Days 30-33 (June 1-4): Dallas/Fort Worth/Euless, Texas

I spent June 1-4 visiting friends in Euless, Texas, which I gather is somewhere between Dallas and Fort Worth. After four weeks of bouncing from hotel to hotel, I was 'tired of packing and unpacking' (extra bonus, and maybe even a tacky souvenir t-shirt, to the first person who can identify that quote in the comments. And don't cheat; i.e., upon your honour, you can't google it...) Being welcomed in someone's home, eating great home-cooked meals, putting a dent in a wine fridge, watching hockey in what seemed like a Laz-ee-boy and not having to figure out public transit was lovely. And much appreciated.

DFW did yield two significant surprises:

- the extent of the cultural infrastructure in both Dallas and Fort Worth. Oil barons seem to be tripping over each other to fund museums, art galleries, opera houses, theatres and performance halls. There is an Arts District in Dallas (museums and halls) and a Museum Quarter in Fort Worth, both of which span several square blocks.  We visited a few of these galleries, notably the Anon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, which was featuring works by Romare Bearden, African-American artist of some renown, offering an interesting take on Homer’s Odyssey, as well as the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, which included a few Rodins and many, many Nathan Mabrys.  Here are elements from a 6-statue work by Mabry entitled 'B-E-A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E':

- there is a thriving wine industry in Texas. I tried several homegrown wines, mostly Mediterranean varietals (similar climates), and was more than pleasantly surprised. Most of the restaurants we visited prominently featured Texas wines.

And restaurants we did visit.  Given I was not dining alone, I could obviously not take notes, so a thumbnail sketch of some of the better ones will have to suffice, rather than my usual witty commentary:

- Charlie Palmer's at The Joule in Dallas.  We had a couple of glasses of (Texas) wine; it was my first time at a Charlie Palmer restaurant.

- Stampede 66 in Dallas, one of several area restaurants run by Stephan Pyles, who seems to be one of Dallas’s premier restauranteurs, or at least of one of the busier ones.  The restaurant’s business card and website give the best description of its menu: ‘modern Texan cooking’.

- Tei- An, in the Dallas Arts District, a lovely Japanese restaurant, which features both sushi and a mix of imaginative noodle dishes.

- Lanny's, in Fort Worth, which offers a higher-end take on Mexican cuisine.

Overall, a nice change of pace after four weeks on the road.

Random comments:

- After at least six years of faithful service, I finally had to put to rest my Alexander Keith's satchel bag, which has accompanied me on every major trip since 2007. A hand-out from, I think, the Highlander Pub, it had served me well and hopefully will find some rest in a DFW area dump.

- I faced the first real hiccup of the trip, as Visa cancelled/suspended my card. Evidently, some fucken weasel in Maine tried to charge $3500 worth of software on my card. I guess Maine is Canada's equivalent of Sunnyvale Trailer Park.