Month: August 2015

We went to Bentonville for three main reasons, one of them being Crystal Bridges, but when we walked downtown, not only did we come upon a really great farmer’s market going on:

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We came home with some really great challah from the market too.

…right on the town square is the WalMart museum.  Never one to pass up a museum…
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The entrance is on the right-hand side in the pic above, which gives the impression inside and out initially of entering the old-fashioned Walton’s 5-10:

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Re-creation of Sam Walton’s Office:
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A wall of items that had been returned to WM included this:
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Here’s the thing: Pecan Lodge was named second-best barbecue in Texas Monthly.  So when we’re in Dallas, you know where lunch is?  Uh-huh.  We’ll go exploring, sure, but Pecan Lodge is definitely going to be in that mix.  They’ve been in the mix since before TM and we heard about them at the farmer’s market.  And for good reason:

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Good thing we got there early, because the line got crazy quickly:
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Nice mac-and-cheese:
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But the chicken was awesome — nice, thick crust, juicy, seasoned simply — just right:
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I had the ‘hot mess’ which they describe as: Jumbo sea salt-crusted sweet potato, South Texas barbacoa (shredded brisket with southwestern seasoning), chipotle cream, cheese, butter, green onions.  I love barbecue stuff baked potatoes and I love sweet potatoes, but I really like this better with just a regular white baked potato.  It was still terrific, though, I think just too sweet with all this savory on top:
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And Av shared this with the boys too: ribs, brisket, sausage.  YES.  Ribs great, sausage great, but the brisket is perfect, perfect, perfect.  Smoky, fatty, juicy, rich, tender.  Melts.

Found this on the Coke machine at Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q in Bessemer:
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In Deep Ellum Dallas, by artists Brad Oldham and Brandon Oldenburg, one in the series — Traveling Man:
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We made another trip to the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas — the boys love it for the interior balcony overlooking the gardens and especially, especially the private water park, Paradise Springs, they have with a lazy river. When Shug started school, he still had all the wristbands they gave him from this stay plus some he’d kept from other trips over the summer.  It was his thing.

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The rooms were renovated from the year before.
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We had the best time on the balcony watching all the fountains and people…this was my favorite view:
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Heavily IG’d, obv:

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Good hamburger! Not life-altering or seriously-go-out-of-your-way, but nice! And fries were simple and yummy too. Perfect size, crunchy and salty.

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Av knows the people that own the gorgeous Doris Metropolitan in the Quarter, but for whatever reason we haven’t had supper there yet.  Some pics from one of his visits there:

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