A Weekend in Dallas for Oklahoma v. Texas

This past weekend I flew out to Dallas, Texas to partake in one of the best parts of my year: Oklahoma/Texas weekend. This weekend is focused around the Red River Showdown game between the two rival schools. The game is played at a neutral site between the two school’s cities at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas– centered inside of the Texas State Fair.

To say these two events together are EPIC is truly an understatement.

This was my third OU/Texas weekend. My first was during my freshman year at Oklahoma before I transferred away and my second was last year with my dad and my sister. This year was extra exciting because we added Charlie to our crew! We all got in Friday afternoon and spent our days watching sports, sports and more sports (the Washington Nationals are currently en-route to the World Series and we had to keep our eyes on them this weekend as well!)

The better the teams, the earlier the game. Oklahoma was ranked #6 last week and Texas sat at #11 so this game was early at 11am. We got up briiiiiight and early to get to the fairgrounds by 9am but not without setting the weekend up right the night before by attending the OU Club of Dallas’ pep rally in Addison. This is THE official pep rally prior to gameday. The band stops by at the end of the night to really get everybody ready to rumble. Even Boomer and Sooner, Oklahoma’s two mascots, show up!

The mission of the day on gameday is to…

1. wake up, eat breakfast
2. roll out, step foot in the fairgrounds (takes awhile)
3. grab your tickets, head over to the media
   • last year we had College Gameday in attendance and this year it was Fox Sports
4. drink as much as you can, play some games before the crowds
   • this year was the first time alcohol was allowed within the entire stadium so, thankfully, future years will involve less chugging at 10am
5. get to your seats, BEAT TEXAS

Once Texas has been rightfully silenced (hopefully), you get to roll out and eat some crazy fried foods and meander your way out of the fair. My go-to is the fried cheesecake and this year I fell in loOove with the fried mac and cheese. This year we made our way out of the fair into downtown Dallas to watch the Nationals beat the Cardinals for the second night in a row. We then ventured home and began to plan our final day in town.

On Sunday we hit up the Adolphus hotel where we grabbed coffee and goodies at Otto’s Coffee & Fine Foods. The Adolphus had just undergone a $100mil renovation in 2018 and holy. c-r-a-p. It is BEAUTIFUL. My dad told us some fun stories of when he stayed here back in 1972. To imagine my 18-year-old father romping around this insanely well-manicured hotel was beyond what my mind could handle. Clearly some things had changed over the years— haha.

After starting the day off at The Adolphus and Otto’s we walked over to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Dealey Plaza was the location of President JFK’s assassination in 1963. The museum brings you on an audio tour throughout the sixth floor where Lee Harvey Oswald barricaded himself in to shoot and kill the 35th U.S. President outside of a corner window. This view from the seventh floor (above) allows a sightline above the now-mature trees to see painted X’s on Elm Street that show the specific spots Oswald shot at the President’s motorcade.

The museum charges $18 per adult for the audio tour. If you have a couple of hours to kill and even the slightest bit of interest in this massive event of American history, I highly recommend.

Throughout the weekend we ate at a couple of places in town but none better than my favorite, Torchy’s Tacos. There are few fast or fast casual restaurant dishes I love more than Torchy’s fried avocado tacos on corn tortillas. Above you will see that during our first meal in town I had three massive ones.

MmmmMMmmmMmmm YUM.

On Sunday before we headed to the airport we found ourselves wandering around the ultra lush Highland Park neighborhood. I grew up in a fairly affluent area but I had never laid my eyes on the kind of stores that were in Highland Park Village. To name a few, they had Chanel, Balenciaga, Celine, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Tom Ford and wow, yeah, I could go on. Highland Park Village is the epitome of luxury and within all of that is Bird Bakery, owned by Armie Hammer’s wife Elizabeth. It’s a refreshing spot where you can experience opulence while spending under $10.

Texas is the one of all states in the United States that I continually travel to. There is so much to do and Dallas is the central zone of all there is to do. I’d challenge anybody to find something that you cannot track down in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metro area. It’s on New York City levels of density and I doubt you’d ever run out of plans. I’m sure I’ll be back before my next OU/TX weekend but we certainly will be back for that in 2021. Our wedding is the Sunday after the game next year so we won’t be in attendance but rest assured, we will be watching at our rehearsal dinner!

Where is the one place that you don’t have any connections to that you continually find yourself in? I’m curious to know!