The Adventures of Me & Mom - Paris, Texas

Sometimes you just gotta get in the car in go.  So we did.

I had a clear calendar and my mom did as well.  So one Friday, we met at my house and took off for a day trip to Paris, Texas.  Why? you ask.  Well, why not?

We had no agenda, nothing specific that we wanted to see nor had we done any research (a mistake on my part).  We just wanted to go.  We were on the road by 11 and headed North on 75.  Just past McKinney, on Sam Rayburn Parkway (which is still under construction, by the way), we headed East.  Paris is in Lamar County (which we always hear about in the weather report) and about 100 miles from Dallas.

We passed through small towns like Trenton, Bonham and Honey Grove.  There were miles and miles of ranches and tractor dealerships, it was amazing but we were loving it.  There were several buildings we passed that looked so run down they were abandoned but then...maybe not.

Mom was amazed that several of these ranches had "cows in the front yard!"  It was pretty interesting.

But that got us to thinking...What do people do for a living in these small towns?  Do they drive to Frisco to work at the Toyota offices?  And what happens if they need to "run to the store"?  No such luck!  It wasn't like there was a Kroger on every corner.  You really have to plan ahead if you're going to live out here.  And yet, we were intrigued....

We were in Bonham by noon and I asked Mom if she wanted to get lunch and she wanted to wait.  Every Cowboy romance she'd ever read had a small town with a local café where everyone went.  We'd driven by lots of ranches and she wanted to see if Paris had that café.

Turns out, it did!

This is the Roadhouse Family Diner where they have home cookin'. 

Mom soaking up the atmosphere.

We were promptly greeted with, "Sit anywhere you like, Hon."  Then we heard our waitress say goodbye to Earl with the declaration that she'd see him tomorrow.  We were in that place five minutes and I was thinking that I wanted to spend the day just observing. 

 

So I know this is sideways but do you see what I see?  Roadhouse trash can nacho chili cheese fries?  I felt my hips widening just looking at the description.  It says "sharable" but I gotta tell you, I came real close to making that my lunch. They also had a salad or two that I considered for about two seconds.

Instead, I got an equally (un)healthy yet delicious option of popcorn shrimp, corn, green beans and mashed potatoes and brown gravy.  My rationale was that I was getting lots of veggies (corn, green beans and potatoes) and fish.  It looks like chocolate sauce on my mashers but no, it is a delicious brown gravy.

Mom got an open faced roast beef sandwich (which reminded her of her mom) with fried okra, corn and mashers and gravy.  Based on the yummy noises coming from her direction, I'd say her lunch was pretty tasty.  It was a lot of food and neither of us finished but we were both wishing we could. 

Our next stop was the "Eiffel Tower".  You can't have a city named Paris without having the iconic tower, right? 

Well, here it is, with a little Texas flair.  It's a replica and not that tall but it's still pretty cool.

The tower was right next to this very cool Veteran's War Memorial (Red River Valley Veteran's Memorial).  It was quite moving.  There were benches that represented families and the names of those who served along with which war were engraved in the stone.  There was one family that had someone serve in each war in one branch of service or another going back to WWII.

 The inside of the memorial was similar in design to the WWII Memorial in DC. But this memorial was for ALL wars.  It went from the Texas war of Independence (when it became a Republic), through Afghanistan and the global war on terror.  It was very moving.

After the war memorial, it was on to historic downtown Paris. This is the Culbertson Fountain.  It was dedicated in 1927 by Mr. & Mrs. JJ Culbertson whom I'm guessing donated the fountain.  There's Triton on the top as the water spills into the lower basin. You can't really tell from afar.  And when you get close, it looks like a baby Triton.  Still, it's peaceful and beautiful to sit there.

This is the R F Scott Building.  It was built after the 1916 fire. I'm not sure what it was used for but it kind of looks like a bank.

This is the Grand Twin Theater, which is right next to the R F Scott building. 

This is looking up Lamar Street in downtown Paris.  Some of the buildings were being used as restaurants and shops but there were several that were just empty.  That made me sad.

I dropped Mom off in the square with the fountain and took a walk.  This is the historic post office.  The actual post office is in another building further up the street.

This is the First Methodist Church.  It's not quite on Church Street.  It's on the very edge and directly across from the old post office.  The building is quite impressive.  I wish I could have gone in side...

Welcome to Church Street.  This is the First Baptist Church.

This is the Cumberland Presbyterian Church established in 1844.

This is the Episcopal Church

Holy Cross Episcopal Church to be exact.  I like the covered walkway.

This was a pretty amazing house until I realized it was a funeral home.  It is conveniently on Church Street.

At this point, I'd been gone about 30 minutes and I was thinking that my mom might be worried but no.  She was hanging out in the town square, people watching and just enjoying the day.

We wanted souvenirs.  A t-shirt, a magnet, a key chain, something!  Yet, we didn't see any stores that had anything like that.  There was a Wal-Mart but who wants to go there?

We drove around a little more, taking random pictures from the car. The downtown "meaty" part of Paris was a bit run down but a lot of towns are. 

We were looking for the Coca Cola Bottling Plant that we'd passed on the way in and came across this abandoned area.  You can see the plaster giving way to the brick.  I bet some hipster could turn this into something very cool.

I wasn't sure if this area was occupied or abandoned but I thought it looked like it had the potential to be something really interesting.

When you got out of that area, there was an eclectic mix of older homes that needed a little love and big estates that were huge!  There were homes that had porches that wrapped around the entire house.  Mom and I were dying to knock on the door and ask if we could look around.  I'm guessing the answer would have been "Get off my property". 

When I got home, I did a little googling and saw that I missed a lot of cool things to see.

Still, all this is in Paris, Texas and it's only 2 hours from here!  I can't wait to go back...

Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

As many of you know, I travel a great deal for work.  If you've followed me in the past, you know that I've been to some pretty interesting, if not "off the wall" places.  Every time I've been assigned to a new project in a place I've never been, I try to walk around a bit and Winnipeg was no different.

First of all, I find that I'm a "stupid American" (my term, not theirs).  I know nothing of Canada other than they won't stamp your passport (but I'm not bitter....or am I?)  I found out that they have Provinces which are the equivalent of States here.  There are ten provinces in Canada:  Alberta, Manitoba, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.  Winnipeg is in Manitoba.

When I was asked to join the project, my first question was "How in the heck do I get there?"  As a rule, living in Dallas, I use American Airlines as that's the main way in and out of DFW.  But in this case, American doesn't go to Winnipeg.  Now what?

Turns out, I have to fly another airline.  Delta.  You may have heard of it.  They have hubs in Atlanta and Minneapolis among others.

There are not a lot of flight options to Winnipeg but I found one and got there.  I was there for three weeks (not in a row).  My first week I stayed at the Radisson.  Our client is in downtown Winnipeg and I'll be honest, there wasn't much to see.

I had heard it was freezing there so I brought my coat and a bunch of warm clothes but my first week there (in September) was very pleasant.  In fact, people were pointing and laughing because I was wearing a coat.  Ok, no they weren't.  They're Canadian!  They are too nice to point and laugh but you know they were thinking it!

My first day, I walked all over the place.  We all know I love anything historic. This is the Holy Trinity Church Anglican that was right next to my hotel.  It was erected in 1885 and, inside, has memorials to those Canadians who died in World Wars I and II.  I wasn't able to go inside while I was walking around.

 

This is the Masonic Temple, which was completed in 1895.  The city is considering giving it "historical" status despite the fact that it's supposedly haunted. Hmm....

This is the Calvary Temple Tower, which was completed in 1894 as part of a large Baptist Church.

 

This was an interesting photo.  It's a mural of the St. Regis Hotel painted on the side of ...The St. Regis Hotel!  I think this was what it looked like when it first opened.  It doesn't quite look like that now.

The Canadians are sooo nice.  Even their buses are nice!  This bus was headed back to the garage.  So it tells you that it's "Not In Service".  But then the light blinks

And the bus apologizes.  Seriously?

This is St. Mary's Cathedral. It was built in 1880.  It's one of two Roman Catholic Cathedrals in the city of Winnipeg.

This would be a lovely sunset from the window of the Radisson.

This cool looking building is a bar (and possibly a restaurant) that is behind the building that I work in.  My colleagues on this job are not very adventurous and so, we have not tried this place.  I'd stop in after work but this time of year, if you don't get into the tunnel/skywalk before six, you have to walk outside.  And it's cold.  Not just "ooh, it's chilly, i need a sweater".  It's more like "holy hell, I can't feel my legs!"

This is another cool building that is behind my office building.  It's a day care center.  That's right.  A day care center, right next to the bar.  Drop your kids off, and go have a drink.  Those Canadians sure know how to work the system!

My second time there, I stayed at the Delta hotel, which is a Marriott product.  This place was very nice.  This is my room. 

I even had a balcony where I could step out and look around.  Unfortunately, the day after I took this photo, this happened.

Holy Mother of God!  It was barely October!  In Dallas, it could be 70 degrees or it could be 50 but never has it been 38 degrees in October!  At least my fancy hotel had heated floors in the bathroom.  Oh yeah!  That was so nice when I got out of the shower and when I had to get up at the crack of dawn and it was freezing outside.  I wish I'd thought of heated floors when I remodeled my bathroom.

Well, at 38 degrees, I wasn't leaving my room to get food so I checked out the room service menu.  Who in the hell puts pumpkin seeds in their guacamole?  Any why would you ruin a good avocado by putting feta cheese in it?  The nacho offering was even worse!  They had corn and some other un-nacho like ingredient.  I stuck to the grilled chicken.  They couldn't really mess that up.

The next day, this is what I woke up to.

Snow was everywhere!  Luckily, Winnipeg has this system of skywalks and under ground malls so that the amount of time you spend outside is at a minimum.  From my hotel, I could pick up the skywalk.  Granted it was a round about way to get to the office but I was in a climate controlled area most of the way there.  Then for five minutes tops (which is enough to chill you!), I was outside long enough to cross the street to the underground mall. 

 

You could get lost in there if you weren't careful.  In fact, I did.  I had to go to the street level to figure out where I was!  Anyway, if you walk through the mall, you are, once again, out of the weather.  In fact, by the time I got to the mall, I was sweating because I was wearing a sweater and a wool coat!  I had to step outside one more time for about ten minutes to get to our office building.

 

If you leave the office after 6pm, all the other office buildings, which is how you get to the skywalk, close.  I found that out the hard way.  I had to walk to my hotel outside in the cold.  My only consolation was that it was a more direct route.

The next trip back, the city was gearing up for the holidays.  This is in front of my hotel.  The decorations were pretty cool.  The weather was brisk.  Not so cold we couldn't walk to work...

Until the next morning and I was faced with this.  But I'll be honest.  As long as I don't have to live there...it's a nice place to visit.

 



Tour of Ballparks - Episode 1: Fenway Park, Boston

This started several years ago when we were in New York.  By chance, we went to a Yankee game at the old Yankee stadium in the Bronx.  It was so cool, all that history.  Then a year later...it was torn down.  I was crushed!

Since then, I've been concerned.  What if they start tearing down ALL the old ballparks?  I mean, Globe Life Park in Arlington is only 25 years old and it's done, history, yesterday's news, well, you get the point.  Now, we're on a quest...a mission from God...to see a game at all the ballparks before they are swept away by bigger and better stadiums.

As it happens, it's our 19 year wedding anniversary.  (I know, right?  We are old!).  We decided to book our first ballpark adventure in Boston.

Now we've been to Boston before.  We've even been to Fenway but it was only on a tour of the ballpark, which was cool.  This time, we were actually seeing a game.  When we bought the tickets, the Red Sox were in the hunt.  By the time we went, it was a meaningless game.  You wouldn't know it based on attendance...

We walked to the park from our hotel.  Coming around the corner, the anticipation builds...

And there it is....

For a meaningless game, the place was packed!  The stadium is over 100 years old, the oldest stadium and the fourth smallest ballpark in the MLB.  Attending a game there is amazing.  They block off the main street along one side of the park.  They have street vendors there and you can go into the stores...it's a party!

The street party...

The pre-game ceremonies...

These seats are tiny!  I'm not a tall person and my knees were pressed up against the seat in front of me!

And here we are, waiting for the game to start.  The required selfie...



The Red Sox were playing the Baltimore Orioles and it did not start off well.  The first pitch was hit for a home run by the O's.  It just went downhill from there.  The final score was 9-4 Baltimore.  Meanwhile, here's what I learned about Fenway Park:  If you want a monster dog, you should get it when you see it. We only saw them at vendor stands outside the stadium.  Don't wait until the 6th inning to get food.  John wanted a footlong (the Monster dog was not available) and they were out!  Who runs out of hot dogs at a ballpark??  In the end, we both got an Italian Sausage that was so good it made up for the lack of footlongs!

 

*** 

 

We actually got into Boston the day before the game.  One of us was really excited to be on vacation.

That would be John...

We stayed at the Hilton/Fanueil Hall which was a great location.  We were within walking distance from everything.  We got an upgrade to a top floor room.  It was nice.

We had a great view from our room.  You can see Boston Harbor.

The Barking Crab on the waterfront where we had lunch.  At 3pm, there was a 45 minute wait. That should tell you something.

For an appetizer, we got this yummy crab dip.  Oddly, it had diced tomatoes in it.  It was really good and we ate it all.

Then for my entrée, I got the pan seared scallops that were incredible.  John got a lobster roll that was equally as yummy.  After lunch, we walked around that neighborhood and saw a climate change protest. 

I'm not sure if Greta Thunberg was there but the streets were blocked off, people had banners and bullhorns...it was a full on protest.

 

The morning of the game, we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel and then walked around the harbor before heading toward the ballpark.

This is the way to the harbor.  On the right is the Boston Harbor Hotel.  That place is amazing.  The last time we went to Boston, we splurged and stayed there.

This is over by the Aquarium.

Just past Fanueil Hall, they had this cool sign.

On the way to Fenway, there was this beautiful creek in the middle of the city.   

You can't go to Boston and not get chowdah!  After our decadent Italian Sausage, that was all I had room for.  As expected, it was delicious.

The next morning, we got up early, grabbed some coffee at Dunkin', which is on every corner (I'm not kidding!) and then headed to one of the many parks to sip coffee and enjoy the day.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  It was fantastic.  This is Christopher Columbus Park.

This building is next to our hotel.  The upper floors are apartments.  That fire escape is the balcony.  I would have loved to go into one of those apartments to see it.  Living there is not cheap.  I saw an ad for an apartment, 500 sqft, for $2,300 a month.

The plan for the day was the Freedom Trail.  "Hear ye, hear ye...the next tour..."  This guy was hawking tours in a goofy British accent.  We passed and did our own tour.

The trail starts in the Boston Common.  Established in 1634, it's the oldest public park in the nation.  It's a beautiful, peaceful place where people hang out and nap. 

Overlooking the park is the Massachusetts State House, built in 1798.  It's closed on Sunday and is still in use.

Next is the Park Street Church, established in 1809.  The 217 ft. steeple used the be the first thing travelers saw from the harbor.  We didn't go inside as they were having church service.

Not far from the church is the Granary Burying Ground.  It was established in 1660.  This apartment building is right up against the gates of the cemetery.  It was a little odd but I bet you couldn't ask for quieter neighbors.

Several of the nation's most famous citizens are buried here.  Paul Revere, for starters.  Also buried here is Samuel Adams (he didn't just make great beer, he also signed the Declaration of Independence!), Benjamin Franklin's parents, the victims of the Boston Massacre and Mother Goose.  That's right, Mother Goose.  She was a real person.

You can't really read the stone very well but it says Mary Goose.  She was married to Isaac Goose and had 10 kids!  When she died, Isaac married Elizabeth who had 6 kids.  It was Elizabeth Goose who published nursery rhymes in the paper.

King's Chapel and burying ground.  We would have gone into the church but they, too, were having a service.

This is the back side of the chapel.  We didn't see the burying ground.

This is old city hall built in 1865.  The city council met here until 1969.  Alas, now it's a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.  The Boston Latin School, which was attended by Benjamin Franklin is now an Omni Hotel.

Next on the trail is the Old Corner Bookstore.  Built in 1718, this is where classics like The Scarlett Letter, and Walden were published.  We kept looking around for the building.  It took us several minutes to realize that this Chipotle was the Old Corner Bookstore.  **Heavy sigh**

And now we come to the Old South Meeting House.  Built in 1729, this was the place where the colonials came to discuss and argue the issues of the day.  It was here the Boston Tea Party was conceived. 

Here's the Old State House.  Built in 1713, it's the oldest surviving public building in Boston.  It's also the site of the Boston Massacre.

Next stop is Fanueil Hall.  The building was being renovated (the building behind the statue of Samuel Adams)

Paul Revere's house (the courtyard).  It was kind of a small house for the number of children he had.  There were sixteen, eleven of which survived.  Each of his wives had eight kids. 

Old North church.  This is the church where Paul Revere's family had a pew.  The church was built in 1723.

The church steeple where the lanterns were hung to warn the Colonials of the British movements.  "One if by land and two if by sea".  Apparently two lanterns were hung as the British were taking boats across the Charles River.

That was the end of the trail for us.  We headed over to the Quincy Market, which is a giant food hall.  They had some of everything.  We ended up getting fish and shrimp tacos.  They weren't bad but in retrospect, maybe we should have gotten the lobster pie.

All in all it was a great trip.  I love a city with lots of history and this one fits the bill.