MEMORY MAKING: JOYCE MEYERS’ LOVE LIFE 2023 IN SAN ANTONIO
It Wasn’t Love Life 2022 in St. Louis
There, I said it. There were a few great moments, but the impact I experienced in 2022 just wasn’t there, even if all the loud music was. We did not sign up for 2024.
That’s not to say there weren’t some good moments. I just didn’t feel as if I got as much out of it as I did the year before. I can’t point to a single moment or thought that impacted me significantly, but lightning rarely strikes twice.
But I Loved Life in San Antonio
If you’ve been around this blog long, then you know I love San Antonio. If I could only have one travel destination for the rest of my life, it would probably be San Antonio, but I’m glad I don’t have to make that choice.
Staying in New Braunfels with Shana and being at the Alamo Dome kept us from our usual center of activity, but we loved the time with Shana and the walking was good for us. All in all it was a great trip. Here’s a few highlights.
We loved reading all the signs!
Guadalajara Grill for Lunch
When Love Life broke for lunch on Friday, job one was to find a restaurant that wasn’t already filled to capacity with other Love Life attendees. That meant we walked and walked and walked and walked a little more, but finally we landed at Guadalajara Grill. Google is trying to tell me it was a four minute walk, but we must have gone the long way.
It was a fortunate stop. The food was great, but the best part was the signs all over the walls and the ceiling. Even though the restaurant was not as inundated with as many people as some we’d passed, this was a popular lunch spot, so we plunked down at the bar, margaritas and decided to enjoy ourselves.
We explained out conference dilemma to the man behind the bar and while he didn’t seem all that sympathetic, we did seem to get seated pretty quickly. On our next trip to San Antonio (and there will always be more trips to San Antonio) we’ll certainly eat at Guadalajara Grill again.
Chart House Restaurant in Tower of the Americas
So, one of my favorite places to eat, bar none, is the Chart House Restaurant in The Tower of the Americas. Not that I could find any of my own photos of it. I stole this one from their website. I love the food and the view is wonderful. And it’s a special place. People get dressed up to go there. Not all of them anymore, unfortunately, the usual grunge was visible on this visit, but it’s everywhere, so I have to live with it.
Deb and I tried it first in 2015 and we still feel the same way about it. So much so, that on the way back from Guadalajara Grill we stopped at the Tower and made reservations for dinner. Take that all you Love Life attendees filling the other restaurants. We had a reservation.
I did a good job of describing the the experience in the post linked above, so no need to go over it all again. Just click the link. Was it still as good Yep, for me it’s a must-do every time I go to San Antonio.
Lunch on Saturday
By Saturday we were a little tired of shuffling around the Hemisfair Plaza battling for dining space. We squeezed out of the morning session as soon as we dared and made a beeline for the first luxury hotel. I can’t remember which one we landed at. The meal was both mediocre and expensive – well at least the margarita was expensive – but we enjoyed the break and headed back to the final session, which we also scooted out of early. We were going out with Shana that evening.
Check in Wednesday for Memory Keeping and on Friday we’ll be creating something fun for Memory Sharing. Then next Monday I’ll wrap up a few details from this trip and we can start thinking about California!
So, one of my all-time favorite networking groups is Polka Dot Powerhouse . My particular chapter had a little thing they called the Traveling Tiara and I’d been selected to wear it for the next month. Most of the women get it and they don’t do much with it. Not me! I carried it everywhere I went and posted lots of photos. This first one was at a McDonald’s somewhere between Dallas and San Marcos.
SAN MARCOS OUTLETS
The next stop was the San Marcos Outlet Mall and we got there just as the stores were opening. We were girls on a mission. Deb needed a Brahmin bag. The last time we’d been down this way, back in 2015, I’d convinced Deb she should invest in a Brahmin. It was a little out of her intended price range, but she did it and she loved it. Eight years later, she was still carrying her Brahmin during the fall and winter, but now she needed one for spring and summer.
We parked out front and went in to handle all their stuff. I helped Deborah pick out a beauty from the clearance department and then went to see the billfolds. I didn’t really need one, but it was about the only item in the store I might fit into my budget. Eventually, I became aware of the fact that Deb’s purchase was not going smoothly. In fact, I’d handled all the billfolds several times and Deb was still waiting to check out. There was only one lady in front of her, but the cash register was down.
We waited a little longer, but nothing was happening. Finally, our stomachs let us know it was nearing the lunch hour, but Deb really, really wanted that bag. At least she did for a while and then she decided maybe the hold up was a sign from God. She’d put the bag back on the shelf and if we had time, we’d stop back by on the way home. If we had time and the bag was still there, then she was meant to have the bag.
GRUENE’S GRISTMILL
To begin with, for the uninitiated, “Gruene” is pronounced like the color, green. It’s a lovely little shopping and eating town right next to New Braunfels and the Guadalupe River. The Gristmill is a wonderful riverside restaurant that I try to eat at every time I pass by on nearby I-35. It’s like getting kolaches in West, you just do it.
Is it the best food you can get in Gruene? No, but it’s good enough and while you wait for a table (you ALWAYS have to wait for a table) you sit in their great little beer garden and the margaritas are marvelous. The Gristmill did not disappoint. It was a gorgeous day for the beer garden, so I enjoyed my margarita while we waited for a table.
I can’t remember what we ate, but I bet it included the onion rings. We love them and used to always get them. (Now I’m gluten free, so I wonder what I’ll eat next time! I won’t be having my usual burger either.)
HEADING ON DOWN THE ROAD
Next stop was Shana’s house where we got situated for our stay. Deb took a nap and I marveled at her cat who looked just like our Princess, who we’d lost not all that long before this trip. So, it almost seemed like I was seeing a ghost! FYI – the top one is Princess!
Joyce’s conference was going to begin at 7, so the nap ended and we got back on the road. Doors opened quite a while before we got to the Alamo Dome, so we didn’t exactly have optimal seats, but we enjoyed the opening festivities.
Afterwards, we made our way back to Shana’s, so we could turn around and do it all the next day. I hope you’ll turn around and read my blog post on Wednesday. We’ll be doing some Memory Keeping and on Friday, we’ll Memory Sharing!
Confession, Bill and I are happy when it’s just us two. It’s not that we don’t love our family and friends, nor does it have anything to do with not wanting to spend time with them. We just like to find the right mix of time for us and time with them.
Our weekend in Michigan was going to be full to bursting with family time from a happy hour on Friday evening to a family feast on Monday evening. So, Friday morning we decided to play tourists on our own.
Plans Are Made to be Changed
I cannot count the times I rearranged our itinerary in the months before our trip, but I thought I had a pretty good plan put together a few weeks before our arrival. Then I did some double checking, just in case – and it was a good thing! The hours posted in March for my chosen attractions had changed in May! I had to completely revamp my schedule in the days just before we left.
My plan, when we departed on Thursday, included getting up early and heading off to Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford on Friday morning. Well, after the bumps in the road on our travel day, getting Mr. Bill up early the next morning to go to a historical amusement part, didn’t sound as good as it had back in Dallas.
If I had been traveling with my bestie, we’re both early risers by nature, so it would have just been another day of fun for us. However, getting an exhausted Bill up early and out of our hotel room, to go to an amusement park, wasn’t going to kick off our vacation with the right foot.
Because of the accumulated travel difficulties, we’d missed out on a walking tour of Downtown Detroit I’d planned for Thursday evening. So, I changed my plans again. We’d take our time getting up and checking out of our hotel room and then do our Detroit walking tour, beginning with the People Mover.
Breakfast in Renaissance Center
In 1996 General Motors opened the first phase of Renaissance Center in homage to itself. This was to be, and still is, their world headquarters. It is a beautiful grouping of buildings, but it is also a ghost town. On a Friday morning it should be abustle with the comings and goings of the world, but it seemed virtually empty. It was us, a few maintenance people and a group of rambunctious children meeting for a field trip.
It was a little spooky wandering around in the vast empty lobby of the Renaissance Towers. Just outside the Marriott lobby, a sign promised several dining choices, but we just wanted to grab a quick breakfast, not have dinner at a steak or seafood venue. The People Mover Food Court sounded like what we needed, especially since we were also looking for the People Mover, but getting to it was a new challenge.
With a little direction from the cleaning crew, we took an elevator to a lower level and found the epicenter of the ghost town. The ambitious plans of the designers were evident, as were the resulting disappointment. An attractive seating area for hundreds of patrons with spots for many food vendors filled a large portion of the lower level, but it echoed emptily with a few orders from the field trip participants to the last food vendor standing.
Their menu was a cross between a short order grill and a gyro stand. The menu offered schwerma that didn’t actually exist, so Bill settled on something else from the Mediterranean menu and I got a grilled cheese sandwich. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that good either. Time for the People Mover.
The People Mover
I missed the People Mover in my initial Detroit research, but our family mentioned a free monorail in some of our correspondence, so I looked a little further because free city transportation sounded like a great thing. The sign announcing the presence of the People Mover Food Court led me to believe the Food Court and the People Mover would be adjacent to one other, but after breakfast we discovered my assumption was wrong.
The signage in the building is awful and as I mentioned, there were hardly any fellow humans walking around in it. The cleaning people, who had sent us to the Food Court, seemed a little vague about the People Mover’s location, but then we ran into an elevator repairman. He got us going in the right direction, but it was still hard to find. We went through a little trial and error before we actually found it.
Bill was ready to just walk where we wanted to go, because it wasn’t far, but I wanted to include a report on the People Mover here, so I pressed on. We did eventually find it, but the discovery was like happening up on an abandoned amusement park. As we waited, we’d just about given up again, when a security guard arrived and assured us we were in the right place. The monorail would arrive shortly.
To my dismay, I discovered the monorail traveled in only one direction and that direction was in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. However, the circular route isn’t all that long, so we boarded the car when it came and took in an aerial tour of Downtown Detroit.
It wasn’t long until we’d made it all around and were arriving at our stop. I got my bearings and headed to the Guardian Building. Come back next week, because you’ll want to find out about that Art Deco beauty.
OK – I confess. We didn’t make it to every single session of the Love Life Conference. For instance, we totally blew off Friday night. We were praise-music-ed out. Even though it would mean missing one of Joyce’s teachings, we just couldn’t face a “CELEBRATION” and concert. Can I pay less to get less music? Or could I pay more and get less music? Asking for a friend…
We also skipped Joel Olsteen. My theology doesn’t line up 100% with Joyce, but I just overlook those places where we diverge and enjoy the rest. Anytime I hear Joel Olsteen, he’s so far down another path I want to throw things. I’ve been known to talk back to the TV when he’s sharing his opinion on something. I didn’t trust myself to behave.
What We Did Instead
So, walking back and forth between our parking lot (remember the BROWN level) and America’s Dome, I noticed a trailer with an amazing aroma coming out of it. Then I figured out that it must be the smoker for the restaurant next to it. The name of the restaurant was Sugarfire.
Deb loves BBQ with a passion, so as they prepared the stage for Joel to come out, Deb and I scooted to the streets, headed for BBQ. Little did we realize we were about to enter epicurean heaven.
It had barely turned 11 and there was already a line of locals waiting to order their ‘cue, as Sugarfire calls it. It was obvious everyone was a frequent flyer and as the server chatted with the regulars, he would do a little upselling, giving them samples of the more upscale meat choices. Then he saw us, obviously not regulars, with our women’s conference badges on. So, he gave us samples, too.
The sample worked and Deb was all about some French Dip style Brisket sandwich. If it’s BBQ, I want ribs, but most places want to sell me a half rack, which I can’t eat on my own, so I either end up eating far too many ribs or I just get something else, which wasn’t what I wanted. Sugarfire sells a Four Rib plate and I could get excited about that. I also got excited about the cornbread, which was more dessert than bread, and the cold beer.
Deb’s judgement? Best BBQ brisket she’d ever had. I don’t know if I’d go quite that far with the ribs, but they were pretty darned good and certainly rated up there among the best.
The Sugarfire has long community tables in the center of the restaurant and booths around the edges. If you sit at the community tables, you’ll be cheek to jowl with the regulars and as far as I am concerned that’s part of the fun.
Shortly after we were seated, huge waves of ladies from the conference began to line up for their ‘cue. Was Joel’s talk that short or are there others who have a problem sitting quietly while he’s talking? The line went all around the restaurant and then out the front door and down the sidewalk. CRAZY! Well, not so crazy. It is really good ‘cue.
I would like to remind Christian ladies they are a witness, good or bad, of their Savior at all times, but particularly when they have a huge sign around their neck proclaiming they are attending a Christian Women’s Conference at the Ameridome next door. With the huge crowds it draws, Sugarfire has numerous signs requesting patrons get their food BEFORE they start taking up spaces at the tables. As we sat having our lunch, a lady got up several times to make that announcement.
Then a Love Life Conference attendee plopped down at the table next to me with about five handbags wrapped around her arms. Thinking she may have missed the signs and/or the announcement I said, “They are requesting you wait until you have food to sit down.” Her response was not nice. I don’t think Joyce or Joel would have approved.
After lunch, it was time to head back to the convention center, because Lisa Harper was up and no way I was missing her. While we’d been in Sugarfire, it had started to rain. I have very independent hair and if it gets rained on, it begins to protest. I found a book bag down in my tote and used it as a rain hat. Not my best look, but I headed off the frizz, which would have been my ‘do, had my hair gotten wet.
Lisa was great, as I had anticipated she would be. There was another break before the evening’s “CELEBRATION” & concert, but we headed out for our second dose of hooky. Come back next week and I’ll let you know how that went!
Google had been very, very good to us on Wednesday night, so rather than spend an unnecessary moment at our horrible motel, finding out how they interpreted “breakfast included,” we googled “best breakfast downtown.” Apparently, overnight Google had forgotten where we were. We’d been researching restaurants with great ease the night before, but for some reason, it thought we wanted to go to Chicago for breakfast. You’ve got to love the SEO and algorithms that dreamed that up.
So, we tried again – “best breakfast downtown Little Rock.” It responded with Down Home, less than 10 minutes away. That was more like it, but it still wasn’t in downtown. We ended up backtracking a few exits and then when we got there, the restaurant wasn’t keeping its sites up-to-date, because the restaurant had a big McClard’s BBQ sign out front. “Down Home Catering” was further down and in smaller print.
At first, we weren’t sure whether they were closed for remodeling, because we thought the pick up trucks around the restaurant might belong to the construction crew. About that time we saw two great big old boys coming out rubbing their bellies in delight. We had arrived.
Our waitress was chatty. She and Deb discussed the sign, Google and the Christmas tree. In true flea market tradition, Deb’s coffee cup was a Christmas mug. The menu was fairly basic, nor surprises. We both got the same breakfast, but with different choices for meat and eggs. I like my eggs DONE, over well, hard enough to bounce on the floor and I told them to hold the gravy on my biscuit. Deb was over easy, she had bacon instead of sausage and she did want her gravy.
Our first reaction when the plates arrived was laughter. They serve toast with their biscuits. That cracked me up. Then I cracked into my egg and it was over easy, maybe more solid than Deb’s, but still runny. Our waitress picked my plate up before I could even say anything. It came back out in a few minutes over well, DONE. I was a happy camper.
The breakfasts were good and our conversation with the waitress continued. We told her where we were headed and I think she really wished she could just walk away and go with us. I wish we could have made that possible. Were I rich, I would have asked her what she made a week, written her a check for it, paid for her trip and the conference and squared her absence with her boss. That would be the best part of being rich – doing outrageous things for other people.
We also told her we were headed downtown to see the Clinton Library. It didn’t seem as if she was as excited about that. To tell the truth, I wasn’t either, but I sort of collect presidential libraries and homes. We were in Little Rock and it was too, so I wasn’t going to miss it. We paid our check and headed downtown.
Come back next week and visit the William J. Clinton presidential Library with us. I will admit is was better than I anticipated. You might be impressed enough to visit yourself, even if, like me, you aren’t a member of his fan club.
I don’t care why you’re in Little Rock or what your budget is, you need to eat at Allsopp & Chapple. I’d love to tell you some great story about me researching restaurants in Little Rock and digging up this hidden gem, but the truth of it is that we googled it after we got there.
I wasn’t sure exactly what time we’d get away from DFW, so I didn’t want to be disappointed. If we ended up getting out of town late and just grabbed Mickey D’s along the way, I wanted to be happy about getting away, not feeling deprived by missing some great restaurant. So, we googled from the un-luxury of our room at Days Inn and lucked into one of our favorite meals ever.
Historical Significance
Allsopp & Chapple used to be the name of the premiere bookseller in the state of Arkansas. It’s located in Downtown Little Rock in the Rose Building, which was built in 1900 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. For six decades A&C was THE bookstore in Little Rock, indeed the entire state. Perhaps the young Bill Clinton, who lived in Little Rock up to 1964 bought a book from there. By the time he was governor, the bookstore was gone.
The Modern Version
Even though it was a Wednesday night, we decided to go ahead and make a reservation, which was a good thing. The place was hopping! Patrons at the bar chatted over bespoke cocktails and most every table in the room was full.
During our first visit, we didn’t know about the complimentary valet, but now you do, so let them park your car. Instead we parked in a nice multi-level lot which was all of $2 and walked to the restaurant, but it was less than 1/2 a block away.
The vibe is good. We were wearing our travel clothes and fit right in. Some people were in suits and dresses, obviously there after a work day, but a pair of jeans would not be out of place. Please don’t show up in your pajamas or your active wear. It’s not that casual.
The menu is varied but not expansive. I hate when they hand you a book that you have to wade through to find something to eat. There was a little of anything, from soup and salad to steak and seafood, but the choices did not go on and on and on. The wine list is extensive, but not daunting. However, what caught our eye first was the Cocktail Menu.
I’m usually pretty boring when it comes to drinks. Wine, a margarita or a beer are my usual choices. I’m just not that crazy about most hard liquor drinks – no old-fashions, Manhattans, gimlets. martinis etc. They usually look expensive to me and when I get them, I wish I’d just ordered up the usual.
Deborah is the adventurous one of us. She can talk bitters and liqueurs with the best of them and she’s more willing to splurge. When she does, she’s usually happy she did.
This time the Cocktail Menu looked good to me and the prices were reasonable. It also nodded its head to the previous bookseller of six decades. I chose the Don Quixote, which was a blackberry margarita and Deb had Much Ado About Nothing, an old-fashion infused with vanilla and oranges. Both were great. I loved mine and Deb gave me a sip of hers, which was also good – almost like a spiked Dreamcicle.
Roasted banana sweet potato mash! The banana and sweet potato were perfectly blended and very smooth. I’m guessing they also had cream and butter and other good stuff in there, but whatever they had in it, it was the best mashed sweet potatoes I had ever had.
Deborah, in the meantime had the Redfish, in Pontchartrain Sauce with fried okra. I had a bite of the redfish and it was delectable. I don’t interfere with anybody else’s fried okra, because I don’t want anyone trying to score some off of me.
We’d observed very generous pours in other wine glasses, so we changed to wine with the meal and were happy as, in my mom’s words, dead pigs in the sunshine. We were so full we didn’t even have a dessert.
The Return Trip
It was so good…how good was it? It was so good we went again as we went back through Little Rock on the way home. Now the restaurant’s area has several nice looking eateries in it, but my pork chop and the drinks had been so good, we only had one destination in mind when we hit Little Rock and that was Allsopp & Chappele.
This time we ventured to other cocktails and while I can’t remember the name of it, this time I had their version of a daiquiri. It was smaller than my blueberry margarita and a lot more potent. I could have drunk several, but I wouldn’t have been able to walk.
Deb did get the pork chop, but I think they’d cooked her longer than they had mine, so she was a little disappointed. Perhaps it was catering to the busy Saturday night crowd that kept the pork chop on the grill too long.
This time the Gouda Mac with Mushrooms looked good to me and I had it with grilled shrimp added. Warning, no one could eat all the mac & cheese with this dish. If you get it split it, but also get it with the shrimp. Very excellent! This time we did share a piece of ricotta cheesecake. It wasn’t Junior’s cheesecake, which we had loved in New York, but it was yummy.
Do not miss this restaurant when you go to or through Little Rock. It’s a great experience with stellar food. Come back next week and we’ll suggest a place to have breakfast.
My husband loves the internet. He lives for his Tik Tok time. He shops there. He researches there. Me not so much. I mean, I spend a whole lot of time on the internet – who doesn’t – but I like my word of mouth to come from real mouths, not Google.
Constantly, as we’re driving, he says, “Look up…” I hate that. This means I am about to get fed information via firehose and most of it I don’t want. If he really wants to drive me crazy, before I can even type in his last request, he has three other things he wants to research. I’ve tried to explain how maddening this is, but he hasn’t quite wrapped his mind around it, yet.
OK, maybe I’m exaggerating here, but I really do hate researching things on the fly. So, when we drove out of Ray Roberts Lake State Park and he said, ” Look up somewhere for us to eat,” I pulled out my phone and started typing, but I was a little nervous about it. Sure enough, the first things listed were a Subway Sandwich stop and a variety of other fast food eateries.
Scrolling down through the long list of unwanted restaurants I finally found a listing for Bebo’s and Kathy’s Cafe. It sounded like a cute place with home-cooked food, but I wasn’t sure it would suit Bill. He’s a lot pickier than I am about what to eat. His idea of home-cooked food is what his momma cooked him in Cairo. I love that, too, but I also like chicken fried steaks, fried chicken, fried okra, dumplings etc. and so forth.
I’m not sure this is the best place for Bill to have lunch, but there’s not much else nearby and he’s feeling adventurous. Google leads us right to the parking lot and we get a good laugh. Someone with a good sense of humor has worked on the setting of this establishment.
Inside it was your basic flea market decorations with a heavy focus on Elvis memorabilia. It’s not Bill’s favorite look, but we’re here and there’s a booth available, so we settle in for a meal.
Now, when I sit down to look at a menu, I think about what the specialties at this particular restaurant might be. If it’s TexMex, I don’t order a burger. If it’s a steak place, I don’t order fish. This method of food selection has proven to be successful around the world. When I travel with groups, I’m the one at the table that everyone stares at when the food is delivered. “What did you order? How did you know what it was?” and other such questions are peppered at me, as well as a lot of, “I wish I had ordered that.” It’s not unusual for people to start asking me what I will be having before they order themselves and then they frequently just say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Bill goes at it a little differently. First, he decides what he would like to have and then he looks over the menu and tries to find something to match his whim. He landed on a Club Sandwich. Now I love Club Sandwiches. The crisp pieces of toast separating delectable cold cuts, cheese and fresh veggies, which are then cut into delightful quarters – and if you’re lucky, they’ll put those decorated toothpicks through each quarter – and maybe there will be homemade potato chips on the side.
To me, this seemed the perfect place to order up something fried and I hadn’t had fried catfish in a long, long time. When they brought it out to me, sizzling hot, on a plate running over with fried okra and cole slaw, I was in heaven.
Then I looked over at Bill and his “Club Sandwich.” First of all there were no dainty triangles of toast with decorated toothpicks in them. Instead, it was a couple of pieces of Texas Toast (I kid you not) and the main ingredient seemed to be bacon. He was not in heaven. His sandwich was served with fries and they weren’t exactly what he’s used to getting at McDonalds.
Though I pitied his dismal food choice, I had hot, fresh catfish waiting on me, so I tucked in to eat it with relish. Bill spent a good amount of time rearranging the ingredients in his sandwich, but I don’t think he was exactly satisfied at the end of the meal.
Now, you may be wondering if you should put Bebo’s on your list of restaurants to check out. I would say that depended 100% on whether you are on Team Jane or Team Bill. Team Bill should stick to Subway sandwiches. Team Jane is gonna love it!!
From Bebo’s Bill and I ran a number of errands related to the sunroom we were furnishing at the time. Meanwhile, I had another trip up my sleeve. Come back next week and let’s talk about a women’s conference in St. Louis.
TRAVEL THERE – DEFINATELY NOT ON PAR WITH PUNTA CANA
The Dining Room
The happy face you see above only appeared one time in the dining room at Sandpiper Bay and when he actually sat down to eat this delicious looking crepe, he was sadly disappointed.
At Punta Cana we had three delicious choices for dining and we thoroughly enjoyed them all at various times. If it was a buffet meal, the tables were burdened with delicious choices. Whether we should blame stingy management or Covid, we’re not sure, but the one choice we had for meals at Sandpiper Bay was disappointing by comparison.
At Punta Cana, we wandered around multitudes of bounteous tables. We had a large plate in our hands and were allowed to serve ourselves whatever we wanted as much as we wanted. At Sandpiper Bay, they hid the food behind those irritating cough panels and dished up scanty servings of whatever was on for that particular meal.
At Punta Cana, you could always find a waitperson to get you more wine, more silverware, another napkin, whatever you needed. It wasn’t exactly five star service, but it was adequate. At Sandpiper Bay, you were virtually on your own. We figured out where they kept the opened bottles of wine and served ourselves most of the time, but the wine wasn’t as good as Punta Cana either.
At Punta Cana, meal time was one of our favorite events. At Sandpiper Bay we were lucky if we found enough of anything we liked to keep from being hungry. Not exactly the luxury experience we expected.
I hate to keep kicking Sandpiper Bay around the room, but the dining was a pretty sad situation. Before our four nights were over, we did find things to enjoy, but it just wasn’t the experience we’d anticipated from our previous Club Med stay.
The Entertainment
Another marvelous thing about Punta Cana was the entertainment. The Boss of the Village was almost a natural entertainer and you could tell he made his people rehearse. Night after night we saw great shows. They were not professional, but they were something they could be proud of.
The entertainment at Sandpiper Bay was pitiful. It was so sloppy in its execution that you knew all they’d done is have a verbal walk thru. No one had a singing voice worth anything and instead of being funny, they were silly. And sloppy. Did I mention sloppy? Costumes never fit and were barely pulled up over shorts and bathing suits. Wigs were never combed and always awry. The Boss of the Village was there, but she was among the sloppiest and the silliest. She was barely filling in the blanks, not leading the way to quality anywhere in the resort.
I’m not bothering to catalog menus or describe any of the various shows, because nothing was worth noting. We’d show up each night in hopes of something, anything to eat, to drink, to pass the time, but always left a little hungry and very disgusted. None of the other meals were any better, but it was the evenings which were the most pathetic.
Come back next week and I will try to find something worthwhile to share with you. We were together and we weren’t working all the time, so there were good moments. We just had to make them ourselves, because there was little on offer from the resort.
So, sometime during the winter, Bill built a bunch of shelves in my attic. Yes, we have separate attics. What that means is that I get most of the larger attic. Now he built those shelves so he could navigate more easily to his stuff, but I’m not going to complain, because shelves are shelves and I love them.
However, winter is not an optimum time to reorganize your attic, so I used the shelves to make Bill a path to his stuff and went on with my life, waiting for better attic weather. While winter is not optimal for attic cleaning, summer in Texas is impossible, so when spring hit, I started on the project. I began with a corner of the attic with books and games, but lo and behold my shelves were broken. So, I unloaded everything on Monday, but Bill didn’t get around to fixing them until the last thing Sunday evening.
That left my guest bedroom looking like a storage room, but to tell the truth, it had already been leaning that way, which was the second impetus for reorganizing the attic. Frustrated in my efforts to complete that job, I started working on summer-izing my closet. A lot of my clothes can be worn year round, especially since this is Texas, but I do have seasonal stuff and I keep the off-season on a third row of hanging bar in my closet.
Switching out the season in my closet is a big job and I made it bigger this year by forcing myself to actually try on everything that was going to stay in the to-wear area. Last year I lost down to my goal weight, but before I had any time to enjoy it, I got a monster case of hives, which threw all my discipline out the window. I couldn’t exercise and the meds turned me into an eating machine. That made me angry, which caused me to eat more and for months I just hid beneath those finger tip sweaters and coats I love to wear, trying to ignore those extra pounds.
In March, I worked on a serious attitude improvement program and at the end of it, I bit the bullet and started back on Noom. I’d say I know at least ten health and fitness coaches, but I’m just not into smoothies and supplements, so I go it alone with a little app to make me accountable. I’m having a rough start with a lots of up and down, but that’s the nature of weight loss at my age, so as long as I stay on the plan and the overall direction is down, I’m trying to suffer the spikes with grace.
A lot of people go on diets so they can buy new clothes in a different size. I go on diets so I can get back into the clothes I already have. After my time in the closet last week, I have four feet of summer clothes I can’t wear and at least four feet of clothes that I wish were too big. Segregating the too small stuff saves me time when I’m getting ready, but also provides a great motivation to stay on track with my diet, because those clothes I can’t wear are my favorites.
But wait, just going through my clothes did not satisfy that urge to purge. Next, I attacked the drawers and cabinets in my bathroom. On Good Friday I woke up with the same organizing bug, decided to skip the new networking meeting I had intended to attend and headed back into my closet. The hanging clothes were all organized, but the rest of it also needed a purge. All of this resulted in more stuff for the attic. So, Saturday night I moved all that next to the stairwell and carried it upstairs on Sunday. No, you do not want to see my upstairs right now, but Bill finally fixed the shelves, so guess what I did with all my “spare time” this week!
Good Friday
When I was a little kid, my parents did the whole Easter thing, but somewhere along the way, my dad quit going to Christmas and Easter services. He said he went the rest of the year, so he was going to make room for all the visitors. For years, we stayed away from church on these big attendance days. Once I was on my own, I did not follow his lead, but this year I was going to.
If you’ve been keeping up, Bill and I are church shopping, again, a job we don’t particularly enjoy, but becomes necessary from time to time. We’ve visited several churches with varying degrees of success, but haven’t found the one. Last week, Bill just wasn’t up to it and this week I wasn’t. So, when my bestie called and invited us to join her for Good Friday services, that was a good way to work in some worship without visiting a strange church – her church is my old church. It was a great service and I enjoyed seeing my friends.
Afterwards, we went to Casa Mama, again. It’s her favorite. I’m on a diet, so I didn’t care.
Good Saturday
My plans for Saturday underwent many changes. Initially, I was going to meet my Dot friends, of the local Polka Dot Powerhouse chapter, for a walk. However, the organizer got sick and I was the only “for sure” attendee, so I redirected my exercise endeavors to my gym. Then I came home and organized my earrings for a while, which was the last job in organizing my closet.
I had been going to go meet my bestie on the other side of town after my walk, which would have been at the end of her dance lesson, but without the walk, it made more sense for us to meet on our own side of town. So she came and picked me up. For lunch, we went to one of my favorites, Fable & Fire. Yes, I know the service is slow and they’re a tad bit expensive, but I love the vibe. It was my first Saturday visit, so I was pleased to discover they have live music on Saturday afternoon. It made for a pleasant lunch. I had the salad with the fruit and nuts – yummy!!
After lunch I got back to my earrings and finished up the closet job. Hubby was taking a nap on the sofa, so I sat down to read a little, which turned into a lot.
Good Sunday
Since I always wake up early, so matter whether I need to or not, I used the time to get ahead on my weekday tasks by doing some social media stuff. Bill and I shared a quiet coffee time together, then we went out in the yard for some of that unpleasant, but necessary stuff that needed to be done.
Afterwards, I got cleaned up, because we were supposed to be going out to run some errands, but when I walked out cute and ready to roll, someone was relaxing on the couch. So, I started reading again. He changed couches and I moved to the couch he vacated to continue reading. I was getting chilly and thought about changing clothes, but it seemed as if we were going to have an at home day, so I decided to just change into lounging clothes. The minute I sat back down on the couch, he was ready to roll, so I changed again, but this time into something a little warmer.
We needed to buy a birthday gift for a nephew and the last time I’d been to the Dallas Museum of Art, the gift shop had a good assortment of cute kid stuff. So, we went there, only to discover all the cute kid stuff had sold out. Nada! So, we just enjoyed the museum for awhile. We spent most of our time in the European Art, something we hadn’t done in a while and I must say I liked what was on display. Some old favorites were in different spots and there were other items I either hadn’t seen in a while or didn’t remember ever seeing.
From the museum we went to Fadi’s. He likes the schwerma and I love the veggies. It was delicious as always. Next stop the grocery store, then home again, home again jiggedy jig.
For a girl on a diet I sure did eat well this weekend, but it was a lot of salad and veggies, so nothing to feel guilty about. Come back next week for some more of New York and the usual Memory Keeping 101. Then we’ll see how I did on my diet this week and if I got my attic back together!
Traveling is my thing and every year, when the Travel & Adventure Show comes to town, I feed that passion. I remember the first year I happened into it with my hubby at the Dallas Convention Center. He was more excited about the Belly Dancers on the Global Beats Stage and I didn’t worry him by picking up every brochure in sight, like I do these days, but I knew I’d found something.
The next year, bestie went with me and a tradition was born. We schedule our day around various speakers, grab every brochure that even slightly interests us and get our picture made at the photo booth. It’s a good time.
This year she had a dance lesson and we met afterwards. Confession, the last few times we’d been, it want’s the marvelous hit it had been in those first few years and we couldn’t even blame it on Covid. Somewhere along the way they’d moved to Dallas Market Hall and it just wasn’t what it had been. So, bestie and I decided we didn’t need to rush over there. We could have lunch first. I mean we’re not about to miss it, it had just fallen short in helpfulness since it first came along.
So, we grabbed lunch at Torchy’s Tacos, near one of her dance studios. We have one in Rockwall, but I rarely get there. In truth, I think it’s a little pricey for street tacos, but that’s me. This time it was well over $20, basically for fast food, but I did splurge and get a specialty margarita. It was bigger than the standard margarita and while Deb complained her regular margarita was a tad tart, mine was awesome.
Then it was on to Dallas Market Center. This year did not feature some of the big name travel types we’d seen in the past, but I thought it was an improvement over the last few years. The first time it was at DMC it was pathetic and the Covid years were tough, but we’ve hung in there and this year it really was worth the effort. It’s easy to be worth the price, because it was only $10. What else can you do for $10.
We started off with “How to Travel Solo, from the Experts” in the Savvy Traveler Theater, for Deb, who is contemplating a test drive in the world of Solo Travel. There had been a similar seminar last year, but it had been a total waste of time. This year was better – marginally so, but better. Deb was encouraged to discover more and more companies are doing away with an upcharge for solo travelers, but disappointed the cruise industry is slowest on the uptake.
The next seminar was right back in the same place, but it was Gabe Saglie of Travel Zoo talking about “How to Prioritize Travel in Uncertain Economic Times. He talked a lot about trends and offered up travel tips, but his goal in life was to get us to sign up for Travel Zoo. He made it sound good enough, that I actually just did so.
We immediately went to “”The Insider’s Guide to Visiting Arizona Parks,” but the seminar was misnamed. It should have been, “Look What I Did.” Some lady who worked for the Arizona Office of Tourism spent the time showing videos which are on the National Parks’ websites. Apparently, she had been tasked with making the National Parks websites more accessible and she was very proud of her videos. Thank you, I know how to use the internet. You have wasted my time. She got away with showing one. We left when she started showing the second one. She may have made the websites more accessible to the general public, but she made her presentation a real snorefest.
Next up was “Cruise Tips, Trends and Personal Stories from Our Adventures at Sea,” in the big Travel Theater. This seminar was also misnamed. It was an advertisement for Princess cruises to Alaska. The MC for this talk was Alanna Zingano, a social media travel influencer (No, thank you!) and Jeff Corwin. I confess, he looked a lot like Steve Irwin, the Australian Nature Dude who got killed by a stingray, so I thought he was that guy’s son. Not so. Somehow Jeff Corwin has gotten a job as the Nature & Adventure Ambassador, probably because I’m not the only one who thinks he’s Steve Irwin’s son. Anyway, Alaska is not at the top of my travel list and Deb has been four times, so that was a loser.
The final seminar of the day was probably the best. Someone named David McGuffin did a talk titled, “Exploring Europe: Top Destinations, Attractions and Experiences.” Of course, he was advertising his European travel company.
David and our friend from Travel Zoo were the most informative guys at the travel show, but I wish that wasn’t giving them more credit than they deserve. In the past, we’ve seen Samantha Brown, Rick Steves and other travel luminaires behind the podium. So, it was not a star-studded event. However, they have ramped up the quality of their vendors and I felt as if it was more worth the trip than it had been in recent years.
David Solomon at the Biblical Arts Museum
The other big event for the weekend was an opening reception for a new exhibition at the Biblical Arts Museum. I’m not sure how I get on these lists, but the museum invited me to opening of the “Flowers of the Holy Land” Exhibit. A little honesty here. I’m not really fond of this museum. It’s mostly a warehouse for copies of various religious art – including Thomas Kinkade prints. They also cram entirely to much stuff into the space they have, so actually enjoying one of their oversized look-alikes is difficult to do.
I can’t say I walked away from this exhibit with much more respect for what they are doing. Bill and I both thought an exhibit of my own photographs from the Dallas ARboretum would offer better photography and certainly FOREVER would have done a better job printing the large format photos. The refreshments offered were bad wine and bagels – a little odd, but the jazz band which played was actually pretty good.
Glad I went, so I know what’s up. I wonder if the exhibit will be there later this month when the Crowley Chamber Concert will be. While I’m not crazy about the museum, I do love the Crowley Chamber Concert Series.
For now, I must run! See you next week for travel, memory keeping and another weekend report.
jane sadek 