Friday
1) Light Rail ($1.75)
Dana and I both parked our car at the 28th Avenue station in Bloomington. Luckily we got there at 6:30pm right when the ticket prices drop to $1.75 each. We took the light rail three stops north (less than 10 minutes) to the Humphrey Terminal.
2) Dinner at Airport ($10.78)
With a tightly packed schedule after work we found that the terminal was almost completely empty which meant we got through security and to our gate much quicker than we had planned for. We grabbed dinner at the Minnesota Wild Restaurant and Bar near our gate at Humphrey Airport (Terminal 2). It was a little spendy (as many airport restaurants can be), so we just grabbed some appetizers before the flight.
3) Spirit Airlines
This was our cheapest option for flying from Minneapolis to Dallas (as it usually is). However, with cheaper costs comes a lot of hidden fees and issues you may not have to deal with when flying other airlines. Some of these include, a large amount of delays, extra costs for luggage, and over booking the flight. You are allowed to bring one 16”x14”x12” bag (about the size of a backpack) on for free. For other regulations, see their baggage fee breakdown.
As for the flight itself, don’t expect any frills. There are no beverages or meals served (no peanuts either). Leg space is minimal, and we experienced a noisier cabin than usual. Basically, you should expect the type of people that cheaper prices attract. As for the captain and crew members, everyone was extremely polite and helpful. The captain had a sense of humor and was very welcoming. Overall, we had a good experience flying Spirit while on a strict budget.
4) DART ($2.50)
Similar to the light rail in Minnesota, the DART is a rail line that runs through the Dallas area (and is much more expansive than Minneapolis’ system). I tried using the app on my phone to find a schedule/plan a trip, but the information on the app did not agree with the schedule posted online. I couldn’t find a purpose for its use on my trip, so I printed off a schedule from their website to bring with. We took the Orange Line into Dallas from the airport. We felt much more confident being the only line that ran out to the airport that we were headed in the right direction. As we were about to purchase our train tickets from the booth, a man stopped and gave us his ticket which had about an hour and half remaining on it. In fact, twice more people offered to give us their tickets once they were done using them.
5) Uber Cab ($2.50)
We had about a mile to walk after we got off the DART to get to Nichole’s house where we were staying for the weekend. However, when we arrived she did not answer any of our knocks or phone calls. It was about 12:30am, so we called an Uber cab to come pick us up. Uber (like Lyft) is a newer business model for cabs. People sign up, drive their own cars, and use their phones to receive requests for riders. All payments are linked through the app (including tip), so there is no reason to handle cash during/after the trip. We took a ride about a mile southwest to an area with a couple hotels. The first place we stopped at we found that no one was on duty, and the other hotel in the plaza was about $150/night. We then called a motel that was another mile down the road which we ended up staying for $30/night. After the call, my phone died, so we had to walk the last leg.
6) Gas Station ($3.77)
It was getting close to 2:00am, and we were right around the corner from the motel. We stopped at a “Race Trac” gas station to pick up something to eat. Dana wanted some chocolate milk, but we quickly found that Texas convenient stores don’t love dairy as much as Minnesota/Wisconsin does. We grabbed a couple of fruits/vegetables and walked the rest of the way to the motel.
7) Motel ($15)
The Meadowbrook Motel is $30/night but has all the classiness of a $25/night motel. For what we needed, it worked. However, we had to forgo clean sheets, cigarette smell-free room, deadbolt on the door, smoke detector, and a genuine feel of safety. We got there just after 2:00am so all we really needed was a place to fall asleep. No one was injured or kidnapped, so all in all, it was a successful evening. They don’t take checks or credit cards (or speak English), but they did answer the phone when we called around 1:00am (and were actually open when we arrived). If you’re near the Dallas Love Field Airport and need a place to sleep and also break your record for cheapest/scariest night in a motel, Meadowbrook Motel will do the trick.
Saturday
8) Farmer’s Market (Free)
Dana and I woke up around 8:00am Saturday morning. We slept in a little later than we had planned for, but we also went to sleep much later than anticipated. Nichole and her boyfriend Travis had gotten ahold of us around 1:30am the night before and arranged to pick us up and take us downtown. Nichole was very apologetic about what happened the night before and brought us breakfast in the morning to make up for it. They drove us down to a lot with free parking where we walked to the Farmer’s Market. It seems like a pretty traditional farmer’s market, but the local shops and stands were fun to visit. We got to try several different types of food. One place we stopped was The Brownie Cottage which had some of the most obscure brownie flavors I’ve ever heard of. We taste tested the “Bacon Cheddar Brownie” which seems like a ridiculous concept, and it was truly a unique taste. It was a very dense brownie that was packed to the brim with flavor. We both really enjoyed it. I thought it was too rich to have more than a couple bites, but Dana claimed she easily demolish several of them!
9) Christmas Parade (Free)
After the farmer’s market we happened upon packed streets downtown. The 27th annual Dallas Children’s Health Holiday Parade was in effect. We hadn’t planned for the increased foot traffic, but these are the types of things that make traveling more fun. We weaved our way through the crowd while enjoying the parade. It took us a while to get to a safe place to cross, but since our stops were so close, we had the time to spare.
10) Thanksgiving Square (Free)
This was our first planned stop of the day. The farmer’s market was a bonus stop and the parade was basically an accident we happened upon. There are several monuments downtown that you can check out. If you are into the history this may be a good stop, but I would suggest only stopping by to check out the worship center at Thanksgiving Square. Unfortunately we were there a little too early to take a look inside. The center is open from 10:00am - 4:00pm daily.
11) Pioneer Plaza (Free)
Another free downtown stop, Pioneer Plaza has a little more room to roam around. The park seems like a good place to come with family and explore the area. It’s built in an interactive way that could make it feel like a playground to kids with streams to cross and rocks to climb. Connected to this park is Pioneer Cemetery which is over 150 years old.
12) Fountain Place (Free)
This just happened to be on our walk back North to Klyde Warren Park, so I thought it was worth checking out. I like stopping and seeing unique buildings and structures that different cities have to offer. Fountain Place is a cool building to take note of and has a unique entrance decorated with fountains. It might be worth a look if you are nearby, but it isn’t a stop you should go out of your way to make.
13) Klyde Warren Park ($10.71)
Walking through a city is one of the best ways to work up an appetite! I’m so glad we marked Klyde Warren Park as our lunch stop. I’ve seen pictures of this park absolutely packed with people, so it was nice to have been there on a more mellow day. The park itself is situated over the freeway; although; we didn’t notice much noise from the traffic. There is a stage with an open field where I would assume many concerts take place. They have free book rentals and games (in exchange for your driver’s license). At the time that we visited there was also a reindeer at the park. I got suggestions from several sources to check out The Butcher’s Son. All three of the burgers I ordered were extremely good but I liked the “Mac and Beefy” and “Southern Hospitality” the most.
14) Dallas Aquarium (Free)
This was another stop that I had not originally put on my list. However, Nichole enlightened us that there are several free exhibits on the walk up to the ticket counter. We strolled in and eventually made it to the Tree Kangaroo exhibit. The lady at the ticket counter said we needed to buy a ticket to look at it, but Nichole assured us that she was wrong. As we were looking at the exhibit the lady at the ticket counter told the security guard that we were trying to sneak in, but once he saw that we had no interest in actually going through the doors, he didn’t bother to say anything to us. So if you want to see the Tree Kangaroo, don’t listen to the ticket lady! If you do want to actually enter the Dallas Aquarium prices are about $20 per ticket for an adult.
15) 6th Floor Museum ($16)
I usually try to stay away from museums during these weekends, but the 6th Floor Museum is truly unique to Dallas. The 6th floor of the (then) Texas School Book Depository is where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot President John F. Kennedy. The word allegedly is thrown into many of the exhibits as he was murdered before he could be brought to trial. No cameras are allowed on the 6th floor, but there isn’t anything too different from other museums. They have audio of Walter Cronkite breaking the news of the assassination to the public which gave an eerie feel to that particular section of the museum. There are also scale models and other recreations of the scene that day. The museum offers a free audio guide with headphones as you walk around, but I felt that the portion I listened to at the beginning was not that interesting. In fact, I felt like the first quarter of the museum, which largely covered the history and the state of the union, was not very interesting to me. However, I was fully engrossed and amazed at how much I didn’t know while walking through the rest of it. For $16/ticket I think this is a good use of time to be able to see where our 35th President had his final moments from Lee Harvey Oswald's perspective.
16) Continental Bridge Park (Free)
Everything up to this point was walking from stop to stop downtown, so the four of us were ready to walk back to the car and head to Continental Bridge Park. The website we looked at made it seem like a modern, unique park that crossed the Trinity River. We were excited to walk down it; unfortunately, we were met with a line of police officers telling us that it was closed. One of the officers mentioned that a TV show was being filmed until 8:00, but he didn’t know which. Even though we were disappointed that we didn’t get to check it out, it gave us a really cool perspective of the downtown skyline that we hadn’t seen yet.
17) The Foundry ($12)
I received a lot of information detailing that Dallas had some really cool patio bars. I had to do some research to see which one I wanted to stop by tonight, and The Foundry was one of my top choices and very near Continental Bridge Park. Located on the same lot is Chicken Scratch. Basically, The Foundry serves the drinks, and Chicken Scratch does the food. We were able to order both from our waitress, so it wasn’t too different from dining at one establishment. We were there at 6:00pm and it was pretty quiet. I’m not sure if it’s because 60 degrees may be on the cool side of Dallas, or if the crowd doesn’t really roll in until after dinner. Either way, the mac and cheese was delicious and their cocktails were very good as well. The atmosphere definitely seemed upbeat and fun. I would think this would be a great way to spend a warm summer weekend evening.
19) Medieval Times ($39 Ticket $7.79 Drinks)
I had never heard of Medieval Times, but apparently everyone else has. Their website lists 9 cities that they currently operate in, so I decided it was unique enough (and I had to figure out what everyone was talking about). I actually discovered this by looking on Groupon where they had tickets listed as half off the price (Original price is about $40/adult). As far as I’m concerned, this was the best thing we could have done Saturday night. Food, entertainment, and a place to sit after hours of roaming around downtown made this the perfect venue. You get seated in random section. Whatever color that section is matches the color of your knight. I believe there were 8 knights/sections that all battle each other through a variety of games. After that, the (staged) jousting begins, and the winner of the joust has to battle the bad guy in order to save the princess. It all seems pretty typical, but the fight scenes were pretty entertaining. These guys were talking full swings with their weapons and missing each other by inches. It must take a lot of practice and even more trust to put on a show where they look to be really going at it. As for the culture of it all, Medieval Times does do a very good job of immersing you into the scene without forcing you into any awkward situations. The food I thought was fare (sorry, I had to). The meat was a little dry, but they offer a couple options (including a vegetarian main dish). There are several sides and dessert. It actually is quite the feast, and the above average quantity makes up for the average quality. Now that I’ve lowered your expectations a bit, you’ll probably think the food is amazing. You’re welcome. This was our last stop of the night. We got back to Nichole and Travis’ place around 11:00 and turned in shortly after midnight.
15) 6th Floor Museum ($16)
I usually try to stay away from museums during these weekends, but the 6th Floor Museum is truly unique to Dallas. The 6th floor of the (then) Texas School Book Depository is where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot President John F. Kennedy. The word allegedly is thrown into many of the exhibits as he was murdered before he could be brought to trial. No cameras are allowed on the 6th floor, but there isn’t anything too different from other museums. They have audio of Walter Cronkite breaking the news of the assassination to the public which gave an eerie feel to that particular section of the museum. There are also scale models and other recreations of the scene that day. The museum offers a free audio guide with headphones as you walk around, but I felt that the portion I listened to at the beginning was not that interesting. In fact, I felt like the first quarter of the museum, which largely covered the history and the state of the union, was not very interesting to me. However, I was fully engrossed and amazed at how much I didn’t know while walking through the rest of it. For $16/ticket I think this is a good use of time to be able to see where our 35th President had his final moments from Lee Harvey Oswald's perspective.
16) Continental Bridge Park (Free)
Everything up to this point was walking from stop to stop downtown, so the four of us were ready to walk back to the car and head to Continental Bridge Park. The website we looked at made it seem like a modern, unique park that crossed the Trinity River. We were excited to walk down it; unfortunately, we were met with a line of police officers telling us that it was closed. One of the officers mentioned that a TV show was being filmed until 8:00, but he didn’t know which. Even though we were disappointed that we didn’t get to check it out, it gave us a really cool perspective of the downtown skyline that we hadn’t seen yet.
17) The Foundry ($12)
I received a lot of information detailing that Dallas had some really cool patio bars. I had to do some research to see which one I wanted to stop by tonight, and The Foundry was one of my top choices and very near Continental Bridge Park. Located on the same lot is Chicken Scratch. Basically, The Foundry serves the drinks, and Chicken Scratch does the food. We were able to order both from our waitress, so it wasn’t too different from dining at one establishment. We were there at 6:00pm and it was pretty quiet. I’m not sure if it’s because 60 degrees may be on the cool side of Dallas, or if the crowd doesn’t really roll in until after dinner. Either way, the mac and cheese was delicious and their cocktails were very good as well. The atmosphere definitely seemed upbeat and fun. I would think this would be a great way to spend a warm summer weekend evening.
19) Medieval Times ($39 Ticket $7.79 Drinks)
I had never heard of Medieval Times, but apparently everyone else has. Their website lists 9 cities that they currently operate in, so I decided it was unique enough (and I had to figure out what everyone was talking about). I actually discovered this by looking on Groupon where they had tickets listed as half off the price (Original price is about $40/adult). As far as I’m concerned, this was the best thing we could have done Saturday night. Food, entertainment, and a place to sit after hours of roaming around downtown made this the perfect venue. You get seated in random section. Whatever color that section is matches the color of your knight. I believe there were 8 knights/sections that all battle each other through a variety of games. After that, the (staged) jousting begins, and the winner of the joust has to battle the bad guy in order to save the princess. It all seems pretty typical, but the fight scenes were pretty entertaining. These guys were talking full swings with their weapons and missing each other by inches. It must take a lot of practice and even more trust to put on a show where they look to be really going at it. As for the culture of it all, Medieval Times does do a very good job of immersing you into the scene without forcing you into any awkward situations. The food I thought was fare (sorry, I had to). The meat was a little dry, but they offer a couple options (including a vegetarian main dish). There are several sides and dessert. It actually is quite the feast, and the above average quantity makes up for the average quality. Now that I’ve lowered your expectations a bit, you’ll probably think the food is amazing. You’re welcome. This was our last stop of the night. We got back to Nichole and Travis’ place around 11:00 and turned in shortly after midnight.
Sunday
19) All Good Cafe ($6)
Dana and I felt significantly more rested without having to worry about someone breaking into our motel. We packed up and left Nichole’s place after saying goodbye to her four little chihuahuas. We drove down to deep Ellum where the four of us got breakfast at AllGood Cafe. I’m never a good person to ask about breakfast food because I enjoy all of it and think it tastes great; AllGood is no exception. I thought the food was great, the service was good, but the atmosphere was what set it apart. The decorations were unique and all the tiny origami cranes hanging from the ceiling was very creative. Nichole’s mom came and joined us for our first meal of the day and even picked up the tab for us! We left the tip, so our expense here was a lot less than we were expecting. Thanks Nichole’s mom!
20) Deep Ellum (Free)
I really wanted the chance to just stroll through one of the districts in Dallas. With how busy I pack these weekends, it nice to just have time set aside to walk around and just take in the sights. Nichole and Travis acting as our tour guides told us that Deep Ellum is more of an up-and-coming neighborhood that’s seen a lot of growth and gentrification the past few years. The streets are decorated with all sorts of graffiti. The graffiti is so good that it has basically become an attraction to residents. As we walked through we spotted a couple smaller shops including an antique toy store that made Deep Ellum seem like a unique place for weekend shopping.
21) Cafe Brazil ($4.32)
We passed this during our walk through Deep Ellum, and Dana was ready for more coffee, so we hopped in. I don’t drink coffee, so maybe part of the magic is lost on me, but I thought the decor was cool. The walls and surfaces were painted very bright colors. There was some artwork for sale, and the general vibe was friendly. Dana seemed to enjoy her coffee, so she got what she wanted out of Cafe Brazil!
22) Trolley (Free)
We got a ride from our hosts back to the northern end of downtown Dallas where we hopped on the FREE trolley. I love finding the freebies like this to show you a city. This old streetcar is operated well into the night, so I imagine there is a good chunk of the population that leans on this mode of transportation to replace a car when getting home on the weekends. As for the day time, it was a cool way to navigate the city. The conductor seemed like he had been doing this for a while. He was very knowledgeable and was giving us quite the history lesson. Besides telling us his story about where Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde) had his first job, he also told us that Klyde Warren Park was named after Kelcy Warren’s then nine-year-old son. He told us that as a condition of name the park after him, his son had to go clean the park every month, something he still does today (park opened in 2012).
23) Truck Yard ($2.66)
This is actually another stop that was not originally on my itinerary; however, it ended up being one of my favorite ones! On our drive to Greenville Avenue, we parked nearby the Truck Yard. It’s another patio bar much like The Foundry. We stopped to get their “Rice Krispie Ice Cream Sammie” as their menu calls it. For $5, it’s a great deal! We walked around back to find a mishmash of colors, furniture, truck parts and anything else you would find in a literal truck yard. There were food trucks out back and a stage on the side. The bathrooms were decorated with license plates (see the last few seconds of the “A Weekend in Dallas” video). Overall it really blew me away; I wasn’t expecting the decor to be so unique. Although I should have expected it given it’s name. We just spent a few minutes walking around, but this place would top my list if you’re looking for a fun place to hang out and get some ice cream.
24) Greenville Ave (Free)
As I claimed in the video, we were running short on time, so we ended up just taking a quick walk through Lower Greenville. I originally wanted to come here to see some shops and get lunch. I had heard it’s a good place for bar hopping, and I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to think about bar hopping in December. It was about 30-35 degrees warmer in Dallas than in Minneapolis this particular weekend, so I would have indulged if I had another night.
25) Top Golf ($27.07 Entrance $4 Food and tip)
I always try to find a good mix of free and cheap things in a weekend and couple that with one or two things that cost a little money. Top Golf falls in the latter category, but it wasn’t too expensive the way we did it. Each “player” has to buy a membership card for $5 (lifetime membership) and then you pay by the hour. At the time we went it was $40/hour per “player.” A player is basically a name on the screen (like in bowling). We just decided to be 2 teams of 2 and switch off, so for the 4 of us it was $80 (or $20/person). Also, since it’s a time limit and not a limit on number of swings, we could hack away as fast as we wanted to take full advantage. They serve food and drinks to your table (yes they serve alcohol), and there were batting cages and mini golf on site as well. I really liked spending the hour we did here, and I would definitely go back. As for now, I’m going to make sure I don’t lose my membership card.
26) Galleria (Free)
I looked into visiting both malls before deciding which one to stop at. NorthPark Center is very close to Top Golf, and I read an article stating that while it may not be as big as The Mall of America, it certainly is fancier. I felt like I needed to follow up that trash talk by checking it out myself. However, I landed on the Galleria because of the ice rink. I had originally planned on trying to skate there, but that quickly turned out to be impossible once we saw the line stretched out of sight. I was a little bummed out about not getting to try it out, but Nichole reminded me that I live in Minnesota and can skate there anytime I want. I was interested in taking a look at the ice though. From high up I couldn’t tell if it was real or a synthetic blend. The skaters didn’t look like they had much control, but that was probably for different reasons. Other than that, the four of us walked around and checked out some stores before we headed up to the attached hotel to check out the business center and print off Dana and I’s plane tickets. Our information wasn’t working in the system, so we had to ditch the computer to make sure we got to the airport on time.
27) DART ($2.50)
Nichole and Travis drove us to a nearby DART station for us to take to the airport. We said our goodbyes and thanked them for taking us around. We saved a lot of money/time by not having to rely on taking public transportation (especially on Sunday). We didn’t have to make any transfers this time and the DART brought us to Terminal A at DFW.
28) Airport (Food $4.32)
When we arrived at Terminal A we tried to use the kiosks to print off out boarding passes, but we were still having issues. We had to find the Sun Country check in counter (Our round trip flight called for Spirit outbound and Sun Country inbound). Unfortunately Terminal A only had a desk for American Airlines. The fastest way to get to our gate was through taking the Skylink (rail) once you got through security, so we had to step outside and catch the bus to Terminal D. We were really getting close on time, so we had to rush our way to the check in counter and through security once we got there. After passing through security we checked our flight and found it was delayed by an hour and twenty minutes; this allowed us to relax a bit and grab some food from Cousins BBQ and grab a drink for the plane ride before departing.
29) Cousins BBQ ($7.25)
Dana and I figured that while it’s not authentic southern cuisine, that throwing in some pulled pork would be a nice way to cap off the weekend. We hadn’t really added dinner into the mix as a plan since we were supposed to depart at 6:45pm. However, this gave us the chance to slow down a bit, eat some food, and explore the airport. One of the things that I thought was unique about DFW is the ubiquity of charger stands. I was going for a little walk while Dana was getting a drink for the plane, and I noticed that DFW has a lot of charger stands around the gate areas. I’ve been to lots of airports where I see people sitting on the ground with their laptops in the hallway just so they can plug in. I hope I start to see more of these charging stands in other airports as well.
30) Light Rail ($1.75)
We ended up lifting off closer to 9 which meant we didn’t arrive back at the Humphrey Terminal in Minneapolis until 11:00. We took the light rail 3 stops down back to the station where we parked our car. It turned out to be a very full weekend! We spent just under 46 hours in Dallas and it was 53.25 hours “door to door.” To put that in perspective there are 55 hours between 5:00 Friday afternoon and 12:00 Sunday night/Monday morning. We squeezed almost every last drop out of our weekend in Dallas!
Cash Spending Summary:
Accommodations: $15.00
Travel (Inner City): $11.00
Attractions/Entertainment: $82.07
Food/Drink: $73.60
TOTAL: $181.67
