Category: Travel

Coffee & Food

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about me and my brother’s fun visit to the historic (built in 1905) “Thomas And Mattie Brown House Welcome Center” (known more commonly as “Welcome Center At Brown House”). I’ll continue to follow them on their Facebook page, and it’ll be a regular visit (I hope) every time I visit my family in Wylie Texas. After all – it’s the official Welcome Center for the city of Wylie. It also sounds like they rotate and swap out displays on a regular basis, so it’ll be fun to see what’s different with each new visit.

It’s on Ballard Avenue in the historic downtown district. Another regular visit along Ballard is Ballard Street Cafe – a popular one-location family-owned restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch from 6 AM to 2 PM every day (7 AM to 2 PM on Sundays). It’s really good food. Somehow – someway – we didn’t make it there for breakfast like we usually do. That’s high on the docket for my next visit to Wylie.

We did make it to Shoemaker & Hardt – or – as my brother and I have referred to it for the past 6 years now – “Hardcastle & McCormick”. It’s also on Ballard, and it’s a hybrid gourmet coffee shop and gift shop that’s been open for almost 30 years. I always walk around looking at the various items for sale as I await the creation of my delicious hot (or iced) beverage. It smells really good in there with a hybrid of coffee and candles.

Thursday December 04TH 2025 – the same day that this current #TravelThursday series from Texas began – was a mostly stay-at-home day. It was also another cold, dark, dreary, and drizzly day in the low-40s. Me and my brother went out during the lunch hour, and we made two stops.

The first stop was to Dutch Bros. It’s a drive-thru coffee chain that was born in Oregon in 1992. It’s approaching 1,100 locations nationwide with a goal of 4,000 locations soon. (Sebring is one of the potential new locations as suggested by a recent Facebook post. It would be located almost directly across the street from our existing Starbucks and Panera.)

After that we went back to Cotton Patch Cafe (which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago). This time me and my brother each selected a dessert from their menu, and my brother ordered them in advance via their web site. I selected the Bread Pudding (classic southern style, cinnamon custard, caramel drizzle). My brother ordered the Mama’s Special Butter Cake (butter cake with a cheesecake layer, whipped cream, caramel sauce). My brother picked them up at the special pick-up entrance. We took our desserts home, and we enjoyed them with our fancy coffees.

Later that same night my sister-in-law cooked dinner for us – baked steak (one of her specialties) and mashed potatoes with gravy. And of course the gravy is also for the baked steak.

T.G.I.F. It’s my last full day in North Texas. After another movie (our 4TH in a week) – me and my brother ate more delicious food. For lunch we went to Big Tony’s West Philly Cheesesteaks in Allen Texas. The guy running the restaurant at the time got my order mixed up with the guy who ordered right after me. I think we ordered the same daily special (double-meat cheesesteak with fries), but I ordered mine with no onions, and the other guy ordered his with onions. He got no onions. I got all the onions. But it actually wasn’t that bad, and I ate most of the onions. (It would’ve been tastier minus the onions.)

On the next #TravelThursday – I eat a cronut, an apple fritter, two pop-tarts, two cookies, a small bag of pretzels, and two more pop-tarts as I make my way back home to Sebring Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Dallas, Texas, Thanksgiving, Victorian, Wylie

Blogging Driving Food Geography History Holidays Home Travel

The Brown House

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 8, 2026

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

Blogging Commerce Driving Food Geography Holidays Home Movies Shopping Sports Travel Weather

A December To Remember

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. And Happy New Year 2026 ! I hope that this year is greater for you than last year. May you enjoy great travels in this new year.

I’m still looking back at my late-November / early-December trip to visit family in the Dallas Texas area. I’m up to the new month of December – Monday December 01ST 2025. This may be the first time ever that I’m in Texas in December. It was back-to-school time for my two nieces following the Thanksgiving Week break.

On that cold, dark, and dreary December day – stuck in the 30s with low clouds and mist all day long – me and my brother headed over to Starwood Cafe for brunch. He had breakfast, and I had lunch. I had their Monte Cristo with fries. I think I discovered the Monte Cristo at the old Bennigan’s during the 2000s. Nowadays whenever I can make it to a Cheddar’s (which is not very often) – I get it there. The Monte Cristo at Starwood is good. I’ve had it before. I enjoyed it via fork and knife. (It can get quite messy.)

After Starwood we went to a local coffeehouse called Armor Coffee. They have just 2 locations – the original one in Allen (where my family once lived and where my two nieces were born), and the newer one in Wylie (where my family currently lives – since 2019). Armor Coffee is owned by U.S. Army Veteran and West Point Graduate Mike Todryk and his wife – HGTV star Jenn Todryk (“No Demo Reno”).

After another Target run – we stayed in for the rest of the day.

There’s a diner in Wylie that I’ve always wanted to eat at ever since my family moved there. It’s known throughout Texas (with 45 locations) as Cotton Patch Cafe. I kind of relate it to Bob Evans serving Ohio comfort food. It serves Texas comfort food. My brother finally agreed to eat there, and we enjoyed a big lunch for $9.99 (not including drink and gratuity). I think we’ll return the next time I’m in town. My brother was impressed with the size portions for such a low price.

Later on that 2ND day of December – with the sun shining brightly and the temperature finally breaking-out of the 30s for the first time in almost 42 hours – we went back to the theatres to see our 3RD movie in 5 days. We saw “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” – the continuing story of the first two movies from 2013 and 2016 respectively.

After the movie and a Starbucks run we ventured over to my oldest niece’s high school. She’s a cheerleader in the 10TH grade, and their high school varsity basketball team was taking on a rival team from 38 miles away in the Denton Texas area. It was my first high school basketball game of my life, and it may have actually been my first basketball game overall of my life. (I don’t recall ever seeing the Washington Bullets growing up in the D.C. area, or the Miami Heat living down in South Florida.) Spoiler: The home team won in a come-from-behind victory !

On the next #TravelThursday I step inside a historic house that serves as the official museum and welcome center for Wylie Texas. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Dallas, Texas, Thanksgiving, Wylie

Blogging Food Football Holidays Home Sports Television Travel

Merry Christmas

I wish each and every one of you following me and reading my blog a very Merry Christmas.

My traditional family “Christmas” actually occurred 4 weeks ago in North Texas during Thanksgiving Weekend. For the past many years my brother has prepared a hearty home-cooked Breakfast for he and I, and then shortly after that we’ve opened all of the presents underneath the Christmas tree. Once they are all opened it’s time to watch football for the rest of the day and into the night – including for about an hour while we’re enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at around three or four in the afternoon.

(This year – we opened all of the presents underneath the Christmas tree two days later than normal – on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I got a bunch of gift cards, a very nice 365-day prayer book, and a Washington Commanders tee-shirt.)

On the day after Thanksgiving (“Black Friday”) Christmas is done and over for me. Well – sort of. For the first 3 weeks of December I get to observe and celebrate bits and pieces of Christmas here and there by listening to Christmas music on the radio, watching Christmas shows on television, writing and sending Christmas cards and messages to family and friends from afar, and enjoying several Christmas meals with friends and neighbors. I’m especially looking forward to my third Christmas potluck dinner with 100+ of my neighbors in our clubhouse.

We all celebrate Christmas in our own unique and traditional ways. May you spend this holiday season with your loved ones. Make and share good memories that will last a lifetime. Honor each other. Love one another.

And let’s remember why we celebrate Christmas.

And she will have a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21 NLT)

The LORD saves.