Surrounding areas of Dallas

Yes, here we go...as promised, the surrounding areas of Dallas...Walter, my parent's friend, collected us from the hotel and drove with us to Southlake City, which is north-west of Dallas. On the way there, about 30 minutes, he was the perfect tour guide, answering all the questions we had, explaining the various areas as we drove etc etc. We really enjoyed it. Once we arrived in Southlake we decided to drive through Southlake City which is the main shopping area....absolutely beautiful....its kind of a mall...but all is outside, so kind of like a strip mall, but not laid out in a strip per say....hard to explain, but I think you might know what I am talking about.....let me share some pics....

Southlake City 

Townhall in Southlake City

After that we drove around some of the various little sub-sections of Southlake....very beautiful houses, and a very distinct style, I must say, I loved them. A lot of them are brick on the outside, but so beautifully done, and a very different kind of brick, combined with stones....let me share some pics....

Houses around Southlake

Houses around Southlake

After that we made our way to west Plano where we had some lunch at a place called Cafe Express. It is a franchise and one orders at a counter and receives a buzzer which buzzes when the food is ready...kind of similar to a take-away, however, the food is healthy....and its is VERY yummie...in fact we ate there with Walter and then we ate there another time also for lunch. I had the shrimp and avocado salad (as did dad) and mom and Walter had the grilled chicken salad, they were a very generous portion and I was definitely full...but that being said....very delicious...especially the sauce on mine, the honey-mustard sauce, which is the standard sauce but you can change it if you desire. Let me share some pics...

Prawn and avocado salad with honey-mustard dressing

Grilled chicken salad

After lunch Walter needed to fetch his kids from school, so we made our way to McKinney where he lives, also a very beautiful area, north of Dallas....more north than Southlake, in fact Southlake is probably north-west. We dropped his kids at home and ended our afternoon with a stroll through McKinney old town....very beautiful and quaint...I just loved all the little shops...popcorn shops, barber shops, decorating shops...just very very beautiful...and I definitely wanna go back there and explore these shops a little bit....let me share some pics....

Decorating shop

Barber shop

Inside of the barber shop

Popcorn shop

Popcorn menu

Boots for girls the age of Sofia (but they just did not have her size, otherwise I would have gotten her a pair)

So yes.....quite a few nice little areas around Dallas....we definitely will be back...there are also more restaurants that I would like to try but with Sofia at this age it was not so easy....I would like to taste briskets which apparently is quite famous there.....so next time...definitely....we also drove through the old town of Grapevine on the way to the airport and that also looks worth exploring....so yes, we left plenty to explore. For now I say cheers to Dallas as we make our way back to Italy.