Resort to the max!

My mom-in-law gave Tish and I a cool shower gift about a month ago. It was a getaway package to Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine. Considering that our baby boy will arrive in a lil' less than 2 months, it is a perfect time to spend some time alone. I left work a little early Friday since our package was for Friday and Saturday night. We got there (about 15 miles away) at around 5:30pm. It was already getting crowded, since the Gaylord has a free Christmas lighting exhibit for the public. Even though our package included free parking (self), it was quite a task hiking to the hotel lobby because of how heavy Tish's bag was! I believe that she packed enough to suffice a 2 week stay!
The hotel staff was very nice and cordial. It was a pleasant surprise since we are used to crappy service even at some nice establishments in the past. The front desk helped us look for the best available room. We decided on a room looking out onto the dead center of the atrium space. We were excited to stay in a room with such nice view of all the lights and sounds. See pics below:

Looking from our hotel balcony

One of the beautiful Christmas installations on the premise

For dinner we decided to go exploring Grapvine a bit and also to look for some dinner. Even though Grapevine is only 15-20 min. from where we live, it has quite a different feel to it. It is one of the cities we would like to move to in the near future. We headed to the historic downtown which was about 5 min. away from the resort. Downtown Grapvine is very quaint. It is only a few blocks, branching off Main Street and bookend by the town hall at one end and a train depot/museum at the other. We found this restaurant called Tolbert's. It was recommended by a co-worker of mine who lives around this area. The restaurant is a renovated 1911 building with many of its original building elements still intact. It had a certain something about it that made us feel welcome and warm. It had its usual Friday night crowd: hungry families and drinking buddies meeting after a hard day of work. We found ourselves at "the best table in the house", as described by our waitress. It was at the front corner of the restaurant next to a large storefront glass looking out to Main Street. Tolbert's is a local favorite with a menu featuring their world famous Texas chili (6+ kinds!). Neither one of us are fans of chili though. Tish, on a crusade to tried all the quesadillas in the world, ordered one as usual. I on the other hand ordered a typical Texas dish - Country Fried Steak. I believe one can always judge how "Texan" a restaurant is by this dish. I was not let-down. We had an awesome dinner filled with great conversation and laughter. Afterwards we strolled on Main Streets admiring the local Christmas decorations and unique specialty shops. Most of the shops were closed though so we decide to go back the next day for lunch and shopping. Here is a pic we took with Santa on Main Street the following day.

The getaway package also included 2 tickets to ICE sculpture exhibit at the resort. The sculptures was created by over a hundred of Artisans flown all the way from China. The exhibit was held in the resorts convention center area with a chilling temperature of 9 degrees!

A pic taken inside the exhibit. The ridiculously large snow jacket was a loaner from the exhibit. As large as it was, it did not stop our son from "showing"!


One of the Coca Cola polar bears sculpture

It was a short exhibit, but we thought it was just enough considering how crowded and cold it was in there. We felt bad for some of the children in there with barely any clothes on! The ice sculptures were cool to see and we were amazed by the work it took to get it done.

Another perk of the getaway package was free breakfast. Both of the mornings we got to enjoy delicious breakfast buffets with wonderful service. I was more than satisfied with the made to order omelet station, gourmet pork breakfast sausages, and butter soft croissants. Tish was happy to find fresh biscuits, apple-smoked bacon, and a plethora of breakfast pastries. We were both stuffed after making several trips to the bar.

All good things had to come an end :-(. We truly had a good time though, from head to bottom. We really appreciate the much needed getaway.

~R.T.