Hawthorne Suites by Wyndham/Love Field Airport - Dallas, Texas

Before I move onto the confectionery that I bought in Dallas (will be in a future post), I'm going to first post about the hotel Miss Pinky and I stayed at.

First of all, it is in a very good location. It's located about 25 minutes by car from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and about 10-15 minutes depending on traffic from Dallas Love Field Airport. Not a bad location at all.

Outside Hawthorne Suites

The apartment / suite they gave us was very satisfying!! There were two queen beds as I had requested in a non-smoking apartment. One bed was downstairs (the bed below is the one I slept in) and there was one upstairs, but Miss Pinky asked me not to take a picture until later (when she tidied up!)...

Downstairs bed

So here's the stairs instead.

The stairs

There were two bathrooms!! Two!! Wow. I feel like I'm in someone's house. Didn't take a picture of Miss Pinky's... She was too busy telling me not to take pictures...

My bathroom area

We had a small kitchen, but I forgot to take a picture of that. It has a microwave. An electric stove with an oven. Kitchen sink. And there was a massive fridge and freezer. You can even make ice in the freezer by pulling the lever up. An ok kitchen, but it needed bigger pots and pans. A toaster is available, as a coffee machine... But there's no kettle!!

Here's the desk by the door.

Desk by the door

And here's the outside near the entrance. There's a free shuttle service which you would need to notify the reception an hour ahead or the night before, that you need to use it. They only cover a 5-mile radius. So find out where you need to go first!!

Parking area

The shuttle

Bus stop 526 - there is another one further up the road

Food there was not the best I'm afraid even if it is free. I advise to actually go and find food. American breakfast is not my thing. Biscuit, sausages and egg (scrambled or boiled). Waffles you have to make yourself... And they also have cereals! The coffee is the best stuff they've got by the way. I think they have a routine of what they serve for dinner every week, like pizza on Monday, pasta on Tuesday, fried chicken on Wednesday. Main dinners are served only on Monday's to Thursday's. You will need to find food from Friday to Sunday!! If you like walking I advise to go to Pappy's or the McDonald's... It's about a 15 minute walk to either place! Otherwise take the bus or a get a taxi.

Wi-fi was excellent! But you may have to enter the password from now and then. So remember the password!!

Laundry service - there's only 2 washing machines and 2 dryers. Washing machine costs US $1.75 and drying costs US $1.50.

Parking is free I think and there's a small swimming pool plus a tennis court!

So all in all, it was a satisfying stay. The noise level was a little bad. We had some noisy weekend stayers partying, mockingbirds that would not be quiet throughout a few nights (use ear plugs), and you will also get to hear a few toilet flushes from somewhere! all the piping is connected.

Also house-keeping is usually every 2-3 days... So don't expect a clean apartment after you have been out all day long...

Buses: 404, 526 and 527

Nearest train station: Inwood / Love Field (take the 404 or 526)

Address: 7900 Brookriver Drive, Dallas, TX 75247 United States

Telephone: 1-214-688-1010

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Dallas, Texas - Day 14: An almost nightmare journey home

Friday 19th April - Final, Final Day!!

First we got up early. I had thought we were going to have breakfast at reception, but we didn't go... That was good because I didn't really want to eat the food there... We had already booked the shuttle for 9 am that morning, and so we was all ready to go!!

We got to Love Field airport within 10 minutes! Hawthorne Suites is THAT close to the local airport!! We could've walked it Miss Pinky  said... ¬,¬" We checked in. Miss Pinky had overweight luggage again. Went through security and sat in the only cafe in the airport where I had a coffee and a not so good tuna salad sandwich and listening to the news about Boston. Miss Pinky had a problem with her luggage, so she had to back to the luggage area. Apparently her padlock was not safe for the flight... How can that be? She flew to Dallas with it on there!!

Inside Dallas Love Field Airport

Suddenly we then heard our flight was cancelled. What?! Not again... This happened when we was in Dublin but that was with BA!! Reason for this flight cancellation: bad weather conditions around Houston. ¬,¬ This isn't funny!!

We had to change our entire flight plan and had to go to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport... At least we won't be in Houston Airport. ¬,¬" This flight was going to Newark Airport, then from there we would get our connecting flight to London. We took a taxi from Love Field with another person who was supposed to take the same flight... Unfortunately I think we were cheated with the taxi fare, because the driver forgot to put his meter on, and charged us US $25 each person!!! Huh?!! Blimey! Not taking that taxi ever again! :P

We checked in AGAIN! Flight to Newark was cancelled AGAIN - so it was another FLIGHT CHANGE AGAIN! How many flight changes do we need?!!! Not impressed UNITED Airlines!!!

At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport

I like this poster!! Reminds me of the courses I have been going on...!!

Miss Pinky then had something to eat. Some sort of Chinese food. Seriously, Dallas doesn't have the greatest Chinese food I'm afraid... :(

Miss Pinky had food from here

Doesn't look like Chinese food... Fusion food maybe?!

It was then time to board the flight. The guy who was calling out for us to board shouted at the flight number rather than the flight time... Confusing!! Before boarding, a lot of people were surrounding the area because this flight was a cancelled flight and then replaced with another flight for a later time. 

We sat in very comfortable seats. It was probably one of the best flights throughout the trip. But the bad thing about this flight are the TV screens, you had to pay to view on this very short flight. I fell asleep for a few seconds with my earphones plugged in. But I couldn't get back to sleep afterwards because I was hungry! I purchased a Thai Tortilla Wrap for US $7 I think (approx. £5). Yes purchased! No freebies on this flight. What the heck..! We also had TV screens at the back of the seat, but we had to pay to watch a film... So I sat there listening to my music. I think this was a type of flight like easyJet. You had to pay for everything. UNITED flights are not really consistent are they?!! No. They are not!! 

Sky, clouds and plane wing from the first flight back home

My food - it had a lot of vegetables in it!

We landed in Newark 2-3 hours later... I didn't realise we were going to be in the New York area because I didn't know where Newark is. But I knew we were heading for the East Coast of America... And I saw the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty from the air! ^_^ Need a closer look in the nearest future!!

As soon as we got off, we headed towards our next gate to see if it was the one we were supposed to be at. It was! Yay!! No flight cancellations there. Then before that, we ate at Wok and Roll, which is in Terminal C around the food court. I had sushi and dumplings. The people there spoke in Cantonese. I was so happy! :D I think the guy on the other side was also happy!!

Sushi and dumplings from Wok and Roll!!! Yay!!! Proper food!!! ^_^

Wok and Roll in the back

I was looking at Ben and Jerry's, and I really wanted ice cream. I think the service in this place wasn't great but they tried... It's because I didn't know what to order...

My chocolate ice cream... I was now satisfied!

Then it was time to fly again. We weren't seated together for some reason and we hadn't realise we were in separate seats. There was an empty seat next to me, but the other lady at the end seemed to have hogged that middle seat so I didn't get Miss Pinky to sit with me... Plus the lady in front of me kept sneezing and coughing too... I think Miss Pinky wasn't able to maneuver much in her seat unfortunately... but she sat next to a nice person who talked with her... This flight was the best out of all the flights because there was a touchscreen TV screen at the back of the seat, which was free of course! However the food was DISGUSTING!! The chicken I had was overcooked. The vegetables were ok. But unfortunately the rice or pasta that came with it was not cooked long enough. It was practically raw. I left it... Didn't have the breakfast either... Bleuh.

From the second flight

We finally landed! Thankfully the European queue for passport checks was on the quiet side... And then we went home!! :D

I have missed London public transport!

End of Day 14.

Pointers for staying in Dallas:

1. Have US money changed at any high street exchange place from your home country... It's hard to find an exchange place in town

2. Purchase a weekly ticket for US $25 (£16). You can sit on DART buses and trains. A regional pass can take you to Fort Worth. Regional day pass costs US $10 (£6.50)

3. Bring sun block and after-sun cream

4. Be smart and dress appropriately for the hot weather

5. Always have change for the laundry

6. Walk as much as possible even when there's no pavements (sidewalks). Be aware of the way American's drive and how you should cross the road.

7. Find your local supermarket as soon as you land :D

8. Take a direct flight... No transfers...!!! 

9. Go to Fort Worth, it's worth it ¬,¬" ... sorry for the pun :D

10. Remember that there is tax on top of the original price shown on the price tags... Terrible! Even the British have got this one right. Put the total on the price tag!! Makes shopping easier. :P (I don't like working out my taxes!)

11. If you are from London, people around town will ask you about the London Olympics 2012! ¬,¬ I didn't do much except that I worked throughout the period, and I didn't have tickets even though I tried to purchase some without success!! It was a bad turnout for some events and the ticketing was badly managed... But traffic was brilliant! No one around... Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I did see the Olympic Torch in Stratford...

HAVE FUN IN DALLAS!!

Dallas, Texas - Day 13: Bored

Thursday 18th April

Not much happened on this day even though it was our last full day in Dallas... It was pretty much a boring day of packing, laundry and sitting around...

When I did my laundry, which took me a while... I forgot to press the start button for the dryer... Wasted a dollar!! Klutz!! :) Actually wasted a couple of dollars because I thought I bought washing powder. But I didn't. It was one of those bounce fragrance things you put in the dryer... I think reception may have thought I was a trouble-maker... Heheheh ¬,¬"" Whoopsie!!

We suddenly went out for a walk around Inwood. Miss Pinky had a cold and she wanted to try out some fried chicken from Church's Chicken but it was closed due to a power failure, so we were destined to eat food from Jack In The Box... Yuck!! The breakfast stuff actually looked horrible... it's served all day. Miss Pinky's pancakes were ok... She liked hers.

Pancakes, sausage and eggs from Jack in the Box

But my waffle sandwich... Bleuh!! Hash brown was ok though...

My breakfast from Jack in the Box

My geeky rating for breakfast food at Jack in the Box: 2/5

And here's just a last minute walkabout picture...

Inwood

End of Day 13.

Day 14: http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/dallas-texas-day-14-almost-nightmare.html

Dallas, Texas - Day 12: Fort Worth, Stockyards, Drinking and UNO

Wednesday 17th April

Blimey! Why didn’t we decide to come to Fort Worth earlier?! I have no idea why. Miss Pinky had actually wanted to go on a Medieval Times night out on this day... ¬_¬”” Is she serious? We came all the way to Dallas to go on a Medieval night? I think she knew I didn’t want to go... But thankfully when we went to get more information about the TRE trains she suddenly changed her mind. Yay!!

Started early! Yay to that too!! ^_^

We took the bus to train station as usual (I felt so familiar with the Inwood area that I almost thought I was living there!). We hadn't realise that you could actually purchase a regional pass on the bus as well as at the station which we didn’t know. Thanks to the driver we actually saved US $2.50!! :D A regional pass takes you through to Dallas International Airport. You can also use it on DART trains and buses.

We stopped at Victory Station and changed for the TRE train, which is the black line. We didn’t know which end to get on at...And some of the people there didn't know either... Strange. One thing that's really different in Dallas is that they hardly have any train staff at the stop. You really have to rely on the public and some bus drivers (not all).

Victory Station

TRE train

The journey takes about 35-40 minutes to get to ITC Fort Worth Station, which is the main tourist site! Not bad.

TRE means Trinity Railway Express

Then we took a bus. We asked the driver to tell us where to get off in Downtown, but she was too busy talking... And we ended up far, far away... So we got on another bus back thanks to the driver who stopped the other bus in front. But Miss Pinky saw a cowboy like town, so we stopped off and told the driver we’ll go back into town later...

The place we stopped at is called Stockyards! It’s like a tourist part about cowboys and ranches. This is what Miss Pinky had really wanted to see throughout the whole journey! We should've done some research earlier... Too busy with our working and home lives though!! ¬,¬""

An art gallery in Stockyards

A street in Stockyards

A Saloon not a Salon!

Woohoo!! Stockyards!!

Miss Pinky and I got to sit on a bull for 5 bucks each too! The bull was a sweet male bull. Thankfully he didn't go beserk on me. (^_^)v

Sit on a bull for US $5

The bull we sat on... CUTE! ^_^

Cute bull

The other bull

Inside the tourist centre bit

It was time for lunch and we had it at Riscky’s Bar.B.Q. I did not like the food one bit. It was disgusting stuff for me!! :( I threw a Miss Pinky, and did not eat all my food... That’s so not like me to do so!!! I always eat my food even if it looks disgusting. But I think it was because we sat outside, there were flies, and the plate was massive.

Stockyards shopping area

Outside Riscky's

First off was my horrible fried gherkins. I really didn't know they were going to be put into batter. It was so salty I squirted a lot of ketchup over it. Probably ate one-fifth of this! Yeek!! :(

Salty fried gherkins

We decided to have the US $14 (approx. £9) meal with 2 meats, fries and whatever came with it! But the waitress tried to convince us to take the 3 meats for an extra dollar. I should have stuck with 2 meats. Miss Pinky convinced me to take the beef ribs for her to try out. And they were massive! Didn't like the seasoning unfortunately. Enjoyed the fried catfish and battered prawns... and the coleslaw was ok...

Miss Pinky had 3 meats too, but had to take some of it away. She had smoked catfish, pork ribs and beef brisket!

There was so much on the plate. Didn't like it. Didn't finish it. Plus we found it was not the service we had liked...

My geeky rating on Riscky's (for my part): 1/5... Miss Pinky would probably rate this a 3/5 ... Yeek.

Website: http://www.risckys.com/

Afterwards we looked around Stockyards. 

Howdy!!

Woody (^_^)v

OOOOO... Looks creepy!!

A cow with lipstick :D

Are you bored cowboy?

Painting of two famous stars from a film... can't remember the name of the film!

Website for Stockyards: http://www.fortworthstockyards.org/

And then finally we took the bus back to Downtown. We had a good look around Downtown.

On the day we were there they were preparing for a festival which was starting the next day. So there were a lot of tents set up. Unfortunately we didn't go. But I'm sure it was fun over there!! :D

Music stage

abc news8 van ^_^

J.F. Kennedy statue

Fort Worth Arts Festival flag

Painting of bulls on the back of one building - cool!!

We sat in two bars and had a few drinks (I had diet cokes and a gin and tonic) before moving on. 

Miss Pinky's beer from the first bar

Samuel Adams - the second bar we went into

This was all hand made in Samuel Adams!

We then took another bus back to the station to find out when the last train was. And so I took some pics of the station area...

An old train on display

Inside Fort Worth Station

A memorial wall for black slavery

Then we took another bus back into Downtown again. This time we got off the right stop, but before we got off, there were many cones on the road. The people that had put them there didn't even bother to move them out of the way when cars were passing by. We saw a lady get out of her car just to move one. Our bus driver then decided to knock those cones over (from passenger's encouragement)! Hahahahah. I would have done the same thing. The cones were there because of the festival I think! 

The guys in front didn't bother to move the cones!!!!

I even took a pic of the cone - Miss Pinky was trying to pull it out from under the bus ¬,¬""... Passengers must have thought we were was crazy... But they don't know I blog! Hah!

The cone that got stuck underneath the bus XD

We found a lounge bar afterwards and had a cocktail. I had a "pretty" cocktail glass according to Miss Pinky... I guess I have style even though I don't know what I'm drinking.

A raspberry cocktail

And Miss Pinky had this. :D

I can't remember what was in this 

Then we moved on to find food! We did not want steak, hamburgers, pizza or ribs... So we needed to find Italian, Japanese or Indian. It was my choice this time to find somewhere to eat... And then I saw a lady at the window. She was eating pasta at this place called UNO. I wanted pasta. I was deprived of carbs!! :S

Outside UNO

There were a lot of empty tables that night

Pretty lighting!

I had the Rattlesnake Pasta (the large plate, because I was hungry) and Miss Pinky had the Lobster and Shrimp Scampi without the shrimp (the small plate)... Mine was bloody good and spicy. It had a good amount of pasta and cheese. But the pasta was slightly overcooked for me. 

Rattlesnake Pasta

Miss Pinky enjoyed hers even though she had a slight itchiness afterwards... I think she missed having a proper pasta dish!

Lobster and Shrimp Scampi without the shrimp

The manager and co. was talking to us throughout the evening. So we tried to eat and talk at the same time! I find it very difficult to do that! But they are all a friendly bunch at the restaurant. I would like to see an English restaurant try to that... Or at least attempt it... That would probably never happen!!

Then it was dessert time. We had the mini versions of the desserts. So Miss Pinky had the The Granny Smith All American which she thoroughly enjoyed...

The Granny Smith All American

And I had the Uno Deep Dish Sundae. The cookie was a little stuck to the dish... But that was ok!

UNO Deep Dish Sundae

Then it was drinks time... We had lovely waiters especially Ally and a lovely bartender (forgot his name)... Miss Pinky asked the barman to make an apple sour (which he didn't know how to make so he looked it up in his bible of cockatails. Hah!). He even let me take a picture of him making it!! Hahahahaha!! ^_^

The bartender at UNO

Our apple sours!

He made a snakebite for Miss Pinky and for me a sweet cocktail... ^_^ 

My sweet cocktail ^_^

Here's Ally and the barman...

Pretend fight!

Awwww :D

And here's the lovely manager...

The manager!

My geeky rating: 5/5 for everything!!!! :D Such lovely staff and food!!!

Address: 300 Houston Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102, United States

Website: http://unos.com/

It was time to go back... We emptied our bladders, and then we only had a few minutes left before the train came in which I needed to empty my bladder again... Too much drinking!!!!! ¬_¬””

We met a person on the train called Nathan at this point and Miss Pinky decided to sit next to him for some reason. ¬,¬"" He is quite a geeky person like me. He also mentioned there was free wi-fi on the train!! What?! Amazing!! He made our journey go quite fast as he was trying to talk to us about Dr Who and other British TV... ^_^

Finally we got back to Victory Station to change for the local train and then I took these lovely pics of the evening. :D

Dallas at night

American Airlines building

Not sure what building with the flashing ball on top is called

Plus on the downside we heard an old lady talking to Nathan who said there was an explosion in West Texas... That was the one in Waco... I was quite thankful that we were hardly near there! Dallas to Waco is the distance from London to Bournemouth, which is like a 2 hour train trip or a 3-4 hour coach ride (Mr Bear looked that up for me when I went back to work). So sad to hear this... My friends in London were quite concerned! It looks like bad luck happens when I'm always on holiday!!

We all parted ways at Inwood / Love Field Station... Miss Pinky and I hardly argued on this journey!! Incredible!!

End of Day 12. (^_^)v

Day 13: http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/dallas-texas-day-13-bored.html