Day 27 - Texas

Once again Margaret was up again early to make breakfast for us, this time it was spicy pumpkin muffins and they were delicious! Today Karen, Wendy and myself were taking the kids to Six Flags Over Texas - a huge roller-coaster park situated in Arlington just over an hours drive away.  Unfortunately the drive took us almost 2.5 hours due to highway construction and losing Karen and Wendy travelling the car behind me!  All good though - Karen managed to find a gas station where she placed more credit on her phone so we were able to locate each other - a bit of a scary moment though!



The kids had a great time on the roller coasters even though they only had about 4 hours to have fun.  Karen, Wendy and myself had fun shopping at a local mall in Arlington where all the shoppers apart from us appeared to be either Mexican or African Americans!

Nick, Daf and Glen had a boy's day out and visited a gun show at Lewisville which had thousands of guns for sale and show.  Glen was amazed at the pricing - apparently about a quarter of our pricing in Oz. They enjoyed lunch together at Mimi's - a local diner which had good food!

After collecting the kids from Six Flags we travelled stright to Ponder to join everyone else at the Ranchman's Cafe to have chicken friend steak for dinner.  The food at the Ranchman's was fabulous and was enjoyed by all!  Jonathan got up and played a piano in the restaurant and played very well (and he was quite chuffed with himself!)

Day 26 - Texas

Margaret was up early this morning and made us blueberry muffins and bacon for breakfast - yum!  A cold front had come across Texas overnight and it was drizzling and cold (thank goodness we had all purchased some sweaters in our shopping sprees!).

Nick, Jonathan, Glen, James, Livvy, Daf, Ryan and Teags were all headed to the State Fair of Texas by train today but their plans were changed once they realised that the train ride was going to take them 1.5 hours to get to the fair and they had just missed a train and had to wait for another hour.  They decided to join Donny and go and visit his ranch up in Tioga about a 35 minute drive away.  The kids all had a lot of fun chasing the two dogs Rosie and Lilly all around the ranch and playing with the oodles of kittens.  They got to see all of Donny's horses and Jerry-Lee, the long-horn steer (Donny's pride and joy!).  Margaret was meeting a bunch of girlfriends and having drinks together to celebrate her birthday!

Karen, Wendy and myself decided to visit Southfork Ranch from the TV series "Dallas".  I had been to Southfork about 16 years ago and it was completely different this time.  Nowadays you can go for a tour through the mansion and the grounds and it is quite magnificent.  We thought we would only be there for an hour or so but ended up staying for about three hours.  They had a great gift shop so we all managed to stock up on some Southfork souvenirs.  Luckily we had visited the Ranch this day as they would be closed in two days' time as they were about to start filming again for the second series of the new Dallas show!

We arrived back in Denton quite late so we fed the kids in the Texas Roadhouse steakhouse adjacent to the Best Western and then Donny drove us to Billy Bob's to experience a night at the biggest Honky Tonk in the world.  Unfortunately we arrived too late to watch the events in the bullring but we did have fun listening to a local band, watching everyone boot-scooting around, drinking, having photos taken on a bull and once again spending up in the gift shop.  It was a great (and late) night and we had a ton of fun!

Day 25 - Texas

An early morning start for us this morning with our shuttle bus arriving at 5.05am to take us from the Monte Carlo Hotel to the airport for our 7.45am flight to Dallas, Texas.  We had breakfast at the airport and had a smooth flight to DFW with most of us having a nap on board (especially Karen who had decided to stay up the previous night - she had been gambling until 2am so decided not to go to sleep for two hours!).

We collected our cars from EZ Car Rental and then went in "convoy" to Denton.  There was massive highway construction going on around the DFW airport but we managed without too many hiccups or U- turns!

We stopped at the Best Western Premier Hotel in Denton for the Patmans and Careys to check in - a very nice hotel @$90.00/ night which included a bedroom, lounge-room, kitchen and breakfast all included in the price - really 5 star!

We jumped back in our rental cars (subaru and camry's) and went to the Golden Triangle Mall in Denton  400m away for a late lunch and then to leave the "troops" whilst we headed to Don and Margaret's home at Oak Bend Circle.

It was wonderful to see both Don and Margaret!  Donny looked really well after only having a heart operation four weeks earlier - he was really quick to inform us that he couldn't lift anything! We settled in very quickly and then we were off to El Fenix Mexican Restaurant for dinner with Don and Margaret, their friends Glenna and Johnny and Margaret's son, Andy.  We had eaten at El Fenix on a previous visit to Denton and the food did not disappoint us!  The strawberry daiquari was delicious!  We went home and sat around Don and Margaret's back porch having a good old catch up until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.

Day 28 - Last day in Texas

For our very last day of our fantastic holiday we went with Donny and Margaret to the Old West REstaurant for breakfast and it was a magnificent breakfast!  We will definitely go back to this restaurant next time we are in Denton!

Nick and Jonathan caught up with Daf, Glen and James and visited Cabela's a huge outdoor/camping store with Don and Margaret.  They spent three happy hours shopping in Cabela's before moving on to shop at Best Buy and then returning home.

I decided to take a quick drive to Vista Ridge Mall for some last minute shopping and I wasn't disappointed as I had a great couple of hours!

It was then back and Don and Margaret to pack the last of our belongings before heading back to the Best Western to collect the troops for the drive back to DFW for our flight home at 10pm.

We spend a few hours at the Admiral's Club at DFW having a few drinks and some nibbles before settling down in the plane for our flight home.  Arrived home in Brisbane 30 minutes later than our scheduled time and Scott our shuttle bus driver was there to greet us.

In summary, we all had similar thoughts about the trip but we all though the following regarding a "special" moment -

Glen - "definitely the chopper ride to the Grand Canyon"
Livvy - "shopping - especially in Las Vegas and New York" (I love this girl!!!)
Teags - "New York"
James - "all of the holiday"
Ryan - "everything about the holiday" (but I think he really enjoyed Harry Potter World most of all!)
Jonathan - "the cruise"
Daf - "the cruise and the helicopter ride"
Wendy - "the cruise and the shopping"
Karen - "the cruise, the shopping, the pedicure"
Nick - "the cruise and helicopter ride"
Allie -  "the cruise, helicopter ride and managing to walk the whole distance of the Brooklyn Bridge and the view from the Empire State"

We ALL had a most wonderful time and can't wait until the next trip.  We'll be catching up in the next couple of weeks to compare photos!

Day 24 - Las Vegas

Today is our Helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. Thanks to Barack Obama, there was an airspace blackout around Vegas so we were lucky enough to end up with more air time for our tour. Our group had 2 choppers and we flew out of Gene which is 45 minutes from Vegas and adds a little extra time in the air.

 All of us were very excited to be flying and we made sure we were going to get a good look at Hoover Dam. Our pilot was great and he even laid on a race with the helicopter that the Carey's were in. The whole trip was absolutely awesome and would recommend it to anyone.




On returning to the resort and getting the kids settled, we were able to fit in a Happy Hour for a while. As it was the last night with an early start to the airport, we decided to eat at The Big Belly Buffet which was very good. 

Day 23 - Las Vegas

Today I was having some FREE time as everyone else had other activities. Glen had organized a pickup by a Gun Range to shoot some high end weapons with all the boys and the Ladies had decided to visit an Outlet Centre and had raced off in a Taxi.  I headed off to the Casino for a tutorial on playing craps. It was very interesting however I got the impression that it was pretty easy to lose a lot very quickly. That is why there are so many huge resorts in Vegas.



After my tutorial I got myself settled by the pool and spent some quiet time reading.

Everyone returned to Monte Carlo at approximately the same time, however I was able to find out that Jonathan had fired an AK47 assault rifle and a Navy Tactical MP5 Sub-machine Gun. As there is no such thing as a failed shopping expedition the ladies were happy with their purchases.


We headed off to Bellagio for dinner and after encountering a very sour Maitre'd, we enjoyed a beautiful meal. As there was more money to be won, we all headed off to the Casino for a drink and a gamble.

Day 22 - Las Vegas

After a long day yesterday, Jonathan joined all the kids in the pools in the morning for a laze. We went for our own walking tour looking through the Hotel Lobbies and shopping areas of the Bellagio, Venetian and Winns resorts. The extensive features that are packed into these places are just incredible.

We walked back to Monte Carlo and joined everyone in a bar aptly called The Pub. Tonight we were on a tour that took in the sights such as the Volcano at The Mirage and the fountains at The Bellagio. Armed with a lot of info about the Resorts and having gone through Madame Tussaud's we eventually got to Fremont Street.
This was our kind of place and we loved it. Everyone just walking around in a Party atmosphere looking at the masses of street performers. On the hour every hour a massive light show in the roof over the mall area which was fantastic. We all enjoyed it immensely, then back on the bus and back to Monte Carlo. After settling the kids down all of us headed off for a quiet drink at a bar in the Casino. After one drink Allie called it a night and the rest stayed and gambled . A good night for all.