Last year I wrote a weekend recap almost every week, but this is my first one for 2019! That either shows we haven’t been up to much… or I haven’t felt like writing. Maybe a combo, ha!

Either way, we were in the Dallas area last weekend for Luca’s First Holy Communion. Gina had a house full of guests and a lot going on with the celebration, so we had a rental car and stayed at a hotel and did a bit of exploring before the First Communion festivities!

FRIDAY!

Spirit Airlines was the most budget-friendly way for us to get there, and when I opened the app the day before we were going to leave, I saw we could upgrade from whatever row way in the back to the row 11 ***EXIT ROW!!!!*** for $13 a person. I jumped on that, and it was totally worth it (even with me trying to upgrade on the app causing issues with my ticket and forcing me to call their customer service).

We got to Dallas around noon and went to pick up our rental car. We’ve been renting with Alamo lately, because we like their pricing, selection of cars, and (somewhat) reasonable upgrade fees. We were planning on upgrading to something fun, and I was ECSTATIC when I peeked through the walkway to the cars and saw a Jaguar F-Pace, the car I wanted to buy last April, but never even test drove because it’s so far out of my price range.

When we walked outside with the agent to look at cars to upgrade to though, I saw it was parked with the National, not Alamo cars. Sadness. BUT THEN THE AGENT SAID THEY ARE PARTNERED WITH NATIONAL! Squeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! So we rented the Jaguar for the weekend.

It drives similarly to my Infiniti

Our first stop was El Palote Pandería, a vegan Mexican restaurant and bakery on the east side of Dallas. I got papas morteñas (nachos with a french fry base instead of chips!) and Steven got tacos. And we topped it off with some cookies and donuts. The food was amazing and we both agreed it was the best thing we ate all weekend. We kept joking about going back there on other days of the trip, even though it was a bit of a drive and we never had enough time to get there and back.

We were near White Rock Lake, so we walked for a bit there, then headed to Gas Monkey Garage. We don’t have cable any more, and I haven’t seen the show in years and completely forgot about the main characters. So when we got out of the car and Steven was saying “Look! It’s Richard!” I was all, “Huh? Who?” Um, Richard, Kim, the HOST OF THE SHOW! They were trailering a car in, and he was sitting in the driver’s seat of the car, waving at everyone!

After I saw him, I recognized him, but felt pretty derpitty for not knowing what Steven was talking about at first! Oops!

We checked out the cars in the lot and their new merch store (and got a hat for Luca), and headed to our hotel.

We were there a short bit then went to Happy Panda in Plano to have dinner with a college classmate of mine, and his wife and two young girls (ages 4 and 5). I hadn’t seen my classmate, Justin, since graduation, in May of 2007! It was great to catch up and meet his kids. And I appreciated that he remembered Data when we were talking about our pets. I had Data in my apartment for five days in college, between the time that I adopted him and met up with Steven for Steven to take him, and I had forgotten how many of my classmates had met him!

We enjoyed our time chatting with them and hope we can work it out to see them again on a future trip!

After dinner Steven and I went out for ice cream at Sweet Firefly. Their vegan option was so so, but it’s nice to have a vegan option at all, and for it to be warm enough to eat ice cream outside!

Friday night at the hotel was kind of weird. We were winding down when I read about an explosion at a silicone plant near our home in Illinois. Rachel and Alicia were staying at our house (to do the Wisconsin Half the next day) so I was texting with her about it (they definitely felt it) and reading articles about it. We were trying to go to bed, then heard booms outside and were freaked out since we’d just read about the explosion! Steven investigated, and it was fireworks at the nearby minor league ballpark. Kind of freaky/kind of funny.

SATURDAY!

I slept horribly Friday night, and woke up with a headache Saturday, so I took it easy Saturday am. I did a short run around the area, then we went for an early lunch at Platia, a Greek restaurant in Frisco. Their food was fresh and DELICIOUS! We both got the falafel pita (along with a hummus appetizer and greek potatoes) and really enjoyed it. It was our second favorite meal of the trip.

We went to downtown McKinney after lunch, to pick up some BBQ sauce that we love, and popcorn from the local shop, then headed over to the First Communion!

I would guesstimate that at least one hundred kids were having their First Holy Communion that day, and they all looked so adorable in their suits and fancy dresses. Luca had a speaking part during the service, and he looked so dapper (and mobster, ha!) in his suit and tie!

Gina and Steve hosted early dinner (Mexican takeout NOMZZZZZZZZZ) at their home after the service. I hadn’t seen their family (they live in New York) since the 2014 Dallas Marathon, so I enjoyed catching up with her parents and brother, and of course, with her local friends that I’ve met many times and consider to be my friends too! I was really looking forward to seeing everyone and we stayed until the late evening, chatting. It was so fun to see Luca running around being wild with his two cousins. I fondly remember going to gatherings as a kid and being wild with the other kids there! Luca is typically the only kid around when he hangs with us, so it made me happy to see him having such a good time on his special day!

SUNDAY!

On Sunday I ran in Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano, then we checked out of the hotel and headed to Gina and Steve’s for brunch. We chatted with them and their family (I really enjoyed a long discussion a big group of us had about recent books we’ve read), played some bags (Steven), then everyone began their goodbyes!

I appreciated that we had a little time to chat with just Gina and Steve during brunch. It’s hard to get one-on-one time with the hosts of an event! Spending time with them this weekend made me really excited about our annual RAGBRAI/river trip in July.

1:00 pm to 9:15 pm Sunday was spent getting home. Spirit has limited arrival/departure times, so it was either leave super early Sunday (no) or mid afternoon. I booked the exit row again, and it was totally worth it! Our flight took off late, and had issues connecting to the gate when we landed in Chicago, so we appreciated the extra room we had during those four hours sitting on the plane.

It was a late night. We didn’t start watching the newest episode of Game of Thrones until 9:30 pm! But, priorities. (Ha, we watched it to avoid spoilers, but we were both so damn busy Monday at work we didn’t have time to look at social media at all, so we probably could have watched it during lunch or that night!)

OTHER:

We had our cat sitter, Jessica, check on the cats while we were out. I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned her here (probably) but it just AMAZES me how much the cats love her, especially Khali, our shy girl. Jessica sends me all these pics of her petting Khali, Khali hanging around while she plays with the kittens, and Khali greeting her at the door. We’re always shocked by how friendly Khali is being to her. And she’s been like this since the first time Jessica starting watching them in December, it’s not like she’s built up to this! Jessica is the Cat Whisperer. Or Khali thinks she is starving.

When I was spending time with Gina’s friends this weekend I was feeling a bit jealous of them – they get to see Gina every week (since they all run together)! Gina and I met online and have NEVER lived in the same city. We see each other a few times a year, and make the most out of our time together! It’s interesting how the internet lets us form virtual relationships with people and lets us become super close to someone we’ve never lived in the same area as. The relationships are rewarding and fulfilling, but they’re still missing that closeness that can’t be replaced virtually. Hence, why we try to see each other as much as possible during the year!