Central Texas: A Writing Vacation

 

Welcome back to my blog. Today's article is about my writing/school/regular vacation to Texas. My family took a trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas to visit relatives in early fall. This was a school vacation because I still had to spend time on vacation to write my essay and read my homework for the U.S. History college class I was taking. The vacation put a lot less stress on my schedule because I had a good amount of time on my hands to write my first college essay. It was terrifying at first, but I did well on it so that was a relief.

This trip was also a writing vacation because Texas is a crucial part of research for a novel I have been writing. I needed two different areas of the country to use as a setting for my novel, and I chose Los Angeles and Dallas. Before this trip, I had only been in Texas for the first year of my existence so I didn’t know what the area looked like at all. I also tend to assume that every large city equals LA, and I was obviously wrong. I was able to learn about the living costs, climate, and geography of that area in Texas and I hope that my book will be able to benefit from it.

Anyways, here is what I did. My family took a midnight flight from LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) to DFW (Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport) on American Airlines. I am apt to say that I like Southwest Airlines better because they serve peanuts (which I like) and not pretzels (which I hate). After the flight, my uncle picked us up and took us to my grandma’s house where we were staying. My brother and I were going to stay up all night because it was already 5 am in Texas. But my mom made us sleep. :( It was one of those times in my life when I actually wanted to stay up. It doesn’t happen often.

The next day (Sunday), I visited the American Girl Store in the Dallas Galleria. This was the second American Girl Store I have been to, and I nearly bought more than my wallet allowed. I was able to get ear piercing for my doll, and I think it was worth it mostly because I am always a little biased when it comes to American Girl products. It was also adorable.

On Monday, my family visited AT&T Stadium, the stadium of the Dallas Cowboys. My family is mostly Dallas Cowboys’ fans. When it comes to me though, the question is more of “What is not your favorite football team?” as opposed to “What is your favorite football team?” I’ll just list my fantasy football team as my favorite sports team for now. I was able to see the locker rooms, run on the field, and was able to take a lot of photos. It was very fun, but I was excited for what I would do the next day. At night, we visited some relatives that I didn’t even remember. It’s always sort of awkward when that happens.



This is part of the press conference room.




The touchdown line has "Michigan" on it because
we visited it after a Michigan football game.



This is on the roof of the Miller Lite Club.

Tuesday (as well as Sunday) was an exciting day. I visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library and was freaking out because it was history; there is no other reason. George W. Bush is one of the people I admire in history so it was an amazing experience to learn about his presidency as well as his art. We were able to see the Portraits of Courage exhibit, and exhibit of his paintings of veterans he has met through his military service programs. I saw it on a TV program, but everything is different when you get to see it in person. His paintings are an amazing testament to those who have served our country faithfully. I was able to learn more about his administration which my history textbooks never covers in depth for some reason. I was only able to study (and yes, study) half of the exhibit before my parents had to drag me out or else I would have spent days there. I was too mesmerized to take pictures of the exhibit though. Sorry. I hope that explained my love of history, geography, and politics. I love those topics even more than all of the literature in the world. My bookworm and writing friends probably disagree with me at this point.

We left Texas the next day, but I enjoyed this vacation even more than my vacations to China. I agree with Tod Moran (from Highroad to Adventure) when he expressed his concern for knowing more about foreign countries than the country he was from, the U.S. Tod had been everywhere else in the world, but he had never been able to travel the U.S. coast to coast. I feel that way too, and although travelling to one state was hardly a taste of the country, I am able to appreciate at least one part of the U.S. As I have stated, I love history and geography, but I especially love American history and geography. Comment below if you agree with you, and also what states or countries you were able to visit.

I am going to close this article with a quote by President Bush: “Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking.’” I have not seen a different in Texans from Californians myself. That may be because there is none. Come back next week for a guest post by my friend, Anna!