Holiday Lights and Art

 

One of the must see places during the holiday season is the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine and their awesome displays. Above is the view as you come into the hotel lobby and it is at least four stories of beautiful lighting.

And Below is one of many tree displays of multiple colors and sizes throughout the hotel common areas. Even the Riverwalk part of the hotel is decorated with thousands of lights for the season.

Also in the lobby area but not quite in the holiday spirit was the guy below ... hey it's Texas.

Then over at the Chamber of Commerce we saw this really creative bronze sculpture reflecting many aspects of the winemaker's art and product.

Turning around from the above picture you get this view of the Chamber's wonderful staircase and beautiful seasonal displays that took a lot of time and care to put together.

Later in the evening they closed the main street of Grapevine and we strolled around with several thousand other folks and listened to carols and gaped at the decorations. They actually had a snow machine blowing plastic snow over the top of this business below.

And finally they synced the fireworks to the singers as they did several more carols and it was quite impressive.

We also had dinner at Farina's on Main Street, so it capped off a really festive time in the neat little town of Grapevine.

Airstream Appetite

 

You would assume that for those of us who live, eat, and sleep in an RV of some sort that looking for another RV to eat in would be out of the question; not for us crazy travelers.

 

In Addison is a restaurant called Ida Claire where we have eaten before, however, in their normal table and chair section. Well, they also have an Airstream trailer on the property where you can eat, so we thought it would be a hoot to surprise our Canadian visitors by reserving the thing for lunch.

 



Above are the nutty hosts as we got ready to enter the dining room. And below snuggled into the psychedelic patchwork quilt interior after we were served our brunch. We had the entire thing just for the four of us.

Jeanette and I had the duck confit and Jo-Anne and Morgan had the chicken waffles. The trailer had both heater and air conditioning and the day was about 60 and breezy, hence the jackets and sweaters ... but still comfy.

On the eclectic menu below you can see the neat variety of food items and the description of both the duck confit highlighted in red on the left and the chicken waffles in the red square on the right; both the ultimate in comfort food. Shared of course with some Mimosas and Bloody Marys to blend it all together, eh.

And the ubiquitous sign which often adorns other rigs in the RV travel world, but not a lot of rocking while we ate and talked.

 

Our guests were truly surprised by this different venue and we all had a great brunch.

Cowtown

 

 

On Saturday we hopped the Grapevine Vintage Railroad and rode the hour and a half down to Fort Worth. The 1890's coach car was really decorated well for the season.

 

However, you have to notice the purple window coverings .... well. Because the train would go next week on their special Santa run of 12 minutes duration and the entertainment would be inside after dark, they covered up the windows with this decorative plastic stuff.

 



They forgot to realize that before that the train would have several of the longer, day runs, to Fort Worth where the customers were paying $26 a head to see outside for the hour-plus ride each way. After several folks walked out and demanded their money back before we departed ("we didn't pay to ride on a subway"), the balance of the unruly mob took matters into their own hands (finally management capitulated and let us rip) and peeled the pretty stuff off the windows. Here's Morgan, Jeanette, and Jo-Anne as we joined the ripping party.

The balance of the trip was quite nice as we were able to see out and we arrived at the Fort Worth Stockyards of international fame.

We strolled around the shops and bought some cowboy/cowgirl themed things and then went up Exchange Avenue to the old Stockyards Hotel to take a break from our tough day.

Inside the 100+ year old hotel as we sipped some nice wine we could really put our brains back that 100 years to what it might have been like; here's Jo relaxing on the cow-sided chair, looking pretty regal indeed.

As we walked back to the train depot the cowboys had rounded up the longhorns for the daily cattle drive down Exchange Avenue just as they had done in times past and what made this cattle to train shipping depot so important.

And lastly, everybody knows the famous western cowgirl called "Cowlamity" Jane, eh.

Then back on the comfortable train ... with windows we could see out of ... and returned to our lake spot on Lake Grapevine ... super day and lots of fun!

Home in Grapevine

 



We initially arrived in the Dallas area and stayed at the Sandy Lake park to be close to the kids as I did the wall construction. Below is the charming view of a typical lot at that park in Carrollton ... its only redeeming value being the closest park to downtown Dallas.

 



 On the 6th of November we motored about 15 miles northwest of there to the totally charming town of Grapevine and its first class park called The Vineyards ... gotta love just the naming of the place. So the picture above is about 10 in the morning shot from the front window of the Flying Scotsman and the one below is the view at about noon on the same day as we hooked up in our new location.

What a change! And that is the reason we still are doing this RV thing and loving it; you can change your whole scenery and mental outlook within a couple of hours and take your living quarters with you.

The Vineyards campground is on lake Grapevine which hosts a huge population of creatures and the view from our yard on the beach in the evening, sitting in the rocker with a glass of wine, is beyond awesome.

We'll stay here until the 6th of January to get through the holiday season and have already begun plotting our next adventure after that down the "road less traveled."

The Great Wall of Leigh

 

I've been promising Leigh and Brooks that we would put up a partition wall in their house for the last few years. So upon arriving in Dallas I decided that the time was right. The wall will create an office and laundry room off the kitchen and get the clothes operation out of the garage.

 

Above, grandson Everett holds his ears and Brooks takes pictures of my effort to make a straight cut.
Then the top and bottom plates are laid out where the wall is to be erected.

Below, the thing is starting to take place. Because I already had a compressor, I rented a nailer to speed up the process ... what a change to the old banging nails and thumbs.

And then the wall really started to take shape. You can see what the long "bowling alley" living room was like and the reason that a wall was a convenient step to break up the space.

Here's Jo-Anne the pro slamming in nails at the speed of sound. Her next appearance will be on This Old House to replace Tom Silva, eh.

And the inside of the wall where the new laundry/office will take place. We'll leave the wall board off for right now for the electrician to run a couple of outlets inside the wall and then board it up.

And the view below from the new, smaller and more practical living room.

Not having a house of our own this was a fun project like we have done several times over the years. It took about 5 days to do with about 5 hours per day. Actually on day 5 I got the wall plastered and primed and it looks pretty good. Leigh should have the final paint coat on today.