A Weekend Away, sort of...

Doug and I planned a weekend getaway so we could have one before Terah had her baby (due very soon!), since she and Mike and Audrey stayed here with the boys. They all had a lovely time! However, Doug and I had a billion things planned for the same weekend, so we didn't go far. He had earned a bunch of Marriott points so we used those on a hotel in the West End and played tourists (2 miles from home, ha ha!).

Rather than spend money on parking (and to not waste non-renewable resources) we took the DART light rail from City Place Station to West End Station and walked a block or so to our hotel. The weather was beautiful!
We checked out our room, figured out where everything was, then headed out to dinner. I had a Restaurant.com certificate for the Butcher Shop Steakhouse, which was behind our hotel. See? this is the view from the pool.

Anyway, we walked around there, and opened the door. We were greeted by the manager and several employees who were wrangling a giant vacuum. They explained that they were closed for the night (on a FRIDAY!!) because they had a flood. They suggested their other restaurant, just down the street, RJ Mexican Cuisine. Well, Doug's not a fan of Mexican and we both looked dubious. I asked if we could use our Restaurant.com certificate there.  He said we could AND we could order steaks from the steakhouse menu and they would bring them over! I decided this was fair enough, and not too inconvenient, so we gave it a try.

We were seated quickly, and brought two menus: the Mexican food one, and the steakhouse. Now, after I saw the Mexican menu, I realized this was no El Chico. It had some of the most delicious-sounding entrees I had ever seen. (altho, I admit when I'm hungry, whatever I'm eating is the best food I've ever had). After looking both menus over to mix and match our entrees and sides and salads, Doug decided on a filet with grilled asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes. I chose a filet stuff with crab and spinach on a port wine reduction, grilled vegetables, and garlic mashed potatoes. I had a Negro Modelo with mine, too, since we were at Mexican restaurant. Doug chose sangria...bleck...too sweet. I also had a dinner salad, but it was ordinary.

Our food was so pretty, I took a pic. It was darkish in there and I was using my phone, so the pics aren't awesome (like my OTHER pics...ha ha)
 My food : I chose this from the Mexican menu. I thought the crab and spinach stuffing of this would be the yummiest part, and it was good! Large chunks of crab, with still-crisp spinach leaves, but no. It was pretty good, but the port wine reduction was good enough to lick up. The steak was cooked perfectly, too. The garlic mashed potatoes had HUGE chunks of roasted garlic throughout. They were unbelievable!!

Doug's food. I didn't taste his food, but he ate almost all of it, so it must have been pretty good!!

We went back to our room after a walk around to get our food settled. We had breakfast at the hotel, went to the Bodies Exhibit (not worth $25) then no lunch (ack!!!). We headed back home via the DART, for William's dance performance. This was at the Lakewood Arts Festival, at Lakewood United Methodist Church.

Waiting nervously

William and Ava

Dancer-slash-landscape architect

After that, we took the boys back to the house, Terah came back to watch them again, and we went back to our hotel. We kinda chilled out a while, then went to the pool. I swam a bit, but Doug thought it was too cold, so he sat on the chair and watched.  We went for some dinner, and came back to the room for some movie watching.

The next morning after breakfast we headed back home for a while to give Terah a break. She came back at 4 so we could head to a former student's wedding! Look what a beautiful bride she is!!

Then we headed home! And that was our weekend away!!