Texas de Brazil

Our weekend was jammed with all sorts of activities and I feel like I’ve been on yet another vacation having company this past week. Bobby made an appointment with Lockheed and scheduled a family visit and tour of the plant on Friday. Lars, our 17 year old nephew enjoyed this visit especially since he wants to go into engineering like his uncle Bob. Bobby arranged for an extra long cart to escort us around the plant which was a bonus as the plant is one mile long + 50 feet. There was much to absorb and even got to see the new F-35 AKA “Lightning II” full scale model which was really cool. What can I say, Bobby always makes a great presentation and in my opinion, he’s the best tour guide of the entire plant.

After our visit to Lockheed, we took our guests to a very famous mom and pop BB-Q. Now this BBQ is not just any BBQ, it’s down right Texan – all the way! The walls are adorned with many, many mounts and gives the feeling of being in good ole Texas. The BBQ is out of this world as this restaurant is always packed with cowboys and good ole southern gals alike.

After our feast we moved along to our favorite upscale grocery store in Fort Worth known as Central Market. Even my nephew Lars made the comment to me while shopping in this store… “I feel like a bush boy in the city for the first time”. This is a very unique grocery store – more like an experience. The produce selection is unheard of and has the largest selection of freshly baked breads I’ve ever seen in one place. The store houses literally 100’s of cheeses from around the world and has the largest array of olives I have ever seen. Central Market is a place we take all of our guests as one needs to experience this delightful place young and old alike. Central Market offers all sorts of classes for cooking and decorating and I could go on and on about this store… Guess you’ll have to come here to experience this fabulous place for yourself…

Saturday morning greeted us with fresh pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash browns and several choices of morning beverages. Dan took Lars to the water park and Rita and Bobby worked on an album for ma. Bobby and Rita want to get all ma’s pictures from her childhood to present on DVD to show as a movie. Bobby and Rita also worked on the words to write ma’s life story. We are planning a surprise for ma’s upcoming 80th birthday in October and want to have this arranged for the party. We have a copy of ma’s address book and we are planning to invite her friends for this grand occasion.

Saturday evening we took everyone to Texas de Brazil restaurant in Fort Worth. What an experience for one and all. Everyone is offered the salad bar along with a little red/green card, Turn your card to green and prepare to be swarmed by a troop of carvers generously serving various cuts of sizzling Angus beef, lamb, pork, chicken and Brazilian sausage. These delicious cuts are accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes and sweet fried bananas. Turn your card to red when you are stuffed and can’t take another bite and the gentlemen will stop asking if you are ready for more meat. That was a time well spent with family around the dinner table.

Sunday morning we gathered around the breakfast table with a bountiful breakfast and we shared our last meaningful meal together as a family before Dan, Rita and Lars made their way to the airport. We had such a great time with them and look forward to our next visit in the future.

I’m now preparing for Kristy’s boyfriend to arrive today. I have the sheets in the dryer and the house almost cleaned. Adam will be here early this afternoon and I am once again planning for a nice evening meal and should be a great time with Kristy and Adam before they leave for college.