A Weekend in Dallas

Howdy y'all! Happy Humpday! It's officially baseball season, and if you've been following this blog for a while, you might know that Mike and I love taking trips to new stadiums. Our life bucket list is to visit every MLB stadium, and last year, we got to 6 (here is my recap of the first 5), including a surprise for my birthday to a playoff game. I loved his surprise idea so much, that I stole it. In his birthday card last month, I told him to save the weekend (April 6-9) but didn't tell him where we were headed. Well, it was Dallas! After having a blast at Daytona last year (here's that recap), I looked for race weekends with a hometown baseball team and found Texas Motor Speedway less than an hour from Arlington where the Rangers play!

We stayed in Dallas at the Adolphus Hotel. It was seriously gorgeous! We made sure to visit Dealey Plaza and see the 6th Floor Museum, on top of all of our "usual" things. In every city, we do 5 local things, and this weekend was no exception: coffee shops, donut shops, murals, breweries, and sports.

Coffee: Magnolias and Weekend - both beautiful, modern shops just begging to be photographed!  Both photos below are from Magnolias.

Donuts: Glazed Donut Works (more modern and funky donuts - left photo - like the donut grilled cheese with bacon we devoured!) and Mustang Donuts (everything delicious and traditional you want in a donut shop - right photo, including free donut holes!)

Murals: Deep Ellum was ah-mazing! So many colors and beautiful art - here's where I found the addresses of some of my favorites.

Breweries: Turning Point Beer, Collective Brewing Project, Deep Ellum Brewing, and BrainDead Brewing - my favorite was Collective (some of the best sours I've had), and Mike loved Turning Point for their New England-style IPAs.

(Turning Point and Collective above; Collective below (just look at those sour varieties!) and Deep Ellum below that!)

Sports: Texas Rangers vs Toronto Blue Jays and O'Reilly Auto Parts 500!

Globe Life had some of the best food we've ever had at a stadium: Doritos walking tacos, barbecue, and donuts on a stick FTW!

 NASCAR is the best and lets you bring in your own beer.  We went to Spec's (new favorite package store ever - check it out if you're in the area) and stocked up on a bunch of local beers (in addition to Bud Light tall boys!).

On top of that, I also made sure to scour Eater before our trip for some delicious food ideas. Going to Dallas, we had to get some barbecue and Tex-Mex! Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum was so good (pro tip: sit at the bar so you don't have to wait in the hour+ line!) and Manny's Uptown was our favorite Tex-Mex (with Herrera's in close second). Oh, and of course we had to get In-n-Out!

Have you ever been to Dallas?  What did we miss this time that we need to go back for?!  You KNOW we will be back!