Cowtown
We started with a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where the government prints money. When I was a teen living outside of Washington, D.C., my two favorite attractions were Monticello and the money factory. Looking down through a glass window at the millions and millions of dollars stacked up--wow! The Fort Worth facility is relatively new and quite beautiful. We began with a twenty-minute film about the money-making process, and then we got a guided tour through the plant.
We then high-tailed it over to the OMNI theater to catch an IMAX showing of "Night at the Museum II." We didn't tell our girl ahead of time that we were going. In fact on the way to Cowtown she mentioned again how much she wanted to see it. So it was fun to surprise her. Gary and I decided the screen was too big for our maximum enjoyment, but our girl thought it rocked the world. So, score!
From there we headed to The Stockyards. We wandered through shops, grabbed a milkshake, and watched the cattle drive (which happens daily at 11:30 and 4). The temperature reached 94 today, and we inched pretty close to "misery" at that point, so we headed back to the air-conditioned car (which averaged 44.6 mpg today).
Our next destination was Central Market. My hubby had never been. (He's the grocery shopper in the family.) We nibbled our way through Friday night samples that included buffalo meat. And frankly, he was unimpressed because of the high prices. Until he saw the pastry section, until he sampled that chocolate. Oh my. Just about the time we were ready to cave and buy a whole cake that would send him into the migraine inferno, our friends Octavio and Angelica texted us to say they had a table reserved for us on the patio. Rescued!
Octavio was one of my writing students seven or eight years ago, and now he's a professor who does stuff like teach a summer session at Oxford and spend fall and spring teaching in Fort Worth. He and Angelica introduced us to "Nacho Libre" and "A Day Without a Mexican." That should put things into perspective. Anyway, they've also gone with us to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and translated for us at a pastors conference.
Tonight we met their 18-month-old and sat out sipping on lemonade and trying to talk above the band, which was quite good, while the aroma of burgers and lemon-chicken crackling on the grill swirled around us. We munched on chips and hot sauce until our orders were ready, and then we dug in. A few hours later, we went back to their place for a bit before heading home...
...where I finished reading The Grapes of Wrath. I wanted to analyze Steinbeck's writing as I went, but I kept forgetting I was reading. Instead, I lost myself in the joy of reading a great story. If you want something of a modern-day context for the events in the Book of Ruth, this one's your pick. Maybe the best treatise on community I've ever read.