Waco and hushpuppies

Waco was a bit of a spontaneous stop on the way back from Dallas so -again- no camera but i felt it was was still a blog-worthy experience. First of all, we had dinner at an establishment set along the Brazos River called Buzzard Billy's. It was busy, seemed very local and had a big deck to sit on. Here's a pic stolen from flickr:

Right below the deck in the river there were literally over 50 or so turtles and whatever kind of fish scrambling for crumbs of biscuits thrown to them by restaurant patrons. As if this wasn't entertainment enough, I was enjoying a tall 5-rum Hurricane, and THEN the food arrived. We had to try the beer-cheese soup, which was surprisingly delicious. And with my Cajun combo plate, I had experienced for the very first time a REAL hushpuppie! Those things you get at Long John Silver's are garbage I tell you! A real hushpuppie, as it turns out, is a southern gastronomic delight.

Any how, the next morning we explored some more of Waco, which is home to Baylor University and actually a bit of a college town. We found a sculpture garden in a Waco tourist brochure (it was between that and the Dr. Pepper museum). Here is one shot I liked from G's phone of me entering a tall door to nowhere:


No, we did not try to find the Branch Davidian Compound.

Dallas

I went to a dysphagia conference in a town on the outskirts of Dallas called Hurst - partly as an excuse to see a bit of the northern part of this gigantic state, partly for cheap continuing education credits (oh and learning!). Gino and I drove up (5 hour drive) but we both forgot our cameras. So here's a couple shots from his phone:





After my morning conference, we drove into downtown Dallas to the Arts district and got to check out a really nice free gallery exhibit, the Crow Collection of Asian Art. Here's Gino in front of a huge ballpoint pen drawings by IL LEE.

Not exactly what I imagined my first "Dallas experience" to be like, but a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.