Category: Shopping

Wichita Falls Texas

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 23, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we return to one of my favorite cities in the great state of Texas – Wichita Falls. It’s one of my favorite cities for one main reason – I have 5 family members (and their pets) who live there. I visit them every year.

And if you haven’t already guessed by now – I was there last weekend ! #Vacation

I was there from last Thursday morning through Monday morning (96 hours). I spent quality time with family and pets, and we celebrated my Aunt’s & Uncle’s 65TH anniversary together with a quiet spaghetti dinner at home. (Normally we go out to eat dinner at a nice restaurant (usually a steakhouse) to honor the occasion, but this year we decided to go “low-key”.)

As I wrote about last #TravelThursday we embarked on our traditional Saturday road-trip of a few hours away from the metro area. We went eastward this time along U.S. 82. We stopped for Lunch along the way at Tres Niños – a Mexican restaurant in Nocona. It was pretty good. I enjoyed my plate of a sour cream chicken enchilada, a beef enchilada with chili, a guacamole tostada, rice, and beans. Eating Mexican food has become a tradition within the tradition. I didn’t know that we were going to eat Mexican food on our road-trip, but I had a pretty good idea of it. Once something works – we just keep doing it, and the tradition continues to grow.

Nocona is about 52 miles east of where we started on the south-side of the Wichita Falls area. (We previously visited Nocona on our 2015 road-trip.) From there we proceeded another 22½ miles southeastward to downtown Muenster Texas (our final destination for this road-trip). Muenster is a very German-Catholic town of a little over 1,600 residents. More than 90% of its residents are of German descent. It was founded by settlers 132 years ago. It’s named after Münster Germany. They host German festivals year-round, and tourists come to visit to enjoy the eating and drinking fun. Much of the architecture of Muenster looks very German:

That’s actually a Glockenspiel. Read more about it.

On the return trip back from Muenster we drove the backroads through “Wine Country” where multiple vineyards dot the picturesque hilly landscape. We also drove through the Henrietta area, and we visited a couple of large gift shops / “tourist traps” adjacent to gas stations along the highway. (This has also become a tradition of our road-trips.)

It was a fun 4-day visit to the #Texoma region along the Red River. The sights and sounds on the road were fun as usual. The food was abundant every day. But most importantly I got closer to my family there. Above all – family always comes first.

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. (Proverbs 3:23-26 NLT)

Tags German, Glockenspiel, Henrietta, Muenster, Nocona, Texas, Travel, Wichita Falls

Blogging Driving Photography Shopping Travel

Road Trip !

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date October 8, 2020

I spent a week with my family (immediate and extended) in North Texas during the last 7 days of September. (I actually flew back home to South Florida on October 01ST.)

During the #Texoma portion of my visit we continued tradition by going on a fun road trip about an hour or two away from the Wichita Falls area. In previous years we’ve gone north, east, southeast, and south. This year we went a new direction – northeast – about 70 miles to the historic town of Duncan Oklahoma. We visited a fun museum – the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center & Garis Gallery Of The American West. We also checked-out a large nursery (garden store) as well as some antique stores along the way.

Up until a couple of years ago I was made aware of the destination(s) of our road trips days and even weeks in advance. That allowed me to do research to find out more about it. But then last year my first cousin once removed (leader of our road trips) decided that it would be more fun if I knew nothing about the destination until we got there. She wanted it to be a surprise to me. We’ve occasionally made a wrong turn and gotten lost along the way to some of our destinations, so it seemed like a surprise to her as well. But getting lost along the way is part of the fun of a family road trip.

We didn’t get lost on this road trip to and from Duncan. My cousin knew exactly where she was going.

Another educational and entertaining road-trip is in the books, and I’ve got the photos to remind me of the good times that we shared together. I’m looking forward to the next destination in September of 2021.

Tags Family, Oklahoma, Texas, Travel

Blogging Food Shopping

My Lunch At P.F. Chang’s

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 3, 2020

I planned it well in advance. It seemed to execute without a hitch, and then …

Our County Mayor reopened our restaurants for inside dining (at 50% capacity) this past Monday August 31ST for the first time since the 2ND week of July. (They were previously open during the 2ND-half of May, all of June, and into July.)

I decided to eat inside a restaurant for Lunch on that first day of business, and that restaurant was P.F. Chang’s – about 17 miles away from home. It’s been over 6 years since I ate a meal at P.F. Chang’s, and I had a unique craving – for their banana spring rolls with caramel-vanilla drizzle and coconut-pineapple ice cream.

Well I never got to that epic finale. As I’m about two-thirds done with my beef and broccoli with brown rice lunch bowl (delicious) – the restaurant is plunged into darkness. The music stops, the lights go out, the air conditioner shuts-down, and the staff start panicking and yelling at each other to “check the breakers ! – check all of them !”.

The manager then started making some frantic telephone calls, and he soon realized that the “biggest breaker” that serves the entire outdoor shopping mall (100+ stores and restaurants) blew, and it could be anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes before it could be seen and repaired.

I was their only dine-in customer at the time. My waiter came over to me and apologized for the situation, and we had a good laugh about it. I was able to finish my meal in the dark. (I was seated at a booth by a window, so there was plenty of light to see.) I also started sweating while finishing my meal since temperatures were rapidly climbing inside the restaurant.

I paid my bill – manually – the old-fashioned way – before modern credit card devices existed – and I departed the now closed shopping center for home.

Those banana spring rolls with caramel-vanilla drizzle and coconut-pineapple ice cream await me for another day.

Driving Food Nature Photography Shopping Travel

Fort Myers Beach

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 30, 2020

Surprise ! I’ve returned home from vacation again. Just 23 days after returning home from my 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip vacation I embarked on a much shorter road-trip vacation to a beach that’s much closer to home.

This trip was not quite 50 hours and just 271 miles from start to finish. I visited Fort Myers Beach for the 9TH time in 9 years. It was 135½ miles up – and 135½ miles back. I drove up there right after my church service on Sunday. Once I arrived at my hotel I parked my car, and it stayed parked until I departed on Tuesday morning.

I first discovered “The Island” (as the locals call it) of Fort Myers Beach at the end of April 2011. I spent 3 nights there, and I fell in love with what I saw. I also visited in October 2011, March 2012, June 2012, June 2013, October 2013, June 2015, and July 2019. So I visited 6 times during the first 2½ years, and then I skipped a year before my 7TH visit, and then I skipped 4 years before my 8TH visit. This year’s visit was exactly a year to the day after last year’s visit.

I did the same thing that I’ve done on previous visits. I walked the beach several times near my hotel. I took the trolley to the other end of the island and back. I visited the 560-foot-long pier. I walked the downtown shopping district. I enjoyed big meals at some of their unique restaurants. I took lots of photos everywhere I went to remind me forever of the good times I enjoyed.

I love viewing my photos of all of my previous visits to the island – both the “best of the best” photos that made it onto my Flickr site, as well as those that weren’t as good. Even the bland photos remind me of good times at my favorite beach town in Southwest Florida. You can check out my Fort Myers Beach album on Flickr here.

None of the photos from this newest trip are on there yet, but some of them will be soon. In the meantime here are 3 from this 9TH visit to “The Island”:

Tags Fort Myers Beach