Love and Food in the Big D

Sunday, October 31, 2010

WORLD SERIES - Game 4

Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants :)

Not that we didn't have any faith in our very own Texas team, it's just that it's the WORLD SERIES for crying out loud!  Did this really happen?  Did our very own Texas Rangers really make the WORLD Freakin' SERIES?!  SERIOUSLY??!!  How incredibly EXCITING IS THAT?!  You don't have to be a crazy baseball nut to realize the importance of this accomplishment.  Never has this happened to the Texas Rangers before.. so, needless to say, both Chad and I felt DAMN lucky to have a first hand account of it.  :)  Game 4 was the game we had scored tickets to..thanks to knowing some great people...who just so happen to know some great people!  (Cara and Conner, thanks again..the seats were AWESOME! :) 

Starting the World Series off right. 
Tailgating with friends in the Rangers parking lot :)
On the menu for the afternoon:
Super delicious pork ribs, corn on the cob and pulled pork sandwiches (made by my love)
Roasted veggies, fruit salad, assorted chips and LOTS of BEER!

Even Conner was able to join in on the fun! 
After visiting with us for a while we loaded him up with goodies
to take back to the guys working the scouting room :)

Super sweet Cara, bar manager at the Moth and
her fiance Conner, scout for the Rangers :)

Conner and Cara's friends and family from Boston

Kyle, Chad's friend and former Soux Chef at the Oceanaire

Chad, happy about those Junior Mints :)

Making our way to the stadium after a few hours of tailgating

Woo Hoo!  Let's GO RANGERS!


Chad and Kyle being silly

Almost to the entry gate :)

Just happy to be at a World Series game

Sitting in the "friends and family" section :)

The sunset that night was simply GLORIOUS!


The stadium took TWO SECONDS to fill up.

And the crowd was ROARING!



The BIGGEST flag we had ever SEEN!
It was incredible the way they unraveled it without letting it touch the floor


BEAUTIFUL

Former President George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch

What an amazing sight...

Awww.. so in love :)
(or maybe it was just the alcohol producing those goofy looking grins of love ;)

Let's PLAY BALL!!

We just so happened to be sitting literally
RIGHT BEHIND Benji Molina's family. 
How cool is THAT?!

Kinda pooped out.. Disappointed by the way the game is going. 

Kyle and Benji's brother Jose Molina, who currently plays for the Toronto Blue Jays


A sad loss for the Rangers but how can you REALLY be sad about making it to the WORLD SERIES?!
What an incredible experience for everyone, us and the team.  :)

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sweet Endings - Day 5 San Francisco, CA

Five days down and our time had come to say goodbye to our long awaited vacation in Yosemite.  It had nearly taken an act of Congress to pull this time off...with Chad's crazy work schedule, I was grateful to have this time with him, but I was also kind of looking forward to my bed again.  It seemed quite obvious to spend our last day on vacation in San Francisco.  A nice dinner, a warm shower and a cozy bed was all we needed to top off our amazing vacation.


Farewell Yosemite.  Until we meet again.  :(

The short but extremely STEEP way down

Making our way...

To our swanky hotel.  The Prescott



We also thought it fitting to end our last night with a trip to the very restaurant we came to on our honeymoon almost one year ago.  It was just as we had left it...delicious! 

Frascati's Italian Restaurant - recommended by local and friend Jennifer Fontenella for our honeymoon.  We liked it so much, we came back!

So many wonderful things to choose from!

I'll be the first to say that I'm not really a red wine person... 
I'll almost always choose white wine over reds any day..but this one...
Yeah.. I'll take that one.  Mmmmmm...

I chose the chicken.  Made simply..but OH. SO. TASTY!

Mmmmm....carbs... ;) 

And who could go without
Sweet Endings.... 

My last birthday treat....til next year ;)
Chocolate Bread Pudding!!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Yosemite Vacation - Day 4 Limping our way through it


No steps or down hills please!

On this day I could honestly say that I felt ALL of my 30 years and 2 days.  After the hike we had the day before, we were lucky we even made it out of our cabin at all.  As the day began, much like most of the other days (at the butt crack of dawn, still being on Texas time) we took advantage of the extra time to make our way through our morning routine.  This time, SLOWLY but ever so surely.  I didn't quite pay attention, but I'm sure that everyone had a good laugh at us as we hobbled around Yosemite Valley touring the museum and visitors center.  What OLD FARTS WE ARE!!  It's a good thing we left touring the valley, the FLAT valley (thank goodness!) to this day of heavenly NOTHING-NESS!


The visitors center was actually quite interesting..


Mr. John Muir



This tree, which fell in 1912 was nearly 1000 years old!



Something in this picture is not like the other... :)






Head stones each simply labeled.
A Boy. A Frenchman. Wolcock. and Boston. 
Kinda sad...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this entry is NOT ADA compliant.
Just a thought.... The tree was OBVIOUSLY there first..why not just MOVE the door?
And while you're at it... MOVE the building TOO?!?!  Geez!  

So somewhere on this HUGE expanse of El Capitan's rock face...

We spot some rock climbers!  And by the looks of it, they were up there over night.  
Their mid-air make shift cots gave it away..  Can you see it??


Turns out there was two guys...One took off about 20 minutes before the other on his ascent, while the other stayed behind to take down their cot and pack up.  Crazy huh?

Looking left, we just so happen to spot another set of
two people making their way DOWN El Capitan


This one seems to be SETTING UP for a night on the rock.  
The climber on the bottom begins to unpack 

While the other two in the middle of the rock make their way up, slowly but surely

In his youth, Chad and his friends jumped with reckless abandon into this river.  
(The water was obviously higher back then)

From this bridge.  

Looking up to the sky where our first night photos were taken



Day two of night time camera experimentation
These came out tons better!
Turns out that car lights were actually a good thing and HELPED light up this tree :)

Taken right outside our cabin #550 :)