Jack is short for Jackopher: Dallas, day two

Alright, day two! 

I again tried to stick to a schedule, and we were meant to leave the house at 8am, because the Dallas World Aquarium opens at 8:30 and I wanted to get great parking and have the aquarium mostly to ourselves, since it was early on a school day. But Rhyann took forever to get ready. I didn't make a horrible deal about it, since it was their birthday, but it was aggravating, and I did remind them to be mindful of their time management. 

I had not slept very well, as Derek woke up at 5am with an internal stye, and he was miserable. I was up for about an hour and a half rying to figure out how to help him, so I was a litttle sleep deprived and kind of grumpy. Lack of time management is still a pet peeve of mine, but I'm glad I at least didn't explode about it. Like I did at Derek the day before. :/

We did get great parking at DWA, though!! I think all around, our trip to DWA was a great success. I haven't yet gone through my camera macros from the aquarium, but I'm not expecting much. 

He's so handsome!!! Derek stayed here taking bird photos for a good long time. No word yet on if any panned out. 

That front birdy rushed right up to me to  make friends! And that tiny little black and yellow bird would not stop harrassing the toucan, which I found delightful.

Taking photos of the friggin' bats. I fucking love that man so much. 

After Dallas World Aquarium, it was time to eat, so we found an Indian restaurant calld Shivas. Within reasonable walking distance of DWA. 

The vibe was pretty immaculate, and it smelled fucking AMAZING. Alex didn't order anything, not even to go (she got curry from Jinya to eat at home the night before), bu that didn't stop the rest of us! She did eat one piece of naan and loved it, and I mean. 

Rightfully so. It looked incredible. 

Our server came out and took our orders, and of course asked us about spice level. Derek and I usually order things at a medium to gauge how spicy shit is. Rhyann went and ordered their dish att an 8, which I marked as bold, but the future would tell us it was not bold at all. Derek asked our server how spicy they get their food at, they said a 5. We ordered our appetizers att a 4, in case Alex wanted some, Derek got his food at an 8 as well, and I got mine at a 5 thinking maybe Alex would eat some later and if it was spicy, she wouldn't want it. 

The onion pakora. Delicious, but not spicy. 

The Gobi 65. Again, delicious but not spicy. It was very mouth warming, but nothing to write home about. My chili oil is spicier. 

Derek's order of something or other, at a spice level 8 that he reported was weak heat. 

Rhyann's order of lamb something or other that they similarly reported was a weak heat. 

My order of matar paneer that was so not spicy that Alex could have gobbled up every last bit and not noticed. I DID, however, have a fun reaction to the parsley! There was a fuck ton in there, and I had to stop eaing it when my mouth got ichy and my eyes started watering. 

The rice! Lovely color. Also no heat, but that was intentional. 

After Shivas, we went back to the apartment to take a nap, and then get ready for Rhyann's 21st birhday bash dinner at Uchiba. 

Now. 

Derek and I get really excited to share food experiences with Rhyann. Alex likes to eat, she loves our food, but she's not into it like Derek and I are. And that's cool, no shade at Alex. But Rhyann has expressed interest, so we want to foster that. We had been agonizing over where to take Rhyann for their 21st birthday dinner. Not just because 21 is a big birthday, but because it had to be great food. We looked though restaurants for MONTHS and we finally landed on Uchiba. We figured that Rhyann loves sushi, and tapas is a great vehicle for food exploration, and Uchiba is both sushi AND tapas, so like. Boom. Perfect place! And boy fucking howdy was it ever great. 

Well, great looking to me. I didn' get anything other than shishito peppers. On the house, because the house felt bad about my dietary restrictions. 

Alright, here we go. Uchiba. I will do my best to remember what each item is. 

hey did have a vegan/vegetarian menu that they brought to me, but I didn't take a picture of that. 

I THINK this is the zero sen makimono? Hamachi, avocado, shallot, and cilantro. Nobody is around for me to ask, dammit. So I'm guessing. EDIT: Rhyann is nw awake and has informed me that this was actually a scallop roll. 

Too obvs, that's unagi. Both Rhyann and Derek reported that their sauce was especially delicious, though they did call it a fish caramel instead of eel sauce. Kind of disconcerting. 

sake and akami...

My on the house shishito peppers! Which were fucking DELICIOUS. 

Alex's wagyu skewers with potato medallions and aioli, so you know it's fancy.

Brussel sprouts that Derek and Rhyann reported as being totally fucking amazing. 

I believe those are pork dumplings? I am not positive, but I think that's right. 

Agedashi tofu. One of my absolute favorites. And I couldn't have any. :(

Pork jowl. It says it is adorned with a spicy gastrique, but I don't see it. 

Unagi, sake, akami, shime saba. Mackrel. My fucking sashimi nemesis. I've had it at ONE place where I loved it. One. And everywhere else I fucking hate it. 

Rhyann ordered the prawns, and it came with heads! What a treat! Rhyann did not opt to suck the brains out as Derek and I suggested. I think they said the little eyes freaked them out. Rhyann is saying right now, "it was the face, honestly, its little face. I know they have a face when they're alive, but I just can't eat the face". 

I shake my fist at the sky over mackerel!!! 

I believe this was fatty tuna belly and I think sea bream? Rhyann is telling me right now that the assumed sea bream is sharkskin flounder. 

Pork bao. No way are we ever anywhere with this as an option and Derek doesn't order it. 

karaage with kimchi caramel. CARAMEL. 

I believe they ordered another pair of unagi, because obviously. Eel is too fucking good. It was always my favorite thing to order. When I lived in Vegas, I lived down the road from a pretty decent sushi place, and my first time going there, I didn't know an order was 2 pieces, so I ordered 12 pieces thinking it was only one each. Nope. It was 24. But they turned it into this gorgeous dragon for me. That really was an excellent consolation prize for my sushi novice embarrassment. 

Uchiba's ACTUAL shishito peppers, not the freebie ones tthey made special for me. Rhyann and Derek agreed that these peppers were trying too hard, and my peppers were way better tasting. 

The pho dumplings that Derek said he wished were a bit more pho-y. 

I believe this is the 72 hour australian wagyu. 

Now, I do  not think that Derek or Rhyann got dessert. If they did, I do not know about it, because sometthing in that restaurant smelled like cat food, and it was making me nauseated as fuck. I had to leave. Alex left with me. 

When Derek and Rhyann were done, we got ready to leave, and Derek asked me to take a picture of he cars waiting at the valet. 

Not because he's a fan of cybertrucks, we all think those are stupid as fuck, but for whatever those oher two cars are. Lamborghinis? I don't know or care. 

We drove me to Jinya so I could get my dinner for the evening (I had Jinya literally every night we were there), and then went home to play Cards Against Humanity for a couple of hours. An all around good day, I believe!

Jack is short for Jackopher: Dallas, Day One

In expected of me fashion, I am writing these blogs after we've been home for two days. It was a short, whirlwind trip, and kind of stressful due to bodies being vile betrayers, but we'll get to that. First, day one. 

We leeft an hour late, which is always a thorn in my fucking side, and never fails to fucking happen. I saw this reel on Insta about giving your partner space because we have different kinds of time blindness and in the end, it isn't really that serious, and in theory, I think it not ultimately being a big deal is accurate, and I am prety positive that Derek and I do have different kinds of time blindness. In practice, though, it is a hard transition for me to go from "we need to leave by 8:30!" to "well, whatever time we leave is cool I guess". I mostly want to leave on time because I fucking HATE letting AirBnBs/hotels/VRBOs get any money for free, meaning I want to occupy that space for every single fucking second I have paid for it. I have always always always gotten enraged over the idea that you don't even get a full 24 hours in a place if you book for one night, so I despise letting anybody get a second of my renting time as easy money. I'm gonna be in there the entire time, god dammit. But like...unless I'm traveling on my own, my timelines are almost never met. Moving on. 

We left at 9:30ish, maybe closer to 10? We had gotten gas and road snacks and everything the day before, so once the car was packed, it was go time. Long car trips with Derek are one of my favorite things. The kids pretty much tend to themselves in the back, I think Rhyann was watching movies or a show, and Alex slept or played her game, so Derek and I just chatted, like we always do. I love talking to my husband. I especially love when we see ridiculous shit in the clouds together. Exhibit A:

Derek said it looked like The Birth of Man, I think it looks like someone backpacking and reaching out to touch some moss. 

We made pretty great time, all things considered. We stopped at the first Allsup's we noticed, Derek ran in to see if they still had their amazing empanadas, and they fucking did. I was an idiot and didn't take a picture, and I'm kind of kicking myself for that now. Every time that Derek and I would make the back and forth trek to either pick up Alex from Colorado Springs or drop her off to her dad for visits, we would stop at the Allsup's in Texline for their bean empanadas. They were absolutely magical. When we were sharing the empanadas with Rhyann on the drive to Dallas and describing the amazing delight of them from Texline Allsup's, I told Rhyann that I think the Allsup's we would always stop at was a place that existed outside of time and space, like a magic bubble stuck in the 70s, so everything we go there was magic. I told Rhyann that the outside was super outdated, the inside was super outdated, they had older gas pumps, and they kept kinda weird hours, so it wasn't hard for me to imagine that time froze this little building to keep things perfect in the world of fried road food. But when I went to look up the Allsup's, it didn't look right. So obviously I had to get to the bottom of this and find the right one. I really thought it was the Allsup's at Texline, but I was wrong. It's the Allsup's right ouside of Amarillo.

Imagine my fucking disappointment seeing the bones of my treasured, stuck in time Allsup's had been thrown out of time and tossed into modernity. Our run down Allsup's is now a YES Way, with modern gas pumps from Valero. It is the same building, but it isn't the same. Well. It exists in that pocket for us still. 

We hit traffic right outside of Dallas, as we expected, but we still arrived at our AirBnb at 5:30, which is only an hour and a half after our check in time. Now, I will say that I am very opposed to AirBnB for several reasons, but I had like, 400 bucks in AirBnB credits that I had to use or lose, so I booked through AirBnB. Our place was cute enough:

This was Rhyann's room and bathroom. I did not realize when booking that there wasn't a universal bathroom, and the bathrooms were in each bedroom. Kind of inconvenient for Alex, and we had a small issue with having to remind Rhyann to keep their door open. Alex told me privately she was uncomfortable having to ask for permission to get into the bedroom to go into the bathroom, and I understand that, and I will admit I was fucking irritated that Rhyann just...kept their door open a sliver. Derek and I were talking about how Rhyann would have reacted if the situations were reversed, and we feel fairly certain they would not have wanted to have to ask permission to enter a room to use the restroom, and would have quietly told me that Alex kept closing her door. Of course that's just conjecture and we'll never know, but we both felt fairly certain that was an accurate assessment. 

This was the bedroom Derek and I stayed in. That bed was horrendously uncomfortable. 

This made me laugh pretty hard, I was not expecting it at all. And I believe that the people who own the apartment didn't really expect it, either? It was turned around like they were embarrassed to have a Taylor Swift as Jesus candle, and I only noticed when I was photographing the aparment and went to peek at the mirror a little closer. I put it back in the hidden way I found it. 

Our little patio! Rhyann invited me outside to see a few of the coyotes wandering around during the evening, which was lovely. 

This is where Alex slept, she said she didn't want to pull out the bed and was happy to just sleep on the couch, she said it was super comfy. Great for her. 

The kitchen! Where we were bombarded by sugar ants!!! They ate all of our donuts. I say our like I had any donuts. I did not. 

The living room/dining room. We played Cards Against Humanity the second night we were there. The space was all around fine. Suited our needs, was just full of ants and the furniture was uncomfy. 

After we dropped all of our shit off, we relaxed for a little bit before going to Jinya. Derek and I were worried that Jinya in Dallas would be like Jinya in KC...not great, and a waste of our money. We were delighted by this Jinya being very good. 

As I've said each time, Ramen IS all the craze! They are so right!

Derek got a lychee martini and reported that it was middling. 

Derek got himself and Rhyann a Jinya bun, his favorite appetizer there. There is a picture down below of Derek eating his bun with joy and gusto. 

So in Denver, Derek and I got this appetizer of tempura brussels, and they were...like...eh? Mid is generous. We ordered them again to give them one more try and like...they were so much fucking better. We really enjoyed them this go around. 

See? As promised.

So, because I can't eat noodles, and because I can't have sugar, I have to get all kinds of super special sides and asks and I feel like a total asshole everytime I have to ask for my special bullshit. So there is my ramen bowl, sans ramen, with bamboo shoots, bok choy, cabbage, and broccoli. And that shit is literally 40 fucking dollars. Because those toppings are 2.50 - 4.00 each. And it's a fucking racket. A racket that I kind of had to eat every single night we were in Dallas. 

There's Rhyann's ramen, and I believe they got the Jinya Black pork charsiu ramen because it's Derek's favorite and he suggested it to them with great fervor. 

And there's Derek's. Both of them fucking loved their ramen. Rhyann really liked Jinya, and Derek and I were super excited to take them to Jinya, so we were glad that they enjoyed it as much as we hoped they would. 

After Jinya, we went to Sprouts so I could pick up snackies for myself, some konjac noodles so I could have dinner while we were in Dallas, and then we went to Voodoo Donuts. Rhyann has never been to Voodoo Donuts, Alex loves Voodoo Donuts, and it seemed that it made a great deal of sense to take them there. 

This sign delighted me. 

They've really upped their vegan donut game! Back when we lived in Texas, I would hit up Voodoo Donuts every time we were in Austin because not a lot of places had vegan donuts. They didn't initially have a lot, though, so I always go their voodoo dude donut. Love seeing the expansion of options for vegans! Do keto vegan next!!! I miss donuts!!

Here's Alex's Diablo Rex donut....

...and Rhyann's voodoo dude donut. 

All around a successful day! But long. Derek and I flirted with the idea of picking up Cards Against Humanity expansions that night (we have so many expansions a home, so we would have had to buy the ones we don't yet have), but we were way too tired. So we all went into our separate corners, and that was day one!

Up next, Dallas World Aquarium!! For Rhyann's 21st birthday!!