Dallas Arboretum/Garden And A Mavericks Game

Mom And Daughter

It's 8:15 and I have been up since 7:30, having slept in some.  Rami is already on a plane to Miami for work and Beth and Marisa are off to school and Evie just walked downstairs.  It looks like a partly cloudy day with a high in the '70s.

Evie And The Bard

Yesterday was a busy but good day.  It started as usual with coffee, writing the blog, with everyone taking off for school or work but Evie and me.  The cleaning crew arrived at 9:00, so we quickly showered, dressed were on our way to the Dallas Arboretum by 10:00.  This is the third time we have been there and it is always worth it.  The parking lot was already quite full by the time we arrived along with at least ten school buses.

Cypress Walk

A Typical Rock, Plant, And Water Garden

We spent a couple of hours walking the grounds, amazed by the beauty of the gardens, the trees, and flowers, mostly pansies, and violas at this time of year.  We talked with the grounds crew and that day they were planting 6,500 pansies.  In the next three weeks, they will plant 500,000 tulip bulbs.

Planting Pansies

Back Breaking Work

Many of the trees and shrubs lost their leaves but it was still attractive. And, as always, it seems we come across a fifteen-year-old girl, celebrating her quinceanera, a coming of age ceremony.

Celebrating A Fifteenth Birthday

It was already Christmas at the Arboretum, with amazing 15-foot globes celebrating the 12 days of Christmas.  By the time we left, I was sick of hearing Bing Crosby sing at each of the days.

Water Garden

Two Days Of Christmas Under A Cloudy Sky

And now there is an entire Christmas village, of at least 15 cottages, large enough for kids to walk inside and climb around.  One school group was outfitted with headphones so they could listen to the leader talk about each house.  We had lunch there, people watching and ended up talking to a docent who was originally from Maine, still misses it.  We were home by 2:30 to a quiet house, door locked so we had to text Beth to open it because she was upstairs taking a shower.

Christmas Village

Wall Of Water

Among The Hedges

We then took it easy and around 3:30, Evie and I took Cody out for a long walk around the neighborhood while Beth picked up Marisa.  Beth had a class from 5:00 to 7:30 and was picking up sushi for dinner.  Rami and I left for downtown Dallas for the Mavericks/Timberwolves game.  We ate dinner at the top-rated burger/beer joint in Dallas interestingly named Rodeo Goat.  It's not fancy, a cement block building in downtown, with a large parking lot and a wrap-around outdoor patio where some were eating.

Rated #1

Burger Heaven In Dallas

The schtick is to order one of five kinds of patties, beef, chicken, turkey, salmon or impossible burger. And then there were ten choices of toppings, all eclectic and different.  I order the Brad Sham, with applewood bacon, jalapenos, beefsteak tomato, lettuce, fried onion, cheddar, pickled chutney and Texas Barbecue sauce.  O, yea, the fries were to die for.

American Airlines Center

We had a difficult time finding a parking spot but found our seats, about six rows up from the floor just as the game started.  It was a fun game to watch because everyone was excited by the newest star, a 20-year-old from Slovenia, Luka Doncic.

Every time he got the ball, the fans started chanting Luka, expect another amazing shot, drive to the basket, or pass.  He is a bona fide ball player and has changed the culture at Maverick games, from boring to exciting.  Because we were sitting so close to the floor, we could witness much more easily the athleticism and amazing quickness of these players.

View From The Floor

Best of all, they won and we all went home happy and excited for the future.  Part of the fun of the game was people watching, all the season ticket holders, gussied up, like a couple in front of us looking like Donald Trump junior and Kim Kardashian.  Also, five Kardashian looking girls sitting in front of us missed the entire second half, perhaps visiting a loge.  They definitely were not too into the game like the rest of us.  We left with 10 seconds left and were able to get out of the parking garage quickly and were home by 10:15.  Rami went to bed because he was getting up early but I stayed up, still pumped from the game and opened a beer and watched Ohio State beat North Carolina in basketball before going up to bed happy from a great day.