Skip to main content

A visit from the parents

I suppose it must be some kind of growing-up rite: the first time your parents come to stay with you, rather than you descending on them, hoping for some home-cooking and maybe a few clean clothes. Apart from a brief overnight stay in Bristol, this was the first time that I was entertaining Mom and Dad in my own home - and the first time for Graham entertaining his in-laws! All four of us had a really good time.
This will be a brief photo tour as much as anything, because we managed to cram a lot of stuff into a mere week. Most of the places that we went to have had previous entries on this blog, anyway, so if you want more pictures of the scenery you can always browse backwards till you find what you're looking for.
The first couple of days Graham and I had to work, but Mom and Dad walked to the Botanic Gardens and Modern Art Museum and along the Trinity trails. I had the morning off one day so took them into downtown to see the water gardens and other sights - here's Mom and Dad at one of the water features there.


On Good Friday we went to Granbury, which has a well-preserved town square with some interesting shops, and then on to Dinosaur Valley State Park. It has the obvious attraction of real dinosaur footprints and quite a lot else to recommend it as well - a pretty river, an extensive network of trails through woods and streams, and some preserved prairie.

By the Paluxy River



Real dinosaur footprints!
Real dinosaurs, too!
Out on the trails - in a dried-up creek bed


Graham took Dad on a tour of the American Airlines workshop on Saturday; Mom and I, being somewhat less interested in dismantled aeroplane parts, stayed at home and made hot cross buns.
In the afternoon we did the obligatory tour of the stockyards, complete with "cattle drive" of half a dozen sleepy-looking longhorns with almost as many cowboys to accompany them.


In the evening we went to a production of the Easter story by Travis Avenue Baptist Church. They'd rented a fairly large auditorium and it was a really spectacular production - a full-on musical with a cast of about 100, all written and produced by the church. The following morning we went to one of the three Easter morning services at St Andrews Episcopal Church, which was almost as spectacular in a rather different way - robed choir singing choral arrangements of the Easter liturgy, and excerpts from Handel's Messiah. It's still hard to get over just how many resources the churches here have.

We did an overnight trip to Caddo Lake, after some debate about whether to go or not because it was raining (raining? in Texas???). It was semi-sunny and just about the right temperature for canoeing, however, and we had the lake pretty much to ourselves as we meandered around between the cypress trees and spanish moss.


Coming home we drove past several Sonics ("America's Drive-In"), which concept intrigued Dad somewhat, so we stopped to try one. Basically you drive into a bay where there's a menu posted on a board. You choose what you want then press an intercom button to order, pay by slotting your card into the appropriate place, and a few minutes later a girl comes along with a tray holding your drinks. Personally, on a long car journey, I'd rather get out of the vehicle for a bit, but it's always interesting to engage with another little bit of the American culture.

On Tuesday Mom, Dad and I took the TRE to Dallas, and saw some of the sights there, including the bronze longhorns (which looked a lot more lively than their flesh-and-blood cousins in the stockyards!), the JFK memorial, the McKinney trolley (restored tram), and the Thanksgiving Chapel, which has a spiral roof inlaid with beautiful stained glass. This is Mom and Dad at the JFK memorial.

And some of the longhorns.
Mom and Dad enjoyed seeing where we live and what we do, and we enjoyed showing them around our new little bit of the world.
PS Our washing up is missing you - come back soon!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Greece is the word! Part 2: Epidaurus

For the first part of our Greek holiday, see here . Day 4 - continued After much waiting around, we acquired a hire car and set off for the second part of our holiday. I am so glad that Graham can get into a strange car in a foreign country and drive away with no problems. I would be a nervous wreck. Even Graham was a little spooked by the Athens traffic - very narrow lanes crowded with cars and buses, and mopeds zipping in and out of every available gap. I had left Google Maps set to "avoid tolls", which meant that we stayed off the fancy new highway and took the old road towards Corinth instead. There was practically no traffic, so although it was slower, it felt very relaxed. We passed hills, hotels and oil refineries. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies and drank Green Cola at the beach over the road. Crossing the Corinth Canal at Isthmia, we started heading south through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The sky had been growing darker and darker, and...

Greece is the word! Part 1: Athens

The last few times we have been on holiday, my family has asked, "Mum, are you going to blog about this one?" It's felt like an overwhelming task. For a start, we now have FOUR phones with photos on, rather than one digital camera. Also, I regularly write quite long blog posts about three-hour walks. How on earth will I summarise a full week's holiday? But this time, I thought I should try. It's one of the most enjoyable holidays we've had in a while, and I've definitely done too many Peak District posts recently. Everyone needs a change of scenery. So here we go, jetting off to Athens. Day 1 We landed at Athens airport in a looming thunderstorm, but the worst of the rain held off until we'd made it safely to our apartment. Graham had earmarked a nice little restaurant called Lolos for dinner - eating shell-on prawns in tomato sauce was a deliciously messy experience - and we went to bed early after our 3am start. Day 2 Next day we climbed Philopappos ...

Derwent Valley: Derby City and the Derwent Pilgrimage

It was 8 am and I was already hayfeverish, headachey and hot. Why on earth was I setting out to walk through the middle of Derby, when I could be up in the hills of the Peak District? No one was forcing me to do this section. I could skip it entirely. But I knew I wouldn't, because this was the next part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. And besides, I had a suspicion that it would be better than it looked. Alvaston Park was certainly a good start. It's a wide sweep of green grass and mature trees. I used to come here quite often when the boys were small. I was glad to see some of the planets were still there - although Mars has had a lot of feet standing on it, I think. Here's a tiny Toby in 2013 with Mars... ... and a more battered Mars today. Alvaston Park I kept off the roads for a while by following a cycle route. Even when I joined the traffic, it wasn't bad. The factories and office blocks had roses outside. This road, now the A5194, used to be the A6 coming in...