Let me just tell you, I have the greatest husband in the entire world.
THE ENTIRE WORLD!
You may disagree if you wish, but once I share with you these details, you'll nod your head and inwardly (or outwardly...) think, "Yes, Stephen Andrew Cowden is a superior man".
I'll begin with the beginning:
Picture it: Wednesday evening, after the church programs, Stephen and I are sitting at home.
It's been a long week, because we are both looking forward to having 3 whole days off from everything.
Stephen is imagining hours and hours of time with me and a chance to catch up on homework.
I'm picturing hours and hours of time with Stephen and a chance to catch up on housework.
And then, he turns to me and says, "How do you feel about spending Friday in Fort Worth?"
I ponder and reply that it sounds like fun. I ask, "What would we do?"
And he's off!
He checks out websites and looks at stuff and types furiously on his laptop.
I watched some tv and made dinner.
Then we went to bed, with me thinking that he'd come up with a plan the next day.
So Thursday morning, while we're eating breakfast, Stephen says, "I think I've got a plan for Fort Worth."
He spells out a beautiful plan: head up that night, stay in a downtown hotel, have a nice dinner out, and check out the town all day Friday!
I sort of wanted to cry.
I felt (and still feel) blessed beyond belief that my wonderful husband would want to whisk me away on a 'day-cation' (as we are calling it) just because. It wasn't an anniversary, or a special occasion, or anything. It was simply an act of love.
And it rocked.
We headed out at 530ish on Thursday, and got to Fort Worth about 7ish. We checked into our hotel-- a pretty nice place downtown that had an overly trendy vibe, but was still really nice. The woman at the front desk gave us a free upgrade to a room with a huge king-sized bed and all sorts of other neat stuff. Naturally, I had forgotten my camera.
So we unloaded our stuff, freshened up a bit, and headed out. To get to Sundance Square, this nice downtown area with lots of restaurants and such, we took a trolley called Molly the Trolley. It was pretty hot, even at 730pm, so it was better than walking. We got out in the heart of downtown and set off to find a place to eat. We'd gotten some suggestions from a man on the trolley, and we were looking for a Thai restaurant that sounded good. But after about 45 minutes of walking around, we were too hungry to keep looking. So we walked by this dark looking place called the Mercury Chop House and just decided to go there.
As soon as I walked in the door, I regretted it. For starters, we were a little under dressed... The place was so dark and all the people there looked super rich. The waiter seated us and handed Stephen a giant menu that was all wines. It was literally 6 pages of wine! At that point, I knew we were in a little bit over our heads.
So I was already pretty uncomfortable, and then the waiter put some water on the table in glass goblets. He asked if any wine suited us, and Stephen said we'd just have water. The waiter gave us a snooty look.
Then he handed us the real menu.
I almost passed out. Literally.
I think the cheapest thing on there was $29.99 and that was some kind of chicken with no sides. There may have been a side salad for like $20.00 but still. It was at that point that I knew I could not eat anything in that restaurant.
So I gave Stephen this look that said, "Um... Do you see these prices?" And he nodded. I said aloud, "Is it really $36.95 for a steak without sides??" He nodded once again in the affirmative.
I turned to him and said, "How weird would it be if we left?"
We placed the menus on the corner of the table and I scampered out of that place!
Apparently, I was not meant for the high life...
So after we cooled down, we decided to eat at this little burger joint. The whole meal was under $25.
It was so much more our scene.
After dinner, we tried to find this jazz club that was suggested to us, cause it sounded swell, but we got pretty turned in our dinner search and decided to head back to the hotel. We ended the night cuddled on the big bed watching Conan and the Food Network. It was glorious.
Friday morning, we slept in. Beautiful in and of itself.
We’d found this little café we wanted to try for breakfast only a few blocks away downtown. So we checked out of the hotel and headed for the café. It took us forever to find a place to park and once we made it inside, we were informed that they had no more breakfast.
Thankfully, we are resourceful people and we consulted our Garmin to find us the closest Starbucks.
It was only .3 miles away! Since we’d already paid for an hour on our meter, we decided to walk. This turned into the second fiasco of our trip! We couldn’t find it. Not even my Starbucks bloodhound-nose could sniff it out. We must have walked a mile by the time we found it. But good ole Starbucks still had coffee and muffins!
After lots of coffee, we headed to Fort Worth’s Cultural District. It was neato!
Our first stop was the Science and Natural History museum. We got to be goofy and act like kids. On the top floor, they had an exhibit about humans and genes and stuff. We took our pictures and had them modified to see what we would look like as a person of a different race. We learned about babies and biases. It was pretty cool.
After we’d poked around for a while, we went to a movie at the IMAX theatre called “Wild Ocean”. It was great. I felt like I was under ‘da sea with all the fishes, sharks, and whales.
After the SNH museum (I made that abbrev. up, but it works), we went to the Kimbell Art museum.
Let me preface this by saying that I love a good art museum. I mean, if I can see some real masterpieces, I get goose bumps.
I saw Michelangelo’s first painting ever. An original Donatello. An original Rafael. That’s 3 of the 4 Ninja Turtles! I saw several originals by Cézanne and Monet. And, the coolest thing ever, I saw an original Van Gogh. It was amazing. Van Gogh is my all time favorite artist. I have a poster of Starry Night above our bed. To see one of his paintings up close was thrilling.
Which probably makes me sound super dorky, but I don’t care.
It really was a great museum. We spent several hours there, just wandering around. It was so a highlight of the trip.
After the Kimbell, we decided to head home. We ate a delicious dinner at Outback here in Waco, so we got to come home to a clean apartment. After a full weekend, we tumbled into bed and got to sleep in till almost 11 yesterday.
So after all that, is there anyone who would disagree with me?
I think not.
I have the greatest husband in the world, who shows his love to me in fun and romantic and creative and thoughtful and outrageous ways.
I am one blessed, blessed wife.
