Now anyone that knows me well, knows that I am terrified of heights. I get anxious (heights usually produce an anxiety attack), dizzy and nauseous. However over the years I have become concerned that my fears are projected onto my kids so I do my best to just get through them so my kids will experience things fully without fear.
Easier said than done because when Jeremy mentioned going to the 40th floor of the Chase Tower in Dallas I could feel my blood pressure increase and flatly said NO. Then Madeleine said no. I could tell that this wasn't going to go well and then agreed to go up. Madeleine was not impressed because she knew she had to come too. Below is a picture of her waiting for the elevator....not a happy girl. She also doesn't like heights. Are phobias genetic?
Now honestly the elevator ride is the scariest part for me, I hate elevators, enclosed spaces that move by way of a cable, that COULD break and plummet us to our death. To add insult to injury, Finn started jumping in the elevator, causing it to shake. This did not make me happy. He stopped when I urgently asked him to stop, perhaps he sensed the fear in my voice? The important thing is that he stopped. Following are some views of the Dallas skyline. Notice the lack of hills?? It is so incredibly flat here, very different than what we are used to.
After this stop we walked through the city to Thanksgiving Square . This was a very beautiful place, nestled in the city. As an Atheist I can find it frustrating that believers in Christian religions (not all, this is a generalisation based on my experience) assume that the rest of the world believes (or should) in the same God (or any God at all). Thanksgiving Square is a place where you could go regardless of your beliefs or lack thereof and be thoughtful and thankful. Even though God is mentioned many times in the writings there I can personally take the word God to equal spirituality. In this case I chose to do that.
I found this mosaic very beautiful.
This is one of the many things that I am thankful for!
One of the things we wanted and were excited to see was an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. In Jeremy's research of Dallas he found that the Dallas City Library had a copy, along with an original compilation of Shakespeare's works.
While it was definitely cool to see the Declaration of Independence, something about seeing Shakespeare's works right there in front of me was moving. What an incredible part of history, right there in front of us. Not that seeing the Declaration of Independence isn't wonderful as well but not being an American and not having that sense of patriotism, it was just interesting but not moving.
Now this is one of the tougher aspects of living in the 'south'. However it is a part of the history here and it is fascinating.
We went through this old cemetary that had the above statue. I find looking at the old graves fascinating and sad, there are so many children's graves. I can't imagine the heartache parents during those time periods faced. It was a hard fact of life back then though. Very sad.
After the graveyard we made our way over to Pioneer Plaza . This is an amazing work of art, right in the middle of the city. Bigger than lifesize longhorns and cowboys. Each Longhorn (according to the kind gentleman at the info centre) cost $1million.
This gives you an idea how large these sculptures are
Yes they are picking his nose!
This was our last stop on day 1 in Dallas. So we headed back to the parking garage and decided to find dinner on the way home. In true Texas fashion we decided we HAD to have bbq for dinner. After driving for a bit we decided on Spring Creek Barbecue because well it had Barbecue in it's name and we had never eaten there before! Now we've tried it, we never have to go back, right? No it wasn't AWFUL but it was just eh.
You get your food before you pay, in cafeteria style. First you choose your meat, than you help yourselves to veggies/sides and then you get your drink. When you hit the end of the cafeteria line you are at the cashier and you pay for your meals. We started a little backwards because we wanted to find a table first, luckily it was still early so there were plenty and a nice big one that fit all of us :)
Campbell with his plate of food, he chose the beef bbq
Finn chose the ham. Notice the pats of butter on his plate, he started eating one. I think he was confused because it was on his plate. It made us laugh but we did encourage him to stop and just put it on his corn instead!
Soleil got into the spirit and started playing the spoons!
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