Texarkana: It's Twice as Nice! Or something...

This past weekend John and I (sans kiddos! Thank you for staying with the boys Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Chris!) stayed in the thriving metropolis of Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas (though our hotel was in Texas). Originally, John was supposed to have a softball tournament there on Saturday, but it got cancelled. We had already paid for our hotel room and my parents had already come to watch the boys, so we went anyway. Now, we knew there wouldn't be a whole lot to see/do in Texarkana, but there was even less than we had imagined (we laughed when we drove into town and saw that the water tower said "Texarkana: It's twice as nice!"). So, since we had all Saturday to explore, we drove to Shreveport, Louisiana, which was a little over an hour away. The drive there was neat, mostly because we had never been to Arkasnsas or Louisiana before. Both states were pretty much how I had always pictured them....and now I know for sure that I want to add both places to my list of states I don't want to live in (no offense). Everything was nice and green, but it was kind of....hillbilly-ville. I know, I'm mean. Anyway, when we got to Shreveport we explored the Red River district, walked around the boardwalk (hooray for funnel cake) and had just a nice, relaxing time. We decided to check out the Mardi Gras museum (which was closed, sadly) and then just drove around the city for awhile. We found a really cool cemetery, the kind you expect to see in the South. The higlight of the cemetery visit was when I walked through a gigantic fire ant hill and got stung several times on my right foot, because I was smart enough to wear flip flops (and also smart enough to not pay attention to the fact that I was about to walk through a fire ant hill). Go me! We also found several old Victorian houses and some great churches, but because it was a Saturday afternoon, everything was closed. We found the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, where the likes of Elvis and Hank Williams performed, but it too was closed.

After seeing pretty much all we could find in the downtown Shreveport area, we decided to go see a movie and have dinner. We had no clue where to eat (not knowing anyone who had ever been to Shreveport before), so we just picked something that came up in our GPS. The name of the restaurant was Ernest's Orleans Restaurant, and when we drove up, it didn't look particularly spectacular. Once we walked in, however, we felt really stupid because it was a fairly nice restaurant and we were incredibly underdressed. We were trying to decide whether or not to leave when the maitre'd came back to seat us. He kind of gave us a look, and then walked us back through two dining rooms to a patio and said "Now you can see the lights of Shreveport while you eat." We knew what he was really saying was "This is where we seat the riffraff." because the lights of Shreveport ain't too spectacular. Anyway, we were still really embarrassed about being so underdressed, and debated about trying to sneak out without anyone noticing us. When our waiter asked us if it was our first time there, we told him it was our first time in Louisiana and he replied "I can tell, you have it written all over your faces." Huh. Anyway, I'm really glad we decided to stay and eat there because the food was phenomenal. John had trout (he says it's the best fish he's ever had) and I had some of the most amazing steak I've ever tasted. Everything was good, the potatoes, the bread, and the chocolate caramel cake we had for dessert. YUM! It's really too bad that we found such an amazing restaurant in a city we won't likely be back to...

On Sunday we slept until 10am again (SOOOOO nice! Two days in a row I got ten straight hours of sleep....no offense to darling little Grant, but it was so nice to have that break) and checked out a few Texarkana sights on our way out of town. I of course got my requisite picture of me standing in two different states at the same time. We got to see the only Post Office that is in two states, pretty cool. And that was about it for Texarkana. We had a good time, getting to relax and sleep in, not having to worry about the kids. I don't so much feel the need to ever return to Texarkana, but I'm glad we went. Now I see why these central Texans say "Ohhh, East Texas", like it's a whole other country or something. And we adore our boys, but this little break was much needed.

Now for some pictures...