Texas FUCAT - Sept 2014

Baker Drive Childhood Home

Continuing our tradition of FUCAT (F'ed Up Childhood Appreciation Tour), this year we went to Colleyville, Texas to get a taste of Keith's childhood.  Of course, Shawna already knew most of this so the introduction was more for John and JoAnna.

Cynthia Lane Childhood House

Keith and Shawna flew in on Thursday night and worked from Keith's parents' house on Friday.  John, JoAnna and Stephanie flew in on Friday, arriving around 5:30pm.  We picked them up at the airport in the stylish mini-van that we had rented for the weekend.  Nothing screams 'party hard' like a white mini-van!

Shady Oaks Elementary School (the one Keith remembered!)

On our way to dinner, we drove by the building where John used to work (formerly Texas Instruments - now, several companies occupy the buildings).  For dinner, we went to Fish City Grill in Flower Mound where we met up with a current and a former co-worker of John's.  We shared a few appetizers for the table, including hush puppies, smokin' hot shrimp, and shrimp and andouille Mac-n-cheese and Keith and Shawna split the mahi-mahi blackened fish tacos for an entree.  We had a few beers while chatting with John's friends and then we drove back to Keith's parents' house where we had a few glasses of wine with them before going to bed.

Bedford Junior High

After waking up on Saturday, we went for a walk in the neighborhood and then headed out for the 'formal tour' of the weekend.  Peter joined us for the tour and was great in helping us to find everything and to provide some color commentary.  We stopped by following places along the way:

Scout Center

Surprise Plaque at the Scout Center

• Keith's two childhood homes
• Peter and Stephanie's childhood homes
• Keith's schools - Shady Oaks Elementary, Bedford Junior High and Bell High School.  Keith later found out that there was another elementary school that he went to in first grade that he did not remember - we determined that was better than finding out he had a sibling he didn't know about!
• Chisholm Park where Keith and Stephanie first kissed
• The highway ramp where Keith got mugged and his bike was stolen
• The bike bridge where Keith used to walk to school (we walked it as well)
• Troop 340 Scout Center where there were two plaques that had Keith's name on them (apparently not much has happened in the past twenty years as there did not seem to have recent plaques on the wall)
• Braum's where Stephanie worked in high school
• The Donut Shop where Keith ate before school
• Taco Bueno where Keith and Peter would skip class to enjoy some 'fine dining'
• Steak and Ale (the old building is still standing) where Keith worked to save up money for his round the world trip
• Bennigan's (now a Chili's) where Peter worked

Taco Bueno

Exhausted from all of the sight seeing, we grabbed some wings and beer at Buffalo Wild Wings where JoAnna could get her football fix for the day.  We then returned to Keith's parents' house to nap and rest up for the evening.  

Steak and Ale

On Saturday night, we had an amazing dinner at Graham's restaurant, Hibiscus, where he recently received a 4 star rating from the biggest food critique in Dallas.  We took cabs there so that we did not have to worry about drinking and driving.  There were 13 of us at dinner, including Jean, Dick, Margaret, Keith, Shawna, John, JoAnna, Stephanie, Peter, Jen, Chris, Angela and Rebecca.  

Margaret, Keith, Rebecca, Stephanie

Jen and Peter

Graham

Graham sent out a ton of appetizers and salads for the table, including a charcuterie board, pate, ravioli, ribs, and summer salads.  We could have stopped there but the food was too good.  Shawna had the summer cassoulet for her entree which had three types of pork served on peas and corn.  Keith had the lamb which was a huge chunk of meat served with chimichurri sauce.  Graham sent out three desserts which was plenty to give everyone a small bite to top off the meal.  All of the food was very tasty and we enjoyed the meal with several bottles of white and red wine.  After dinner, John, JoAnna, Keith, Shawna, Stephanie, Chris, Angela and Rebecca went over to The Porch for one more drink and to chat some more.  We took a cab home and got to bed close to midnight.

JoAnna, Dick and Jean

Stephanie, Chris and Angela

Boone

On Sunday, JoAnna was able to catch up with her aunt who lives in Ft Worth - she came over to Jean and Dick's house in the morning for a visit.  Peter and Jen hosted us all at their house for bar-b-cue and a pool party so we went over around 11.  Keith's parents, Peter's parents, Margaret and the kids and Graham and his kids joined us.  The kids (and Keith) had a great time goofing around in the pool while the rest of us hung out and had a few margaritas.  We had a great lunch of brisket, baked beans, potato salad and coleslaw with a yummy cheesecake/sopapilla dessert that Jean made.  After eating way too much food and saying our goodbyes, we drove the airport where John, JoAnna and Stephanie flew back to Raleigh and Keith and Shawna flew back to Denver.

Graham, Stephanie and Keith

Josie, Lily, Owen and Jordan