Category: History

The Brown House

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. On Wednesday December 03RD 2025 me and my brother started our day at a popular deli in Far North Dallas – Deli-News. We’ve been there many times for lunch over the past 18 years. It’s actually located within a few miles of my brother’s first workplace in the Dallas Texas area – as well as his first home with his new wife at the time. I got the “New York Diner Classic” – “mounds of thinly sliced roast beef and topped with our special brown gravy and served open faced”. It was very good, and it should’ve been very good at $21.99. It was definitely high-quality roast beef. It came with a side. I chose their Potato Salad.

But that’s not what this post is about. After lunch we returned to Wylie Texas – specifically the historic downtown district along Ballard Avenue. We visited the “Thomas And Mattie Brown House Welcome Center” (known more commonly as “Welcome Center At Brown House”). It’s a historic Queen Anne Victorian house (built in 1905) that houses a museum, gift shop, and offices. It also serves as the official welcome center for the city of Wylie Texas. They are open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11 AM to 5 PM from November to March with extended hours from April to October. Admission is free.

The city of Wylie owns and operates the museum with part-time paid employees. Unlike our museum back home in Sebring Florida where we encourage (and hope for) financial support from visitors, members, and businesses – the museum in Wylie has its own allocated budget and can’t accept donations. But if you want to support them then you can buy something at their gift shop. All gift shop proceeds support the 501(c)(3) Wylie Historical Society non-profit organization.

Upon arrival – I immediately signed their guest book, and I also quickly revealed that I am also in the museum business. We got a nice tour of the museum – which occupies much of the bottom floor. (The top floor is for staff only.)

A dozen uniquely themed Christmas trees covered nearly every corner of the museum. I especially liked the patriotic tree that will likely stay in place as is until America’s 250TH birthday less than 6 months from now. I remarked to Tracy – a Guest Service Specialist at the museum – that I need to return on my next visit to Wylie in the summertime to check out what it looks like without all of the Christmas trees. Me and my brother had a very nice conversation with Tracy – maybe half of it as a visitor – and the other half of it as a fellow museum worker. I walked away with some great ideas (and dreams) for my own historic house museum back home.

Fun Facts: The Brown House was a private residence from 1905 to 1988. It was purchased by a local trust fund in 1989 to use as office space and create a library and historical museum. Their mission was to restore the house to the way it originally looked in 1905. Over a half-million dollars was spent to restore the house. The City Of Wylie purchased the house from the Trust in 2015. It was initially used for event rentals and special events. After several years of weather-related repairs (due to hail, snow, and ice storms) – it officially became the Welcome Center and Museum in August 2022.

On the next #TravelThursday – coffee, coffee, dessert, movie, cheesesteak, and cronuts. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Dallas, Texas, Thanksgiving, Victorian, Wylie

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McLean & Tysons

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 18, 2025

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s Part 6 of my 7-part blog series on my recent trip to and from Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. It was my first trip back to the area in exactly a decade (to the date).

It’s Sunday July 27TH 2025 – our 4TH and final day of me and my brother’s trip down memory lane from our childhoods. And of course – my brother’s wife and their two daughters were along for the ride – which was seemingly a boring ride at times since they had no roots in the area.

Me and my brother have already discussed a trip back to the Washington D.C. area (maybe as early as late next year) to do a “deep dive” into our childhoods (and include Maryland as well) – without the girls. More on that in Part 7 next #TravelThursday.

#ButFirst – We all checked out of our hotel rooms on that Sunday morning, and we headed over to McLean Family Restaurant for Brunch. It was a Jewish deli in the ’50s and ’60s, and then it became what it is today in 1969. I don’t remember ever eating there during the early-to-mid-’80s when I lived there, but my brother had eaten there a few times. It is essentially your classic diner in a longtime (70-year-old) strip shopping center in downtown McLean.

We drove by the old neighborhood public library and recreation center. They still look the same as they did 40+ years ago.

Next we hit Tysons Corner Center – built in 1968 – and now one of the busiest and largest traditional shopping malls in the U.S.A. Back in the early-to-mid-’80s it was much smaller and more of a neighborhood shopping mall – where you were likely to see your neighbors and classmates and teachers walking around. Nowadays it’s a regional destination where people from all over the Washington D.C. area take the Metro, get off at the station adjacent to the mall, and spend an entire day there. We spent several hours there, and the place was packed and steadily becoming even more packed. My brother pointed out what stores used to be at specific locations. (Very few stores remain from 40+ years ago.)

We ate a late-lunch at The Cheesecake Factory – by request of my brother. I personally think that they are overrated and overpriced, but I won’t turn down an opportunity to eat there about every 7 years or so.

While getting ready to pull out of the mall parking lot – my sister-in-law received the disturbing news that their Southwest flight back to Dallas Texas (#DAL) was cancelled due to weather. My American Airlines flight was very delayed – by several hours – due to the same reason. My brother and sister-in-law then quickly put a plan into motion where they would drive from there to Ohio (450 miles) – where they would have flown to the very next day (from #DFW).

We drove back to the Avis rental agency near Reagan National Airport (#DCA), and I got in line for their airport shuttle. My brother and sister-in-law headed inside to see if they could drive their existing rental SUV (Ford Explorer) from there to Ohio and then turn it in the next day at the Avis rental agency at the Columbus airport (#CMH). (They could, and they did. They arrived at their destination right around 12:30 AM.)

As I was waiting for their airport shuttle to arrive – I got the text message notification that I dreaded – my American Airlines flight to Tampa (#TPA) was also cancelled. And so I headed to the airport not really knowing what I would do once I got there. I’ll explain what I did – next #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Airport, Mclean, Tysons, Virginia

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Our Nation’s Capitol

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 11, 2025

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s Part 5 of my 7-part blog series on my recent trip to and from Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. It was my first trip back to the area in exactly a decade (to the date). And yes – you read that right – I can confirm that this will indeed extend to a Part 7 that will wrap-up 2 weeks from today.

#ButFirst – On that last Saturday morning of July me and my family headed to the nearby Metro station at West Falls Church (within eyesight of our hotel, but not accessible via sidewalk yet due to heavy construction in the area). I was the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) expert of my family, as I’d studied it in the weeks leading up to this trip. There really wasn’t much to study. The Metro is so easy to use – even easier to use than it was 10 years earlier with modern technology added. We took the Orange Line into D.C. to Metro Center (where 4 out of 6 lines come together), and then we transferred over to the Red Line and got off two stations later at Judiciary Square. Why such an awkward location to exit the Metro ?

That’s where our guided tour launched from. It’s also the location of the National Law Enforcement Museum and National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. (Location – Between E & F Streets and 4TH & 5TH Streets in NW Washington)

About 20 of us met our 3 tour guides and their open-air all-electric cars, and we piled in to them – 7 per car. We went on a fun 2+ hour slow narrated tour past many of the popular buildings, memorials, and monuments, and we made a few stops along the way. You can book the “Washington Mall & Monuments By Electric Car Tour” via Intrepid Urban Adventures at their web site. I recommend this tour as a good way to see the area without too much walking. Tripadvisor has over 1,000 reviews for this trip, and it rates at a 4.9 out of 5.0. (That’s how my brother and sister-in-law found out about this trip.)

After the tour we walked a couple of blocks down F Street over to the Capital One Arena – home of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards. My brother was extremely disappointed that their Team Store was closed on a Saturday. (He probably saved himself a couple hundred dollars as a result.)

We walked down 7TH Street from the Arena, and we checked out Gordon Ramsay Street Pizza. We were welcomed and told that Gordon Ramsay Street Burger was brand new and had just opened the day before, so we chose that. (It’s located underneath Street Pizza.) Lunch was pretty good there. I enjoyed my backyard smash burger and fries.

After lunch we took the Metro again to the Smithsonian station, and then we walked over to the National Museum Of American History. We were originally planning to visit the National Museum Of Natural History, but we all agreed that the girls (my teenage nieces) and my brother would find American History more interesting (with modern pop culture) than Natural History. I finally got to see (and take a picture of) Archie Bunker’s chair from “All In The Family”. I was also looking for Fonzie’s leather jacket from “Happy Days”, but I couldn’t find it. (As it turns out – it’s currently not on public view.)

Outside there was a marching band performing, and then later a hip hop concert at The Mall near the Smithsonian station. Artists need a permit to perform on The Mall (especially with amplified sound), but there’s generally no cost to do so.

From the Smithsonian station we took the Orange Line 12 stops – back to West Falls Church. Fun Fact – I maintained a strong T-Mobile 5G cell phone signal all throughout the underground portion of the Metro – including 100+ feet underneath the Potomac River !

Me and my brother ended our day together at Ledo Pizza for dinner about a mile away from our hotel. (As I was writing this blog post I discovered that it’s a chain here on the U.S. East Coast with 116 locations including a couple within a couple of hours of my home in Sebring Florida.)

It’s our final day in Northern Virginia, and we’ll eat and shop until we drop – next #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Metro, Museum, Smithsonian, Tour, Virginia, Washington

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Happy 249TH Birthday U.S.A. !

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 4, 2025

On this 4TH Of July holiday we celebrate this great nation of ours – this free nation that we call The United States Of America. We are free today because of our Founding Fathers – great Americans like John Hancock, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Let us never forget all of those great Americans who fought – and who continue to fight to this day – for the independence and the freedom that we continue to enjoy today.