Weekend in Dallas

Bella July 15, 2018February 11, 2024 0 Comments Bush Presidential Library, Dallas, rodeo, United States

December 10th we were scheduled for a 24 hour trip to Cancun. We woke up that morning to snow cover with more to come. Spirit sent me email offfering a full refund if we wanted to cancel the flight due to the weather. After much thought, we decided to take the offer thinking, “If Spirit is offering a refund (as cheap as they are), we better take it because we may not be able to get home in order to be to work on Monday.” Upon cancelling the flight, we learned that if we didn’t rebook another trip within 60 days, they were keeping the $150 we spent on the taxes for our free flights to Cancun. Sadly, we were not able to get the $36 we spent on our prepaid hotel room at the Cancun Clipper Club. I set out to ensure we didn’t lose another dime.

After checking all the destinations to where Spirit flies, we discovered that Dallas was a perfect weekend getaway; departing Detroit at 8:40 p.m. Friday night and returning to Detroit late Sunday evening at 8:30 p.m. Airfare would be $96 a person with a total of $192; our credit was for $150. So I booked two one way tickets to Dallas which left us with $50 left to spend. I then booked my return home on a separate reservation for $48. That left us with about $5 to use within another 60 days. I could not use the flight credit to book Freddy a flight nor did we want to spend the residual $43 the extra ticket would have cost on his return. Therefore, I used 2500 miles and $20 to get him home. So all totaled, we spent $170 and 2500 miles for two round trip tickets to Dallas. We only spent an additional $20 from our original reservation.

I found a Priceline Express Deal at the Fairmont Hotel right in the heart of downtown. These rooms normally go for around $200 a night. I got our room for $81 a night!

We rented a car for $70 from Budget and were given a free upgrade to a sport utility.

I learned that the hotel charged $32 a night plus tax for parking. No way was I paying that. We found parking on the street for free. We made sure we were awake by the enforcement time of 7 a.m. to access the app and load time on the spot. We paid $1.10 for three hours. (Make sure you know your plate number).

Dallas parking meter app instructions and spot number

Free overnight parking-hours of enforcement

We attended the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Admission was $16 a person and parking was around $7. We felt that the site was well worth it. Such an impressive site with so many neat items. For example:

Some of the many jewels given to Mrs. Bush from foreign heads of state

The blowhorn from which W spoke after the 9-11 attack

There is an exact full-scale replica of 43’s Oval Office.

Our next stop was lunch and the Dallas Holocaust Museum. Admission to the site is $10 a person. We were given a veteran discount and paid $8 a piece. Groupon also has a deal for $3.25 a person. I failed to follow my own rule–always consult Groupon for deals when traveling.

No pictures were allowed inside the museum. The museum is rather small, but we were told that there are plans to expand and relocate it. There were many interesting exhibits including a cattle car that was used to transport people to the concentration camps. For me, the highlight was the running video testimonials of Holocaust survivors.

From there we visited the Dallas Book Depository from where Kennedy was assassinated. Again we got a veterans discount on the admission. No photos were allowed in this museum either.

Second window down in the corner of the building is the spot from where Lee H. Oswald took aim

Rodeo tickets were a bit of a challenge so I recommend buying them well in advance. We searched for quite awhile, but on the Wednesday night before the show, I did find tickets. We paid $55 for box seating. We could have saved $10 if we had gone with general admission seating, but we decided to go for the front row since it was our first rodeo. Groupon also has rodeo tickets for a good price. There just weren’t any available for the Saturday night that we were in town.

The next day, we went to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. It was almost a three hour drive from Dallas. This time we remembered to use Groupon and both of us were admitted for $10.25! That’s just over $5 a person. Parking at this site was free. Again, we were impressed with the collection and the life of Bush 41.