Killing Time in Texas

Laura and I began our car trip to Dallas on a Wednesday.  The earliest I could pick up my new puppy, Lilly, was Friday but Laura had some concert tickets in Dallas for Thursday night and we did not want to rush.  I figured we would spend Thursday shopping.  I always have a list of items I need from the big city whenever I get to go to one.  However, it turned out we did not have any time for that.

We arrived during the dinner hour on Wednesday night so Suzanne and Heath ordered gourmet take out to eat at their apartment.  It was delicious we had two appetizers and our choice of two pizzas.  Heath even had a bottle of my favorite wine on hand.  To reciprocate, I made point of requesting a sausage pizza to share with Heath and Laura.  Suzanne says Heath likes eating vegetarian meals with her but I think it is possible he'd like to eat some meat every once in awhile.

Suzanne showing off the best pizza of the night- Mushroom.
We also had whipped Asiago garlic knots and
goat cheese fondue with red pepper jam.  I could have
just made a meal of the appetizers.  I am now on the hunt for
a red pepper jam recipe.  

The next day Laura and I headed to Waco Texas to meet some Houston friends.  On the way we stopped for kolaches from the Czech Stop in West Texas at Heath's suggestion.  We ordered a dozen different kolaches because we intended to share them with our friends.  

A picture of a raspberry and cream cheese kolache,
a lemon kolache and me.  

I was very excited to arrive at Waco to visit the Silos (shown on the HGTV show Fixer Upper) because our friends and former neighbors Debra McHaney and Sara Nowak were going to meet us there.  We enjoyed visiting the Magnolia Market, garden center and the food trucks at the Silos but it was so hot we needed an indoor place for lunch.  We found the Twisted Root Burger Company which in addition to having good burgers offered boozy shakes.  It was a wonderful lunch between the great company, good food and Creme de Menthe and chocolate chip shake.  

Picture taken by one of the many friendly employees at the Silos.
I lost track of the number of young people who asked us if we needed help finding
some place to go, if we knew about the daily special shopping offerings, or
if we were interested in hearing some recommendations from them.  

When we got back to Dallas for the evening, Laura and I went out to dinner with Suzanne and Heath and then the three girls went to the Pentontix concert at the Dos Equis Pavilion.  

Our appointment to pick up Lilly the next day was at 11 am.  I thought that would allow for a relaxing morning.  However, we decided that we could squeeze in a visit to the Dallas Zoo instead of an extra cup of coffee.  Suzanne works at the Zoo.  While there I met some of Suzanne's office mates and...

Elephants

Zebras

and Hippopontami among other animals.  

I was having such a great time I did not even have a chance to get impatient to finally meet our new dog Lilly but finally the time had come.