Speaking of Thanksgiving, beyond the fact that its a day of celebration with turkeys and all, I had no clue on its origin. Based on what I've managed to googled, it is actually marks a day of thanks after harvesting. Its good to know now.
The drive to Dallas was very smooth and we made it in 4 hours, including some pitstops and meal/bio breaks. Approaching Dallas, Louis and I agreed that it was a bigger city compared to Houston. The highways were huge. Amazingly, the pillars of the highways on a particular stretch were painted some pastel colours and each was marked with a lone star. We later found out from Julia that the folks in Dallas thought that was a gayish/sissy colour. But we thought it was interesting and added a different touch.
Julia and Colin lived in a nice 2-storey, 3-room house in Plano. The neighbourhood was nice and tranquil. We liked it a lot. And best of all, Julia has got 2 dogs; Hoobs (miniature schnauzer) and Kuro (Shiba Inu). There was a 3rd dog, Leelu (Terrier?), as Julia was dog-seating for a friend.
Thanksgiving dinner was held at Rebecca's, a friend of Julia. There was sooo much food as nearly everybody made or bought something.
After dinner that night, we headed home and went to an outlet mall at midnight. There were so many people about and going for the good deals. I was sorely tempted to buy some Le Creuset cast-iron pots as Julia had a further 30% discount off the outlet price. In the end, I was guided by practicality... as in my luggage had absolutely no more space seeing that I had already shopped quite a bit for my maternity clothes. I consoled myself with the purchase of 2 silicon surface protector.
Louis and I were comatosed by the time we headed home. We slept for more than 10 hours and woke up only after 12 noon the next day! Thankfully, we could still make it for a dim sum lunch. Louis hadn't had dim sum for a long time. After lunch, we decided to head out to Galleria for some shopping. I stopped by at Gap Maternity again and bought 4 more long sleeves tops that would tide me for a much colder winter in London/Paris. Louis bought a cheap US$10 fleece pullover from Old Navy and I bought myself a formal black pumps in Nordstrom.
Tea was at La Madeleine, a french bistro chain (there are a few in Houston too). I like the ambience in La Madeleine. They provide free bread slices along with their homemade brand of jam. The few times that we went La Madeleine, Louis and I stuffed ourselves with a lot of their bread and jam simply becos the jam (marmalade and apricot) was terrific!
For dinner, we had went to a chinese place where they had really nice char siew and wantan soup. Maybe its to do with age, but it always feels good to eat chinese after all the different cuisines.
All too soon, it was Sat and Louis and I made our way home so that we would have time to rest in Houston before the work week starts for him. So, here's some pictures of our time in Dallas.
