Friends, Family and Latin American food in Dallas

I love this picture.  I took it back at our old apartment.

I've dubbed today a lazy day.  We went to Dallas for the weekend to visit friends and family.  It was a fun weekend, but it's always so nice to come back home and relax.  We got to Dallas early Friday evening, and checked into our hotel.  We got a super cheap rate thanks to my employee discount!  After freshening up a bit we met up with a few of my good friends- Heather (who I've known since first grade & grew up on the same street as), Emily (one of my besties I met in college) and Brittany (also a friend from college).  We were joined by others as well- some of their friends they've met in Dallas.  We went to this awesome South American restaurant called Gloria's for dinner and drinks.  The margaritas were to die for.  I had three!  Luckily, we were only a few miles from our hotel.  I ordered fish tacos, and Jason and I shared a fried plantain appetizer that was incredible.  Enough about the food!  The company alone was fabulous.  I had the pleasure of seeing Emily back in October when she came to visit me one weekend and we experienced an insane bloody fight at a brewery in the hill country.  But that's a whole different adventure to detail on a later date.  Anyway, I hadn't seen Heather since last April which is terrible, so it was so good to see them and catch up on our lives.

Heather and I graduated at the same time, December 2010.  She moved back to Houston for a little while before landing an awesome job using her degree in accounting at Fossil corporate in Dallas.  So she and her German shepherd, Edward, moved up there last June to begin their adult lives.  Sadly, I don't see much her anymore, but I'm so happy for her.  

Emily graduated last May and got a job at Fossil as well doing customer service phone support.  She seems really happy too.  I'm so proud of both of those ladies moving off on their own and making something of themselves!  I'm lucky to have such beautiful friends.  Their souls truly match their outer beauty.

Emily, Me and Heather in Nov. 2009

Back to our weekend.  Friday night, after Gloria's we walked over to the Flying Saucer, where Jason was hoping we'd end up.  It's a bar with a million taps and all different types of crazy beers.  

Saturday, Jason's Uncle Jimmy met us at the hotel and we drove over to the nursing home where Jason's grandma is temporarily staying until she can go back to her apartment.  We chatted with her for a little while before lunch at an empty Italian place across Central Expressway.  Jason and I were zonked after lunch so we took a refreshing two hour nap before heading out to Arlington.  We went to Abuelo's for our second Latin American meal of the trip.  Jason's cousin is a bartender/waitress there so we got to talk to her for a few seconds, literally.  Then our friends Chris and Evelyn met us for dinner and took us out to downtown Fort Worth, which was so cute!  Sundance Square was adorably sparking with light and energy.  It reminded us a lot of Austin.  We started out at the Flying Saucer (again, but a different location) and then went to a classy jazz club called Scat Lounge.  All in all it was a fun night.  We didn't get back to our hotel in Dallas until about 3 a.m.!  That's pretty amazing for us.  We were so proud of ourselves for not wanting to crash at 10, ha!  

Sunday, we saw Jason's grandma again, and then met his Aunt Janie and Uncle Marlin for our THIRD Latin American meal of the weekend.  I think we're good on that cuisine for the next few weeks.  

It was wonderful to see everyone.  I wish we could make it up there more often.  Everyone was trying to convince us to move up there, but we're both pretty against it.  As far as we're concerned, Austin is home and will be for quite some time if we can help it.