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Late yesterday afternoon, while I was in Seattle, Jeff spotted a surprise feathered visitor in the pine tree behind our house. He snapped this quick series of shots before the bird–a red tailed hawk, perhaps?–moved on to other adventrues.

Jeff believes he was searching for dinner, but Buster was a bit skinny 🙂

Following my last visit to Seattle (new hotel photo above), I wrote a scathing to Avis about their unsafe rental selection. Well, I am happy to report that Avis responded…surprisingly…and refunded me for two rental days based on my complaint. BRAVO to Avis for listening!

Of course, today, when I arrived in Seattle, I was “upgraded” to a bohemouth of a Chevy SUV. Where was this tank when I was slip-sliding in the snow on my last trip?

Somehow, my “upgrades” never quite match the weather…like the cloth-topped convertible they upgraded me to a couple of years ago in Chicago…in a Christmas snowstorm!!

This is one of those stories that’s a bit hard to explain…but that’s also what makes it fun.

On Tuesday, I cashed in some miles and hopped a flight to Dallas. I joined up with dear old friends Kim and Jeff for a trip that was “classic Jeff”…spontaneous fun with close friends. (FYI #1: For clarification, let’s specify “Seattle Jeff”, lest we get totally confused as to why I would fly to Dallas to meet up with MY Jeff…although he would have enjoyed the movie as well…but probably would have deemed the flight a tad bit excessive…and the destination a tad bit RED STATE. FYI #2: Both Kim and Jeff would smack me to call them OLD.)

Anyhow…we selected Dallas, because it was a direct flight from SF, Seattle, and Richmond…and it wasn’t a place we had frequented. Dallas turned out to be the perfect spot for dinner and a movie. We stayed at the charming, historic Adolphus hotel in the reinvigorated West End.

First the movie. The Bucket List is an obvious catalyst for this type of trip. Its a heart-tugging movie about friendship and spontaneity…with a great deal of humor and fantastic adventure thrown in to tease the senses. Yes, the movie has gotten mixed reviews, but I will just say that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I highly recommend this movie if you go in with the right attitude…this is not an Oscar film…this is a feel-good, make-you-tear-up-a-bit film. It was no more or no less that what it was supposed to be…and it initiated some fantastic conversations about life, family, and happiness.

So, what were some of the notable highlights from this all-to-short trip? Here are a few nuggets:

1. Food. Hearty, Texas-sized portions of meat and potatoes. But this was a “special trip”, so I let my impulses guide me. At “Tex-Asian” Fuse, I indulged in a mouth-watering beef tenderloin, which I finished with a dessert called Tahitian Vanilla Bean French Toast (or as my bartender called it…“sex on a plate”). Dinner at the inventive Tex-Mex Iron Cactus, I was instantly drawn to the Chicken Fried Strip Steak, topped with a creamy jalapeno gravy with a pleasant kick! And for our pre-departure lunch at Razoo’s, I gave my taste buds one last treat with a spicy Cajun-spiced fried chicken breast…plus the absolute best bread budding I have ever tasted. Needless to say…I’ve been trying to eat a bit less since I returned.

2. Innuendo. At the Iron Cactus, Jeff ordered a “double boned” pork chop, and that set off childish snickers that would punctuate the entire 24-hour trip. A few notable phrases taken completely out of context: “We’re going to ride it all night.”, “You’re all expecting big action.”, “You want your chock full of nuts stuffed there?”, “We have two pairs of underwear between the three of us.”, “I was functioning with a goofy ball just fine.”, “Not all history has to be touched.” We also spotted three signs that begged to be recorded: “No In and Out Privileges”, “Condoms To Go”, and “Bone Daddy’s”.

3. A dose of history. As we were driving out of downtown Dallas, we stopped at the site of JFK’s assassination. We skipped the outrageously priced museum (in the old Book Depository), and wandered around Dealey Plaza where Kennedy was shot, including the “grassy knoll”, where a conspiracy theorist approached us and offered to give us the “real story”. Oddly, nearly every tourist darted into the middle of the street to be photographed on one of two painted X’s, marking the locations where Kennedy was hit. An odd historical landmark to be sure.

4. DART farts. We rode Dallas’ DART light rail several stops to and from the movie theatre. In each direction, we distinctly picked up the aroma of farts (or some other nasty smell) from a few of the derelict riders. NASTY.

So, a big ol’ THANK YOU to Jeff for concocting this delightful diversion, and for pushing me to overcome my natural inertia to make it happen.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t leave you with a sarchastic photo that Jeff snapped at dinner. In honor of his (friendly) mocking of my habit of photographing food for my blog, I’ve entitled this shot “SMARTASS”. 🙂

Oh sure, the Presidential primaries on last week’s Super Tuesday captured the majority of the headlines last week (ok…ALL of the headlines last week), but the real news was that San Francisco voters wisely rejected the absurd Proposition C, which would have asked the City government to explore aquiring Alcatraz from the Federal government to turn the island into a Global Peace Center.

Of course, the fascinating part of this story is that only 72 percent of voters voted NO…meaning that 28 percent voted YES. (What a bummer for the #2 Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, who could only muster 22 percent…no wonder he dropped out!)

In spite of declining service perks and increasing travel hassles, United made me happy today. A cheerful flight attendant ventured out of first class and tracked me down in the back of the plane to offer me free wine.

Yes…I can be bought 🙂