Dean was such a fine hostess when we came by to visit last year, that we asked if we could stop by again this year. 🙂 This year we will be able to park Sadie out front Dean’s home!
Dean is getting her backyard ready for some flower beds.
We arrived on June 2 with chopped brisket and potato salad fresh from Buc-ee’s for lunch. It continues to be very hot and humid. We weren’t planning any major exploration of Dallas area sites this time. We were good to relax, enjoy Dean’s company for the rest of today and tomorrow.
For dinner Dean suggested Cowboy Chicken – a first for both of us. It was good. Healthier than most fast food options.
Dean got me started back up on Duolingo over a year ago. During this visit she introduced me to additional resources of “Words Reference” and “Reverso” as supplements as I work on Duolingo. I bookmarked them right then. She also let me know I could OPT OUT of the weekly friend quests. These were stressing me out while traveling. I didn’t want to let anyone down, but our travel experiences were my main priority including work on my travel blogs. I had just been hoping no one would select me as their partner each week, but that wasn’t working. The moment I was opted out of weekly quests that stress disintegrated! I could relax and just do one quick lesson a day to keep my streak going.
I really liked the CIDEB Blackcat Books that she showed me. I ordered one. I then discovered via YouTube “Learn Spanish Through Movies: Coco”, or through TV shows such as “Friends”! Cool. It’s good to pick a program or movie that you are quite familiar with. To me this is more fun and holds my attention better than “Destinos”. Of course once you pull up one or two of these, many additional options will appear. Another resource is Spanish55.com with several Disney and Pixar films in Spanish, but there is a charge.
We checked out a couple of local parks and got a little exercise. This one was huge in Rockwall. It was quite impressive and absolutely beautiful! We didn’t even cover the entire park! It also had a splash park area and an area of frisbee golf.
Butterfly Garden! With information about the flowers that attract various butterflies and links to go to to create your own butterfly garden!
Barry was promised ice cream! LOL
BTW–Dean was holding Barry’s cone so he could take the picture and have his cone included. 🙂
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner together at home.
Dean and I went for a walk one morning around her neighborhood. It was a really cool path that is available. I had assumed we would just be walking on the streets of a typical neighborhood. This was a welcomed surprise! And it was fairly cool temps this morning!!
Dean maintains a family membership to the Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Gardens. She took us last year and it was amazing. Barry’s birthday is June 4th. I checked the Arboretum website a few months ago to see if they might be hosting a concert while we are there. Unfortunately, there was not, but there was a special event, “Garden of Music” was on their website. I asked Dean if she could take us to the Arboretum for that event if I bought the additional event tickets for the three of us.
We entered near one of our favorite areas.
At first I thought this was a real person drawing…then I realized it was a cool statue. This was not here when we visited last year.
How cool–there were more…
I hear music…Dean and I move in toward it. Looks like people may just pick a venue of music to sit and listen to as they enjoy a picnic dinner with their preferred beverage.
The event wasn’t what we expected. We thought there would be more artists. Two different food trucks arrived for the event. We all got something to eat.
Did I get down on the ground to take these next two pictures to give these ladies a larger presence?
Nope! Thank you, Dean for adding the ratio perspective needed. :). Hey, are you trying to look up her skirt?!? Lol
The other two areas with music:
For the longest time, from a distance, I thought this statue was another musician just tuning up! LOL
Statues: “Tending the Garden” and a garden skateboarder
“Unexpected Encounter”. Hmmm. And the dialogue Barry and Dean were coming up with for these two was pretty funny.
I wasn’t expecting to see a yoga or meditation group, but what a great setting for it.
Such fragrant blossoms!
And it’s time to head to exit that same way we came in.
Cool! One more statue – “Big Sister”.
While the event was not what any of us expected, it was still an enjoyable time.
Thank you, Dean. It’s always great to spend time with you!
