travels in texas

so, here is the long awaited post with pictures!! about my travels in texas. instead of writing all the details about the trip, i'm going to let the pictures tell most of the story. i'll add some captions under each so you know what in the world is going on (as if you aren't going to be able to tell from my fantastic photographic skillz...mad skillz people...mad skillz and clearly, just because i spelled "skills" with a "z" really illustrates my amazing photographic abilities;).

yay!! my awesome friend, andrea, picked me up from the airport and was my host while i was in texas. she let me crash on her couch and we just had the best time shopping, laughing, getting lost, and visiting our favorite places in good ole' dallas. our first stop from the airport...before lunch or anything...was at sam moon. i mean, we have priorities, people ;). andrea and i found some fabulous deals and made some outstanding purchases. ohhh. i love me some sam moon. :)

the next day, cari, andrea, and i had some girl time. your eyes do not deceive you...this is, in fact, a video. it was not supposed to be a video and if you watch it, you will realize that poor andrea and cari had no idea they were smiling and posing for video instead of the camera. if you listen closely, you can hear me saying, "oh no, i'm recording a video..." classic amy photography skills, people...classic amy. anyway, we were eating lunch at one of our favorite mexican restaurants, chuy's, after a morning of trying on bridesmaid dresses. nothing solves the problem of strapless tops and tafetta like queso and homemade tortillas. you should try it sometime, really.

















after our lunch at chuys, we did a little shopping (swoozies) and had dessert at sprinkles. yuumm.

(unfortunately, i somehow missed taking pictures on thursday but we had a very thrilling day which included trying on wedding dresses, some more shopping, and having dinner with my incredible friend, stephanie.)

now, back to the pictures...

so after living in dallas for 4 years, i finally made it to the dallas world aquarium. i have to tell you, after 4 years of wanting to go...it wasn't as exciting as i had built it up to be. don't get me wrong, it's great and all but.......it just wasn't what i had imagined all these years. there were more birds and other animals than fish (which confuses me because they call it an aquarium but anyway). but the penguins and the flamingos were neat to get to see.

while i was walking through the aquarium, actually walking down some stairs, i realized my flip flop kept coming off (i almost fell down the stairs). i couldn't figure out why it wouldn't stay on my foot until i looked closer...yes, that is right...in the middle of the dallas world aquarium, my flip flop broke. remember how i said there are more animals than fish? well, there is a huge portion of the aquarium that is like a rain forest with birds that fly around and bugs and things (it made me kind of freak out on the inside because you feel like something could just land on your head) and it's not the type of place you just want to walk around barefoot. so, i did what any girl who is afraid of stepping in some unknown substance created by some animal in her barefeet...i worked very hard to keep that flip flop on my foot. i basically had to drag that foot around and not lift it up. we're not even going to talk about how ridiculous i looked dragging my foot and broken flip flop around the aquarium but what is a girl to do? we checked the gift shop and they didn't have any flip flops. (i would have bought anything at that point if they would have had them.) no worries, though because we left the aquarium and i was able to find some new sandals at the gap.

oops. we're a little lost here. after our stop at the gap to rescue my foot (i have such foot/toe/flip flop issues, don't i? i wonder why?) we realized we were lost. now, that is andrea smiling at me because 1) it's just what we do (the two of us)...we get lost almost always when we're together. the street sign picture is to illustrate that we needed hillcrest but somehow ended up at boedeker street. go figure. at least we weren't in the scary mary part of dallas this time (been there, done that. it's no good).

hey...look!! it's hillcrest!! fortunately, we weren't lost for too long and we were so very thankful for that. that friday evening i had to be at lake lavon to participate in a women's ministry retreat with cari's church. so, it was important that i was on time. i made it on time to the retreat and i only have on picture from the retreat...which is a FABULOUS picture of cari but i promised it wouldn't go on my blog (unless cari gives me permission).

after the retreat, i visited the church where i worked while i lived in dallas, prestonwood, and then quickly caught a plane back to charlotte and my sweetie (it was really hard leaving him after being engaged for only 2 days before i left). i had such a blast visiting my friends in dallas and just being in that city..there are SO MANY things i love about it and am always, always glad to go back and visit.