Monday, March 30, 2015

Travelogue: Tucson Via Dallas With Bonus Bisbee, Part 1

I traveled back home to Tucson last week for a very special occasion: my father's 90th birthday party! A good time was had by all, and it was a gorgeous, perfect springtime in southern Arizona.

But first, I had a five-hour layover in the Dallas airport:

(Click most photos for bigger.)

I had a nice travel outfit, which always makes flying seem fancier to me. Remember when flying really seemed fancy? Now you have to make it fancy yourself:

(Gray jersey sport coat by Gant, white cotton shirt by Theory, vintage Hermès silk tie.)

I had hours and hours to kill in the Dallas airport, so I decided to "dine" at TGI Friday's, where I enjoyed a comically large novelty margarita and something which seemed to be chicken-like and suspended in a bubbling ooze of salty, viscous petroleum products. This would prove to be the saddest yet most conceptually successful eating experience of the trip.

(It's like a Slurpee, but kind of with booze, and certainly created in vats.)

Also available in the Dallas airport: makeup vending machines. This brought to mind endless "Walk on the Wild Side" possibilities for my journey back home:


Finally I got to Tucson and was picked up at the airport by good ol' Dad on the eve of his 90th birthday! Way to go, Dad! Hope it's the genes!

In the evening, we headed to a great Mexican restaurant where my mother and father and I were joined by my brother (whose contributions to this blog you may remember), my three sisters, my niece and two nephews. I was thrilled with my niece, who is a perfect tween, brimming with eye rolls and never less than a minute away from Snapchatting. So good. And I was astonished to discover that my nephews Thomas and James, 17 and 14, once irritating enough that I expected to tolerate them at best, have matured into healthily obsessive horror/exploitation movie fans! So we had LOTS to talk about ("I'll send you DVDs of Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, but DON'T watch them with your parents, OK?")

My photographic project this time around was "Arizona Kitsch", but that quickly fell by the wayside as I got subsumed into a family tornado. I did manage to get this shot at the restaurant, though, which basically says everything you need to know about Southwest design:



Next: trip to Bisbee!

6 comments:

Civic Center said...

Love your travelogues, and the thought of a tall dude with an Edward Gorey beard going all "Walk on the Wild Side" at the makeup vending machines in the DFW airport is reason to live.

dinthebeast said...

Nice paisley pocket hankie.

-Doug in Oakland

Comradde PhysioProffe said...

Dude, you're lookin' sharp! I'm ashamed to admit I always wear sweats on the plane.

LIBear said...

When you say "Dallas Airport" do you mean DFW or Love Field? I found DAL to be acceptable but DFW is terrible. I avoid DFW at all costs.

Jim Donahue said...

I want that tie!

Fearsome Beard said...

Loving the beard!