November is usually the best time of the year at North Texas - crisp cool weather, splendid foliage, and the Thanksgiving. This November was no exception.
We spent our Thanksgiving holiday this year at North Texas... where we called home for 18 years. Meeting friends, enjoying food and the brilliant crisp cool weather, it was wonderful.
Dallas Turkey Trot
We started the Thanksgiving day by running at Dallas YMCA Turkey trot. It was a cold cloudy morning with temperature at 7C (45F), wind chill made it feel more like 0C. There were about 22k people joined the trot - mostly for the 5K trot. We were among the less than 10% participants who ran 8 miles around downtown, crossing trinity river and back.
The weather was great for long distance run. For the 8 miles, I ran most of the time, walked occasionally late in the distance, and paused quite a few times to take pictures to take in the beautiful environment, Dalla downtown skyline. I completed the 8 miles in 97 minutes, slowest in my group of 4. Despite this, it gave me hope that I could run half marathon in near future!
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| my tracked run for the 8 miles |
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| start of group 1 |
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| Initial portion of the running trail was a tree lined street |
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| bridges over trinity river |
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| Dallas Downtown Skyscrapers |
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| My name was announced when I crossed the finish line! |
Black Friday
We went for black Friday shopping at North Park mall...the first time in a long time since we did such adventure.
We went there in the afternoon, the parking lot was jammed. It took me sometime to find a parking spot. In the age of online shopping, the mall was surprisingly busy. Lego store was one of the few stores people had to wait to get in!! For amusement, I recorded the flow of people passing by the store using hypolapse mode, while waiting for the rest of the group to finish their shopping.
We spent about 3 hours there...bought some stuff...boots, clothes. I didn't buy anything but enjoyed quite a few sculptures and seasonal Christmas decorations.
We had a great party at a Friend's house that night - empty nesters and some of their grown up children. I was very pleased to see the young men and women having a good time together after several years away from each other
Texas BBQ at downtown Dallas
We went to Terry Black's BBQ at downtown Dallas for authentic Texas BBQ. It was a very popular restaurant, and the BBQ meat tasted great. We ordered nearly 4 lb meat and some sides, did not finish all the food
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| We didn't finish the order - carried leftover back for next lunch |
Walking in the Nature
The days at North Texas during the Thanksgiving were cool, sunny and beautiful. In fact we could see Sunrise everyday around 7am from our hotel room! There is a nature reserve nearby, which we hike in every time we are in the area.
Walking in the brilliant foliage in crisp cool weather was a joy.
However, the crown jewel of the outdoor at Dallas is the white rock lake, which we visited after our BBQ at downtown, the lake, bright foliage, water fowls - gulls, egrets, double breasted cormorants, pelicans ....and bald eagles!
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| blue birds |
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| white rock lake |
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