Today was a wind up to our leaving Dallas – it sounds a little early but lets face it, we had to get prepared to pack! After six and a half weeks of being on the road, and collecting more and more items, we had to figure out a way to get them all home! So we decided to go shopping. But first, since Jesse had the day off, and Jen was taking the week off, the four of us headed up to Frisco after breakfast at Waffle House (HOMG WAFFLES MAN! They are SO GOOD!), to go to the Stars Frisco rink to see if a) practice was on (by the time we got there, it had finished) and to see if we could see Rob.

This time, when we walked in, Rob was in the hallway watching the end of practice and talking to someone. He recognised us and he and I had a short chat before he had to get back to work. He did tell us that there would be another Stars practice tomorrow morning at 10:30am, if we wanted to get autographs. I told him that we hadn’t expected to be there for a Stars practice so we arranged with a friend to pick up a jersey we’d already bought and he’d kindly got the autographs for us. (I didn’t want to impose on Rob and the gang.)

Anyway, we wandered around the Stars Stuff Store for a while before we all piled back into Jen’s Mustang, Thor, and headed Stonebriar to see if there were any suitcases we could get in our price range. Sam wanted to head to a Super Wal-Mart since he had done some online research and found that Wal-Mart had a special on, but we checked out Stonebriar, just because it was the big-ass mall beside Frisco StarsCentre. We went through Macys and Sears and there was nothing. So we headed back to Thor and went across the road to Target. Nothing. Jen, remembering there’s a Wal-Mart on the way back to her place via the Dallas Tollway, heads south and with Jesse (and his trusty blackberry!)  as her navigator we find the store we’re looking for.

Super Wal-Mart is awesome! Not only did we find what we were looking for (a small suitcase on wheels, with a matching carryon duffle on wheels and a bag big enough to hold my macbook to use as my computer bag) for a great price ($30!), we also found Sam a couple of Stars shirts, also for a good price! Jesse and Jen picked up a couple of things and then we were on our way back to Jen’s to wait for Rhonda to get home from work (school). Before we got there though, we stopped in at Pinkberry, a frozen yoghurt place that sells the most amazing chocolate frozen yoghurt ever! My allergy to dairy didn’t stop me from getting a tub of this one to eat away, even if I did pay for it by scratching my allergy-itched skin for a couple of hours afterwards!

For dinner that night, the four of us headed out to Momo’s! Momo’s is an Italian restaurant that serves very good pasta, and according to Jen, Rhonda and Sam, awesome red wine too! The food though came second to the company for me. These three are the most awesome people I’ve ever met and I can’t believe that in a day and a half I have to leave them! It sucks!

When we got back to Jen’s house from the restaurant, we all sat around and played Jen’s Wii bowling and tennis for a while. It was a lot of fun! And, it turns out I’m as bad at virtual bowling as I am at real bowling! Sam thoroughly got his butt kicked by Jesse and Rhonda. Soon, though, it was time for Rhonda and Jesse to get some sleep as they both have to go to work tomorrow.

Sunday dawned rather early for us considering the late night we had on Saturday night. We were being picked up at 10:15am to hang out with very special friends, while all our “gang” were going to a memorial service for someone very special for them (it was for someone we didn’t know very well so we thought it was best we didn’t go). Jen had very kindly let us borrow her car for our appointment at 5pm, so we grabbed the keys off her before we left with Mickie and off we went.

Mickie and Frederick have been such wonderful friends to us over the years, and it was Mickie who first messaged the Dallas Stars and asked them to do something special for us the last time we were there – which started the whole ball rolling with being the Stars Fans Of The Game, being at the first game early enough to meet Ralph on the concourse, who got us in to see Mike Modano through Rob Scichili… they really were the catalyst for how brilliantly our trip was last time here in Big D, so there was no way we weren’t going to spend some time with them this time around!

Their 14 yr old son Alex plays hockey for a team called the Stars on Sunday mornings (Bantem level I think?), so we were invited to watch him play, and then they took us and Alex’s friend out for lunch. Alex’s game was as the StarCenter in Plano, so Mickie picked us up from the hotel, and with a stop at Starbucks (for caffeination) we were on our way. The StarCenters are owned by The Dallas Stars, and help to build hockey in Texas. They have 2 sheets of ice in the buildings along with a Stars Stuff Store. The Plano SC was overrun with families preparing for and leaving games that had just finished. By the time we got there, Alex’s team was on ice and warming up!

They were pretty good! We got some great photos of Alex’s team playing, and of Alex who is a winger. He also got a few penalties – oops! – but he was strong on the forecheck and seemed to have good positioning. There were a few players out there who were just so, so fast! And a few scary parents in the crowd too! But the people we were sitting with were just lovely. I think the couple beside me were parents of another child on Alex’s team, and they were interested in hockey in Australia as well as our trip. Everyone is fascinated with the weather difference. It’s kind of bizarre but whatever!

Alex’s team won 5-3, it was all very exciting because at one stage it was 3-2, then 3-3, then 4-3 so it was rather edge of your seat stuff. After the game, Mickie took us down to the Stars Stuff Store to have a look around. We saw their clearance rack had different stuff from the Frisco rink, so we went at it, buying 6 shirts for $10 each! And I got an Ipod case for my classic Ipod for only $14! It’s AWESOME! We also picked up some car decal’s for our “Dallas” back home, and Sam bought me a Stars bracelet that I liked. All in all, it was a pretty good haul for $140! Plus, on the items that weren’t on sale, Mickie let us use her season ticket holder’s discount of 15%, so that was very generous of her!

Then it was off to lunch at SeaBreeze. We had a seafood basket that had a toasted lobster sandwich, fries and coleslaw (though I don’t eat coleslaw so I just had the sandwich and most of the fries), like Mickie did. Frederick had muscles (I think) and fish, and I’m not sure what the kids had, but it all looked so good. Over lunch, Sam and I gave them a small book on Australian Wildlife, as a very small token of our very large appreciation for what they’ve done for us over the years. Really, there are no words and nothing big enough that could ever compensate, but a little something goes a long way.

During lunch, we mentioned that we hadn’t done any of the things that we had wanted to while we were here, such as the Gallery or the Museum or even the grassy knoll where JFK was assassinated. Mickie and Frederick immediately offered to drop the kids off at home and take us downtown to see it! So that’s what we did!

Elm Street, ironically where it happened, still looks like it did on November 22, 1963. The buildings are all the same, the road hasn’t changed and even has white X’s on the road where the shots hit JFK. It was morbidly awesome! And there is even a tour that you can go on that follows the procession’s route, to the point of speeding up after the grassy knoll and driving to the hospital they took JFK to.

After the Grassy Knoll, we walked around downtown and passed the TGI Fridays we went to last time we were in Dallas in 2006. Good times. By the time we got back to the car, it was time to head to the hotel to drop us off because we had an appointment with Bob Shaw from Shaw’s Tattoo Studio at 5pm. We chatted to Mickie and Frederick in the parking lot of the motel until we had to leave.

We got to Bob’s at 5pm on the dot, and Bob was waiting for us, chilling out and watching the Cowboys game on tv (they were losing to San Diego, 7-10 at the time). After our introductions, and Bob mentioning that he knew nothing about hockey, and me telling him to watch a real sport instead of this padded NFL crap, we got down to business and checked out the designs he’d sketched out. They were exactly what we wanted.

When we had discussed the designs with Josh on Wednesday, he’d mentioned that they probably wouldn’t be able to do the shading on the celtic knots on the sides of my Stars logo. Bob, however, merely shugged his shoulders and said he’d adjusted the design just a little to make it wide enough to do the shading I wanted, instead of having to fill the whole thing in.

Sam went first, because he’s a whiney little girl and needed to go first for fear of backing out – he doesn’t like pain, and he’s terrified of needles. How he’s managed to get three tattoos before is a miracle I’ve yet to work out! Anyway, Bob shaved Sam’s back, lined up the tatt, made sure it was where Sam wanted it, right across his shoulders, checked the shade of green we wanted for the star in the middle – the largest part of shading so it had to be right – and then got him straddled on the chair and set down to work.

Sam’s tattoo took about two hours to do, and Sam spent most of that time calling out expletives and grouching at me when I told him to “Suck it up princess! You’re the one who wanted this!” Bob thought this was hilarious. He was also amused by both of us singing along to Sublime on the playlist he had going through the studio while he worked, and me dancing and singing along to Eminem as well.

Sam kept saying to me, “Just wait until you get yours done, you’ll be crying out too!” Which just made me all the more determined not to say anything when I got mine done, even if it did hurt. Bob thought we were hilarious! At least, he kept chuckling the entire time. By the time Sam’s was done though, Bob needed a break.

When he came back, we got me set up, the tattoo placed on my lower back where I wanted it, got me situated on the chair and then got down to work. Mine took about an hour and a half to do, as it is a little smaller than Sam’s. Sam took off to get us some coffee, and Bob and I talked family, kids and married life. It was kinda cool. He could tell when it hurt, because my back would stiffen a little, but I didn’t complain about the pain until nearly at the end when he was doing the shading on the Star right on my spine. That really hurt. Bob did say at the end though that I took my tattoo like a trooper! I was so proud, really!

After we paid him (including a nice tip), we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some Aquaphor ointment for the tatts, and I found some Dallas Stars pj pants in my size – I was so excited! I picked up a pair that are DS Green with the Stars logo all over them, and a green and white plaid pair with the logo stitched on in one corner. We spent the rest of the night chilling out at our motel, after trying to walk Jen’s dog, Stellina (unsuccessfully I might add – we tried three times!), with some Jack In The Box for dinner. It was a quite night, online and letting our tatts breathe.

Today started sad, as we awoke and prepared to depart San Antonio for the final time on this trip.  We have had the best time ever with our family in San Antonio and have nothing but thanks to every single one of them for taking us into their hearts and home.  Who would have thought 12 years ago that our friendship with Amber would become a whole new family as close to our hearts as any.  To the Short family, thank you.  We love you all, and promise to be back at some point in time.

We had originally planned to be on the road at 8am, and as Wendy was writing a note to Vicki Short to put with the thank you gifts we bought for her and the family she came home from work.  It worked out well as this way we got to thank her personally, and after talking, hugs and sad farewells, we finally got on the road at 9:30am for the lengthy 5-hour drive up to Dallas.  Wendy took the first shift, and took us through to just north of Waco, a about half the way home.  I took over from there and drove the remainder of the trip, which was uneventful for the most part other than the rain that plagued us for the last hour going into and through Dallas.

Finally arriving back at the hotel we unloaded all our bags and got ourselves settled in.  Jen had finished work for the day and came up and we ended up chatting for a bit before deciding on a plan; drive to Frisco and see if Rob was available, then head to the store to grab some groceries.  Unfortunately, Rob was in a meeting so we never got a chance to talk to him this time.  Not to worry, we’re there for an entire week, so anything is possible.

We then walked to the Stars Stuff Store.  AKA the Official Merchandise Store of the Dallas Stars Ice Hockey Club.  A mouthful eh?  This store is huge… the size of a large home, this single room has everything Dallas Stars, and is a sight that is beathtaking, mouthwatering and awe-inspiring all at the same times.  Authentic and replica jerseys, t-shirts, polo shirts, hoodies, track pants, pucks, sticks, skates, hockey gear, trinkets, toys… if you can think it, they mighth have it!  We spent a good 40 minutes just looking at all the amazing products available before finally dragging ourselves away.

Jen had messaged Kelly and Jesse to see what they were doing, but unfortunately Kelly was working late and Jesse had a game of “drop-in” hockey.  After a bit of back-and-forth banter between Wendy and Jesse he finally gave in and said he’d come over to Jen’s and hang with us.  Go Wendy!  So, our plans to visit the store went AWOL as we headed back to the hotel to catch up with Jessebean, as Wendy calls him.  You wouldn’t believe it… Jen, who lives in this area and drives it often… got lost!  So typical with us in the car, eh?

We finally got back and gave Jesse big hugs and had a chat and then after a bit of “what do you want” discussions, Jesse and Jen decided that we’d go to Uncle Julio’s, a mexican restaurant here in Dallas, for dinner.  Dinner itself was really nice.  Wendy went with the Chicken Fajitas while I opted for the “Juanita Platter”, which was a Taco, Enchiladas and something else (can’t remember).  After a good meal, loads of laughs and an hour or 2 later, Wendy and I paid the bill and we left, with a new plan; pick up Stellina (Jen’s dog) and then go see Rhonda at school where she works as a drama teacher.

The rain sure didn’t make the drive easy, but we quickly found the pet place and picked up the dog, a toy Schnauzer.  She’s a beautiful dog, with the most amazing personality.  Apparently she normally barks at everybody new she meets, but with Wendy and I she was quiet and came right up to us.  Pretty cool huh?  Anyway, we picked her up then headed down the 635 (big look freeway around Dallas) and then onto the I-30 over to the school where Rhonda works.  We met the kids and saw them doing the curtain call practice.

Did you know they even practice that?  I can’t say i’d even thought about it in the past to be honest, but it’s really pretty cool that they do.  We then got introduced as the friends from Australia and then the show was stolen by Stellina… who decided to relieve herself right there in the room.  Unfortunately, the floor was sloped, so everything started running!  While we’re literally cracking up laughing, Jen and Rhonda are busy getting it it cleaned up.  The funniest part of the entire thing was Jen’s face when she saw what was happening… absolutely brilliant!  A load of laughs later, we headed out for Rhondas house to pick up our boxes of goods we’d had mailed to her.

We handed out goodies to Jen (shot glasses for her collection), Rhonda (small books to appeal to her humour) and Jesse (a Moro chocolate bar and Canberra Raiders blanket to replace the Stars blanket he gave Wendy in 2006), and decided we’d all like some Braums Ice Cream… which apparently is “to die for”.  Turns out… oh hell yes, that it is!  I’m an ice cream elitist… sad to say, but it’s true.  Ice cream is my #1 weakness, just ask anybody who knows me.  This ice cream was truly amazing, rivaling anything else i can think of right now.  So we had that then went back to Rhondas place, said our good-nights then drove back to drop off the dog at the hotel.

One of the best things about Dallas, and the US in general is Walmart.  We’re talking about a huge store that sells groceries, pharmacy goods, clothes and other items.. think a huge supermarks and huge department store in one.  Best thing about Walmart is that its open 24hrs a day, and at almost midnight, there were a LOT of people out shopping.  Apparently it’s even busy at 4am.  Wiggy eh?  So anyway, we picked up groceries; high fibre cereal, low fat milk, earl grey tea, splenda, apples and bananas and also a few things from the pharmacy section; pain killers and sinus cold-and-flu tablets.  By chance i was looking at the DVD section and found “My Bloody Valentine 3D” which came with 4 sets of 3D glasses for only $20, so picked that up also.

That done, we loaded up the car with our new goods and drop back to the hotel to settle down watching “Hoarders”, “How i met your mother” and a bit of “Big bang theory”, me working on my laptop while Wendy snuggled on the couch with Jen and Jesse – a truly adorable site!  Gawd i wish i’d taken a photo of it!

Tonight we’re turning the alarms off.  We don’t have any major plans, so we’re hoping for a good night of good quality sleep.  After the last few nights, it shouldn’t be too hard.