Introduction
Seattle to Dallas
Dallas
Dallas to Seattle
Conclusion
After exiting the Tram at the D terminal and following my signs towards the doors, I was heading towards my hotel, the Grand Hyatt DFW. I had read a recent review of this hotel and was looking forward to it What I was really looking forward to was the fact that in the morning I would be mere steps from security and the check point was literally at the bottom of the lobby escalators. The Grand Hyatt is located on top of the D terminal, commanding views towards the runways from some rooms. When I checked in there was a bit of a line and a number of people begging for rooms cheaply as their flights had been cancelled (probably flying to the east) but I am sure the Grand Hyatt was not giving out rooms cheaper than what I had that night ($85!).
When I checked in I made sure that I had a runway view on a high floor. I didn’t realise that the “5th floor” was the 5th of 8 floors with rooms starting ABOVE the terminal. I figured 5th floor would be the first floor. Nope! So my wait while they checked if there was anything higher with a runway view was probably pointless.
The rooms and the hotel were all very modern and quite stylish. I liked it. The room was pretty spacious considering so I wasn’t going to complain at all. What I did like though was the fact that view from my room was spectacular. Just as I opened the blinds a British Airways 747-400 was taxiing past. Score!
I went for a bit of a scout of the hotel to get myself acquainted with things and I wanted to check out the Gym for the morning, I usually like to do that the night before so that way I can navigate myself with ease the next morning and I don’t need to try and find my way in the half asleep stupor. The gym was pretty awesome, all new equipment and even an airport view from the top floor! They had an outdoor pool deck, but it faced the wrong side of the airport at that time (not that I would complain as it would allow free reign for great shots at times).
The one little niggle I have about the hotel is that the hotel uses these tiny square pillows. They are stupid!! Not even the option of a real pillow… I mean seriously… really? The usual mini bar in these high end hotels is the touch sensitive ones that essentially bill your room the second you touch anything so that was a given, but also no coffee machine in the room (they would bring you one if asked) but they did offer a free espresso from the lobby cafe during morning hours (sadly I wouldn’t get to take this offer).
I headed off to get some dinner and I had reserved a car with National for super cheap. $11! With taxes it came out at $23 which would probably workout by the time I added some gas either cheaper than eating at the hotel or cheaper than cabs to get around because DFW is HUGE! The rental car lot is offsite and it is a bit worrying when signs say “5 miles ahead” or the bus driver announces “we should arrive in approximately 10 minutes”. This is probably the largest airport I have ever been to.
The rental car lot was easy as usual, straight past the counter (with the guy trying to upsell me to a convertible… in the rain… smart…) and I picked up a car from the executive aisle (I will keep that to another post this week). As I walked down the lane the attendant looking after the aisle told me that if the keys were in it, feel free to take whatever I wanted. So that I did. With that I headed off to run a few errands by finding a pharmacy (which didn’t have what I wanted so drove over to the Walmart about 10 minutes away. With that done, it meant that I could head for some dinner. I was dying for one thing. BBQ!
I had been craving good Texas BBQ for a while and all week had been hitting up the guys at Crankyconcierge for their recommendations (as a few of them are either from Texas or have family there) as well as other people I knew. I had two options that i was going to go with.
1. Main North BBQ
2. Hard Eight BBQ
Main North was buffet style and it looked pretty empty when I had cruised past earlier on the way to walmart so that was out. My rules are if its empty.. not really unless recommended. If its Empty and a Buffet and a BBQ place in Texas, either the quality is no good or they are sold out. I figured it was sold out or almost so, and decided to try my luck at Hard Eight. When I rolled up it was packed, i was lucky to find a car park.
This was a good sign and immediately upon entering the “pit” I could smell the wood and the goodness right then. I was in Heaven. I tweeted out a pic and instantly got replies telling me I was in the right place. I knew being in Texas it was all about the Brisket. So I was gonna grab some of that, some smoked sausage (spicy of course) and apparently I had to get a couple of “poppers” which were like little chicken bites. That with some coleslaw, pickles, 2 slices of white bread and sauce and all the beans I could eat (and those beans were freaking AWESOME) was $12 with a soft drink and I was set!
I wanted something sweet and had a google round, I couldnt think of anywhere to go until it hit me. I had been chatting to someone about the Cheesecake factory. I googled and there was one about a 10 minute drive away… why not! So I drove over, picked up a piece to go (if i had of wanted to sit down and eat the wait was 90 minutes!) and headed back to drop off the car. I dropped the car off, fought with National over the rate for 20 minutes (turns out because I didn’t have the car past midnight it was 3 times more expensive, though they honoured my booking rate) and I jumped back on the shuttle to the Hyatt and some sleep.
