pretty cool! My favourite being the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles inspired piece.

Having spent my afternoon trawling the area admiring the food and the art I popped in to one of the bars in the area for a drink to kill a little time before meeting up with Amber later on. The plan for the evening was a quick trip to Oklahoma!

Something that had come up in conversation at dinner the night before had been that I’d never been to a casino! They’re not common in the UK, I’m not sure why really as you can place a bet on just about anything here. Going to a casino sounded fun but the UK wasn’t the only place with a lack of casinos, gambling laws prohibit Texas from having them so we were contemplating driving up to Oklahoma or over to Louisiana and in the end we found ourselves driving up to Durant, Oklahoma.

It wasn’t a huge drive, an hour or so perhaps. Amber and another friend, Lanie, came and met me in Dallas and then we made the drive up together. It was fun to go on a mini road-trip together and cross the state line too! The car ride included Lanie introducing us to the famous musical “Hamilton”.

I knew of it but I’d never listened to it so we spent our trip up to Oklahoma listening to the first half of it and it won me over pretty quickly. It is something I’ve listened to a LOT since coming back from Texas and I’d definitely go and see it live so thank you Lanie!

Soon we were arriving in to Durant’s big casino. I always anticipated I’d visit a casino some day but it was always more likely to be Vegas if anywhere. Vegas I expect to be wild, big, noisy, lively. This had a very different vibe to it and felt more family-focused.

It was still fun but most of the other visitors seemed of an older generation. I took out about $20 I think and that was pretty much my limit. For me it was really the equivalent of playing the 2p machines you get at seaside resorts in the UK. You put your money in until it’s gone and that was pretty much my thinking here – spend the $20 until it’s all gone.

Had I won huge I wouldn’t have complained but I pretty much stuck to the $0.01 machines so there weren’t exactly huge rewards anyway. It was a fun time and I’m glad I’ve had my first casino experience. Vegas is still very much on the list but I think the need for more casinos in the UK isn’t something that would particularly bother me.

After leaving the casino we made the slow drive back to Dallas, taking a little detour through some more rural parts of Northern Texas. Amber gave me a little tour of where she’d grown up, went to school and even the town she worked in now. It was pretty late and consequently dark but it was still cool getting to see this small part of Texas and putting an image to the places I was vaguely familiar with because of Amber.

By the time they dropped me off at my hotel it was pretty late, silly o clock in the morning so I made my way up to my room and we said our goodbyes. It left me with just one full day left to enjoy in Dallas. Stay tuned for more on that!

Jason