Category Archives: Animals

Fort Worth Stockshow

Every year, Fort Worth holds the Stockshow and Rodeo which attracts people from near and far. It lasts for three or four weeks every January and early February. If you are looking for a true taste of Texas, I’ll suggest checking out this event. It’s one of my favorites!

Because I love this event so much, I’m going to break this up into two posts. Today, we’ll focus on the Stockshow.

The Stockshow is basically shopping central and livestock. In a large exhibit hall you can find anything from tractors, artwork, cowboy hats, furniture, jewelry, heck you name it. You can even see a celebrity or two. Can anyone name this guy to the far left below?

Tractors are fun to drive!

I have to share this. In the hall of one of the buildings, they were showing local art work of some students. Seriously, can you believe these? All under 18 years of age. It’s amazing!

Now, my absolute favorite part of the Stockshow are the animals! I LOVE farm animals and would love to have some someday. I think I left the Stockshow saying I was going to teach yoga, become a photographer and raise cows! (Those who really know me probably wouldn’t be surprised at this at all!) So here you go – way too many photos of cows!

Growing up, we actually raised a few of these Herefords ourselves back in good ole Vermont!

I wanted to pet every cow I saw, although I wasn’t sure if I was allowed since so many people were nearby so I just stuck with petting this little guy!

He’s a beast!

I can do without the chickens on my farm.

Have I mentioned how much I love cows?

These are the barns that the livestock are held in and where the animal shows are held. Massive barns! In the back (behind me) you can see the Will Rogers Coliseum where the rodeo is held.

I found an unattended cow…. I was petting this one for a good five minutes! What a great day!

You can take a girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl!

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

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Sometimes it’s just nice to get out of the city for a while. I think if we lived in a perfect world I’d be living in the country period but that time will come in the future (at least I’m hoping). For the first part of Memorial Day weekend we headed out to Ennis, Texas. Country livin’!

Each Memorial Day Weekend, Ennis holds the Polka Festival. There is a large Czech population in Mid/Central Texas. Sy has some extended family out there and we finally took them up on their offer to go check this place out. The main attraction (at least to us) was the Horseshoe Tournament.

We didn’t attend all of the festivities but I’ll let you in on what I know. There is a parade, craft area (where you can buy or at least get ideas for items to make), a kolache eating contest, dancing, horseshoe tournament and a concert in the evening. We peeked in at the dancing and watched the horseshoe tournament.

What’s polka dancing look like you ask? Well I’ll show ya!

For me, the best part about being in Ennis was being in the country. Cows, horses, neighbors whose homes are not sitting right on top of yours. Perfect! This is what livin’ is all about!

When we were in Ennis, Sy and I took this golf cart contraption out for a ride on his family’s land. So beautiful and thankfully no snakes! The cows were super friendly. Reminded me a bit of growing up with our cows. The wild flowers were gorgeous!

I also experienced my first two scorpion sightings. Yes, I said two. “I don’t think we’re in Vermont anymore!” The first, I stepped on the little sucker. The second one… (see below) frankly I’m short so this one was out of my reach. They were babies but they’re in the same category as those snakes in my book.

This may be the most enjoyable part of the weekend. I got to ride a horse! It’s been a while so I was a little nervous but so much fun! Isn’t he a handsome fella?!

Yeehaw!
My buddy here didn’t feel like walking, he was taking his time. He would always go to the side of the fence where the other horses were and say,
“Why am I the only who has to do this?!”
“It’s Sunday, It’s my day of rest too!”

Sy learned verbal commands are not as effective as physical commands when it comes to riding a horse.

“Left, left, left” didn’t get him anywhere.

It was hilarous.

Nothing like a weekend in the country! We couldn’t have asked for a more relaxing weekend.
Thank you Felicia and Jace for having us! We had a great time!

The Peabody, Memphis – March 2012

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Prior to this past weekend, I had only been to Memphis once and that was my pit stop at Graceland. I have a good friend from home who has taken part in reenactments all of his life and he was taking part in the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. It’s a great excuse to see a friend and take a little weekend getaway trip. What’s a couple hundred miles, right? That’s right, I’m a great friend. So last Friday, Sy and I rented a car and began our trip. We drove a few hours and decided to stop and stay in Little Rock (home of the Clinton’s), wake up early and take off for Memphis (where we’d be staying Saturday night) and then travel to the battle site which was about two hours east.

We had decided since we don’t really treat ourselves to relaxing trips all that often that this was going to be it – even if it just happened to be on a weekend. With that being said, we were staying at The Peabody in Memphis. With our helpful AAA discount, the rate of the room was just a little more than the surrounding hotels but what the heck. It’s our getaway but in the end, it was the best decision and completely worth it.

The Peabody is a hotel that sits about two blocks from Beale Street and has been around for over 100 years. Besides having Presidents, celebrities and quite frankly people who are a big deal stay here (I mean, we were staying here which was the biggest deal yet), they are famous for their ducks. Yes – I said ducks. Quack Quack. The story goes something like this, the original owner went on a hunting trip to Arkansas and when he and his friends returned (and after a few too many Jack Daniels) they had decided to put ducks in the fountain of the hotel (since they couldn’t use decoy ducks). Now, it has become a tradition and the ducks live in their mansion on the roof of the hotel and are brought down the elevator daily at 11am and 5pm. The red carpet is rolled out and they run to the fountain in the middle of the hotel lobby. No – I am not even kidding.

It draws a lot of attention. Much more attention than I thought it would. It’s seriously a big deal.

This is the Duck Master presenting the young lady next to him a certificate for being Honorary Duck Master for the day!

The Peabody is gorgeous. I fell in love. Our room was cute. I especially loved the doors to the rooms. I know, kind of odd. The room was a little small but I mean how much room does one really need? The bed, so comfortable and I really didn’t get to sleep enough since Sy wanted to wake up early and get a head start on our long trip back to Texas. They do leave two rubber ducks on the desk (which you can purchase for $8). No thanks. The atmosphere and architecture within the hotel is where it’s at.

Seriously, the one of the most comfortable beds!

The lobby. It’s like the kitchen of any home, right – where everyone gathers. Check it out – it’s beautiful.

The lobby also holds the “hotel bar”. There are tables and big comfy chairs where you can hang out and relax and listen to the pianist play the piano (I later learned the piano also plays itself, unless it was a ghost…). In the morning there is tea and coffee available. In the evening they set out an arrangement of desserts which you can purchase for $6.50. We ended up ordering dessert in the lobby Saturday night after dinner. Tiramisu was what we wanted and it was delicious!

Obviously, it was shaped as a little tea cup with a chocolate stick on top. The tea cup was completely made of chocolate. The filling was a soft cream with the wafers in the middle. Yum!

The mezzanine. Here we found a piano which was custom made for Francis Scott Key who wrote the Star Spangle Banner. This level also leads to the ballrooms which we looked inside (cleaning up from a wedding I presumed) and it was magnificent. The ceilings and stage inside. Now I wish I got a picture, I guess you’ll just have to reference the website.

The staff were gracious and extremely nice. Honestly, it was one of the best hotel experiences I’ve ever had. It’s too bad I can’t really afford to stay more than one night. It’s no wonder The Peabody is known to be one of the prime hotels of the South. If you don’t believe me, stay there and find out for yourself!