Foggy Days in Dallas

Winter...if that's what you call rainy days in the 40's with the threat of an overnight freeze...seems to be slowly settling into north Texas. As many of our friends and family back in the midwest continue to get pounded by snow and ice, or maybe both at the same time, it has not gone unnoticed by us how lucky we seem to have been this year to escape most of this. However, Chris couldn't help but feel from recent pictures he saw on the web that he was missing out on some great photography opportunities that the ice storms would bring. The last week or so has been fairly foggy and drizzly here in Dallas, conjuring up mental images ala the Pacific Northwest.

So last weekend, with the fog and drizzle in full effect, and being that it was Chris' 28th birthday (wow, how depressing), we decided to head an hour south of Dallas, out of the city, to an area near a relatively small town called Waxahachie. Chris had been there recently for an on-site CE course, and recalled to Emily how much it had reminded him of rural Iowa (which is saying a lot for Texas, as there really is nothing that closely resembles the rural midwest).

So, with both of us being a bit tired, but Chris wanting to get out of the quaint yet confining loft-apartment, we headed to Waxahachie, not sure as to what we would find.

As luck would have it, upon arriving near the city limits, we randomly chose a country road that actually turned out to be one of the most scenic areas that either of us had experienced in the DFW area. Complete with rolling hills, farms (a rarity in Texas), and trees (yes, you read that right, TREES!), we felt like we had died and returned to Iowa.

lone tree in the lone star

texas hay

After driving in the country for about an hour and a half, we decided to make our way back to Dallas and pick up some groceries at our favorite grocery store, Central Market. The birthday dinner menu for that evening included:

-Warm rosemary parmesan foccacia
-Organic spinach salad complete w/ portabella mushrooms, roma tomatoes, and feta cheese
-Salmon with pepper-blend seasoned butter
-Haricot verts (new to us, they are thinner than the classic american green been)
-Pinot Noir from Sonoma, CA

MMMM....MMMMM.....Good eatin' (that's about all we have to do down here in Dallas)

We leave you with some images of a foggy downtown Dallas, as it has been for the past week...