Of Dallas and Hotels

While I've been to the DFW airport a number of times, I have never spent any time in Texas other than an airport stop. I'm in Dallas all this week for some work training and I've got to see quite a bit of downtown Dallas.

Texas is hot and humid. I would say it feels like you see a bar on every corner much like you see a church on every block in Utah. A dissapointing note is that the restauarants (mostly sports bars) are pricey and disappointing. The food at the sports bars I ate at was tasty but I still felt it was quite overpriced (and I wasn't eating at elite places). I didn't even end up going to a Mexican restaurant (something I was excited to try) because I heard way too many bad reviews the past few days from those who had (overpriced and not that good). Oh well. Texas does have a lot going for it. The number 1 I would like to say is the presence of Diet Dr. Pepper! Every restaurant I've eaten at has had it in the fountain, and the hotel has it as part of their soda lineup during our training conference here. As Diet Dr. Pepper is my number 1 soda of choice I have to give this a big thumbs up.

Second, I really love the big city feel. I feel like I could easily live in a big city and enjoy it. Probably not ideal for little kids running around but for adults with no children it definitely has upside. This is really the first really big city I've ever spent time in and I really enjoy checking out the different designs of the sky scrapers. There are some really cool buildings down here which is another plus from my point of view. I wish Salt Lake City would add some more tall buildings to their skyline.

So overall I really like the city and have enjoyed Texas. I do have a complaint about the Sheraton I'm staying at down town. Not only the Sheraton, but all big time nice hotels. They suck! The room is not any nicer than what you get at the Fairfield or Holiday Inn and you end up getting a lot less! At a cheaper hotel you get free breakfast, free internet, and a decent lineup of channels on your tv. Everything here at the Sheraton and other high-end hotels is a la carte. No internet, breakfast, even their "gym" is a total joke for a hotel of this size (we were able to get them to give us guest passes to a 24-hr fitness down the street so I'll give them that). But in any case, I realize these huge hotels are needed to handle big conferences like what I'm attending (roughly 300 people for a whole week), but one thing I can say I've learned from all my travel is that for personal travel the only thing you're getting from these big time hotels is a larger bill and not much else. . . and probably less (honestly I'm pretty much getting less than basic cable from a tv that doesn't even work that well). Stay at the Holiday Inn, the Fairfield, The Residence or any other mid-range hotel and you'll get much more for your money.

One last thing about Dallas is I wish Salt Lake had more sports teams. Everybody knows how much I love the Jazz. I can only imagine how great it would be to have an NFL team. The Cowboys are huge down here and it makes me wish we had a pro football team like that. The NFL is truly king as the Mavs, Rangers, and Stars (NHL) are clearly a step down on the priority scale for this city.